Shopify URL Structure Explained: Why You Can't Remove /collections/ and /products/ (And Best Practices)
Shopify URL Structure Explained: Why You Can't Remove /collections/ and /products/ (And Best Practices)
One of the most frequent questions from SEO specialists and new Shopify merchants is: "Can I remove /collections/ and /products/ from my Shopify store URLs to make them shorter?"
The short answer is no—Shopify’s core routing architecture strictly enforces these subfolder prefixes.
However, understanding why this structure exists, how Shopify handles canonical links, and how to manage URL redirections properly will help you maximize your store's organic search performance.
Why Shopify Enforces Subfolder Prefixes
Shopify powers millions of stores worldwide on a unified, high-performance multi-tenant cloud infrastructure. To route billions of monthly requests with sub-millisecond precision, Shopify's routing engine relies on fixed subfolder directories:
/products/[product-handle]➔ Routes to the product detail page template./collections/[collection-handle]➔ Routes to the category grid template./collections/[collection-handle]/products/[product-handle]➔ Routes to category-scoped product views./pages/[page-handle]➔ Routes to static content pages./blogs/[blog-handle]/[post-handle]➔ Routes to editorial articles.
Attempting to force root-level URLs (e.g., mystore.com/leather-jacket) through complex headless reverse-proxies often introduces severe cache invalidation bugs and breaks checkout sessions.
The Duplicate Product URL Issue & Canonical Solution
By default, Shopify often links to products within collection grids using the nested path:
text
/collections/mens-shoes/products/leather-boots
While the primary canonical version is:
text
/products/leather-boots
Best Practice:
Ensure your Shopify theme'sproduct-grid-item.liquid snippet links directly to /products/[handle] rather than the collection-nested URL. This avoids duplicate content dilution and consolidates all internal PageRank directly onto your canonical product pages.
If you ever need to restructure collections, deploy GP Easy Redirects with wildcard rules to ensure seamless 301 transitions across all historical URLs.
