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

[grayer]

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.

[Click]

@Nick The answers to your context request "explain how exactly this will help your store and business " are already in this thread.  Really, thanks for the reply but just read the thread for answers and perhaps people wouldn't react poorly to the response.

Simply, we want control over the URL structure.  We want to create our own taxonomy.  We want to not be buried in sub pages we have no control of, like /pages or /products simply does not work for everyone.  When advertising the preference is always to link to yoursite.com/maypromo rather than yoursite.com/pages/maypromo.  Would you ever want to verbally give somebody that path and expect them to go to it?  We are forced to use redirects for attempting to accomplish this but redirects are NOT GOOD FOR SEO.  

All of those reasons have already been mentioned in this thread so it's a bit of a concern that there's a request for more info here on context.  The context is 6 pages deep. (edit: 7 pages now)

[NovaPharma]

Hi @Nick , here's Michael

For a hundred times we are mentioning that it's a SEO concern, it's sad to say that we all would like to move to another platform because we can't get the traffic we want with our website due to bad URL structure. Why is that important to us? Because Google is reading our Sitemap or (Breadcrumb of a current location of a user's query) and what's written onto. This is defining more information for google to grab relevant content for a user's query. A bad URL structured including /page or /collections is just a rookie implementation. It looks like we're building a website on VTech Kid's PC , user friendly platform for "beginners".

Stop throwing us some basic information about "how to optimize SEO on shopify" like we are newbies. If we're here, it's to convince you to re-write your URL structure as we all demand it to optimize something we all care about. So how you Shopify Gurus cannot get it? We need real professional support and our request is one of the most important right now! 

Sad to say, some people are on their start-up or heading to step up their game with this ecommerce platform but hit a plateau because of this issue so we can't develop a real long-term profitable ecommerce.

Thank you for your time. I know there is a bunch of other requests and questions from other members but as an SEO Expert, i took time to reply because i can see the potential of a huge upgrade for your platform vs. your competitors.

Regards.

[ChrisBeattie]

I originally started my business using Wix, but that got dumped because of the complete lack of everything.

But saying that, even Wix let you use your own URL structure. I still think Shopify is a great platform for where I'm at right now, but without this feature, and others like being able to access and edit your .htaccess file, I can't see me staying here when my profits start rising more. Which by how many sales I'm getting week on week won't be long.

Im starting to think about WordPress, where I know I can get these features. So unless Shopify get their act together and start listening to their community they'll start losing profits.

[BYGONE]

@Nick the most obvious case would be for people switching to Shopify from another platform...don't you want to make it as easy as possible?

I'm switching from wordpress to shopify and i have tons of links all across the web that I have already shared and blogged ect...

now all of the links are broken because I can't change the URL structure. 

the only way with shopify would be to create a redirect for each url (pain in the ass) -- then you still don't know if you missed a link due to human error and the fact that i have a lot of pages and products.

besides wanting to make the transfer easy for new customers - isn't it pretty obvious for SEO purposes and also just having a shorter cleaner link 🤷‍♂️  shopify seems to be the only platform that doesn't allow you control over the structure - yet it's one of the most expensive.

Did you respond just to make us think you guys were working on it?? I'm starting to see why Shopify stock is falling.

[RuthH]

Hi Nick

Are you actually joking???

Can you not see from the 7 pages of messages within this community chat,
why this feature is needed!!??

You are asking people for more information - WTF!!!!!

[FelixLux]

@Nick Thank you for the reply.

Excuse the tone please.

I guess it won't help to get this feature done soon, simply by reacting aggressively. Honestly, reasons for this request have been stated several times in this thread. Most likely in every basic on-page SEO guide as well. @Lizzy has claimed she put the request forward twice over the space of several months. But with zero updates or replies, it just sounds like an excuse to calm us down. That's why people are getting upset.

Now why do we and YOU need this feature:

1. It helps SEO, basically every other good shop system offers this feature. Details in this thread.
2. Makes migrating from another platform much easier. Details in this thread.

So not only does it help your customers, it also makes it easier to acquire new ones.
Is that reason enough to make this feature request a fast lane ticket and get it done ASAP?

