How can I change the URL of a product page?

[Adam52]

I can't for the life of me locate where to change the URL of a product. I have checked out /admin/products/########## product editor page but there is no UI for changing the URL name. Thanks in advance.

[Leon · Accepted solution]

Hi, Adam.

Leon here from Shopify Support.

To change the URL of any product in your store you just need to scroll to the very bottom of that product page in the admin (/admin/products/producttitle) and click on Edit SEO. These SEO functions will allow you to change the URL handle for any product, collection, or page. In this menu, you can also change the meta description and page title as it is shown by search engines. If you'd like to change the metadata for your storefront, just click on Online Store > Preferences. 

Does this help? Check out the Help Guide to SEO, or post more questions below. 

Cheers,

Leon 

[haroonrasheed]

hi! can I customize a landing page on Shopify app to be *for example* Nike.com/usatoday instead of nIke.com/pages/usatoday?

[zemiraisrael]

I'd like to know this answer too. I'd like to take the word product/page off.

[Catsmom]

Hi,

I'm following this because I too want the word "product" out of the URL but when I click to modify the SEO per the instructions I am unable to remove the "product". Is that possible to do? Thank you in advance,

Sarah

[Helen]

Hello, @haroonrasheed!

I'm Helen from Shopify Support. Thank you for your question. 

The handle of a Shopify URL is customizable. However, the overall structure is not. This is because Shopify is built on Ruby on Rails, which uses routing to pull information from the Shopify admin. Routing uses paths like /pages/ or /products/ to keep everything clean, speedy, and visually digestible. Anything after the path is customizable through the ‘Edit SEO’ section found at the bottom of your product pages. 

Feel free to visit Ruby Rails’ guide on routing if you are interested in learning more about this method.

I understand why you would like to customize the URLs though, so thank you for your feedback. I will share it with our developers so that they are aware of how this is impacting your business.

If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.

[V8PR_UK]

Hi,

I used an eBay importer to start my Shopify store but this has lead to all 1000 of my products having a stupidly long URL.

Will updating all 1000 of these cause any issues or SEO problems?

[Helen]

Hi, @V8PR_UK! 

Thanks for reaching out about this.

Updating your product URL’s should not cause any issues on your store, but it can affect your SEO. 

How long ago did you submit your sitemap to Google? It takes time for a new website to be indexed and start ranking, therefore if your site is relatively new, it’s favourable to change your product URL’s sooner rather than later. In fact, updating your URL’s with a more simple, readable structure, is recommended in order to optimize your site for search engines. Google regularly indexes new websites, and will do so automatically within 48-72 hours of any changes. 

For more information about improving your SEO, and to familiarize yourself with the tools for optimization already built-in to your Shopify account, please see this Help Doc.

I also recommend taking a look at this blog post, which contains an amazing checklist to follow while working on your store’s SEO.

Hope this helps!

[AussieRaLa]

Hi there,

Actually i have a similar question. The urls now are domainname.com/collections.

/collections is nice if you have an English target market. But i sell in the Netherlands, in the Dutch language. Collections should be called: collecties

How can i translate these canonical URLS?

And..if we can't - which seems to be the conclusion - does this have a negative effect on SEO?

Thanks

[clizia]

and Should I redirect or not the new URL to the old one?

In my case I need to delete all the underscore from the URL...if i choose to redirect to the old one, probably i won't solve the problem.

Let me know, since I'm not a developer i'm trying to find the best solution to delete all these _

Thank you

[b2]

ANY UPDATE ON REMOVING /PRODUCT ECT

[b2]

@Helen  @Jason  @Shopify

[Helen]

Hi, @b2 and @Catsmom!

Thanks for your questions regarding the structure of your store URL's.

I answered an earlier question within this thread on the structure of Shopify URL's, and how they currently cannot be customized (ie. it’s not possible to remove the /product, /collection, /page etc. from the URL at this time). The comment is on 10-10-2019 on Page 1. Please take a read through it.

Additionally, I did let our developers know then that this type of customization was being requested, and I am happy to submit it again today on your behalf as well.

If you have any further questions or comments, please let me know!

[jasonavada]

Hi there,

We've written a specific guide on How to change Shopify store's URL

Hope the article would help you, also read our other guides to run your Shopify store smoothly 😉

Thanks

[Luuk01]

Hi @Helen is it correct that this issue is still not solved and we can't leave collections etc out of the fixed URL? Any idea when this will happen?

