Shopify makes it easy to publish products and collections fast, and just as easy to leave each one disconnected from the rest of the catalogue. Left alone, ranking authority pools on the homepage and blog while the pages that make money stay thin on links. Fixing this means using what you already have: the rich text editor, your blog, and your navigation menu.
How to add internal links in Shopify
Product and collection descriptions are edited through the rich text editor in the Shopify admin, under Products or Collections. Adding a link takes a few steps:
- Highlight the anchor text in the description field.
- Click the link icon in the toolbar.
- Search for or paste in the target product, collection, or blog post URL.
- Use descriptive anchor text that names the destination, not “shop now.”
Do this whenever a description mentions something you sell elsewhere: a related product, a parent collection, or a buying guide on your blog. These contextual links carry more weight than links sitting only in the navigation menu, because they appear inside content search engines read as relevant.
Should you use a Shopify internal linking app?
Shopify’s linking app ecosystem is thinner than WordPress’s. Shopify’s own Search and Discovery app handles related product recommendations, a reasonable start for a related products block. Beyond that, most linking still has to be added by hand, there isn’t a mature equivalent to a WordPress plugin that scans your whole catalogue. That’s not a bad thing: manual links in Shopify tend to be more deliberate, since there’s no bulk tool tempting you to auto insert generic anchors across hundreds of listings.
An internal linking strategy for Shopify
- Treat collection pages as hubs. They usually rank for your biggest commercial terms, so link to your best selling products from the collection description, and link back to the parent collection from each product.
- Use blog posts to funnel authority to money pages. A buying guide should link contextually to the collections and products it discusses, not sit in the blog with no path to revenue pages.
- Don’t rely on the navigation menu alone. Menus spread authority thinly across everything at once. Contextual links inside descriptions and posts direct authority to the specific pages you choose.
- Check for orphan pages. Look for products or collections with no inbound links beyond the menu, then add links from related listings and posts.
Common Shopify internal linking mistakes
- Publishing product descriptions with no links to related products or the parent collection.
- Writing blog content that never links to the collections or products it’s actually about.
- Letting authority pool on the homepage and blog index instead of routing it to money pages.
- Assuming the navigation menu alone counts as internal linking.
Internal linking works the same way on Shopify as anywhere else, just applied across collections, products, and blog posts instead of posts and pages. Getting it right is central to sound ecommerce site architecture, and it follows the same rules as internal linking on any platform: route authority deliberately, don’t let it pool. A site architecture audit maps where your Shopify store’s authority currently pools and leaks, then hands you the exact links to add.