Thank you for your understanding and please, please keep us updated.

Have a nice day,
Felix

[Nick]

I appreciate everyone's desire for the feature however please avoid speculation and personal attacks. Per our updates, in this thread, we have been capturing your feedback and adding it to our feature request system. 

My last reply was enforcing that we cannot provide a timeline, and at this time the only thing we can do is collect your feedback since everyone was looking for an update in this topic. 

I understand this thread has lots of feedback and that has been captured already but since this feature has not come to fruition yet the more context we can provide to our development helps them understand every aspect of this request. Again we cannot provide any sort of timeline and in the event, we do have more information we will update. 

To those that have been why this is important, we appreciate your feedback. 

Thanks, Nick

[gregj]

I don't encourage any type of abuses but the way you behaving seems like it is not wrong from them.

Do you care or not? I want to start my site immediately, do I have to wait here until you solve these? If no timeline means, do I need to wait 3 days? 1 week? 1 month? Or else 1 year?

Don't give irresponsible reply, can't your team say the timeline for this? I want to start my site? Now you tell me what I need to do i.e do I need to waste mytime looking for the update? Or else leave away from this Shopify?

[fusiondesigner]

Yeah we need a timeline as this doesn’t offer anything of value. Shopify have a lot of platform ‘engineers’ you also have an SEO team, you’d think they’d be advocating for this basic ability to craft URL’s. Have you created the JIRA ticket yet for this feature enhancement?

Really sloppy.

[Click]

@Nick 
If you want a compelling business case use Site Migrations.  New sites aren't as bad although migrations are extremely painful without control over the taxonomy.  Yeah, ok some of the taxonomy can be reserved, like for Shopify's core being /cart /checkout etc.  But open the rest up and those who are on other platforms can now retain their url structure when migrating.  Now a bunch of new customers wouldn't have that gating factor.

Somebody mentioned .htaccess, they don't use Apache, it's NGINX so it would be an NGINX directive file if they went that far as to provide this feature via direct file edits.  Honestly, I don't care if it's direct access to the NGINX directives or a UI that takes care of all of it.  

If an app based install for pro users (like Shopify Scripts and Shopify Flow) to modify NGINX directives is the quickest path to resolution, that would be satisfactory as a stop gap.  Overall, the update should be integrated into the UI so it's not just limited to more technical users.

[Nick]

Thanks for your feedback @Click ! 

@gregj  & @fusiondesigner , per my previous note we cannot provide a timeline. 

This request has been logged, and feedback has been continuously added. 

Per our community guidelines please avoid personal attacks. 

[gregj]

kindly understand and you don't want to give any timeline for it. But I am in very confusion state and can't keep on waiting for months or years ? As I need to start doing the things and work on the site. If you don't provide timeline means suppose if I wait for another 15 days or 1 month thinking you fix this and until have to stop my work and you then also claims that we don't have any timeline means then imagine how frustating it will be? I am not asking you to fix this in a day or two, but maintain a clarity in a month ? Or like that so that there won't be frustation in the case I told. Kindly think from an User side who is asking a genuine query who is yet to start his site.

[FelixLux]

@gregj I am almost 99% certain, that the feature will not be done in a month, having worked in the digital industry a bit. I'd assume 3 months at the earliest. Their devs team surely have a full schedule. Unless this feature would be made a top priority, fast-lane, emergency ticket (if a ticket actually exists), it will not even be started by the end of the month.

I'm not a developer, but assume that it won't be very easy to implement from a technical point of view, as a few other things will have to be changed as well.
That said IMO it's one of the few major flaws of shopify, so IMO it should receive a top priority.

Maybe we can find the head of product on Linkedin and send him a few messages there? With a bit of luck this might get us more attention.

[gregj]

Hello @Nick can you respond? I.e even if suppose started site and later want to use this feature then will there be redirect option provided? Or not? Let me know now immediately

[Nick]

Per our previous notes, we have captured this request and feedback has been added continuously.

