In brief
- Shopify uses fixed paths: products live under /products/, categories become /collections/, pages under /pages/ and posts under /blogs/, so every WooCommerce URL needs a one-to-one 301 redirect.
- Shopify redirects only fire for URLs that no longer load a page, cannot start with /apps, /application, /cart, /carts, /orders, /services or /shop, and may not work with query strings.1
- A store can hold up to 100,000 redirects, or 20 million on Shopify Plus, imported as a CSV with "Redirect from" and "Redirect to" columns.1
- Google advises permanent server-side redirects kept for at least a year, no more than three hops in a chain, and never redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant page such as the homepage, which can be treated as a soft 404.2
Why every URL changes
WooCommerce lets you shape URLs in Settings → Permalinks. Products can sit under a product base, the shop base, the shop base with a category, or a custom base, and categories default to a product-category base.3 Shopify does not offer that choice: each resource type has a fixed prefix and a handle. That is why a migration always changes the URL structure, even when product names stay the same, and why the redirect map is part of the data you migrate rather than an afterthought.
The URL map
| Content | WooCommerce URL (default settings) | Shopify URL |
|---|---|---|
| Product | /product/linen-shirt/ | /products/linen-shirt |
| Product, shop base | /shop/linen-shirt/ | /products/linen-shirt |
| Product, shop base with category | /shop/shirts/linen-shirt/ | /products/linen-shirt |
| Product category | /product-category/shirts/ | /collections/shirts |
| Nested category | /product-category/men/shirts/ | /collections/men-shirts or /collections/shirts |
| Product tag | /product-tag/linen/ | /collections/linen (if you keep a collection) or the parent collection |
| Shop page | /shop/ | /collections/all |
| Blog post | /how-to-wash-linen/ or /blog/how-to-wash-linen/ | /blogs/journal/how-to-wash-linen |
| Blog index | /blog/ | /blogs/journal |
| Page | /about-us/ | /pages/about-us |
| Cart, checkout, account | /cart/, /checkout/, /my-account/ | Shopify's own routes; /cart cannot be redirected1 |
| Attribute archive | /size/medium/ | Usually no equivalent; redirect to the relevant collection |
Shopify handles are lowercase, hyphenated and have no trailing slash. Keeping the WooCommerce slug as the Shopify handle makes the map a prefix change for most URLs.
Nested categories
Shopify collections are flat. A nested WooCommerce category becomes either its own collection, with the hierarchy kept in navigation, or is merged into its parent. Decide this before building the map, because the redirect target depends on it.
Shopify's redirect rules and limits
- Only broken URLs redirect. Shopify's help centre states that if the URL still loads a valid page, the redirect will not work.1 On a new store the old WooCommerce paths are naturally broken, so this rarely bites, except for handles that collide with Shopify's own routes.
- Reserved prefixes. URLs beginning with
/apps,/application,/cart,/carts,/orders,/servicesor/shopcannot be redirected.1 A WooCommerce store using the shop base for products (/shop/linen-shirt/) is the case to watch: those URLs cannot be redirected one by one on Shopify and need a different plan, described below. - Query strings. Redirects for URLs containing query strings might not work as expected.1 Plain-permalink WooCommerce URLs such as
/?product=111therefore need special handling. - Limits. 100,000 redirects per store, 20 million on Shopify Plus.1 Through the API, the old path can be up to 1,024 characters and the target up to 255.4
- Import format. A CSV with two columns, "Redirect from" and "Redirect to", imported from Content → Menus → URL redirects → Import.1 Paths are relative (
/product/linen-shirt/); full URLs are used only to redirect to an external site. - Redirect type. Shopify's URL redirects are permanent (301), which is what Google recommends for a site move.2
If your products live under /shop/
Because /shop is a reserved prefix, product URLs such as /shop/linen-shirt/ cannot be individually redirected on Shopify.1 The workable options are to keep the old domain's server (or a Cloudflare rule in front of the domain) for one year to issue the redirects before traffic reaches Shopify, or to accept that those URLs will 404 and rely on Shopify's default /shop behaviour. Plan this before cutover, not after.
Redirect generator
Paste your WooCommerce URLs, one per line, from your sitemap, a crawl or a Search Console export. The generator strips the domain, recognises the WooCommerce pattern and writes the Shopify path. Nothing you paste leaves this page.
