Category Indexer for WooCommerce

Category Indexer for WooCommerce is a powerful SEO tool that helps store owners manage indexing of category and shop pages. Control which pages search engines index and follow to optimize your WooCommerce SEO crawl budget and improve overall SEO performance.

This plugin gives you complete control over three critical SEO elements: meta robots tags, canonical URLs, and WooCommerce link juice distribution.

Optimize WooCommerce SEO Crawl Budget

Large WooCommerce stores often waste valuable crawl budget on low-value pagination pages. This plugin helps you:

• Save crawl budget by noindexing paginated category pages
• Focus Google’s attention on your high-value product and category pages
• Improve indexation speed for new products and important content
• Reduce duplicate content that confuses search engine crawlers

By implementing proper WooCommerce SEO crawl budget management, your store gets indexed more efficiently, leading to faster rankings for pages that matter.

Control WooCommerce Link Juice Flow

WooCommerce link juice (link equity) is the SEO value passed between pages through hyperlinks. Without proper management, this valuable authority gets diluted across hundreds of pagination pages.

This plugin optimizes WooCommerce link juice distribution by:

• Concentrating link equity on main category pages instead of pagination
• Strategic nofollow application on low-value pages
• Directing authority to product pages that drive sales
• Internal link optimization for maximum SEO benefit

Automatic 404 Redirect for WooCommerce

New in version 2.1.0 – Protect your SEO from broken links with intelligent 404 redirect handling.

Redirect broken links (404s) to relevant pages to recover lost link equity. When products are deleted or categories removed, broken links damage your SEO through: * Lost link equity from external backlinks * Poor user experience increasing bounce rates * Wasted crawl budget on non-existent pages * Negative signals to search engines

How 404 Redirect Works:

• Automatic URL detection – Identifies if the 404 was a product, category, or subcategory
• Smart redirects – Subcategories redirect to parent category, products to relevant category
• Flexible fallbacks – Configure redirects to shop page, homepage, or custom URL
• Multiple redirect types – Support for 301 (permanent), 302 (temporary), and 307 redirects
• Redirect logging – Monitor all redirects with filtering and pagination
• Preserve link juice – 301 redirects pass SEO value to the new destination

SEO Benefits of 404 Redirect:

1. Recover lost backlinks – External links pointing to deleted products still pass value
2. Improve user experience – Visitors find relevant content instead of error pages
3. Maintain crawl efficiency – Search engines don’t waste time on dead ends
4. Protect rankings – Prevent traffic loss from broken internal links

Meta Robots Tag Control

Configure meta robots tags (index, noindex, follow, nofollow) at multiple levels:

• Set global defaults for all shop and category pages
• Override settings for individual categories
• Control first page vs. pagination pages separately
• No coding knowledge required

Canonical Tag Management

Prevent duplicate content issues automatically:

• Canonical tags added to all category and shop pages
• Pagination pages point to the primary page
• Consolidates ranking signals
• Works with sorting and filtering parameters

Key Features

• Meta Robots Control – Add noindex, nofollow, index, or follow tags
• Canonical URLs – Automatic canonical tags on paginated pages
• 404 Redirect Handling – Automatic redirects for deleted WooCommerce content
• Redirect Logging – Monitor and analyze all 404 redirects
• Indexing Control – Configure first page vs. other pages separately
• Link Juice Optimization – Control link equity flow through categories
• Category-Specific Settings – Unique settings per category
• Shop Page Settings – Dedicated settings for the main shop page
• Block Theme Compatible – Works with FSE themes
• Translation Ready – Fully translatable

Benefits

• Optimize crawl budget – Focus Google on important pages
• Prevent duplicate content – Proper canonical implementation
• Improve link distribution – Concentrate equity on valuable pages
• Recover broken links – 404 redirects preserve SEO value
• Better rankings – Proper technical SEO implementation
• Easy configuration – Intuitive admin interface

Use Cases

• Large stores with hundreds of categories and pagination
• Stores with duplicate content issues in Search Console
• Sites needing crawl budget optimization
• Stores with frequently changing product catalogs
• SEO professionals managing WooCommerce sites

Compatibility

• Rank Math SEO – Full integration with free version
• Yoast SEO – Seamless compatibility with free version
• Block Themes – Full FSE (Full Site Editing) support