Shopify URL structure and redirects explained

Shopify builds each URL from a page type and a handle, such as /products/silver-cross-necklace. The handle comes from the title and rarely needs changing. If you do change one, or remove a page, add a redirect from the old address so customers and Google land on a working page.

How are Shopify URLs built?

The handle is the part you control. Shopify generates it from the title, in lowercase, with hyphens for spaces and special characters. Two products with the same title get potion and potion-1. Changing the title later does not change the handle.

What makes a good URL?

Google’s URL guidance asks for readable words instead of long ID numbers, in the language of your audience, separated by hyphens. Shopify’s handles already follow this format. So the only thing to fix is a messy title at creation, such as an import that gives you a handle like sku-3243-new-final.

Do not chase keywords here. Google says keywords in a URL path have little ranking effect beyond what shows in breadcrumbs. A clear handle helps people read the address, and that is enough.

When should you change a handle?

• Before launch: change whatever you like. Nothing links to the page yet.
• After launch, when the handle is wrong or misleading: change it and add a redirect.
• After launch, for a small keyword tweak: leave it. Shopify warns that a handle edited too often can stop a product from displaying in search results.

How do redirects work on Shopify?

A redirect sends anyone who opens an old address to a new one. There are two ways to create one.

When you edit a handle

For pages, collections and blog posts, Shopify’s help describes a Create a URL redirect option when you change the handle. Keep it selected. If you do not see it, for example on a product, create the redirect by hand and test the old address.

By hand

1. Go to Content, then Menus, and click View URL Redirects.
2. Click Create URL redirect.
3. In Redirect from, enter the old address.
4. In Redirect to, enter the new one. Use a relative path for a page on your store, or / for the homepage.
5. Click Save redirect. It takes effect immediately.

If you are moving many pages, for example from another platform, the same screen lets you import redirects from a CSV file.

What can’t you redirect?

According to Shopify’s redirect documentation:

• A page that still works. The redirect only applies to broken URLs. If the old URL still loads, nothing happens.
• Fixed paths: /products, /collections and /collections/all.
• Paths starting with /cart, /orders, /apps and a few others reserved by Shopify.
• Collection URLs filtered by tag.

To redirect a product you stopped selling, first set it to Draft or remove it from all sales channels. Its URL then returns a 404 and the redirect can work.

Where should a redirect point?

To the closest match, not always the homepage. Google’s advice for URL changes:

• Send each old URL straight to its final destination, and avoid chains.
• Do not send many old URLs to one unrelated page.
• Update your own links, in menus and text, to the new address.
• Keep redirects generally for at least one year.

For a discontinued product, the matching collection is usually a better target than the homepage. Google treats a permanent redirect as a signal that the new URL should replace the old one in results. Use it only when you do not plan to undo the change: Shopify notes that browsers and search engines may cache a 301 redirect, so removing one may not stop it working right away.

If you are worried about several addresses showing the same page, that is a separate issue, covered in our guide to duplicate content on Shopify. For the full picture, see our Shopify SEO guide.

Forgefont creates your pages in your own Shopify store and leaves your existing ones alone: if an address is already taken, we stop and let you know. To start, configure your store.