Venue & Settings
Storefront SEO Controls
Last updated 19 May 2026
Storefront SEO Controls
Customise the page title, meta description, social preview image, and indexing for your storefront. Includes a live Google search preview as you type. PRO overrides; FREE uses auto-generated defaults.
Where to find it — Web: Storefront → SEO. Owner / Manager edit; FREE venues can toggle indexing but custom overrides require PRO.
TL;DR
- Four settings: Page title, Meta description, Social preview image, Indexing.
- Live Google preview shows how your storefront appears in search.
- PRO: full overrides. FREE: auto-generated defaults + indexing toggle.
- Custom domains use the custom hostname as canonical (preserves SEO authority).
The 4 settings
Page title
What appears in the browser tab and as the Google result heading.
- Soft cap: 60 characters (recommended for full visibility)
- Hard cap: 70 characters
- Default:
"{venue name} | {city} | Book Online"— auto-generated from your venue settings
Tip: include your city — local search ("hairdresser in {city}") is the most common way people find a salon.
Meta description
The grey text under your title in Google results.
- Soft cap: 160 characters (Google's typical truncation point)
- Hard cap: 200 characters
- Default: first 120 characters of your venue description, or a generic "Book online at {venue}…"
Tip: don't just list services — write what makes you different in 1-2 sentences. Google often shows this verbatim.
Social preview image (OG image)
The card image that appears when someone shares your storefront link on Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
- Default: auto-generated card with your logo + brand palette (built dynamically at
/{slug}/opengraph-image) - Override: paste a hosted URL (1200×630px expected)
The auto-generated image is usually good. Override if you have a specific marketing visual (e.g. a hero photo of your venue).
Indexing
Robots tag controlling whether search engines can crawl your storefront.
- On (default): Google, Bing, etc. crawl and list your storefront
- Off: emits
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">— search engines skip your site
Turn off during soft-launch when you don't want Google indexing a half-finished page. Turn back on when you're ready.
Indexing setting is preserved across PRO/FREE transitions — downgrading to FREE doesn't deindex your storefront.
Live Google preview
As you type in the title or description fields, a live Google preview renders below — showing the URL line, title, and description as Google would show them. Pure visual; no API call.
Use it to:
- See where Google truncates your title (~60 chars)
- See where it truncates your description (~160 chars)
- Sanity-check the URL line displays correctly
Custom domain support
If your storefront is at a custom domain (e.g. salonsmith.com), that domain becomes the canonical URL in your meta tags — not openchairpro.com/your-slug. This preserves SEO authority on your branded domain and prevents Google from treating the OpenChair URL as the primary one.
The canonical override happens automatically when your storefront is served via custom domain (detected from the x-openchair-host header).
Tier matrix
| Setting | FREE | PRO |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-generated title | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-generated description | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-generated OG image | Yes | Yes |
| Custom title override | No — reverts to default | Yes |
| Custom description override | No — reverts to default | Yes |
| Custom OG image | No — uses default | Yes |
| Indexing toggle | Yes | Yes |
| Canonical URL on custom domain | N/A (no custom domain on FREE) | Yes |
When you upgrade to PRO, your previously-saved overrides reactivate automatically — they're preserved server-side, just gated on display.
Auto-generated OG image (the dynamic card)
Even without an override, your storefront's OG image is generated dynamically at /{slug}/opengraph-image using:
- Your logo (if uploaded)
- Your brand palette (background, accent colour)
- Your venue name
Rendered via resvg (SVG→PNG) on demand. Cached at Vercel's edge for ~7 days, so changes to logo/palette take up to a week to refresh on social shares.
On FREE, the auto-generated OG card uses a neutral palette ("vanilla theme") instead of your custom colours — see Storefront on FREE.
Role access
| Action | Owner | Manager | Stylist |
|---|---|---|---|
| View SEO settings | Yes | Yes | No |
| Edit SEO settings | Yes | Yes | No |
Mobile parity
Web-only for editing. The customer-facing meta tags are the same regardless of which device a visitor uses or shares from.
Common mistakes
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| Custom title doesn't appear on Google | Google takes 1-2 weeks to recrawl. Use the Google Search Console "Request indexing" feature to speed it up. |
| Social shares still show old OG image | OG images are cached for ~7 days at Vercel's edge. Force-refresh via Facebook's Sharing Debugger or LinkedIn's Post Inspector. |
| Custom domain serving openchairpro.com URL in search results | Custom-domain canonical only kicks in after you connect the domain. If Google indexed before you connected, request a re-index. |
| Indexing off but storefront still appears in Google | Existing crawl data takes time to expire. Use Google Search Console to remove URLs explicitly. |
| Saved overrides but they're not showing on FREE | Custom overrides are PRO-gated. Upgrade or use defaults. |
FAQ
Where do I edit my storefront's SEO?
Storefront → SEO. The form has live Google preview as you type. Custom title, description, social preview image, and indexing toggle. PRO required to override the auto-generated defaults; FREE storefronts use sensible defaults built from your venue name and city.
What's the social preview image?
The Open Graph image that appears as a card when someone shares your storefront link on social or messaging apps. By default OpenChair generates one with your logo and brand palette. PRO venues can override with their own URL (1200×630 expected).
Should I turn indexing off?
Only during soft-launch or maintenance. With indexing off, Google won't crawl or list your storefront. Most salons want indexing on so they appear in 'salons near me' searches. Robots setting is preserved across PRO/FREE transitions.
Why don't my custom SEO settings show on FREE?
FREE storefronts use auto-generated defaults to keep things consistent. Your overrides are preserved server-side and reactivate the moment you upgrade to PRO. The indexing toggle works on FREE.
Do I need to add anything to Google Search Console?
Optional but recommended. Adding your storefront URL to Search Console lets you monitor crawling, see search analytics, and request re-indexing after changes. Search Console verification can be done via a meta tag override or DNS — contact support if you need help.