Hartwell review for Yoast SEO ‑ Store optimization
July 28, 2025
★☆☆☆☆ Full of leftover code – causes serious issues even after uninstall I installed Yoast because of their name recognition, but it turned out to be one of the most frustrating decisions I’ve made on Shopify. After following their recommended uninstall process exactly (including contacting support first), I was shocked to discover that the app left behind multiple metafields and traces in my theme, which broke both my structured data and my sitemap indexing in Google Search Console. Even worse: The sitemap stopped working properly after uninstall Metafields labeled "Yoast SEO: Temporary definition" remained on every product Their cleanup tool did not remove them Shopify support confirmed this is a known issue among developers, and yet Yoast has taken no steps to properly fix it Yoast claims they don’t modify your sitemap or theme, but the reality tells a different story. If you care about SEO, do not install this app unless you're ready to spend hours fixing the mess it leaves behind. I expect much better from a company with Yoast’s reputation — and they should be warning users about these risks clearly upfront. Do not recommend. – Jonathan, hartwell.no From Shopify support: "Thanks again for your patience. As promised, I have worked here with our team to resolve this issue. Due to the bug that was caused by Yoast-SEO, Google cannot index the store properly thus affecting your store searchability. After carefully checking, we have come up to some changes on your theme code to force update the xml of your sitemap. As of the moment, this what I can see for your sitemap." - Tessa || Support Advisor Shopify
Thank you for sharing this, and we’re sorry for the trouble you experienced. We'd like to clarify that when our app is properly uninstalled (first deactivation and then uninstallation), it does not cause SEO or indexing issues and restores the relevant settings to their previous state. From our first interaction, we noted that multiple schemas were active (whether those were from another SEO app, custom code, or your theme) in the source code. In such cases, even if our app was deactivated before uninstallation, it’s possible the process was interrupted or could not complete properly due to that app’s code or other external factors, such as theme customizations, request limitations or a network issue. Unfortunately, we can’t know in advance how other apps or external factors may affect the uninstall process, but we’re always happy to assist further when our support team is contacted and provided with store access. Regarding the message from the Shopify support advisor, we’ve raised this directly to Shopify in order to investigate internally, as it may be based on a misunderstanding or incomplete information if the uninstall process was not followed or an interruption occurred. Our team will continue the conversation and provide updates via email, and remains available to help clarify and resolve any remaining concerns.
