Changed Product titles but still have old URL handles

[Janice_Murdoch]

We have over 5000 products and have had our shopify store for many years. 

Over time we have altered almost all the titles of the products to include brand names, better descriptions etc, mostly this has been done over the last year. But the original product titles have stayed as the URL Handles.

For example:

Old title: 1700-mannequin

URL Handle is: https://www.montarga.co.nz/products/1700-mannequin

New title : 1700 BB - Mannequin Rubber Stamp

URL Handle should be: https://www.montarga.co.nz/products/1700-mannequin-rubber-stamp

My questions are:

- Should I update all the URL handles to show the full product tile correctly, as it has more searchable words, brand names etc?

- If I did update all the URL handles, it would be 5000 + re-directs (not the best for site speed, maybe google doesn't like re-directs, etc?), should I update the URL handles but deselect the 're-direct' option?

-  Would the re-direct need to be there forever or can it be unticked later once goole etc has learnt the new URL Handles?

Thanks for any advice.

[ProtoMan44]

@Janice_Murdoch Hey, thanks for posting here.
leave the URL field empty it will automatically fill it based on title.
first, take a backup of products.
use bulk editor then remove add URL.

[Small_Task_Help]

Hi,

301 redirect is a good option and submit your sitemap at Google search console 

[KieranR · Accepted solution]

Let me have a stab at this. 

First of all it's normal to have handles different from your titles. Generally you don't want to change your URLs more than you need to. But if you've put in work in the past SEO optimizing product H1s, content and names, but haven't updated any URL handles, could be worth a look.

Should I update all the URL handles to show the full product tile correctly, as it has more searchable words, brand names etc?

In the long run, yeah. Likely a good thing. Search terms in URL is a minor positive ranking factor. 

If I did update all the URL handles, it would be 5000 + re-directs:

Not the best for site speed?

Not really a concern because:

• Redirects get cached, and that's not many so not going to have a massive effect server side.
• The only time it will affect site speed is if someone attempts to access an old URL has to go thorough a 301 redirect hop which adds ~0.2 seconds to a page load.
• Once everything has updated to new links eg ads, emails, internal links, and Google organic then mostly people will be accessing your pages through the new links, so no effect on page speed. 
• So any redirect hop behavior will only exist until all the aquisition sources to the site have been updated to new URLs.

Maybe google doesn't like re-directs

Most link equity gets transferred through a redirect, so minimal effects. If the old page was ranking well, the redirect destination will eventually rank well too.

Should I update the URL handles but deselect the 're-direct' option

Generally, no. If manually updating each handle, you should keep it ticked. 

Would the re-direct need to be there forever or can it be unticked later once goole etc has learnt the new URL Handles?

Doesn't work like that. There won't be an option to untick. In Shopify when you change handle, click save in Product edit, then an entry is auto-created in a separate location within the Admin > Online Store > Nav > Redirects area. That is where you'll see redirects.

Another option here is to use an app like Matrixify to bulk-update URL handles, you could use some excel logic to create them from product names. Then bulk-upload redirects.

[Janice_Murdoch]

Thank you for the time you put in to giving us the explanations, puts my mind at ease before doing anything. 
We just moved to a new theme (we were on a vintage one - very restricting) and are finally getting round to doing everything to help with google rankings etc (long overdue). Again, thanks for the help.