Creating a new page in Shopify takes less than two minutes. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Pages, then click Add page. Give the page a title, add your content, set its visibility, and hit Save. That’s the short version, but there’s a lot more you can do with Shopify pages than most store owners realize, including page metafields, custom theme templates, password protection workarounds, and the Shopify Magic AI shortcuts that arrived in 2025.

Key Takeaways
1
Shopify pages are standalone content pages (About Us, Contact, Shipping Policy), they are separate from blog posts and product pages.
2
To create a page, go to Online Store > Pages > Add page in your Shopify admin, fill in the title and content, then save.
3
Each page has its own SEO settings, always fill in the URL handle, meta title, and meta description before publishing.
4
Page metafields let you add custom fields to pages and surface them through theme sections via dynamic sources, a layer most stores ignore.
5
You can assign a custom page template to control the layout, or use the default page template from your active theme.
6
Pages can be shown or hidden, or scheduled to go live on a specific date using the Visibility settings.
7
Shopify has no native password-protect feature for individual pages, but there are reliable workarounds using apps or theme code.

How to Create a New Page in Shopify (Step-by-Step)

Here is a full walkthrough of every field you’ll encounter when adding a Shopify page.

Step 1: Log in and go to Online Store > Pages
Log in to your Shopify admin at yourstore.myshopify.com/admin. In the left sidebar, click Online Store, then click Pages. This opens your full list of existing pages.

Step 2: Click Add page
In the top-right corner of the Pages screen, click the Add page button. A blank page editor will open.

Step 3: Enter a title
Type your page title in the Title field. This appears as the H1 on the published page and also pre-populates the URL handle (you can edit the handle separately). Keep it clear and descriptive, for example “Shipping Policy” or “About Our Team”.

Step 4: Write your content
Use the rich-text editor to write the body of your page. The toolbar lets you format headings, bold and italic text, bullet lists, and numbered lists. You can also insert images, add tables, and embed links. If you prefer to work directly in HTML, click the <> Show HTML button to switch to code view.

For pages you want to rank in search engines, aim for at least 500 words of useful, original content. Use headings (H2, H3) to break up the text, and include your target keyword naturally throughout.

Step 5: Set the page template
Under Theme template, choose which template this page should use. Most themes offer a default page template and sometimes additional options like page.contact or page.faq. Selecting the right template controls the layout and any built-in features (like a contact form).

Step 6: Configure visibility
Under Visibility, choose whether the page is Visible or Hidden. If you select Visible, you can optionally set a future publish date so the page goes live automatically at a specific time.

Step 7: Fill in the SEO listing preview
Scroll down to the Search engine listing preview section. Edit the page title (meta title), meta description, and URL handle here. These fields control how the page appears in Google search results. Always fill them in, leaving them blank means Shopify will auto-generate defaults that are rarely optimal.

Step 8: Save
Click Save in the top-right corner. Your page is now live (if visibility is set to Visible) and accessible from its URL handle.

Types of Pages You Should Create on Shopify

Shopify pages serve different purposes across your store. Here are the most important ones and what each needs to succeed.

About Us: Tell the story behind your brand. Include who you are, why you started the business, your values, and a human element (photos, team bios). A strong About page builds trust and supports conversion. Aim for 300-600 words.

Contact Us: Use the page.contact template (if your theme provides one) to get a built-in contact form. Add your email address, business hours, and any social links. Keep it short and easy to act on.

Shipping Policy: Customers check this before buying. Cover domestic and international shipping timelines, carriers, costs, and any free shipping thresholds. Clear, specific language reduces abandoned carts and support tickets.

Returns and Refunds Policy: Legally required in many countries. Spell out the return window, condition requirements, who covers return postage, and how refunds are processed. Shopify provides a basic template you can customise.

FAQ Page: A well-built FAQ page handles common pre-purchase objections and ranks well for question-format search queries. Group questions by topic and keep answers direct. Some themes include a dedicated FAQ template with accordion-style dropdowns.

Landing Pages: Use standalone pages for specific campaigns, seasonal promotions, or product category overviews. These don’t need to live in your navigation, they can be linked from ads or emails directly.

How to Set a Page as Your Shopify Homepage

By default, Shopify’s homepage is controlled by your theme’s index template, not a Pages entry. But some store owners want to use a custom content page as the homepage, particularly when building brand-story-first storefronts or running a single-product store with a long landing page.

Shopify does not let you assign a Pages entry directly as the homepage from the admin UI. The homepage is always rendered by the index.json (or index.liquid) template in your theme. Here are the two practical approaches:

Option 1: Build your homepage content in the theme editor. This is the correct approach for most stores. Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize. The editor opens on the homepage by default. Use sections to add text blocks, images, featured collections, banners, and any other content you’d put on a page. This keeps your homepage in the theme, where it belongs, and gives you the most layout control.

Option 2: Create a custom page template that mimics the homepage layout. If you want a specific page to look and behave like your homepage (for example, a campaign-specific landing page at /pages/summer-sale), create a Liquid template called page.homepage-style.liquid under Online Store > Themes > Edit code, build your layout there, then assign that template to the page. This does not replace the homepage; it gives the page a full-width, section-rich layout similar to it.

What about redirecting the homepage to a page? You can set up a URL redirect from / to /pages/your-page under Online Store > Navigation > URL redirects, but this is generally a bad idea. It breaks Shopify’s theme preview, can confuse the checkout flow, and Google will treat /pages/your-page as the canonical homepage, which affects your site structure. Avoid this unless you have a very specific, temporary reason.

The cleaner answer: if you want a rich, content-heavy homepage, build it in the theme editor. That’s what it’s designed for.

