Mass Change of Product handles, titles and descriptions - process and potential problems

[WhillyJo]

I have about 300 products encompassing about 1800 variations.  The store has been live for about 2 months.  For SEO purposes, I want to change the handles, titles and descriptions of my products via a CSV export/import.  I've uploaded the original set of products/variations as well as additional products via CSV, so am comfortable with the process.

The steps that I "think" that I need to take include:

1. Export all of my products, save a version of this file as backup is something goes wrong.

2. In excel, modify the handle, title and description, save in CSV UTF-8 format.

3. Delete all of my products in Shopify to avoid duplication of all of my products since the handles will be different.

4. Upload the CSV file with modifications.

Is this the process that i should follow?

I think through this process, the store will only be impacted with no products for a few minutes, correct?

Will this cause any redirect issues that I will have to address?  The way that I understand it, redirects are detrimental to SEO, correct?

After the changes are made, is there something that I should do to get search engines to recognize the changes?

Many thanks for the assistance!!

[pweisberg12]

How did this work out for you? Did you follow these steps?

[johnb45]

This post is two years old at this time but for others who see this post after this, I DO NOT suggest this method. You will lose all the relations between orders and products, etc. Shopify generates internal product IDs and you will lose all of them and new products will have new IDs generated.

[johnb45]

One easy solution I have found is to list items in bulk edit and choose the handle column in settings.

[heavchan]

Hi I tried your method in the bulk edit tool, but the issue is that it does not give you the option to re-direct the old URL - unless I have missed something.

[Elias]

Hey, @heavchan.

Thanks for joining the thread. 

Redirecting old URLs is different from changing the product handles, so the solution shared above would not apply to you. If you'd like to redirect URLs, then we've got a guide on that here: Creating and managing URL redirects. However, it's important to note that there isn't a way to redirect URLs in bulk.

If you have any other questions, then don't hesitate to let us know.