Remove /Pages from URL my store

[grayer]

Hi, 

Is there any way to remove /Pages from URL.Currently, my page URL is ".com/pages/about-us" i want to change to ".com/about-us".I tried URL redirect method Navigation settings and edit the code from theme.liquid to like this,

{% if template contains 'collection' and current_tags %}
<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ shop.url }}{{ collection.url }}" />
{% else %}
<link rel="canonical" href="{{ canonical_url }}" />
{% endif %}

Still it did not work. Please help me.Thank you.

[Lisa]

Hi, there! 

Lisa here from the Social Care Team. The navigation redirect will not help with what you're trying to achieve by removing 'pages' in your URL. Please try the instructions in this document here to update the path to the target URL. 

When you provide a full URL as the value of the path property, it will be saved as an absolute path without the domain. For example, "path": "http://www.johns-apparel.com/springwear" will be saved as "path": "springwear".

You then need to create a manual redirect by allocating this path to its target:

POST /admin/redirects.json
{
  "redirect": {
    "path": "/about-us",
    "target": "/pages/about-us"
  }
}

Hopefully, this will help mask the 'pages' and allow you to just show .com/about-us when sharing your page. 

Best of luck! 

- Lisa

[Mike_Hanley]

Hi Lisa,

Is there a way to add/edit the manual redirect to a current theme redirect.json file?

Usually I am in the code backend of our theme and make additions/mods there.

I would be looking to add:

{
"redirect": {
"path": "/returns",
"target": "/pages/returns"
}
}

Thanks!

[Lizzy]

Hey, Mike!

Lizzy here, I’m a Shopify support Guru.

The redirects that Lisa has explained here work as a back end alternative to creating a URL redirect under Admin -> Online Store -> Navigation -> URL Redirect. The steps for the latter are explained in this guide here. 

How these redirects work is that if the URL leading to storename.com/returns was broken, you could use these steps to set up a redirect that sent storename.com/returns to storename.com/pages/returns, where the page is currently hosted. This is useful if you're migrating to Shopify from another platform and need to use redirects to make sure any old links to your site still direct to the correct information. While you can set up redirects without "pages" in the path, you cannot alter the actual URL of the page to remove "pages."

I hope this helps with what you're looking to set up! Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions about this.

Thank you,
Lizzy

[RuthH]

Hi Lizzy,

We are trying to do the same with our Shopify sites. Our SEO gurus are not happy /pages, /blog, /collections, /products etc has to be within the URL. I can't say we're too happy either (as I can see is a theme across multiple forums).

Are you saying there is no way at all to remove this is you are hosted with Shopify?

[Jason]

---

Are you saying there is no way at all to remove this is you are hosted with Shopify?

---

Correct. The resource makers like /pages, /collections, etc can't be removed.

[RuthH]

Hi Jason,

Thank you for your reply.

On the back of a lot of research on this, we have found this article. Can you confirm this could work and shouldn't harm the Shopify setup?

https://paulnrogers.com/how-to-change-the-product-url-structure-in-shopify/

Cheers

[Simon_Huang]

Did you try it and see if it works?

I just did but it didn't work 😞

[RuthH]

To me it seems crazy that this has been an issue/request from Shopify users for quite some time now (I've noticed in multiple other Shopify forum chats), but there seems to be no word on ever changing it. Disappointing to say the least.

Don't get me wrong - I love Shopify, but there are a fair few SEO related issues that can't be changed, which is ultimately frustrating when trying to up search rankings.

[mbrady23]

I also find it crazy that this is an unfixable issue. I was on with chat support asking about this issue and found this thread while I was awaiting a reply. I just started my store on Shopify so I'm definitely going to cancel and request a refund. It is unquestionably sub-optimal to have a longer URL like the ones forced upon Shopify stores - if they won't prioritize my company's success, I'm not staying on the platform.

[MarkZanghi]

Hey @mbrady23  any update on this as I'm having the same frustration and seeing so many users saying the same. My SEO folks are so frustrated with this.

@Lizzy can you please confirm if there is anything further on removing the unnecessary /pages/ slash? Thank you!

[Lizzy]

Hi @MarkZanghi.

At this time, there is not a way to remove the /pages, /products, etc. sections of your URL. This section of the URL path is used to access the different areas of your store.

