WordPress to Shopify Redirect Guide

WordPress and Shopify use different URL paths for products (/product/ vs /products/), collections (/product-category/ vs /collections/), blog posts, and static pages (/about-us vs /pages/about-us). Every old URL needs a 301 to its Shopify equivalent or the page becomes a 404.

URL structure differences

Product pages

WordPress / WooCommerce:
/product/blue-widget or /shop/blue-widget

Shopify:
/products/blue-widget

WooCommerce product URLs depend on your permalink settings. Shopify always uses /products/slug.

Collection pages

WordPress / WooCommerce:
/product-category/electronics

Shopify:
/collections/electronics

Blog posts

WordPress:
/2024/03/my-blog-post or /blog/my-blog-post

Shopify:
/blogs/news/my-blog-post

WordPress blog URLs vary widely. Shopify uses /blogs/[handle]/[post-handle], typically "news" by default.

Static pages

WordPress:
/about-us

Shopify:
/pages/about-us

WordPress pages sit at the root. Shopify puts everything under /pages/. This is one of the most commonly missed redirects.

Setting up redirects in Shopify

For a handful of URLs, add them manually in Shopify admin under Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects. For hundreds of URLs, use the CSV import. Two columns: "Redirect from" (old path, no domain) and "Redirect to" (new Shopify path).

Redirect from,Redirect to
/product/blue-widget,/products/blue-widget
/product-category/electronics,/collections/electronics
/about-us,/pages/about-us
/2024/03/my-blog-post,/blogs/news/my-blog-post

Shopify limitation: Redirects only work for paths on the same domain. If you are changing domains too, set up domain forwarding at DNS level first, then add path redirects in Shopify. Shopify also has a redirect limit that varies by plan. For stores with thousands of redirects, you may need a redirect app.

Verifying your redirects

1. Get your old URLs. Save a copy of your WordPress sitemap.xml before migrating. If the site is already moved, check the Wayback Machine for the last cached version.
2. Batch check them. Open the batch checker and paste all old WordPress URLs. If the domain changed, use the old domain. We follow redirects across domains.
3. Filter for problems. Look for: 404s (missing redirects), chains with 2+ hops, and redirects landing on the wrong page. Shopify redirects are 301 by default, so 302s would be unusual.
4. Check destinations. Sort by final URL. If lots of old product URLs land on the homepage instead of the right product page, those redirect rules are missing.
5. Export and fix. Export to Google Sheets. Add missing redirects in Shopify, then re-run the batch to verify.

Common issues

Missing /pages/ redirects

WordPress /about-us needs to redirect to Shopify /pages/about-us. This gets missed because the page names are the same. Only the path prefix changes.

Blog URL mismatch

If WordPress used date-based URLs like /2024/03/my-post, you need a redirect for every post pointing to /blogs/news/my-post. Tedious but critical if those posts have organic traffic.

Pagination URLs

WordPress pagination (/page/2/, /page/3/) and WooCommerce listing pages (?paged=2) have no direct Shopify equivalents. For high-traffic pagination URLs, redirect them to the parent page.

Trailing slashes

WordPress typically uses trailing slashes (/about-us/) while Shopify does not (/pages/about-us). Make sure your "from" paths match what people actually link to. Shopify handles trailing slash normalization for its own URLs automatically.

After migration

Set up redirect monitoring on your most important old URLs. Shopify app updates, theme changes, and redirect limit issues can break redirects without warning.

For the broader process, see our site migration redirect checklist.

Verify your Shopify redirects

Import your old WordPress URLs and confirm each one lands on the right Shopify path.

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