How to connect BigCommerce, and what agents can change there
Updated
Before you start#
You need a BigCommerce login that can create API accounts, usually the store owner.
Connect BigCommerce#
- In BigCommerce admin, go to Settings, then Store-level API accounts, and click Create API account.
- Set Products, Content and Information & Settings to modify. Optional: set Sites & Routes to read-only if you run several storefronts. Save.
- Copy the Access Token. BigCommerce shows it only once.
- Find your Store Hash in your admin address: it is the code after
store-instore-abc123def.mybigcommerce.com. - In SEOmatic, on the BigCommerce row, click Add Connection, paste the Store Hash and Access Token, and click Connect.
Choose modify, not read-only
BigCommerce cannot tell SEOmatic whether a key can write. A read-only key connects fine, then every change fails. BigCommerce also does not let you change an account's permissions later: to fix one, create a new API account.
What your agents can change on BigCommerce#
| Change | What happens | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Products, web pages, blog posts and categories: title, text, URL | Live | When a URL changes, a redirect from the old address is added for you |
| SEO title and meta description | Live | Blog posts have no separate SEO title: the post title is the title tag |
| Brand pages and the home page | Live | SEO fields only |
| Product image alt text | Live | |
| Product structured data | Live | No theme edit needed. See below |
| Redirects | One click | Click Apply on my site on the task |
| robots.txt | One click | Click Apply on my site on the task |
| New blog posts | Live | |
| Canonical and noindex on a single page | Paste | BigCommerce has no API for them |
Your agents never change prices, stock, SKUs or orders.
Product structured data
SEOmatic installs one small script on your storefront through BigCommerce's Scripts API, so product structured data goes live without touching your theme. The script adds the data when the page loads, which Google reads; crawlers that do not run JavaScript do not see it, so the theme snippet below remains the stronger option if you can add it. If your API account has no Content access, the task shows one theme snippet to paste instead, and where it goes. To skip the paste, create a new API account with the permissions above and click Edit on the connection to use it.
Fix connection errors#
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| This API account is missing access to: followed by a list | Create a new API account with modify on Products, Content and Information & Settings, then connect with its new access token. |
| This API account cannot read your store information... | Same fix: a new API account with Information & Settings set to modify. |
| Failed to connect to BigCommerce (401)... | Check the Store Hash and copy the token again. A deleted API account no longer works. |
| BigCommerce is not answering right now... | BigCommerce is busy. Try again in a minute. |
| Every change fails after connecting | The API account is read-only. Create a new one with modify access. |
- Can I change the permissions of my existing API account?
- No, BigCommerce does not allow it. Create a new API account, then click Edit on the connection card and paste the new token.
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