Issue: On a new Shopify store, product-page breadcrumbs show “Home > [seemingly random collection] > Product,” especially for products in multiple collections. The desired behavior is a consistent “primary collection” path (e.g., Indoor wall lights) for those products.
Explanation provided: Shopify’s default breadcrumb is URL-context (collection-aware). If a product is accessed via Collection A, the breadcrumb is Home > Collection A > Product; via Collection B, it’s Home > Collection B > Product. It’s not random—it reflects the navigation path.
Key terms:
Breadcrumb: the clickable navigation trail (e.g., Home > Category > Product).
Collection-aware URL: Shopify URLs include the collection in the path, so breadcrumbs follow the collection used to reach the product.
Metafields: custom fields used to store additional data, often for advanced theme logic.
SEO/UX implications: The default behavior may not be ideal for SEO consistency. Enforcing a single “primary collection” requires custom coding and metafields.
Status: No immediate fix provided; it’s working as designed. Open question: whether to implement custom logic to force a primary collection breadcrumb.
I need some advice on a new shopify store we are getting ready to launch
The breadcrumbs seem to be an issue.
collection page not a problem - home > collection name
However product pages home > random collection > product name
Now when i say random it is not totally random it seems to be only an issue on the products listed in multiple collections and just seems to pick a random collection to use for the breadcrumb from the used for the product.
I would have thought it should be what we consider to be the primary collection for the product for example
Product 1 an indoor wall light - listed in the following collections
Indoor wall lights
bedroom lighting
living room lighting
dining room lighting
kitchen lighting
And the breadcrumb structure it has chosen is home > bedroom lighting > indoor wall light product.
As i said above i would have thought the structure should be home > indoor wall lights> indoor wall light product.
Should i somehow get this sorted out or am i worrying about this needlessly? It just seems to be the navigation structure could be all over the place if i leave it
I’m not sure what you’re seeing but this is generally how the standard Shopify breadcrumb works:
Breadcrumb looks at URL. And since Shopify uses a Collection Aware URL structure, the breadcrumb follows suit. So let’s assume Product1 is in Collection1 and Collection2. When you navigate from Collection1 to Product1, the breadcrumb should show Collection1→Product1. However, when you navigate from Collection2 to Product1, the same format applies. It will be Collection2→Product1. So you see it depends on your navigation.
Yours could be different, but this is the default way breadcrumbs work. Not necessarily SEO friendly, and there are better options, but it would require a lot of coding and metafields.
@Mungo2007
Hello
You are not worrying needlessly. What you are seeing is a well known Shopify behavior, and it is worth addressing both for navigation clarity and SEO consistency.
How well have you gotten with addressing the situation you’re facing?
Kindly let me know
It would be nice if you’ve mentioned either your theme name or shared a code used for breadcrumbs.
As already said, all collections are equal in Shopify – there is no parent-child relationships.
So mostly, breadcrumbs work as Maximus said – if your theme uses collection-aware urls (/collections/CCC/products/PPP) it will output Home > CCC > PPP depending on which collection page you’ve entered this product page from.
Some breadcrumbs code may look at your main menu structure and use it to establish “collections tree” for breadcrumbs (would require collection-aware product urls as well).
Quite often people choose to not use collection-aware URLs because it generates many duplicate URLs.
Say, your example product will have at least 6 URLs pointing at the same product page and this does not look great in Google Search console (and eats crawl budget).
All product URLs would be like /product/PPP, so breadcrumbs would be Home > PPP in this case no matter how you’ve reached your product page.
Breadcrumbs utility is diminished in this case, though technically it’s possible to track collections with JS.
@tim_1 i am using prism theme with the built in breadcrumbs feature
Ok so based on what has been advised above I think it would be wise to go back to the default breadcrumbs
home > collection
home > product
As you say above i think with the breadcrumb structure as it is now is too confusing and as was said would use crawl budget and potentially generate lots of URLs. Plus the main thing is UX it is pointing to a collection i don’t necessarily want the user to go to and would confuse things for them.
I think what i will also do on the product page is add some manual text links pointing back to the relevant collections this would then enhance the internal linking/relevancy/UX
In this case, as suggested above, you can add a product metafield to keep the primary product collection.
Then use it as a dynamic source to output a link on the product page.