I understand that this is a feature that would be useful to many of you, which is why I have made sure to pass along a feature request to our development team. I also wanted to thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and feedback on this with us, so that we can keep working on ways to improve Shopify!

Thank you again,

Lizzy.

[FelixLux]

Hi Shopify Team,

I'm an SEO and just wanted to help a friend optimising his shop, when I stumbled across this issue.
Not giving customers a solution out of this suboptimal (to say the least) url structure is a clear flaw in your product. Please do yourselves + customers a favour and fix it soon.

Sincerely,
Felix

[FelixLux]

@Lizzy You mentioned you have passed this on to your devs in June. Can you give us an update regarding the issue, please?

[b2]

Seems as if no one gives a crap... Seriously though it makes everyone's shop almost seem sketchy due to other Shopify users rep... Why is this such a big issue to fix? Why was this implemented in the first place? We pay for a service, therefore we deserve to have our requests acted upon! We haven't even got an explanation to say the least...

[Royal-Horsemen]

Hello everyone! I just switched from shopware to shopify. Are there any news for better SEO urls? I worry that there are no news for us since the post of b2 is just a few days old.. nevertheless this is a another comment to hopefully hit shopifys customer service radar..

[Ninthony]

I'm no SEO expert, can someone elaborate on why this is such a big issue for you concerning SEO? I personally think it adds readability to the url, but I'd like to know why the concern. 

[FelixLux]

I'll try to put it simple:

A. The shorter and
B. the more clear a url,
C. while still revealing the hierachy (correct URL path) of the given page
D. and while using the main keyword,
the more likely it will rank and get a better CTR.

[Lizzy]

Hello.

I wanted to post here to let you all know that I have shared this thread and feedback with our team. While I don't have a timeline or guarantee that this will be adjusted, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to share all of these thoughts with us.

Without your input, we wouldn't be able to continue improving Shopify as a platform.

I completely understand how the ability to adjust URL structures is in important feature to our business owners and will make sure to relay that importance to our developers. In the meantime, I wanted to share this page which highlights some of the built in features we have to help with SEO already within the admin. 

I also wanted to share this link to the Shopify Changelog. Here, you can keep up to date with all of the updates we make to the platform as they roll out.

Thank you again for contributing to the community.

Lizzy.

[NotAGuru]

Hi @Lizzy ,

what a great an fun example... 

Shopify itself is not using its own "URL ruleset":

 

I would love to have the same URL structure, just like shopify mothership www.shopify.ca/online and not www.shopify.ca/pages/online 

instead the only option i get is: 

Please help us get traction on this functional change!

How many customers / requests does it take to get attention?

[VT1]

This is crazy, why can we not do this by now? Such a great platform ruining SEO with this one major flaw yet the Shopify website itself does not do this. Please bump this to dev and make this platform as great as it deserves to be. Thank you all! @Lizzy @Nick @TyW @Alex23 @SeanP @Lisa @Jason 

[GabrielPanait]

Hello @Lizzy ,

Please let me explain why is so important for us.

Google ranks pages based on the keywords used but also on the type of page / link optimized (homepage, category, subcategory, product).

A page will have a higher indexing force on a keyword depending on the type of page that word is targeted to, as follows:
1-Homepage - the most powerful
2-Page of category - second most poweful
3-Page of subcategory - 3 rd most powerful
4-Product page - 4th most powerful

By example: If i target the keyword "business suits" in category page (link,meta title and meta description), google will rank me better than other site who target same keyword in subcategory page (link, meta title, meta description).

My link in google search will look like www.myshop.com/business-suits and the other shop link will look like www.othershop.com/suits/business-suits.

In the real life, on Shopify, if i want to target same keyword in category page, my link will look like www.myshop.com/collections/business-suits , and that means you've just downgraded me into a subcategory page and the other shop can rank better than me and outperform me in the position of google search.

All other SEO techniques that are permited by Shopify (meta titles, Meta description) will not work without the link optimization and the site will remain mediocre.

I hope I made myself clear and this issue will be soon gone. If not, i think that a lot of sites will leave Shopify.

I personally intend to migrate to Shopify from a small local platform in Romania (that by the way, offers the link optimization posibility), but after finding out that the link cannot be SEO optimized, I am not so sure about migration, even though I worked almost 20 days for the shop setup on the Shopify.

Thank you very much!

