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Links to empty collections

Shoppers follow a menu or homepage link to a collection and find no products in it.

Checked on: homepage · Zolvio’s check: “Links to empty collections”

Why it costs you sales

A link to a collection promises products. A shopper who follows one and lands on an empty collection has nowhere to go from there but back.

A collection empties when the products it held are archived, unpublished or moved, or when an automated collection’s conditions stop matching any product, while the menu or homepage link to it stays.

How Zolvio detects it

During the audit, Zolvio reads the links on your homepage and asks your store about up to 80 of the ones that lead to your own pages, one request at a time: the header’s, menus’ and footer’s first, then the homepage’s own sections’, product links last. For a link to a collection it asks for the collection’s product list (/collections/…/products.json). A collection that lists no products, and whose own page opens normally instead of sending shoppers elsewhere, flags the homepage.

The finding lists each link with its text and address, and whether it sits in a menu (up to ten). Links on other pages aren’t checked, and neither are Shopify’s listings of a vendor’s or a product type’s products.

This is a direct measurement, so it’s reported on every plan, including Free and audits with AI turned off. With AI review on, the AI agent also checks it against the audit’s evidence before it reaches your issue list.

How to fix it

  1. Open each collection the finding lists in Products → Collections and add products, or fix an automated collection’s conditions so products match again.
  2. Or remove the link: menu items live in Content → Menus, and a section’s button or link in the theme editor.
  3. Open the link on your store and check that it shows products.

This is a change in Shopify admin or the theme editor, not to theme code.

In Zolvio: on paid plans with AI turned on, the guided fix writes these steps for your own store and theme: where to click in Shopify admin or the theme editor, or which file to open, the line to find and the code to add. Each file opens in Shopify’s code editor. Zolvio never edits your theme: you make the change, then Verify fix checks your published theme for code changes (or you mark it fixed), and later audits confirm the problem is gone.

Common questions

Why does “Links to empty collections” cost a Shopify store sales?

A link to a collection promises products. A shopper who follows one and lands on an empty collection has nowhere to go from there but back. A collection empties when the products it held are archived, unpublished or moved, or when an automated collection’s conditions stop matching any product, while the menu or homepage link to it stays.

How does Zolvio detect “Links to empty collections”?

During the audit, Zolvio reads the links on your homepage and asks your store about up to 80 of the ones that lead to your own pages, one request at a time: the header’s, menus’ and footer’s first, then the homepage’s own sections’, product links last. For a link to a collection it asks for the collection’s product list (/collections/…/products.json). A collection that lists no products, and whose own page opens normally instead of sending shoppers elsewhere, flags the homepage. The finding lists each link with its text and address, and whether it sits in a menu (up to ten). Links on other pages aren’t checked, and neither are Shopify’s listings of a vendor’s or a product type’s products.

How do I fix “Links to empty collections” on Shopify?

Open each collection the finding lists in Products → Collections and add products, or fix an automated collection’s conditions so products match again. Or remove the link: menu items live in Content → Menus, and a section’s button or link in the theme editor. Open the link on your store and check that it shows products.

Related

Documentation

  • How audits work — What an audit scans and how findings become issues.
  • Guided fixes — Step-by-step fixes written for your theme, with links into the code editor.
  • Session recordings — Watch how real shoppers move through your store.