While I understand everyone's desire to have this feature reaching out to staff members will not help in changing priority; in fact, this could be seen by some as spam, or harassment if multiple messages are sent. 

Posts requesting a timeline or sharing speculations will be removed since they prevent others from seeing the current situation which is we have captured this request, it has been logged correctly, and when we have more detail to share we will follow-up in this topic.

[Anna_Rauch1]

So to sum up, there are no workarounds on this and no timeline on a solution? What is the bottleneck or limitation here? 

[FelixLux]

@Anna_Rauch1  This is just a guess:
Scarcity of developer resources + big feature, which isn't easy to integrate from a technical perspective.

[pilot]

Hi @Nick 

Just to echo what some people are saying, we are trying to do the same with our Shopify sites in terms of removing pages.  Our SEO folks are saying it's crazy that  /pages, /blog, /collections, /products etc has to be within the URL. Simply put, from a google search perspective it's putting our client's products in a subcategory that it does not need to be in. Competitors without this url 'folder' are ranking higher.  It's put us in a spot of bother with a recent client who's rankings are set to fall. Wished we'd picked up on this issue earlier in the project. Hopefully this will be implemented. 

Thanks

[gregj]

Hi @Nick

It's been 10 days and so do you have any update? I.e as we are setting up our site, I am asking now i.e if there is anything means can wait else will move forward

[oberlohunter]

I would also like to know when there is update on this thread. To mention I would love to get this feature ready as soon possinble! Since it would help a ton with improving SEO overall.

Thanks. Nikola

[Nick]

It's been 10 days and so do you have any update? I.e as we are setting up our site, I am asking now i.e if there is anything means can wait else will move forward

---

Posts requesting a timeline or sharing speculations will be removed since they prevent others from seeing the current situation which is we have captured this request, it has been logged correctly, and when we have more detail to share we will follow-up in this topic.

[Aiwazir]

Hey Nick,

Its been 2 months since ur last message. Why is still nothing done with this issue ? i mean, shopify should know the bad impact it has in terms of SEO and brand image. 

So just why ? How could shopify think that kind of URL is ok ? 

real exemple taken from my shop : 

xxxxxxx.com/collections/collections/products/collection-mandarine

It imply 3 times the word "collection". wtf ?

[Nick]

Hi @Aiwazir,

Thanks for your feedback. There is no update yet, and any feedback shared is being continuously added to the request.

[zadaka]

No offense, Nick, but this has really shaped up to be quite a joke.

You keep stating these replies are being added to a request as if you guys are actually submitting every single one of these comments to build some sort of stronger case when it should be intuitively obvious as to why this needs to be developed.

Your peer stated this was being added to the dev feature list over a year ago and you're still in here acting like you guys are doing something about it when you clearly don't have any tangible proof that you are. It feels like you're dangling this massive carrot and are insulting our collective intelligence -- just be honest that you guys aren't doing anything about it and don't want to spend the resources on making this simple fix happen.

The reality is this is costing every single person in here a lot of money and you guys are still trying to ease our frustration by saying that our comments are being added into some never-ending icebox of feedback -- what are supposed to think? That this will somehow eventually pile over and finally at that breaking point it will justify one of your many dev teams spending a couple days on fixing this issue?

It's honestly ridiculous and it's gotten out of hand. When are you guys going to take some ownership here? 

[Tom144]

Any update here?

Currently on a trial version and can't believe that Shopify (still) has this very disadvantageous URL structure.

It is to be honest a huge disadvantage that makes it impossible for everyone trying to do serious business on the web to choose Shopify as their platform.

Would really appreciate an update and at least a rough timeline when this - for me it's like a bug - is fixed.

Many thanks!

[HandG]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for doing what you can do with regards to this situation.

it is completely bewildering and baffling why stores have to include /pages, /collections etc as part of their urls.

Can you log my concerns to this list you speak about?

Also, can you get your team leader to provide a response for me or somebody who has the experience and expertise for this particular issue to explain in depth why this feature cannot be implemented. 

Regards,

Nathan

[HandG]

@Nick Hi Nick, sorry but my tagging of you in my previous post above didn't work.

