The importance of Shopify Collection Internal Linking

We already know the importance of collections and their ability to capture high-volume search terms like “Men’s Sneakers.” But the search landscape in changing with LLMs, Google’s AI mode, and evolving search behaviour changing how users discover products. 

As a result, creating new, more tailored collections such as “Men’s Red Sneakers” to match search intent has become one of the most effective ways to drive more relevant traffic. 

The challenge with this is, how do you ensure all of these new collections are linked internally without bloating your navigation or confusing customers.

What is internal linking?

At its core, internal linking is the process of developing paths between pages on your website, so that both users and crawlers can easily move between them. 

On Shopify, this usually means making sure your collection pages and product pages are linked together in a way that feels natural, helpful, and easy to follow such as breadcrumbs or related product linking.

The issue is when it comes to collection to collection internal linking it becomes harder to link pages together without it potentially impacting UX and more importantly conversions. It’s becoming more important to ensure Google understands the structure of your site, the relationship between collections, and which pages should be prioritised.

For users, strong internal linking reduces friction & can help guide them towards relevant products, upsells, and related categories without forcing them to start their journey all over again.

Why does collection internal linking matter?

In 2025, internal linking isn’t just about making sure Googlebot can crawl key collection and product pages it’s about helping search engines and LLM-driven experiences truly understand the relationships between your collections. 

With Google’s AI Overviews and other generative search features, relevance is shifting from “single keyword optimisation” towards topic-level authority.

Collection internal linking is one of the strongest signals you control to build that authority. By connecting broad, high-volume collections (e.g. Men’s Sneakers) with more tailored, long-tail variations (e.g. Men’s Red Sneakers, Men’s High Tops), you create a can build a stronger ecosystem of content that demonstrates depth. 

This makes it easier for both traditional search engines and LLM-powered results to see you as the go-to source within your category.

The revenue impact of building internal links

From a commercial perspective, investing in collection internal linking drives direct, measurable results.

• Increased Visibility

Firstly well-structured internal links can ensure all your collections are discoverable. Developing internal links between deeper collections can help create a clear hierarchy between pages making it easier for Google and other crawlers to discover. 

This increased visibility means potentially more equity is passed between collections and as a result your brand can begin to drive a higher level of visibility for commercially relevant search terms. 

• Increased Traffic

When Google can see and understand the relationships between collections, it means you’re more likely to compete for a broader set of search terms more closely matched to search intent leading to an uplift in total search.

• Increased Revenue

We also know that better visibility and higher traffic translates into tangible business outcomes. Internal linking also improves the user journey, customers are guided toward relevant collections, reducing friction and increasing the likelihood of conversion. Even a small uplift in traffic and engagement across your collections can have a significant impact on revenue for Shopify stores.

Ways to increase internal linking

There are several ways Shopify brands can increase cross internal linking between collection pages without overwhelming site structure or bloating the main menu. 

1. Cross-Linking Related Collections

One of the most effective methods is to connect closely related collections through the use of cross linking between collections, I’ve previously shared some examples of how these can be implemented via my LinkedIn page.

For example, if you have a “Men’s Sneakers” collection, it should naturally point to more specific variations such as “Men’s Red Sneakers” or complementary categories like “Running Socks.” 

This can help build topical depth, help search engines understand relationships between collections, and gives customers an intuitive path to explore more of your catalogue, this implementation can usually be implemented via a custom meta field along with a simple import from Matrixify allowing you to manage and update collection links at scale. 

There are already a range of brands which do this well today such as Gymshark, Poundfun & Inkey List to name a view but a lot of Shopify brands now implement this sort of tactic to cross link collections.

2. Contextual Internal Linking

Beyond navigation, you can add links directly within collection descriptions, content blocks, or even editorial content that supports your store. 

A short paragraph in a collection page that references and links to another collection is both natural and user-friendly. These contextual signals reinforce relevance in Google’s eyes while providing customers with useful next steps in their journey.

This is a more traditional SEO tactic and the implementation of this will heavily depend on the current UX design you have and if content is added to the top of your page.

3. Smart Use of Facet Navigation

Faceted navigation, although something you see much less of in Shopify sites this could be an other way in which to internally link to key deeper collections within your site. However, not every filter should be indexable. 

The key is to identify which facets have meaningful search volume and commercial intent, and ensure those versions are internally linked in a way that doesn’t create duplicate or bloated menus.

 Done well, this creates a balance between discoverability for search engines and usability for customers.

Closing thoughts

Internal linking is one of the simplest but most powerful levers Shopify brands can pull to improve visibility, attract more traffic, and convert that traffic into revenue. 

As search evolves with AI-driven results and increasing competition for attention it’s key brands begin to build out better segmented collections & that they’re internally linked correctly to ensure they have the best opportunity to rank.

If you’re not sure whether your collection pages are linked effectively, I’d be happy to arrange a call and provide insights on your current setup. Sometimes a small structural change can unlock significant gains.