Yes. If an ad, post or message still uses the old link form yourshop.com/product-show/<product>, the shop sends the shopper straight to the product's page at yourshop.com/products/<product>. It is a permanent (301) redirect, and everything after the ? in the link is kept.
Where to find it
There is nothing to set up. It works on every shop.
To see a product's current link, go to Admin › Online store › Products › All products and click the product's name. Its page opens on your shop in a new tab, and the address bar shows the link.
How it works
A product's link is made from its name when you add it. For example, "Cotton Three-piece Blue" becomes /products/cotton-three-piece-blue.
Say an old Facebook ad points to:
yourshop.com/product-show/cotton-three-piece-blue?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=eid
The shopper lands on:
yourshop.com/products/cotton-three-piece-blue?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=eid
Because the utm_… words (and the fbclid Facebook adds) stay in the link, your ad and analytics tools still see where the visit came from. A permanent redirect also tells Google to use the new address.
Good to know
- Renaming a product keeps its link. The link is made once, when the product is added. Changing the name later does not change the link, so old posts keep working.
- Changing the address keeps the old one working. If you change Page address (slug) in the product's SEO (Google) section, the old address sends shoppers to the new one with a permanent (301) redirect. These automatic redirects are listed in Admin › Online store › Marketing & SEO › Redirects.
- Same name, new link. If two products in your shop have the same name, the second one gets
-1at the end (…-blue-1), then-2, and so on. A copied (cloned) product therefore gets its own link. - Hiding a product closes its page to shoppers. A hidden product shows "not found", unless you fill in Replaced by in its SEO (Google) section: then its link sends shoppers to that product (301). Ticking Discontinued for good tells Google the product is gone for good. An out-of-stock product stays open.
- Deleting a product breaks its link. The link then shows a "not found" page. If ads still point to it, hide it with Replaced by set, or add a redirect for the old address in Marketing & SEO › Redirects.
- Only your own shop. The link opens a product of your shop only, even if another shop has a product with the same name.
Common problems
- An ad link shows "not found". The product was deleted or hidden, or the link has a typo. Open the product from All products, copy the link from the address bar, and update the ad.
- The ad shows the old link. That is fine. It still works; change it only when you edit the ad anyway.