How do I hide my dummy products from a search?

There are two ways to hide bundle-only ("dummy") products from search: adding a metafield that specifically excludes a product from search engines, or changing its status to Unlisted for broader hiding across collections, search and recommendations. Pick whichever fits what you need.

Option 1: Hide it from search engines with a metafield

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of hiding your bundle products from search results in your Shopify store. This can help streamline your store’s search experience for customers, ensuring they find exactly what they’re looking for without being distracted by 'dummy' bundle products.

To get started, follow these simple steps in your Shopify admin dashboard.

Go to 'Settings', 'Custom data', 'Products' and then 'Add definition' (or click here - we have deeplinked it ready for you).

Enter the details as follows:

Name - SEO Hidden

Namespace and key - seo.hidden

Select type - Integer - One Value

Validations

Minimum value - 1

Maximum value - 1

So it should look just like this:

You can then head over to your Product section in Shopify admin (or click here), and select the Dummy Product you would like to hide.

In the 'Metafields' section of your product, find the 'SEO Hidden' metafield, and enter the number '1' into the field next to it:

That's it! It may take some time to update, but your product should now be hidden from search.

Option 2: Set the product to Unlisted

This is the broader option. When you set a product's status to Unlisted, the product can still be sold, but customers can't discover it normally on your storefront. In practice, that means:

• The product page still exists and keeps the same URL.
• Anyone with the direct product link can still open it.
• Customers can still add it to cart from that direct URL, unless you customize the product page to prevent that.
• It won't appear in your store's Shopify-powered:
  • collection pages
  • search results
  • predictive search
  • product recommendations

Search and discovery impact

The product is hidden from:

• search engines
• your XML sitemap
• Shopify Catalog
• Shop discovery surfaces

Shopify adds noindex and nofollow tags to the page, so search engines shouldn't index it.

Sales channel impact

• You can't publish unlisted products to third-party sales channels.
• In Shop, unlisted products are non-discoverable, even if they're published there.

Important caveats

• If another website already links to that product, the link can still send customers to the product page.
• Some third-party search or recommendation apps might still show the product if they don't support Unlisted.
• Some third-party apps may show the product as Active, even though Shopify labels it Unlisted in the admin.

Where to change it

1. Open your Shopify admin.
2. Go to Products.
3. Select the product.
4. Change its status to Unlisted.

Which one should I use?

Use the SEO Hidden metafield (Option 1) if you specifically only need a product excluded from search, want to set it up once and apply it to many products via the same metafield, or want to keep the product's status as Active for another reason. Use Unlisted (Option 2) if you want the product fully out of collections, search, predictive search and recommendations at once — it's the more complete option and needs no metafield setup.