Shopify Redirects – How To Create Redirects In Shopify

How to Create a URL Redirect in Shopify

1. Log in to Your Shopify Admin. Visit yourstorename.myshopify.com/admin and log in with your credentials.
2. Navigate to Online Store. In the left-hand sidebar, click on “Online Store.”
3. Select Navigation. Under “Online Store,” select “Navigation.”
4. Access URL Redirects. In the “Navigation” section in the upper right, click “View URL redirects.”
5. Create a New URL Redirect. Click the “Create URL redirect” button.
6. Enter the Old URL. In the “Redirect from” field, enter the old URL path you want to redirect. This should be the part of the URL after your domain name (e.g., /old-page).
7. Enter the New URL. In the “Redirect to” field, enter the new URL path or the full URL where you want the old URL to redirect (e.g., /new-page or https://yourstorename.com/new-page).
8. Save the Redirect. Click the “Save redirect” button to create the URL redirect.
9. Verify the Redirect. Open a new browser tab and enter the old URL to ensure it redirects to the new URL correctly.

Handling 301 Redirects for Different Localized Versions in Shopify

1. Automatic Redirects:
   • Shopify automatically handles URL redirects across different country versions of your site. When you set up a 301 redirect for a primary URL (e.g., your US site), Shopify will apply the same redirect logic to all localized versions (e.g., /en-ca/ for Canada, /en-gb/ for the UK).
2. Shopify Markets:
   • With Shopify Markets, you can manage multiple regions from a single Shopify store. When you set a redirect in the primary market, Shopify ensures the redirect applies to all other markets unless specified otherwise.
3. URL Structure Consistency:
   • Ensure your URL structures are consistent across different locales to utilize Shopify’s automatic redirect handling fully. For instance, if /us-page redirects to /new-us-page, /en-ca/us-page will automatically redirect to /en-ca/new-us-page.

Redirects are consistently applied across all localized versions of your site, providing a seamless experience for your international customers.

Considerations with Redirects in Shopify

Here are important considerations about what can and cannot be redirected within the Shopify platform:

1. Product, Collection, Page URLs:
   • You can create redirects for individual product URLs, collection URLs, and page URLs. This is useful when you update or remove products, collections, or pages.
2. Blog Post URLs:
   • Blog post URLs can be redirected. If you change the URL of a blog post or remove it, set up a redirect to the new URL or a relevant page.
3. Primary Domain Redirects:
   • Redirects for the primary domain must be handled through your domain settings. Shopify allows you to redirect all traffic from non-primary domains to your primary domain to avoid duplicate content issues.
4. Cannot Redirect Checkout URLs:
   • Shopify does not allow redirects for checkout URLs. The checkout process is hosted on Shopify’s secure servers, and custom redirects within this flow are not permitted.
5. Dynamic Parameters and Query Strings:
   • Redirects involving dynamic parameters or query strings can be tricky. Shopify’s URL redirects typically do not support wildcards or regular expressions, so each redirect must be specific.
6. Limitations on Wildcards:
   • Shopify does not support wildcard redirects (e.g., redirecting all pages within a directory to a new directory with a single rule). Each URL must be redirected individually.
7. Redirect Limitations on Apps:
   • Some Shopify apps might have their URLs or resources which are managed outside of the standard URL redirect tool. Check app-specific settings for managing redirects.
8. File URLs:
   • Redirects for URLs pointing to files (like PDFs, images) hosted on Shopify can be set up, but it’s better to update the links directly where possible.
9. Redirects and Site Performance:
   • Keep an eye on the number of redirects as too many can slow down your site’s performance and affect SEO. Ensure redirects are necessary and optimized.
10. Handling Old URLs:
    • When migrating from another platform to Shopify, set up redirects for old URLs to their corresponding new URLs in Shopify to preserve SEO value and user experience.

NOTE: If you need to bulk create redirects, you may want to use a third-party app.