How to Hide Products from Shopify Search (No App Required)

A frequent request I receive from Shopify store owners is how to hide specific products from the site's search results.

This is particularly useful if you are running split tests (A/B testing) with multiple versions of the same product. You want the specific product pages to function as landing pages, but you don't want your general storefront search to display two identical products with different price points.

While many people install paid apps to achieve this, it is entirely possible to do this natively within Shopify. You don't need an app, and you don't need to know how to code.

Here is how to modify your product visibility using Shopify's Bulk Editor.

The Use Case: Split Testing

Imagine you are selling a product—let's call it the "Ultra Deluxe Monkey Massage." You want to test two different price points:

• Product A: $10.00
• Product B: $1,000,000.00

The goal is to tweak one variable (the price) to see which converts better. However, in the Shopify backend, these are registered as two separate products. Consequently, if a customer searches for "Monkey Massage," both products will appear in the results.

This creates a confusing user experience. A customer sees two identical items with vastly different prices, which can lead to a loss of trust and sales. To fix this, we need to hide the test variant from the search results while keeping the direct URL active.

Step-by-Step Guide to Hiding Products

Since there is no default toggle button in the standard product admin to hide an item from search only (while keeping it published), we have to access a specific Shopify Bulk Editor view via a custom URL.

1. Access the Custom Bulk Editor URL

You need to append a specific query string to your Shopify Admin URL. This command tells the bulk editor to display the metafields.seo.hidden variable.

Copy the structure below:

https://[YOUR-STORE-NAME].myshopify.com/admin/bulk?resource_name=Product&edit=metafields.seo.hidden%3Anumber

Important: make sure to replace [YOUR-STORE-NAME] with your actual Shopify store URL prefix.

2. Understanding the URL

Here is a breakdown of what this URL does:

• /admin/bulk: Opens the bulk editor tool.
• ?resource_name=Product: Tells the editor we are modifying Products.
• &edit=metafields.seo.hidden: This is the specific hidden SEO field we are targeting.
• %3Anumber: This indicates that the value we are entering is a number integer.

3. Edit the Visibility Value

Once you navigate to this URL, you will see a spreadsheet-like view of your products.

1. Locate the column titled "Hidden" (this corresponds to the SEO metafield).
2. By default, these values are likely blank or 0.
3. To distinguish between your duplicate products, you may want to add the "Price" column to the view so you know which product is the test version.
4. Enter 1 in the "Hidden" column for the product you want to exclude from search.

The Logic:

• 1 = Hide from search.
• 0 (or blank) = Show in search.

In our example, we would place a 1 next to the $10 test product to keep the main product visible.

4. Save and Test

Click Save in the top right corner.

Navigate back to your storefront and use the search bar to test for the product name. You should now only see the primary product.

Troubleshooting

If you have saved your changes but the product is still appearing in the search results, it is likely a caching issue.

1. Wait: Sometimes Shopify takes a few minutes to propagate changes.
2. Hard Refresh: Clear your browser cache or perform a hard refresh on the page.
   • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + R
   • Mac: Command + Shift + R

Summary

This method allows you to clean up your search results and run effective A/B tests without cluttering your frontend or paying for monthly app subscriptions. It communicates directly with Shopify's native SEO metafields to control visibility granularly.

If you found this tutorial helpful or have questions about other Shopify features you'd like to see explained, let me know in the comments!