Why can’t you do it without coding?
This has been bothering me for a long time. If you were to Google “change h1, h2 and h3 tags in Shopify“, or similar, you’ll come across a mass of results.
Most of the results take you to the Shopify Community forums. You’ll see hundreds of posts from Shopify users referencing their chosen theme and asking how to change the header tag priorities.
There are solutions there too, although some are better than others and all take users down the same route of going into theme files. I can’t be the only person that winces when they see this? I appreciate that it is a solution, and I appreciate that they’re trying to help, but the majority of people asking for help aren’t familiar with the dangers of liquid file editing. Shopify have done well to protect against the irretrievable loss of websites, so it is unlikely many users are going to lose their site (if any), but that brings me to my gripe.
None of this should be necessary. Shopify are the root cause of the problem.
You used to be able to change H1, H2 and H3 tags in Shopify.
Users should be able to change h1, h2 and h3 tags in Shopify without having to bang their heads against a brick wall and go to the Community for assistance. Now we come to the major irritation – they used to be able to.
Back in 2018, I was working on a new Shopify site for a manufacturing company that wanted to retail their products online. I was developing e-commerce sites at the time (I’m too busy with SEO to do it these days) and Shopify was an excellent platform for their requirements.
The ability to change h1, h2 and h3 tags in Shopify was there. You could place a header element anywhere on a page and then use a drop-down menu to choose the header priority, be it 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on.
I’m not entirely sure when they removed this feature, but it was around the same time that they replaced the Debut theme (the Dawn theme is the staple theme now).
When did Shopify change the header editing functionality?
The Dawn theme comes with other header hinderances too – such as the fact it applies the H1 tag to the site logo. That’s another thing you’ll find a coded solution for within the Shopify Community, but what on earth were they thinking to do this in the first instance?
Why would Shopify remove core features that benefit SEO?
I’ve got a couple of theories as to why Shopify did this with header tags. Some of them are behind the reasons I’ve always remained an independent SEO consultant and not opted for any partner programmes, such as Shopify Partner status.
Firstly, they could be trying to aid their Partners. You can be sure many of them will have charged site owners for sorting the issue out. Secondly, it could be a ploy to aid app developers in the Shopify App store. I’ll be honest, I haven’t looked to see if any of the SEO apps on Shopify provide for header tag configuration, as I’ve generally found that these apps cause more problems than they solve. I’ve lost count of how many sites I’ve seen that used this type of app thinking that they could short-cut the time involved in SEO.
However, I’m more inclined to think this is another example of Shopify dropping the ball. In pursuit of a number of things, Shopify’s changing interface and functionality has gone down a route I’m becoming rather uncomfortable with. It is what I term “dumbed down”. They’re accounting for millions of users (and no doubt substantial support calls and emails) and have made the platform easier to use at the expense of what users will ultimately discover was critical functionality.
Users should demand features that they’ll need beyond launch phase
If you’re paying a subscription plan for an e-commerce website, you should be given the core essentials of SEO. That may sound self-destructive to the likes of me as an independent SEO consultant, but it isn’t. I want site owners to be able to control a degree of their own destiny, why shouldn’t they? They’re never going to want to delve into the technical and more complex aspects that me and other SEO professionals do, but they should be able to govern an element that Google and other search engines class as extremely important.
Is Shopify a good e-commerce platform?
It might sound like I have a thing against Shopify, but nothing could be further from the truth. I think it is a spectacularly good platform for both new and experienced e-commerce retailers. The speed of deployment from inception to launch is probably as good as it gets for a platform packed with features (yes, you could sell online faster with other platforms, but they’re nowhere near as good). Their support is generally excellent. Their payment integration is exceptional and their core theme designs and app library are fantastic (although I do think the quality of some of the apps has dropped in recent years, and they need to do more thorough vetting).
The problem is that I think they’re heading toward the “Victim of my own success” hotel. I hope I’m wrong, but they’re certainly catering for the masses and adopting a “We’ll deal with that later” approach to some aspects of online retail. In general, their visibility to search engines is “Okay”, but it could be a lot better without a great deal of development upheaval.
Where can you find out how to change H1, H2 and H3 tags in Shopify?
Anyway, if you want to know how to change H1, H2 and H3 tags in Shopify, here are some of the many examples you’ll find to resolve the issue for you:
In the meantime, feel free to leave comments below if you’ve found this frustrating (and also let me know what solutions you’ve found, including any apps).
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