Moving from WooCommerce to Shopify means going from a platform where you control the URL structure to one that dictates it. Every product and category URL will change, and no configuration prevents that. The redirect map therefore carries the entire migration.
The reverse direction is covered under WooCommerce migration SEO, and the general Shopify case under Shopify SEO migration.
What changes, specifically
- Product URLs move to
/products/handle. Your WooCommerce product base disappears. - Category URLs become
/collections/handle. Product category paths disappear. - Nested categories flatten. Shopify collections do not nest, so a three-level WooCommerce hierarchy becomes three sibling collections.
- Attribute archives disappear entirely. If any were indexed and earning traffic, that traffic has nowhere to go.
- Tag archives change form to Shopify’s tag-filtered collection URLs.
- Pages and posts move to
/pages/and/blogs/, both gaining a prefix.
That third point is the one teams underestimate. If your WooCommerce categories nest meaningfully, that structure cannot be reproduced and must be rebuilt through navigation and internal linking. See Shopify site architecture.
The mapping work
- Export the full WooCommerce product list with SKU, slug and category assignments.
- Match on SKU where possible; handle the remainder by normalised title.
- Map every category to its new collection deliberately, since categories carry most commercial demand.
- Decide what happens to attribute and tag archives that were indexed. Usually redirect to the nearest collection.
- Reconcile against Search Console indexed URLs, which will include pages no export lists.
- Import as a bulk CSV of redirects rather than entering them individually.
Things that do not travel
- Reviews held in a WooCommerce plugin usually need separate export and import into a Shopify app.
- Custom fields from ACF or similar have no direct equivalent and often become metafields.
- SEO plugin settings. Titles and meta descriptions have to be migrated deliberately or they regenerate from Shopify defaults.
- Redirects already in place on WooCommerce. If you have accumulated redirects from earlier changes, those chains need flattening into the new map, not carrying over.
That last one catches people out. A store that has migrated before may have old redirects pointing at URLs that are themselves about to change.
Watch for after launch
- Collection-scoped duplicate product URLs, the standard Shopify fault. See technical SEO for Shopify.
- Old WooCommerce URLs still indexed. See old URLs still indexed.
- Category pages that lost their introductory content in the rebuild.
- Tag-generated collection URLs multiplying if tagging was carried over wholesale.
Frequently asked questions
Can we keep our WooCommerce URLs on Shopify?
No. The /products/ and /collections/ prefixes are enforced. Plan for every URL to change and invest the effort in mapping rather than in trying to preserve paths.
What happens to our nested categories?
They flatten. Shopify collections are all at one level. Rebuild the hierarchy through navigation, breadcrumbs and internal links, and map each old category URL to its new collection.
Will we lose our reviews?
Only if you do not plan for them. They usually need separate export and import. Confirm the path before committing, since losing them thins every product page at once.
How long should we keep the redirects?
Indefinitely for URLs with external links, and at least a year for everything else. Removing them reintroduces the loss you avoided at launch.
Consulting CTA
If you are moving a WooCommerce store to Shopify, book an SEO consultation before the collection structure is finalised.