For Special or Offer Pages in OpenCart (pages listing discounted or promotional products), the recommended meta robots tag depends on their relevance to your SEO strategy. These pages often provide value to both search engines and users, but their treatment should align with your content strategy.

1. When the Special/Offer Page Has Valuable Content

• Meta Robots Tag: index, follow
• Reason:
  • If the page is well-optimized, includes unique descriptions, and offers valuable deals, it should be indexed.
  • This allows it to rank for keywords like “special offers,” “discounted products,” or similar search queries.
  • Follow ensures internal links (e.g., links to discounted product pages) are crawled and contribute to SEO.

2. When the Page is Thin or Duplicative

• Meta Robots Tag: noindex, follow
• Reason:
  • If the special/offer page lacks unique content or is a duplicate of other category pages (e.g., lists similar products), it’s better to exclude it from indexing to avoid duplicate content issues.
  • Keeping follow allows search engines to pass link equity to the product pages linked from the offer page.

3. Additional Considerations for Special Pages

• Canonical Tags:
  • If your special page generates multiple URLs with parameters (e.g., sorting, filtering), use a canonical tag pointing to the main URL.
  • Example: <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/special">
• Optimized Content:
  • Include unique titles, meta descriptions, and engaging content on the special page to maximize its SEO potential.
• Structured Data:
  • Add structured data like Offer or Product schema to enhance visibility in search results.

Best Practice Examples

Special/Offer Page with Valuable Content

<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

Special/Offer Page with Thin or Duplicative Content

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow">

Key Points for Special/Offer Pages

1. Include in Sitemap:
   • If indexed (index, follow), ensure the special page is included in your XML sitemap to help search engines discover it.
2. Keep URLs Clean:
   • Avoid indexing URLs with parameters like sort or limit.
3. Monitor Performance:
   • Use Google Search Console to track how the page performs in search and adjust the meta robots tag if needed.

Conclusion

• Use index, follow for well-optimized, valuable special pages that can attract traffic.
• Use noindex, follow for thin, temporary, or duplicate special pages to avoid SEO issues.