I look forward to hearing from you on whether you can help with this feature now. It's been some time since it was last raised/discussed.

Thanks,

Nathan

[HandG]

Hello,

Thought I would provide a quick update of my experience today on social media.

I am part of an Amazon FBA facebook page which has over 300,000 follows/likes. There was a post asking for and discussing what are the best e-commerce websites. I couldn't comment on how other e-commerce providers operate but I was happy to contribute and explain the issue regarding the unattractive URL Shopify users have to deal with.

Just thought I'd let you know the type of conversation that can happen due to particular features, especially when they are not addressed.

Best regards,

[GutterGuard]

@Nick Hey, I've just started using Shopify, have been switching over my content from SquareSpace, I just noticed the /Pages url, and found it so odd there was no way to change it. I read through this thread and am bummed to see over the last couple years this feature still hasn't been release. I'd really love to be able to take away the /pages/ as well. 

Lastly, I think everyone here telling Nick that he needs to give an update needs to release Shopify is a huge corporation, and he probably can't give a timeline and he's probably just lodging a feedback request and probably has no way of following up to see if the devs are interested in helping us out. 

[Ninthony]

Thanks for that @GutterGuard - it's nice to see there's someone understanding out there. Everyone also needs to take into consideration that Shopify has been around since 2004 and SEO rules have changed over time. They have to take into consideration that this is how their platform has been running for years and years, they have many stores that are currently up and running and it's surely not as simple as "handing over the url structure to their clients". I'm sure @Nick has done all he can for us, and now we just have to wait.

[HandG]

@Ninthony you and @GutterGuard are the reason why things don't get done.

And to blanket the situation saying the rest of us aren't understanding is insulting.

There are many customers including myself disgruntled at the current URL issue and we have every right to express our feelings amongst the Shopify community. Isn't that what a forum is for? We are discussing a topic in the 'Shopify Design' forum after all and you can forgive us for not having much faith in the system when we are getting told things have been logged but there has been no update. The thread was made in July 2018, we are now in July 2020.

There is a reason why this thread has 98 replies and 19410 views.

The thread discusses a very valid request and an update of this nature would be an invaluable addition for all store owners and Shopify itself.

Maybe Shopify can begin to listen.

[Ninthony]

I understand that, Im just saying it's definitely not as simple as handing over url structure to customers, if it were Im sure they'd do it. Their platform has been developed for a long time and likely works around this structure. I'm just saying that there's not much else Nick can do and a lot of these comments are directed at him and being short with him, he's not the developers. I don't understand the situation myself so I'm not trying to be insulting. I'm just saying that there are likely background processes and reasons they can't just hand over that functionality at the moment. I'm sure they're working on it, as they are continuously growing all the time, but if they roll out a change like that it has to work for all stores that are still live since the inception of the platform. Doesnt really matter to me, keep posting on this as much as you want to get it seen again and again. Sorry if my comment was insulting to you.

[dapla]

@Nick is there is a feature ticket we can follow for this update or should I just subscribe to this thread. I assume this is the same situation in shopify plus?

[Ninthony]

@dapla -- Correct, there's no difference in the Shopify Plus URL structure or the normal plan.

[Nick]

Hi @dapla,

You can bookmark this link here which is Shopify's Changelog for product/feature updates. You can't subscribe to it, which is why I suggested to bookmark it. 

@Ninthony is correct, it is the exact same for every store regardless of which plan they are using. 

[Matthew39]

We would also very much like to see this done soon!

We signed up for Shopify long ago without much knowledge of websites, but have grown greatly since and it now seems we have outgrown Shopify.

This slow implementation of an important and such basic URL structuring shows Shopify does not value their community's needs!

I will reluctantly begin looking for alternatives to Shopify. I hope to hear back with an aggressive implementation date from Shopify on this so we can continue to be partners. 

I am with Impulse Medical Technologies (ImpulseMed.com) and The Electrode Store (ElectrodeStore.com).

[Guy_Beardsley]

Hi @Nick 

Please add my name to the list of Shopify customers eager to receive this feature!