[Helen]

Hi, @Luuk01!  I’m afraid I don’t have a timeline for when, or if, this is a change our developers are working on. However, I’ve submitted another request for it on your behalf, so thanks for sharing your feedback.

In the meantime, the Shopify Changelog is a great place to keep up to date on all recent changes and upgrades to the platform. I recommend checking it out! 

[Al-dev]

I'm deleting this question, I've solved it for now

[fb11112]

when is it expected to be able to change the URL for SEO as a whole?  Right now as I need specific formatting on my store page I am using a collection and need my SEO to point to this.  Do you know when the update on being able to cange URLs to totally custom or at least allow a collection to display will be coming in?  Thank you!

[JPV]

May I know if we are able to remove the word pages/ or products/ or collections/ from the URL? 

[Helen]

Hey, @JPV. Welcome to the Community, and thanks for inquiring about this!

The structure of Shopify URL’s are not customizable, I’m afraid. I go into a little bit more detail about this in a previous reply within this thread on 10-10-2019. I recommend taking a look at it.

However, the handles of the URL are able to be customized. This is done within the Edit SEO section of your page, products, or collection pages in your admin. Take a look at the Help Doc for Edit a search engine listing preview for more specific steps on how to do this.

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any further questions.

[Johannis]

lifesaver

---

@Leon wrote:

Hi, Adam.

Leon here from Shopify Support.

To change the URL of any product in your store you just need to scroll to the very bottom of that product page in the admin (/admin/products/producttitle) and click on Edit SEO. These SEO functions will allow you to change the URL handle for any product, collection, or page. In this menu, you can also change the meta description and page title as it is shown by search engines. If you'd like to change the metadata for your storefront, just click on Online Store > Preferences. 

Does this help? Check out the Help Guide to SEO, or post more questions below. 

Cheers,

Leon 

---

[RCvD]

When changing this handle, it asks me to re-redirect. Should I tick this box? 

I am not completely sure, because it shows that I will be redirecting my original url to the new (but this new one does not exist, or is not created). 
What I basically would like to understand is, if by changing this A) this has any negative impact on SEO, because it's being redirected, and B) If you would need another page to be created that has this new handle. The main concerns I am having is that the URL handle has a number in there now, which I would like to replace with a generic keyword. 

I need to communicate the URL of a drafted page to another company for back linking, what URL best to provide them with?

Thanks in advance

[Helen]

Hi, @RCvD. Thanks for contributing to this thread!

Just so that I’m on the same page as you, you’re referring to the Create a URL redirect box within the Search engine listing preview of your Product page as seen below, correct?

The handle used in the URL can be anything you’d like it to be, and does not have to be the same as the Product title. In general, you would want to check the redirect box. It’s useful for when you’ve used the old URL in marketing campaigns, for example. Having it redirect to the updated URL will ensure anyone coming across and clicking on the old one, will be taken to that product page and not a 404 page instead. Does that make sense?

Now, in regards to if redirecting your URL’s are going to affect your SEO and/or if it would be better to create a new page instead, I don’t know the answer to that for sure. An SEO Expert will be a better resource to consult about your particular situation.

However, I did come across this Community post which has some insight into it. Feel free to create a new comment within that thread, or start a new topic with any additional questions you may have. (Pro tip: Tagging the Experts who have already contributed in the post can increase the likelihood of them seeing and replying to your comment).

Hope this helps! Let me know if I can assist with anything else.

[PeterW]

So we just improved upon the URL structure with one of our sites - using the following method.

Product URL's were outputting the category structure within the URL structure - which leads to duplicate content and stops authority flow through the site appropriately. 

For example https://bathzoom.co.uk/collections/bath-taps/products/modern-bath-shower-mixer-tap-with-shower-kit

Note the /collections/bath-taps/ bit. 

However, when you check the canonical link it points to https://bathzoom.co.uk/products/modern-bath-shower-mixer-tap-with-shower-kit

Naturally with all the categories are pointing to the category based variants of the products URL - this meant that actual main /products/etc location were being orphaned from the rest of the site. 

To fix this: we went in the theme liquid files -product-grid and replaced all instances of: 

{{ product.url | within: collection }}

with

{{ product.url }}

This means that if you go into a category like https://bathzoom.co.uk/collections/bath-taps now and click a product, you now end up at the correct location:

https://bathzoom.co.uk/products/modern-bath-shower-mixer-tap-with-shower-kit

Which is much better for SEO. 

