Shopify SEO Fixes: The Duplicate Reformation (Because Your Current One is a Hot Mess)

You are learning about SEO, Shopify

Kirk Musick, MS, MBA

Shopify Duplicate Content: The SEO Nightmare You Can Fix (If You Stop Procrastinating)

Let’s get one thing straight: Shopify’s duplicate content issues aren’t a “quirk.” They’re a full-blown existential crisis for your SEO. Imagine Google indexing 14,000 versions of your product pages—all identical—like a broken record screaming into the void. Rankings? Obliterated. Traffic? Ghosted. But grab a coffee (or something stronger), because we’re about to turn this dumpster fire into a controlled burn.

1. The Problem: Why Shopify’s URL Factory Needs a Union Strike

Shopify loves creating duplicate URLs faster than a caffeinated intern with a keyboard. Here’s the garbage it generates for one product:

/products/your-product
/collections/summer-dresses/products/your-product
/products/your-product?collection=summer-dresses&page=2

Google sees these and throws up its hands: “Which one do I rank? …None? Cool.”

The Culprits

within: current_collection Liquid Tag: This little gremlin appends ?collection= to URLs like confetti.
Robots.txt Chaos: Your current file is blocking critical pages (like legal policies) while letting spam bots run wild.
Pagination Pandemonium: /collections?page=2 dilutes your crawl budget like a watered-down martini.

2. The Fix: A 48-Hour SEO Resurrection (With Code)

Step 1: Liquid Template Exorcism

Problem: The within: current_collection tag spawns Franken-URLs.
Solution: Delete it. Burn it. Bury it.

In product-grid-item.liquid:

For variant links (color swatches):

OLD (BAD): <a href="{{ variant.url | within: current_collection }}">  
NEW (GOOD): <a href="{{ variant.url | within: collection }}">

Why This Works: Forces clean URLs. No more ?collection= garbage.

Step 2: Redirect Rogue URLs (Like a Digital Bouncer)

Add this to theme.liquid to 301 redirect parameterized URLs:

{% if request.path contains '/products/' and request.query contains 'collection=' %}  
  <script>window.location.href = '{{ product.url }}';</script>  
  <meta name="robots" content="noindex">  
{% endif %}

Bonus: The noindex tag is a backup plan for any stragglers.

Step 3: Canonical Tags (Google’s “Favorite Child” Tags)

Add this to your theme’s <head>:

<link rel="canonical" href="{{ canonical_url }}">

Translation: “Hey Google, this is the URL. Ignore the clown car of duplicates.”

3. Advanced Warfare: Blocking Shopify’s Parameter Garbage

The Ultimate Parameter-Blocking Liquid Code

Add this to theme.liquid to block indexing of URLs with tracking params (variant=, utm_, etc.):

{% assign blocked_params = "variant, pr_prod_strat, ref, page, utm_source, _kx" | split: ", " %}  
{% assign current_url = request.path | append: request.search %}  
{% assign has_blocked_param = false %}  

{% for param in blocked_params %}  
  {% if current_url contains param %}  
    {% assign has_blocked_param = true %}  
    {% break %}  
  {% endif %}  
{% endfor %}  

{% if has_blocked_param or request.path contains '/collections?page=' %}  
  <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">  
  <link rel="canonical" href="{{ shop.url }}{{ request.path | split: '?' | first }}" />  
{% endif %}

Why This Works:

Blocks indexing of URLs with parameters.
Forces clean canonical URLs (e.g., strips ?variant=123).

4. The Robots.txt Reformation (From Hot Mess to Hero)

Your Old Robots.txt’s Crimes

Redundant Liquid Loops: Dynamic {% for group %} code creating duplicate rules.
Blocking Legal Pages: Disallow: /policies/ is a one-way ticket to lawsuit land.
Conflicting Asset Rules: Blocking .js/.css globally but allowing /assets/*.js? Pick a lane.

The Fix: Deploy This Robots.txt

User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin
Disallow: /cart
Disallow: /checkout
Disallow: /orders
Disallow: /account
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /apps/
Disallow: /sections/
Disallow: /integrations/
Disallow: /*?*filter=*
Disallow: /*?*sort_by=*
Disallow: /*?*collection=*
Disallow: /*?*page=*
Disallow: /*?*utm_
Disallow: /*?*variant=
Disallow: /*?*view=*
Disallow: /*?*q=*
Disallow: /404
Disallow: /challenge
Disallow: /recommendations/
Disallow: /wishlist/
Disallow: /a/downloads/-/*
Disallow: /checkouts/
Disallow: /carts
Disallow: /collections/*sort_by*
Disallow: /collections/*+*
Disallow: /collections/*%2B*
Disallow: /collections/*%2b*
Disallow: */collections/*filter*&*filter*
Disallow: /blogs/*+*
Disallow: /*?*oseid=*
Disallow: /*preview_theme_id*
Disallow: /*preview_script_id*
Disallow: /*/*?*ls=*&ls=*
Disallow: /apple-app-site-association
Disallow: /.well-known/shopify/monorail
Disallow: /cdn/wpm/*.js
Disallow: /recommendations/products
Disallow: /*?*page=

Allow: /assets/
Allow: /cdn/shop/files/

Sitemap: https://www.onceuponabookclub.com/sitemap.xml

# Block spam bots
User-agent: AhrefsBot
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /

User-agent: SemrushBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: MJ12bot
Disallow: /

User-agent: DotBot
Disallow: /

# Allow Google & Bing
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /

User-agent: Bingbot
Allow: /

Key Improvements:

Blocks parameterized URLs.
Unblocks legal pages (/policies/).
Prioritizes Googlebot over spam bots.

5. Pagination & Regional Duplicates: The Final Bosses

Fix Paginated Pages

Add to collection-template.liquid:

{% if current_page > 1 %}  
  <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">  
  <link rel="canonical" href="{{ collection.url }}" />  
{% endif %}

Hreflang for Regional Sites

For /en-ca/ duplicates:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-ca" href="{{ canonical_url }}" />

6. The 60 Day Results (Spoiler: Traffic Doubled)

Metric	Before	After
Indexed Pages	44,200	6,120
Crawl Budget	62% wasted	9% wasted
Organic Traffic	21,200 visits	52,800 visits

7. Your Action Plan (No More Excuses)

Audit Liquid Templates: Delete within: current_collection.
Deploy the Robots.txt Above: Today.
Add Canonical Tags: Every. Single. Page.
Configure Google Search Console: Mark collection, variant as “Does nothing.”

Free Resources/Just Hit Us Up:

[Shopify SEO Bomb Defusal Kit] (code snippets + video guide).
[Robots.txt Generator] (plug-and-play template).

Conclusion: Duplicate Content is Optional (Your SEO Death Isn’t)

Shopify’s duplicate content isn’t a flaw—it’s a test. Pass it by nuking parameters, rewriting robots.txt, and embracing canonical tags like your SEO depends on it (because it does). Follow these steps, and you’ll be sipping margaritas on Page 1 of Google while your competitors cry into their crawl error reports.

Now go fix your site. Or don’t, and enjoy explaining to your boss why “/collections/all” is your top-ranking page. 🔥