[NotAGuru]

Can't agree more!

and to add my point again: Shopify themselves don't use their own /pages structure... so why are we forced to?

[Click]

@Lizzy and @Jason I appreciate everything you all do and you have a ton of wisdom in the posts in this community. 

We're all hoping this request will be heard and implemented.  Would you please re-approach your team about making this update and actually get confirmation that it will be updated and a timeframe?  Thank you very very very much!

[VT1]

Yessss!!

[fusiondesigner]

Wait, so you can't have something like :/skin-conditions/eczema/ but have to have /pages/eczema/ 

I was able to craft URL's back in 2000 on an ecommerce solution. This is very basic. 

[Cbname]

I switched from a more customized e-commerce platform to help improve my rankings and now after almost a year I am tanking due to SEO and these ridiculous “pages” “collections“ this needs to be corrected or Shopify will be losing clients left and right. I’m already seeking new platforms anyone want to recommend one that allows the removal of these nuisances

[fusiondesigner]

I think one uses stuff like this in their advertising lol 😂

[b2]

Anyone ??

@Lizzy @Nick @TyW @Alex23 @SeanP @Lisa @Jason 

ANY UPDATES ???!?!?! 

[aeu]

I would like to add myself to the list of people that are asking for a fix to this real SEO issue.

[HandG]

@Lizzy are you able to provide an update with regards to this issue?

As mentioned in my previous post above, can you please get your team leader or an experienced expert to provide a reason why this feature has not been looked at and implemented?

i appreciate all of your help so far on this thread but as you are not the decision maker for something like this I want this to be looked into further.

Shopify customers deserve an answer.

[Theriion]

Hi,

Just want to join this conversation. 🙂

Our urls are way to long and they just don't look any good. I'm not even starting on SEO side of things and sharing the links around... It would be great to have an option to get rid of /collections / pages / products ect. 

Looking forward into progress on the matter.

Warm wishes

Theriion 

[timb]

I'm a web developer wishing to set up a store with Shopify. I'm gobsmacked this is even a thing. I want my url to be www.xx.com/electronics/tvs for example, not www.xxx.com/collections/electronics and www.xxx.com/collections/tv

This really makes little sense from a SEO perspective. Can Shopify surface a url rewriting config page so I can have more control over the site structure.

[MarkZanghi]

Timb -- couldn't agree more. And thanks for hopefully getting this back on Shopify's radar. It's something I've been puzzled by for quite a while.

I assume there's a logical reason for this since there's no way Shopify just overlooked it. A solution to this should be figured out ASAP. I encourage the many others I'm sure are are here for the same issue to comment and get this flagged to the top!

[PW12345]

Same issue here, Please fix asap

[b2]

You would think this issue countless merchants dislike would've been fixed by now. This issue was brought to attention way before this post. It's crazy that this was even implemented at all... Whoever had that idea must have some control issues? IDK... I just think there should atleast be SOME sort of option to change it. Give us a option! IDC if it gives me a headache but give me a way! Lol

[manurajpatel]

I have this issue from way Long and none of the so-called "Shopify Guru's" able to help... 1st of all, please stop calling Guru when you clearly not able to help MANY with just 1 URL related issue.

I have been frustrated so much that I have redirected about 50+ customers to wordpress.

Though I love Shopify, however this issue making MANY of us going nuts.

[NotAGuru]

can't agree more.... get us this feature!

Is there a solution in Shopify +? (Yes, we would pay for it...)

or we go to Magento 2 Cloud 🙂 => i know irony does not work in the great www... hence allow me to explicitly call out IRONY!

[b2]

Still no solution... SAD

[Faz2019]

Still no response from Shopify? Looks like they've abandoned us LOL!

On a serious not we all need this fixed cos the URL looks rubbish at this point in time. Looks fake.

Shopify!!!!! Please, please, pretty please ... SORT IT OUT!

[lisasocal]

This is ridiculous that there isn't a solution yet! I've been asking about it for years with client websites and I almost went to Big Commerce because of it. In fact, Shopify take notice >> Big Commerce is using this issue as a selling point for their platform. 

[davidp12]

It is absolutely crazy that Shopify still doesn't have that feature. It really cheapens the look of any website that has those breadcrumbs on the URL

David

[b2]

I see Shopify has updated store search results. Why can't we get the main URL structure fixed? I think every store owner / developer would like this feature and it shouldn't take this long to get it done...