[JasonSong]

I see that all products link are prefix with 'http://domain/product/{product-name}' .  May I change it to 'http://domain/{country code}/product/{product-name}'

[Helen]

Hi, @JasonSong. Welcome to the Communtiy! Thanks for your question.

The structure of the Shopify URL is not customizable at this time. You can find more detail about it in my reply within this thread on 10-10-2019.  

However, I understand how being able to customize the Shopify URL would be beneficial, therefore I have submitted a feature request to our developers on your behalf. I don’t know when or if this is a feature that will be made available, but I recommend checking the Shopify Changelog regularly, as this is where you’ll find all recent updates to the platform announced, as they are released. 

All the best!

[madeinearth]

Hi there,

When I change the URL of a product, an unchecked box pops up where it's asking to do a URL redirect. How do I simply change the URL of the product? I don't see why a redirect is needed. I'm changing the keywords in the URL as well so I would prefer not to do url redirects

[Helen]

Hey, @madeinearth! Welcome to the Community, and thanks for your question.

The purpose of a URL redirect is best summed up in the introduction within the Help Doc on URL redirects as seen below:

URL redirects can be manually created by going to ‘Online Store > Navigation > URL redirects’. Or they are automatically created for you within the Edit website SEO section of your Product page in your admin, when editing a URL for an existing product. This is where you are referring to, correct?

Therefore, you can change the URL of a product there, and if you do not wish to have the previous URL of your product redirect to your new product, then do not check the Create a URL redirect for box. Generally merchants choose to do this if their updated product is completely unrelated to their new product and/or they have not shared the previous URL anywhere that they want to lead back to their store (ie. in ads, blogs or other websites etc.).

Let me know if this helps!

[chris214]

@Helen this is a 2 year old request.

Any update when we can get rid of /collections and /products in the URL?

SEO experts tell me shorter is better.

Would you mind adding a "URL-related" filter to the product updates? Right now it is tedious to run through months of shopify updates in the search of this issue.

thanks in advance

[Michel010176]

@Helen 

It really seems to have been a concern for more than 2 years where there is an urgent need for action. We switched from JTL to Shopify and didn't really think about the existing URLs with which we ranked on page 1 on Google. Unfortunately, this has now become a major problem for us. logically every page on Google is now redirected to a 404 page 100%. Redirecting each of these pages to the start page is also not a solution. Since the switch from the old shop to the new shop (Shopify), our orders have been at 0 for 4 days and that in the high season in our industry. The fault is actually only "product" (http: // domain / product /) so please bring a long-awaited solution. Thank you! Michel

[PaulNewton]

---

@Michel010176 wrote:

The fault is actually only "product" (http: // domain / product /) so please bring a long-awaited solution. 

---

There is nothing at fault with the /products URL schema. 

We switched from JTL to Shopify and didn't really think about the existing URLs

If you migrated from another systems URL structure it is incumbent upon you to ensure either yourself or a migration expert sets up the proper 301 redirects to point to the proper end urls either through the current domain or from the previous servers.

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/menus-and-links/url-redirect 

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/menus-and-links/url-redirect#import-your-url-redirec... 

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/migrating-to-shopify/considerations 

[Michel010176]

@PaulNewton 

Thank you for your quick answer.
I've already tried that with the redirects, only I would first have to import the old product URLs from JTL to Shopify. But how does the Shopify shop know which URL belongs to which product? Wouldn't it be better if I could only export Shopify's URLs first? But how does that work, everywhere I only read complete products and not just the URL.

Thanks and greetings Michel

[Helen]

Hi, @Michel010176. Thanks for contributing to this thread and elaborating on how this is effecting your business. I have submitted your feedback along with a feature request for the functionality to our developers. Although I don't know if or when they may consider making an update, I do recommend keeping an eye on the Shopify Changelog. This is where it would be announced, if any changes were made. All the best!

[sheristeiner5]

I need to change the url of all of my product pages because I have mismatched domains on Google.  I wanted to use my domain without the .myshopify.com, but google will not allow me to.  How do I change the first part of the URL so that I can add that in before the /products/throw blanket.  

[Pripri]

Hello

I did this but now when I click on the product, it says=  404 not found.

So, what happened ?

Thanks

[mtvr]

Hi! How can I change the URL from this:

https://adesiivostudio.art/collections/football/products/product 

to this: https://adesiivostudio.art/products/product  ?

I thin thas it is only possible to change the part of the product name in URL. am I right?

[Oanguera]

Hello! Why are you looking to change this way? I'm currently looking to change the other way around in order to make the breadcrumbs work correctly. Because nowadays, when a user of my website is in a collection and click on a product, the URL is https://adesiivostudio.art/products/product this way and breadcrumbs are not working.

[Adam52]

Hey thank you Leon 🙂 

[weilies]

I bulk import products from oberlo with extemely terrible names and they caused all my product UTL extremely long too.

How could I bulk update all the URL since I already updated all my product titles?

Thanks

[Isha_Ranot]

Open one single product and at the end of the product there is 

"EDIT SEO" option. open that and you csn change the URL of any product easily 

[weilies]

So I gonna do it 50 times if I have 50 products, right? Even I know backbend, it will grab the product title and built the URL

[Helen]

Hi, @weilies!

Helen here from Shopify Support. 

That is correct, you will need to update each individual product URL. To do this quickly and efficiently, I recommend using the built in Bulk Editor. 

Please follow the instructions here to select the products you will be editing in bulk. Then, you will add the ‘URL and Handle’ field to be able to update all of your selected product URLs, like what’s shown here:

Don’t forget to click ‘Save’ before navigating away from your current page!

When you add more products to your Shopify store in the future, I suggest customizing your product information from the Oberlo import list prior to importing the products to your store. Updating the product’s title in this list will also update its URL. This will save you time by preventing you from having to edit them via the bulk editor later on.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[hoguephoto]

Hello friendly Shopify person,

We have a client who made a mess of their URLs due to their long, keyword-stuffed page titles. I have a couple of questions.

1. I just requested a bulk .csv export of their product data because we will be manually writing new-and-improved page titles and meta descriptions for all of their products. Once this is done, we plan to import everything back into Shopify. I'm waiting for our client to send this to me.
2. I'm assuming we can modify the URLs in the .csv file too, then upload them back into Shopify. Is this correct? Please tell me we don't have to do these one-by-one for hundreds of products.
3. Are the 301 redirects handled automatically upon import or will we need to edit something on the backend like an .htaccess file?

If you could get back to me as soon as possible, I'd sure appreciate it. Also, if you could Email me a copy of the response to eric@missionwebmarketing.com, I would be most grateful.

Thanks for your help and have a great day.

Eric, on behalf of Latitudes Gallery

[Helen]

Hey, @hoguephoto. Thanks for your questions! 

Yes, you can update the product URL from within the CSV. The value entered in the Handle column is what will be used in the URL of the product. Take a look at the Help Doc for Product CSV file format for more information about this and the other column descriptors. 

Importing a CSV with an updated Handle should also automatically create a URL redirect for these products. However, FYI, it is possible to bulk edit your redirects and import them into the store via their own CSV. Checkout this Help Doc on Managing URL Redirects for more info and the steps on how to do that.

Good luck with updating your client's store! Let me know if you have any more questions.

[jorge10]

Hi Elen, I'm getting this url problem when I select a product from "you may also like" section under product page. when select a product from that list the url is the original one and no the one changed under Edit SEO option. how can we solve that issue?

Thank you

[Helen]

Hi, @jorge10. That sounds very unusual. Let’s take a look into this!

 In order to know where to begin with our troubleshooting, could you please provide the following information:

• Which theme are you using?
• Does it happen to all products in the “You may also like” section? Or just certain ones?
• Does it function this way on both your storefront, and from within your theme editor?
• Please provide a link to a product page on your store as an example for me to look at.

I’ll watch for your reply!

[jorge10]

Hello,

Thank you for answering! 

* Yes  it happens to all products in the section “You may also like” 

* This is the link from the product's page for a baby blanket    https://www.jc-boutique.com/collections/babys/products/baby-blanket

   and this is the link for the same product when I select it from the section “You may also like” 

   https://www.jc-boutique.com/products/baby-blanket?pr_prod_strat=collection_fallback&pr_rec_pid=60831...

* From my product's section in shopify everything look well

Please let me know if you have any idea what could be the issue.

thanks!

[Helen]

Hey, @jorge10. Thanks for following up, and for the example!

From what I can see, the URL resulting from the ‘You may also like” section is not different, but is instead a longer version of the product URL.  I checked in with our Theme department regarding this, they took a look at your storefront, and have advised that it is normal behaviour. Therefore, it doesn’t have any effect on the purchase flow or customer experience on your store.

Furthermore, if you are interested in discussing what all the parameters of the extended url means, then they encourage you to please start a new topic about it within the Technical Q&A board here in the Community. 

Thanks!