Optimising URL structures for SEO

Technical Q&A
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Topic summary

A user questions whether Shopify’s fixed URL prefixes (/pages/, /blogs/, /collections/) can be removed or customized for better SEO. They argue these prefixes create unnecessary crawl depth and build authority into non-existent subfolders, potentially orphaning content.

Current limitations:

  • Shopify locks these URL prefixes in place
  • Users can only edit URL handles after the prefix
  • Redirects can be configured through Shopify admin, but the underlying structure remains unchanged

Proposed solution:
Going headless would allow flexible URL structures, but this approach is significantly more complex than standard Shopify implementations.

Status: The discussion confirms that removing or replacing these prefixes is not possible within standard Shopify without adopting a headless architecture. No simple workaround exists for achieving custom subfolder structures while remaining on the standard platform.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I have a query around the standard Shopify URL structures applied to pages, collections and blogs.

As the Shopify system automatically applies each prefix (which isn’t accessible as a page in its own right), this creates a scenario where relevancy and authority is being built into a subfolder which essentially doesn’t exist. Examples:

/pages/landing-page-example

/blogs/blog-post-example

/collections/category-example

Pages, blogs, collections, don’t exist. If you were to try and build relevancy into a hub of content, you’d need to add the final location to the archive page, otherwise they’re technically orphaned pages e.g.

Orphaned because blogs does not exist
/blogs/blog-post-example-a

/blogs/blog-post-example-b

Blog parent is /inspiration/ so all posts should be nested under that address

/blogs/inspiration/blog-post-example

This adds unnecessary crawl depth, limits the ability to customise content subfolders and looks a little unprofessional.

Ideally, as you can with other common CMSs, you’d be able to remove those prefixes or replace with those of your own choosing, e.g.

/collections/category-example

to

/category-example

/category-example/sub-category

Is this achievable with Shopify? Anyone have any experience implementing this change?

Many thanks :folded_hands:t2:

2

Hello @DaveWhitrick

From what I know after chatting with numerous users who have similar requests like you, I have one conclusion here that users are limited to editing the URL content, and we cannot edit what we like freely. That is to say, you cannot remove the folder part in URL like /products, /collections, and /pages, etc. You can only edit the rest contents after these folders, like updating the URL handle and making a redirection from a limited URL pattern to the new URL you want.

Here is the place where you can make redirections from the Shopify admin page directly. You can have a look and refer here. Hope it is beneficial for you to do further improvements and meet SEO standards. Thank you!

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3

You can’t do this in Shopify unless you go headless, URL structure is fixed.

4

Hi Tim,

Interesting. Is the process to change subfolder structures relatively
simple in a headless environment, in your experience? Or does it involve
complicated workarounds to achieve this goal?

Many thanks,

Dave

5

Headless is more complex; if you’re comfortable with it, then URL structure can be flexible.