URL Handles

A URL handle is the readable end of a storefront address, the part after /products/, /collections/ or /pages/. It is yours to write, in whichever language your customers search in, and the three item types each present it a little differently. This covers where the field sits on each, what it accepts, and what changing one does to an address you have already shared.

Updated: September 29, 2026
Reading time: 3 min

On this page

A URL handle is the last readable part of a web address. In /products/tailored-blazer-ivory the handle is tailored-blazer-ivory, and it is the only part of that address you write yourself.

Products, collections and pages all have one. The field is the same idea in all three, and the three forms present it differently enough that the differences are worth knowing before you go looking for it.

What the field looks like

(opens full size)

The fixed part of the address sits to the left of the box and cannot be edited. You type only the part after it.

Under the field the admin states what it takes: Letters, numbers, and hyphens. Your own language is fine. The second sentence is the one people miss. A handle does not have to be English, so a store selling in Thai or French can use words its customers would actually type.

Where the field sits on each item

Item	Address	Where the field is
Product	/products/ then the handle	Inside the Search engine listing card, which opens from the control at its bottom right
Collection	/collections/ then the handle	Inside the Search engine listing card, with the whole resulting address shown beneath the field
Page	/pages/ then the handle	On the form itself, above the SEO settings section rather than inside it

Two of those are worth a second look. A collection is the only one that shows you the finished address as you type, so it is the easiest place to see what you are actually making. A page is the only one that keeps the handle outside its SEO section, which is why looking for it there turns up nothing.

A page also fills the field in for you. Type the title and the handle appears, lower case with hyphens for spaces, before anything is saved. It is yours to overwrite, and the moment to do it is then.

Choosing one

Short and descriptive beats long and complete. tailored-blazer-ivory tells a reader what they are about to open; a string of numbers tells them nothing, and a handle carrying half a sentence is hard to share and easy to mistype.

Use the words a customer would search for rather than the ones your catalog uses internally, and separate them with hyphens, which is what the field asks for.

Changing one later

Changing the handle changes the item's address. That is the whole of what is certain, and it is enough to be careful with.

A link you have already sent out, printed, or posted was written for the old address, and the item no longer lives there. Set the handle before an item is published and shared, and treat it as settled afterwards. If you do have to change it, update the places you control that point at the old one.

Note: Whether an old address is refused or quietly forwarded to the new one has not been established here, so do not rely on either. Assume a changed handle leaves the old link on its own.

If something goes wrong

You cannot find the field on a product or collection. The card it sits in is closed. Its control is at the bottom right and reads Edit search engine listing.
You cannot find it on a page. It is not in the SEO settings section. It sits above that section, on the form itself.
A page has a handle you did not type. It was filled in from the title as you typed. Overwrite it before saving.
The handle is not in English and you expected it to be. That is allowed; the field says so under the box.

Next steps

Product SEO Fields covers the card the handle sits in on a product.
Page SEO Settings covers the form where a page keeps it outside that card.

SEO Overview maps which search fields exist on which item type.
Collection SEO Settings covers the one that shows the finished address as you type.
Changing Your Store's Web Address covers the part of the address before the handle.