Keep your content discoverable when you add a Collection

A Collection can make content easier for visitors to find. It does not guarantee that a search engine will crawl, index, or rank the listing or its items.

Keep the original item pages, useful internal links, and your sitemap. Treat the Collection as an additional route through that content, not the only route.

What a crawler can see

Collections are built so crawlers that run JavaScript can follow links to your content. Filter and page links let them explore the listing without getting caught in endless loops.

Crawlers that do not run JavaScript cannot see the full listing.

Keep useful pages linked outside the embed

Maintain the site's normal sitemap and internal links to articles, products, and other important items. A Collection should not be the only place where a destination is linked.

For a large archive, keep an ordinary HTML index or another accessible browsing route where appropriate. For a shop, keep product pages and useful category links reachable. Add a clear page heading and a short introduction in the host page itself.

Do not turn all source pages into hidden or blocked destinations just because a new listing looks better. The source item pages still contain the complete content, product options, and other information that the result cards summarise.

Canonicals and robots remain your responsibility

The embed does not set or rewrite the host document's canonical link, robots directives, or sitemap. Configure those through Squarespace or the tools that manage the host site.

Choose the preferred public URL for the main listing. Decide how parameterised and duplicate listings fit the site's indexing policy. If the Collection replaces another listing, review the old URL rather than leaving two unintended indexable versions of the same page.

A canonical is a signal, not a promise that a crawler will follow it. Robots rules and indexing directives solve different problems. Avoid a blanket rule that also blocks the item pages or the resources needed to render the Collection. Use the search engine's inspection tools to check the result of your chosen policy.

Check a published page

1. Open the page outside the site editor and wait for the Collection to load.
2. Open several result links and confirm that they reach the intended item pages.
3. With no query or selected filters, inspect a filter link and a pagination link.
4. Confirm that the page title, heading, introduction, canonical, and indexing settings belong to the intended listing.
5. Check that the sitemap and at least one other internal route still reach important items.
6. Use the search engine's rendered-page or URL-inspection tool to check what that crawler can access.
7. Repeat the checks after changing the embed, the host theme, content visibility, or the site's indexing policy.

The Monocle demo is for interface examples. Its visibility or search ranking is not an SEO guarantee for another site.

If you replace cards or controls with custom JavaScript, retain meaningful links and accessible navigation. See Customising Collections before removing built-in output.