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Solving Shopify’s Canonical URL Issue

Solving Shopify’s Canonical URL Issue

Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform that allows businesses to create online stores. However, like any platform, it has its quirks. One such issue is with canonical URLs, particularly when it comes to products that are part of multiple collections. This blog post will delve into this issue and provide a solution.

The Issue

When you browse to a product via a category or collection on Shopify, the platform automatically changes the product URLs and adds canonical tags. This can lead to situations where the canonical URL does not match the actual URL of the page, which is generally not recommended for optimal SEO practices.

This issue could potentially lead to duplicate content issues, affecting your search engine rankings. It could also impact user experience, as having the canonical URL match the actual URL they are on can be beneficial for users to understand the context of the page they are viewing.

The Solution

The simplest solution is to modify the canonical tags to include the collection name in the URL. This can be done by editing the code in the theme editor.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do this:

  1. Go to your Shopify admin panel.
  2. Click on Online Store -> Themes.
  3. Find the theme you want to edit and click Actions -> Edit code.
  4. In the Snippets folder, look for the product URL and delete everything within the collection.
{% if template contains 'product' %}
  <link rel="canonical" href="{{ shop.url }}{{ product.url }}" />
{% else %}
  {{ canonical_url }}
{% endif %}

This code ensures that the canonical URL for the product pages always points to the main product page, regardless of the collection the product is viewed from.

While Shopify’s issue with canonical URLs can be a headache, the solution is relatively straightforward. By making a small change to your theme’s code, you can ensure that your product pages have consistent URLs, improving your site’s SEO and user experience.

Please note that these are general suggestions, and the exact solution may depend on your specific website setup and requirements.

Happy selling!