How can I remove '/Pages' from my store's URL?

Store Design

Topic summary

Store owners are frustrated by Shopify’s mandatory URL structure that includes /pages, /collections, and /products in URLs. Users want cleaner URLs (e.g., site.com/about-us instead of site.com/pages/about-us) for SEO benefits and professional appearance.

Key SEO concerns:

  • Forced URL paths make pages appear as subcategories to Google, reducing ranking potential
  • Competitors on other platforms with cleaner URLs rank higher
  • URL structure affects keyword relevance and click-through rates
  • Makes site migrations from other platforms extremely difficult

Shopify’s response:

  • Feature request logged but no timeline provided (repeatedly stated over 3+ years)
  • Staff claim feedback is being collected and forwarded to developers
  • No concrete updates or commitment to implementation
  • Redirects can mask URLs when sharing but don’t change actual structure

Community reaction:

  • Thread spans 5+ years (2018-2023+) with 43k+ views and 170+ replies
  • Multiple users threatening to switch platforms (BigCommerce, WordPress, Magento)
  • Growing frustration over lack of transparency and progress
  • Some note Shopify’s own website doesn’t use /pages structure
  • Users feel dismissed and question platform’s commitment to professional SEO needs

Status: Unresolved. No workaround exists to actually remove these URL segments, only redirects to mask them.

Summarized with AI on November 2. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

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.

5 Likes
2

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
3 Likes
3

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!

4

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

5

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?

2 Likes
6

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.

1 Like
7

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

8

Did you try it and see if it works?

I just did but it didn’t work :frowning:

9

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.

2 Likes
10

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.

6 Likes
11

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!

12

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.

1 Like
13

Hello,

we got the same problem. We have, as example, /pages/agb but we want only /agb. So, how can we remove this /pages?

It is not possible that this is not working. There must be a solution for this. And redirecting is no option.

greetings

2 Likes
14

Where do I add this code please?

POST /admin/redirects.json{
  "redirect": {
    "path": "/about-us",
    "target": "/pages/about-us"
  }
}
15

That code you’ve posted is for the API so won’t be code you paste into your store. There’s already a section in the Admin to create your url redirects if you need them. Some info on that here:
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/sell-online/online-store/menus-and-links/url-redirect

16

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

8 Likes
17

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.

10 Likes
18

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!

3 Likes
19

Same issue here, Please fix asap

1 Like
20

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