---
title: "Shopify Duplicate Product URLs: 45.8% of Stores Link Them"
url: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/shopify-duplicate-product-urls
description: "45.8% of 72 crawled Shopify-style stores link to /collections/.../products/ URLs. 72.1% of duplicate links are images, and 71.9% sit on collection pages."
lang: en
---
Data Study ยท Technical SEO
# Shopify Duplicate Product URLs: 45.8% of Crawled Stores Link Them
33 of 72 crawled Shopify-style stores (45.8%) link to products through /collections/.../products/ URLs instead of the canonical /products/ path.
- 72 Shopify-style stores
- PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026
Matt Suffoletto: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/author/matt-suffoletto
Founder, PageSpeed Matters Published Oct. 19, 2026 6 min read
## Key Findings
1. **45.8%** of 72 crawled Shopify-style stores (33) have internal text links to /collections/.../products/ URLs, and counting image links too the share rises to **50.0%** (36 stores). Copy stat
2. On the 33 exposing stores, the average store sends an estimated **23.4%** of its internal product links to the duplicate collection-path form. Copy stat
3. The 72 stores carry **150,036** internal links to collection-path product URLs, **2.0%** of their 7,582,848 internal links. Copy stat
4. **72.1%** of the 136,677 duplicate links listed are image links, typically the product card photo, and 3 stores expose the duplicate form only through images. Copy stat
5. Exposure is lopsided: **16 of the 72** stores have 1,000 or more duplicate-path product links, 5 have 100 to 999, 15 have 1 to 99 and **36** have none. Copy stat
6. On the 33 stores with duplicate text links, **71.9%** of the 109,007 listed duplicate links sit on collection pages and **27.5%** on product pages through related or recommended products; 29 of the 33 stores link this way from product pages. Copy stat
Where duplicate-path product links sit (33 exposing stores)
Collection pages 71.9%
Product pages 27.5%
Blog and content pages 0.5%
Homepage and other 0.1%
Source: PageSpeed Matters. Crawl of 72 Shopify-style stores, up to 1,000 pages each, Oct 2026.
Share of the 109,007 listed duplicate links on the 33 stores with duplicate text links.
In this study
## Shopify-style stores linking to /collections/.../products/ URLs
| Definition | Stores | Stores linking to duplicate URLs | Share |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Text links | 72 | 33 | 45.8% |
| Text or image links | 72 | 36 | 50.0% |
| 1,000+ duplicate links | 72 | 16 | 22.2% |
| 100+ duplicate links | 72 | 21 | 29.2% |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. Crawl capped at 1,000 pages per store.
## Summary
On Shopify, a product can be reached at its canonical /products/ address or through a collection, at /collections/[collection]/products/[product]. Both load the same page. Shopify points the canonical tag at the /products/ version, so the duplicates are not meant to be indexed, but every internal link to the collection form still sends crawlers to an extra address.
We checked how often stores link that way. 33 of 72 crawled Shopify-style stores (45.8%) link to products through /collections/.../products/ URLs instead of the canonical /products/ path, and on those stores the duplicate form takes a sizable share of product links.
## What we measured
We used a crawl of 293 ranking sites, up to 1,000 pages each. Of the 100 stores in that crawl, 72 have /products/ URLs, and those are the Shopify-style stores in this study.
For each of the 72 we looked at every internal link whose target matches /collections/*/products/, and recorded whether each link was text or an image and what kind of page it sat on. The per-store share of product links in the duplicate form is an estimate, because clean product links are counted from the inbound links of crawled /products/ pages.
This is a crawl sample capped at 1,000 pages per site. Shopify canonicalizes these URLs, so the cost is wasted crawl rather than duplicate indexing.
## Nearly half of stores link to duplicate product paths
45.8% of the 72 stores (33) have internal text links to /collections/.../products/ URLs. Counting image links as well, the share rises to 50.0% (36 stores).
On the 33 exposing stores, the average store sends an estimated 23.4% of its internal product links to the duplicate collection-path form. So when a store has the pattern, it is not a stray link or two: nearly one in four product links points at an address Shopify will canonicalize away.
Across all 72 stores, the crawl found 150,036 internal links to collection-path product URLs, 2.0% of their 7,582,848 internal links.
45.8%
Share of 72 crawled Shopify-style stores with internal text links to /collections/.../products/ URLs.
