SEO for Demandware
Optimises Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware) stores so search engines can crawl, index, and rank product, category, and content pages effectively.
If you have ever left duplicate parameter URLs indexable and seen rankings drop, you already know the platform’s default settings are not enough.
Key points
- Use canonical tags to consolidate duplicate product and category URLs back to the preferred clean URL.
- Block non-essential platform URLs such as /demandware.store/ via robots.txt and noindex directives.
- Generate XML sitemaps automatically for large commerce catalogues to improve discovery of all important pages.
- Write descriptive titles, useful descriptions, and optimised image ALT text instead of default copy.
- Add structured data to product pages to support richer snippets and improve click-through rates.
The same retailer, two different outcomes
A fashion retailer with 50,000 products had duplicate product URLs from colour and size filters. Google indexed over 200,000 parameterised URLs, consuming crawl budget and diluting rankings. The SEO team canonicalised each product to the base URL, blocked view-all and filter pages via robots.txt, and added structured data. Within three months, crawl budget usage dropped by 40% and organic traffic to category pages increased by 15%.
Three common duplicate-content pitfalls in Demandware
- Default parameterised URLs Filter, sort, and view-all pages create many URLs with the same content, similar to issues seen in SEO for news sites. Without canonicalisation or noindex, Google may index them all, wasting crawl budget.
- Missing canonical tags Product and category pages often have multiple URLs, such as with session IDs. Without a canonical tag, Google may choose the wrong one as the ranking URL.
- Inconsistent URL rules If URL rules are not set up cleanly, special characters or inconsistent patterns can lead to duplicate content and lower indexing efficiency.
Three ways to improve metadata and structure
- Descriptive titles Write unique titles for each product and category page, including target keywords and brand name, rather than using default template text.
- Optimised image ALT text Use ALT text that describes the product, including relevant keywords, to help images appear in search results and improve accessibility.
- Structured data for products Add schema.org markup for product, offer, price, availability, and reviews to enable rich snippets in search results, improving visibility and click-through rates for product listings.
Common questions
How do I handle duplicate parameter URLs in Demandware?
Use canonical tags to point to the clean URL, and block parameterised pages via robots.txt or noindex.
What is the best way to set up URL rules in Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
Create clean, static URL mappings for product and category pages, avoiding special characters and inconsistent patterns.
Should I use robots.txt or noindex for duplicate content?
Use robots.txt to block crawling of non-essential URLs, but use noindex for pages that should not be indexed even if crawled.
Sources
- Google Search Central Official guidance on crawling, indexing, and canonical tags.
- Salesforce Commerce Cloud documentation Platform-specific setup for URL rules, robots.txt, and sitemaps.
- Portent: Salesforce Commerce Cloud SEO Gotchas & Optimizations Practical tips on duplicate content, metadata, and crawl budget.