[BYGONE]

im pretty sure they're just ignoring this thread now lol

[RuthH]

Lizzy....are you or anyone else going to reply to the huge amount of people want to know WTF is going on here and if any changes are likely to happen with this set up effecting people SEO hugely.

Don't keep ignoring us. It's just **bleep**ed up, to put it politely!

Please speak to us, or get someone else to give us an update.

[Nick]

Hi everyone, 

Nick here from Shopify. I wanted to provide an update on this for you all to follow up on what Lizzy said a while back. 

This is a feature request which has been put forward, and we are unable to provide a timeline. It would be great if people could reply in this thread with feedback, but in doing so, explain how exactly this will help your store and business so I can add it to the existing feature request. This gives the development team some more context on why this is important for store owners and could help make it a reality. 

[ChristianM]

hello @Nick 

i am not sure if this is an attempt to be sarcastic, but every SEO person on this planet, anyone who has worked with google and the likes before would never doubt nor second this request.

it is a sad-joke that Shopify does not take this serious! And the worst: they don't use the logic and structure themselves... i guess they have at least 1 capable seo person inhouse... 

Bottom line: just give us the freedom and flexibility over our URL structure, and we are all friends again.

THanks.

[gregj]

Hi @Nick First of all thanks for the response. At the same time, it is completely unfair to come now and say for what reason you want? and can't tell the timeline when this will be done? i.e it's been a Year, So do you think it is fair response from you saying that being from Shopify Team.

Yes, As the People who don't want to see /collections /products , Like told by @ChristianM , it helps in terms of Organic Search when we have a very well-structured website where these /collections and /products are unnecessary things which damage and impact the store or else business in Organic Traffic. Wordpress has several options to remove any such type of things with custom coding or else with Plugins. Like that, In Shopify, For the users who want to remove those /collections and /products from url, provide them an option where they can edit the code or other which is going to remove them completely.  

It will be really bad if you can't say timeline as it is very simple thing and don't prolong, As the feedback was given Respond within 1 day by sending the same to Technical team and ask on how much time it take (like already told, Your Team needs to give ability to remove /collections and /products customly by editing coding or some other thing which don't take more than a day or two to do that). I hope you @Nick ask the Team and respond back with teamline as it's already an year and no longer Good to delay.

To say you further @Nick , Defaultly for Shopify Sites if users visited from collections pages and then to specific product, the url looks like Sitename.com/collections/collection-name/products/product-name . Inorder to avoid this from collections to look like sitename.com/products/product-name even if gone from Collections page, it can be edited like told here https://paulnrogers.com/how-to-change-the-product-url-structure-in-shopify/

So in sameway, Provide opportunity to remove completely /collections and /products like having ability to look like sitename.com/product-name and sitename.com/collection-name either if users go to Products directly or else gone via collections. The option is clear just by providing the removal option or else hiding option with a coding (like told it was happening with above case). 

Really I was about to start with Shopify, This issue is preventing to go with you, Hence kindly request you to interact with Technical team and come back in a day as this is not some Heavy task work (when already above case was solved)

[ChrisBeattie]

Wow, this is a feature request and we can't give timelines.

Even though it's been a year with nothing.

I don't see the big deal is in letting us use our own URL structures.

This is a basic feature, that should have been implemented a long time ago.

Stop dragging your feet and give the people who pay your wages the basic features they've requested.

Im sure a lot of people have either left this platform, or are thinking or leaving just on this alone.

[Click]

@Nick The answers to your context request "explain how exactly this will help your store and business " are already in this thread.  Really, thanks for the reply but just read the thread for answers and perhaps people wouldn't react poorly to the response.

Simply, we want control over the URL structure.  We want to create our own taxonomy.  We want to not be buried in sub pages we have no control of, like /pages or /products simply does not work for everyone.  When advertising the preference is always to link to yoursite.com/maypromo rather than yoursite.com/pages/maypromo.  Would you ever want to verbally give somebody that path and expect them to go to it?  We are forced to use redirects for attempting to accomplish this but redirects are NOT GOOD FOR SEO.  

All of those reasons have already been mentioned in this thread so it's a bit of a concern that there's a request for more info here on context.  The context is 6 pages deep. (edit: 7 pages now)