## Most duplicate links are product card images
Of the 136,677 duplicate links listed, 72.1% are image links, typically the product card photo in a collection grid. 3 stores expose the duplicate form only through images, which is why the store count rises from 33 to 36 when image links are included.
That fits how these links usually get built. Theme code that renders a product card inside a collection often builds the link relative to that collection, and the same card template is then reused for both the photo and the title.
## A few stores account for most of the exposure
Exposure is lopsided. 16 of the 72 stores have 1,000 or more duplicate-path product links, 5 have 100 to 999, 15 have 1 to 99 and 36 have none.
In other words, about half the stores are clean, and among the rest the pattern is usually either marginal or site-wide. A store with thousands of these links most likely has them in a shared template, such as the collection grid or a recommendations block, rather than in hand-written content.
## Collection pages and related products create the links
On the 33 stores with duplicate text links, 71.9% of the 109,007 listed duplicate links sit on collection pages. Another 27.5% sit on product pages, through related or recommended products, and 29 of the 33 stores link this way from product pages. Blog, content and homepage links barely register.
So the two places to look are the collection grid and any related-products section on the product template. Between them, those two templates hold almost all the duplicate links in this sample.
## What this means for your store
Check one collection page on your store. Hover over a product card's image and title and see whether the link starts with /collections/. Then do the same for the related products block on a product page.
- If the links use the collection path, update the theme so product cards link to the plain /products/ URL. In Liquid themes, this usually means removing the within: collection filter from the product link.
- Fix the image link and the title link together, since they often come from the same snippet.
- Check related and recommended product sections separately, as they can use different code from the collection grid.
- After the change, recrawl a few collection pages to confirm every product link points to /products/.
## Sources
- PageSpeed Matters crawl of 293 ranking sites up to 1,000 pages each, October 2026
- Google Search Central, How to specify a canonical URL with rel="canonical" and other methods: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls
## Embed this research
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Source: Shopify Duplicate Product URLs: 45.8% of Crawled Stores Link Them - PageSpeed Matters
## Frequently asked questions
### What are Shopify duplicate product URLs?
They are /collections/[collection]/products/[product] addresses that load the same page as the canonical /products/ URL. In our crawl, 45.8% of 72 Shopify-style stores linked to products this way.
### Do Shopify collection product URLs hurt SEO?
Shopify canonicalizes them to the /products/ URL, so the cost is mainly wasted crawl. On the 33 stores that link this way, an estimated 23.4% of the average store's product links pointed at the duplicate form.
### Where do duplicate product links come from on Shopify?
Mostly from theme templates. 71.9% of the listed duplicate links sit on collection pages and 27.5% on product pages through related or recommended products, and 72.1% are image links.
### How do I check my Shopify store for duplicate product links?
Hover over a product card's image and title on a collection page and on a product page's related products block. If the link starts with /collections/, the theme is linking to the duplicate form.
Duplicate product links almost always come from one or two theme templates, so a small code change can point every product card at the canonical URL. Need help with this? See our technical SEO services (https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/services/technical-seo).
Share
How we measured
## Methodology & Source
Data source
Crawl of 293 ranking sites, internal links on the 72 Shopify-style stores
Collection date
October 2026
Sample
72 Shopify-style stores
Release
PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026
Shopify-style stores are the 72 of 100 crawled stores with /products/ URLs. Internal link targets matching /collections/*/products/ were counted in full for each store. Crawls are capped at 1,000 pages per site, so this is a crawl sample. The 23.4% per-store share is an estimate based on inbound link counts of crawled /products/ pages. Shopify canonicalizes these URLs, so the cost is wasted crawl rather than duplicate indexing.
Using this data?
## Cite this study
Link back to the study when you cite it.
APA
Matt Suffoletto. (2026). Shopify Duplicate Product URLs: 45.8% of Crawled Stores Link Them. PageSpeed Matters. https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/shopify-duplicate-product-urls
Plain link
Shopify Duplicate Product URLs: 45.8% of Crawled Stores Link Them - PageSpeed Matters - https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/shopify-duplicate-product-urls
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- Technical SEO Canonical Tag Usage 2026: 36.1% of Inner Pages Have None: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/canonical-tag-usage
- Website Migration Shopify Migration 404s 2026: 30.1% of Old Linked URLs: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/shopify-migration-404s
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