Rows marked REVIEW keep the old path but need you to choose the target. Rows marked BLOCKED start with a prefix Shopify cannot redirect and are left out of the CSV.
What Google expects from a site move
Google's own site-move guidance is short and specific.2
- Permanent, server-side redirects. 301 or 308 wherever technically possible.
- One to one. Do not redirect many old URLs to one irrelevant destination such as the homepage; Google may treat that as a soft 404. Redirecting several old pages to one page is fine only when the content was genuinely merged.
- Keep them for at least a year. That is how long Google says it needs to transfer all signals to the new URLs.
- Short chains. Googlebot follows up to 10 hops, but Google advises redirecting to the final destination directly and keeping chains to three hops or fewer.
- Submit the new sitemap in Search Console and keep the old property so you can watch the old URLs being processed.
- No Change of Address tool. It is only for moving between domains; moving paths within the same domain does not need it.
Step by step
- Collect every old URL. Export the WooCommerce XML sitemaps, run a crawl, and add every URL with clicks or backlinks from Search Console and your analytics. The union is your source list.
- Include existing redirects. If WooCommerce already redirects old URLs, for example through the Redirection plugin, map their original sources straight to the new Shopify target so you do not create chains.
- Decide handles and collection structure first. Keep slugs as handles where possible, and decide how nested categories and tags map to collections.
- Generate the map with the tool above or a spreadsheet, then review every REVIEW row by hand.
- Import before launch. Redirects can be imported while the store is still password-protected; they simply wait for the domain to switch.
- Test the top 50. After the domain moves, request the most-visited old URLs and confirm each returns a single 301 to the right page.
- Watch 404s for a month. Search Console's "Not found" report and Shopify's own 404 list show what the map missed; add redirects as they appear.
Mistakes that cost rankings
- Redirecting everything to the homepage. The classic shortcut and the one Google explicitly warns against.2
- Changing slugs during the move. Renaming products at the same time doubles the mapping work and the chance of errors. Migrate first, rename later, with its own redirects.
- Forgetting images. Image URLs from wp-content/uploads that other sites link to will 404. Shopify cannot redirect them individually at scale; keep the old media host alive if image links matter.
- Leaving the old site's canonicals pointing at itself. Once the domain moves, the old site is gone; but if you keep it on a subdomain for reference, make it noindex.
- Removing redirects after launch. They must stay for at least a year.2
Want the redirect map built and verified for you?
- Every product, category, tag, post and page mapped
- Existing redirects merged, no chains
- Imported before launch, tested after
- 404 monitoring for the first weeks
- Fixed price, preview before you pay
- SEO titles and descriptions carried over too
Frequently asked questions
Are Shopify URL redirects 301 or 302?
Shopify URL redirects are permanent redirects, which is what Google recommends for moved content. There is no option to make them temporary.
How many redirects can a Shopify store have?
Up to 100,000 on standard plans and up to 20 million on Shopify Plus, according to Shopify's help centre.
Why doesn't my redirect work?
The most common reasons: the old path still loads a page on the new store, the path starts with a reserved prefix such as /shop or /cart, or the URL contains a query string. Shopify documents all three limitations.
Should old category URLs redirect to collections or to the homepage?
To the matching collection. Google says redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant page such as the homepage can be treated as a soft 404, which loses the rankings you are trying to keep.
How long should I keep the redirects?
At least one year, per Google's site-move guidance. In practice, leaving them in place permanently costs nothing and protects old backlinks.
Do I need Google's Change of Address tool?
No. It is only for moving between domains or subdomains. A WooCommerce to Shopify migration on the same domain changes paths, which Google handles through the redirects and the new sitemap.
Sources
- Shopify. Creating and managing URL redirects, Shopify Help Center: reserved prefixes, broken-URL rule, query strings, limits, import and export.
- Google Search Central. Site moves with URL changes.
- WooCommerce. Permalinks documentation: product permalink options and taxonomy bases.
- Shopify. Redirect resource, Admin API reference: path up to 1,024 characters, target up to 255.
- Shopify. UrlRedirectImport, GraphQL Admin API: bulk import of redirects from a CSV.
- Shopify. Online store URL structure: fixed prefixes for products, collections, pages and blogs.
Mufatech Studio migrates stores to Shopify. Rules and limits are quoted from Shopify's and Google's documentation as of September 2026.