Issue: A product has two URLs—one base and one with a variant parameter (?variant=ID)—both leading to the same page. The store owner worries the parameterized URL harms SEO and wants only the base URL to be used.
Key points:
Google treats both URLs as the same page; the query string is just variant info, not a separate page.
Canonical tags are present and point to the base URL, telling Google which version to index. This should prevent duplicate-content issues.
The URL parameter appears because JavaScript auto-selects the first product variant and appends ?variant=… to the URL.
Recommendations:
Identify the app/theme script auto-selecting the variant and disable that behavior if possible.
Add a placeholder option (e.g., “Select an option”) so no variant is preselected on load, avoiding the parameter.
If distinct URLs per variant are desired (e.g., /pink, /blue), Shopify may require custom development or third-party apps.
Canonical tag usage is advised; it appears already correctly implemented.
Status: No confirmed fix yet. Likely minimal SEO risk due to canonicalization; next steps are adjusting app/theme behavior if the URL parameter is undesirable.
I am not sure how you have set up your switches, but it seems that you want the URL to change completely when a user clicks on a swatch. For example, /dyreplakat-et-eventyr-pink/ and /dyreplakat-et-eventyr-blue/ or /dyreplakat-et-eventyr-pink/variation1/ and /dyreplakat-et-eventyr-pink/variation2/.
However, there is a high probability that you won’t be able to achieve this using Shopify. While Shopify is a powerful platform, it has limitations when it comes to customization. You may need custom development or the use of a third-party app to achieve the desired URL setup. Please follow my Twitter account https://twitter.com/VoxfaOfficial to stay up-to-date with my Shopify tips or visit the Shopify section of my website https://voxfa.com/category/shopify/. Thank you.
A JavaScript (Possibly belong to one of your app or the theme) preselect the first product variation which causes the concatenation of the variation ID to the URL (?variant=41498906362045)
Potential fixes:
Figure out which app is causing this. There might be a setting for the app that preselect the first variant and you can turn it off.
If there is no setting and it is very important for you to change this then you might need to change the app or modify the theme/app code. Right now Størrelse dropdown has two options “A3” & “50cm x 70cm”. You can introduce another option as the first option called “Select an option”. So when the page load it preselect “Select an option” and customer must select a variant before finishing their order.
Your issue is genuine and very common. Duplication of content is often faced by Shopify store owners, and it is one of the biggest SEO nightmares, as you may lose the ranking on the search engine results page (SERP) or permanently get suspended from the search engine due to this issue.
You can use the ‘canonical tag’ for it.
This tag is added in the section of the page, and the preferred version of the webpage is canonicalized.
In your case, the canonical tag would look like this:
