> ## Knowledge Base Index
> Fetch the complete knowledge base index at: https://help.easylockdownapp.com/sitemap.xml
> Use this file to discover available pages before exploring further.
> Pure-Markdown content can be obtained by appending a '.md' suffix to the content URLs listed in the sitemap (without the trailing slash).

# Hide collections/products from sitemaps

Easy Lockdown has a feature called `Hide collections/products from sitemaps` which is used to hide products from search engines and the [Shop app or website](https://www.shopify.com/blog/introducing-shop).  This option is available when creating locks for `Selected content` when you're locking collections and their products, just collections, or just products.

When this setting is enabled Easy Lockdown will set a special metafield `seo.hidden` on the locked collections/products and give it the value `1`.   Once enabled, this will ensure:

1. The products will not show up in your store's [XML sitemap](https://www.shopify.com/blog/xml-sitemap)
2. The products will not be visible in storefront search
3. The products online store pages will include the `<meta noindex>` tag prevent them from being indexed by search engines such as Google
4. The products will not be visible in the [Shop app or website](https://www.shopify.com/blog/introducing-shop)


![](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/9/0/7/4/9074c935b1e5c800/screenshot-2026-05-22-at-32838_oa34jv.png =600x439)

# Troubleshooting

In our testing, when applying this setting, there is a significant delay before products are hidden from the Shop app/website, usually we see the changes take effect after 1 hour, but it could be longer.

# Additional information

The following information is from a Shopify help article:

*`seo.hidden` is a system metafield that can be used by third-party apps for data storage when they're hiding a resource from search engines and sitemaps. If you receive a message that says **Namespace and key. seo.hidden. Namespace and key are already taken. View metafields without a definition**, then `seo.hidden` is being used by third-party apps and isn't available to modify in the Shopify admin. If you want to add definitions to each content type that's already using `seo.hidden`, then you can* [*create a definition for existing metafields*](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/custom-data/metafields/metafield-definitions/migrating-metafields-to-a-definition#definitions-for-existing-metafields)*.*

# References

* See Shopify's article on [hiding a page from search engines](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/seo/hide-a-page-from-search-engines)