Hi @JohnDHamilton. That’s interesting. I would think that any hx tag would work for Bing’s purposes. I opened my web page HTML inspector and discovered that Square product page item headers are h3’s. I do not know why Bing doesn’t recognize that, but I’m wondering if it is something you can change with a setting change on your Bing webmaster tools’ search console.
Check that out first in case that is a quick fix that works. Otherwise, I might have to tag a few moderators here to escalate this further. But let’s take it one step at a time. Also, if you wouldn’t mind, can you post your domain/URL here so I can inspect your site’s HTML?
@JohnDHamilton I’m seeing similar results to you (screen shot below). In your case there seem to be NO <hx> tags at all, which is odd. Ignoring what I said about <h3> tags being acceptable to Bing (and SEO in general) they probably are not. So, I’m starting to think this might be a bug/oversight on Square’s part.
Give me a day or so. I’ve never set up Bing webmaster tools (like I have Google’s) because I get so few referrals from Bing. I kind of just forgot about it, actually. I want to see if I get the same results as you do with my (h3) tags before I sound the bell with the moderators. I might see something obvious before I do that. But, honestly, from what I’m reading there might be a bug/oversight here.
It’s just going to take up to 48 hours for Bing to process my site, initially, so I have a better idea where to go next.
@JohnDHamilton Follow up…. I was able to scan one of my item pages and, sure enough, I got the “missing <H1> error, too.” So, I’m going to tag a few moderators here and one of them will see it (probably tomorrow) and hopefully pass this up to the Ecom Team.
@_Violet @JJ_ @MayaP @RobynR @Bernadette3
Please review the above. The issue here is that Bing webmaster tools (and probably most other web browser SEO tools?) require that pages have an <h1> tag in order to be properly indexed for search. In both my and @JohnDHamilton‘s cases we have found that none of our item pages are being indexed properly, due to the lack of the required <h1> tag. In @JohnDHamilton‘ case, the tag seems to be <head> and in mine it is <h3>, neither of which is acceptable and causes errors. Can this be kicked up to the Ecom team to review and let us know what is going on here? Thanks!
@_Violet @JJ_ @MayaP @RobynR @Bernadette3
Adding one more thing to my request/notes above. I just went to my Google Search Console. None of the Item Pages
(such as https://www.pipersicecreambar.com/s/order?item=234
Are being indexed, either. I’m assuming this is also because of the absence of the <h1> tag. Is this just an oversight? Because, honestly, it is messing with our SEO since individual product pages are not being indexed.
Anyway, it’s not just Bing. @JohnDHamilton
@JohnDHamilton, our ECOM team advised that they are not SEO experts and recommend consulting an SEO expert for in-depth help.
However, they did take a look at your site and were able to see the H1 tag on your item pages by inspecting the page. (Please see image below)
Could you clarify what is missing, so they can take another look?
We also recommend checking out this article, specifically under the "Headlines" section, which covers H1 tags.
That is my guess. But since Square can’t/won’t help confirm that (since they oddly consider this an “SEO expert” thing) you’ll need to reach out to Bing. Or Google. Maybe they can shed light on where the disconnect is.
If I were a betting man, I’d bet that since <H1> is not “visible” in the site HTML and requires digging into style sheets or something similar, that Bing etc can’t see it. Whose “fault” that is would be impossible for me to say. But I think you’re on the right track. I just can’t give you any other advice how to proceed with getting into one of those “fault finger pointing” games we’ve all experienced when dealing with tech companies.
Hey @JohnDHamilton. It seems that we’ve hit a brick wall here. I’d recommend finding an SEO “expert” and having them inspect your item pages’ source code. Then, once you’ve amassed the evidence you need from an SEO “expert” that your page’s source code is not correct for Bing’s purposes, hopefully they can provide you with the “expert” evidence you need to kick this up a notch.
Unfortunately, I’ve been down this road a time or three and it always ends up here in the same place. Honestly, for my purposes, I don’t need my product pages indexed by the search engines and never will. But I DO get why it might be important for you. However, since I don’t have a horse in this race, as it were, I can’t move on and help you fight this battle. I’m sorry, and I do wish you well in your research.
According to the document Robyn referenced, item pages SHOULD automatically create <h1> tags. That seems to be the position here, and I’m guessing that you’ll need to disprove it. I know that for my pages, Google tells me that none of my item pages have <h1> tags, and Bing says the same. But it seems the both Google and Bing are wrong here, or so we are being told.
Good luck.