[KestutisIT]

@Nick - nearly half year passed since your reply. We really need to be able to have a hi-end landing pages that would be able to compete with ClickFunnels and other trending items. This is not possible without having a page without prefix.

[MereNatur]

Hi @Nick , it's almost end of the year now. Is there any update from the team?
Can you at the very least confirm when the team will be able to finish this issue that has been in shopify since years.

Following this blogs isn't helpful as we've haven't seen any proactiveness from you lately.

[Nick]

I understand everyone's desire but I don't have an update to share at this time. I am monitoring the feedback we captured and provided from this topic and when there is more to share I'll be sure to follow-up in here. 

[Minust]

Click to expand...

Please don't be arrogant and ignore a very common request. At least be transparent about why it's not updated. 

[kathireuter]

I want this feature also please. I actually have a physical product (a book) and in the book it references a URL for download of extra worksheets. The URL is mybookdomain.com/download. 

Except in Shopify I can't seem to get that URL to resolve, it goes to /pages/download .... 

I am in the process of printing 1000 books with a domain that won't work for people. Is there a workaround for me? 

[BYGONE]

@kathireuter

your solution is simple....you just need a redirect.

so if anybody goes to "domain.com/download" it will redirect to "domain.com/pages/download"

...not ideal, im about to switch to another platform because shopify is very stuck in their ways. they do not care about customer feedback - they are making billions so why would they spend extra time on the little guys?

I'm switching someone who cares 🙂

[kathireuter]

That is what I have done for now. It's still kind of an ugly solution but what am I going to do. It works at least .

[BrandsShoppe11]

Here is justification for removing 'pages' from Shopify URL. Let us compare two below URLs. Even if we work hard on SEO work, the first url is not going to show up in searches but the second one might. When we search a product, Amazon shows up at the top. If some good SEO work is done by Shopify then Shopify search results may show up close to those of Amazon. But for some hidden reason, Shopify does not seem interested in that. If Shopify can work on general SEO / Page Speed  etc, then the search results will increase drastically. The second url generation is possible in Woo-commerce, but not in Shopify.

https://example11.com/pages/designer-shoes (this is how Shopify does)

https://example11.com/designer-shoes (this is how, it should be)

[AED123]

Hi Nick,

We would also like to remove "/Pages".  Right now, when Google looks at our URLs (and the URLs of everyone else on this thread), Google thinks that we have all decided that the most relevant word to describe each of our webpages is "Pages".

As such, Google views our competitors' (non-Shopify) sites as having more relevant content.  Removing the "/Pages" would improve the Search Engine Optimization of every site on Shopify.

The ROI of removing this would be tremendous for Shopify.  All Shopify sites would have more organic traffic, and a percentage of all purchases from that traffic would go to Shopify's bottom line.

As a Shopify Shareholder, I want you guys to prioritize enhancement requests like this one that drive ROI.

I'm hoping you can help to escalate this.  Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Best,

Bobby

[Jacob_Beam]

been needing this for years.

thanks

[donkeydug]

I'm doing an SEO audit for a friend's website which uses Shopify. This is my first time working with Shopify and I am very surprised that giving the website creators control over the url structure is even an issue. Within 5 minutes of auditing my friend's website I noticed this weird structure and flagged it as a "needs improvement" item only to discover that it can't be fixed. Seeing how this request is nearing 2 years old, I don't have confidence that Shopify will rectify this anytime soon. 

WordPress is always a great alternative, and even Squarespace is a viable competitor to Shopify as their ecommerce functionality has continued to improve over the years. What they both definitely do is give the website owner control over the url structure. I will be recommending my friend to switch to a different CMS as soon as possible where the url structure isn't a problem and where support is more responsive. 

[Juhann]

It was longtime since any response from shopify despite users are feeling real Uncomfort in this issue

[g1tech]

Currently on day 1 of a trial with Shopify, looking for a new home for our Magento 1 EE site.

I'm shocked that this URL issue is not figured out. I see a discussion about it 7 years ago where Shopify said they were considering the feature.

This is enough to get us to cross Shopify off our list, pretty disappointing.