How to Password-Protect a Shopify Page (and Why You Can’t Natively)

Shopify does not offer a native way to password-protect individual pages. The built-in password protection (under Online Store > Preferences) locks your entire storefront behind a single password, useful for pre-launch, not useful for restricting access to a single page.

If you need to restrict specific pages (a wholesale pricing page, a VIP member area, a trade buyer portal), here are the approaches that actually work:

1. Use a Shopify app. Apps like Locksmith, Passwurd, or BSS: B2B Lock & Hide Price let you apply password protection, customer-tag gates, or login walls to individual pages. Locksmith is the most widely used and the most flexible, it can restrict by customer tag, geographic location, email domain, or a custom password. Setup takes about 10 minutes and doesn’t require theme editing.

2. Gate the page by customer login. If your Shopify store has accounts enabled, you can add a snippet to your page template that checks whether a customer is logged in and redirects non-logged-in visitors. This requires editing your theme’s Liquid files. In your page template, add:

{% unless customer %}
  {% assign login_url = '/account/login?return_url=' | append: page.url %}
  
{% endunless %}

Place this at the top of the page template. Visitors who are not logged in get redirected to the login page; logged-in customers see the content. This does not restrict by customer tag or subscription, it’s an all-or-nothing logged-in gate.

3. Use a metafield-driven redirect. A more controlled approach is to assign a metafield to specific pages (e.g., page.access_level) and check it in the template against the customer’s tags. This requires some Liquid knowledge but gives you granular control without a third-party app.

What to avoid: hiding a page by setting visibility to “Hidden” does not protect its content. Anyone with the direct URL can still access a hidden page, Shopify does not serve a 401 or 403. Hidden only removes the page from navigation and sitemaps; it does not block access.

Page Metafields: The Hidden Layer Most Stores Ignore

Page metafields are extra fields you can add to any Shopify page beyond the default title and content body. Most store owners never touch them, but they’re the cleanest way to add structured custom content to a page (author bios, hero images, FAQ blocks, custom CTAs) without hard-coding values into theme files.

Where they live. Go to Settings > Custom data > Pages. You’ll see a list of metafield definitions you’ve created (empty by default) and a button to Add definition. Each definition has a name, namespace, key, and content type (text, rich text, single line, image, URL, date, JSON, page reference, and more).

How to use them in practice. Common patterns:

  • Hero image per page: Define an image-type metafield called hero_image. On each page in the editor, upload a different hero image without touching theme code.
  • Page-specific CTA: A rich-text metafield called cta_block holds the call-to-action that should appear at the bottom of that specific page (different on About vs Shipping vs FAQ).
  • Author bio: A page-reference metafield called author_page links a content page to your team author page, so the theme can pull author info dynamically.
  • Custom JSON-LD: A JSON-type metafield holds structured data unique to that page (e.g., FAQ schema generated from your FAQ page items).

Surfacing metafields through the theme. On Online Store 2.0 themes, metafields can be wired into theme sections via Dynamic sources. In the theme editor, click any text or image setting in a section and look for the small database icon. That’s the dynamic source picker. Select your metafield definition and the section will display the metafield value for whichever page is being viewed.

Why this matters. Metafields turn pages from a single-content-blob into a structured layout. You stop needing duplicate page templates for slight design variations, and your theme stays clean while content stays editable. For larger stores with five or more meaningfully different page types, metafields are a meaningful productivity gain.

Shopify Pages vs. Sections: Which Should You Use?

A question that trips up a lot of intermediate Shopify users: when should you build content as a Shopify Page, and when should you use theme Sections in the visual editor? They look similar from the outside but work very differently.

Shopify Pages are content entries stored in the database, created under Online Store > Pages. They have a fixed URL (/pages/slug), a title, a body content field, SEO settings, and optional ACF/metafields. They’re best for:

  • Evergreen informational content (About Us, Shipping Policy, FAQ)
  • Pages you want Google to index and rank for specific keywords
  • Content that staff members need to edit without touching theme code
  • Pages with a consistent layout that doesn’t change much over time

Theme Sections are layout blocks managed in the visual theme editor (Online Store > Themes > Customize). They live inside theme templates and control what appears on a given template. They’re best for:

  • Visual layout elements: image banners, feature grids, testimonial carousels, product grids
  • Homepage content that needs frequent redesigning
  • Content that varies in layout from one version to the next
  • Brand-heavy content where the design is the message (campaign pages, hero sections)

The hybrid approach. You can combine both. Create a Page in the database (so it has a URL and SEO settings), then assign it a page template that uses sections. In the theme editor, navigate to that specific page and add sections to it. The page entry handles the URL, SEO, and editability; the sections handle the visual layout. This is the approach modern Shopify themes are built around.

A simple rule of thumb: if the content needs a URL, SEO, and long-term existence, make it a Page. If it’s purely a layout element with no independent URL, make it a Section.

Using Shopify Magic AI to Draft Page Content

Shopify Magic, the AI feature suite that rolled out across Shopify in 2025, can draft page content in a fraction of the time it takes to write from scratch. It’s not a replacement for your own writing (Magic doesn’t know your brand voice or specific facts) but it’s a strong first-draft engine.

Where to find it. In the page editor, look for the small star icon next to the body content area. Click it to open the Magic prompt panel. Tell Magic what kind of page you want (About Us, Shipping Policy, FAQ, Contact, etc.) and any specifics it should reference. Magic returns a full draft you can edit inline.

Where Magic helps most:

  • Policy pages (Shipping, Returns, Privacy): Magic produces solid baseline language you can adjust to your specific terms. Faster than starting from a blank page.
  • FAQ pages: Magic can generate 8-12 question-and-answer pairs for a given product category or service. Use as a starting list, then edit each answer for accuracy.
  • Landing page intros: Magic drafts opening paragraphs for category pages or campaign pages in your chosen tone (expert, supportive, daring, playful, persuasive, sophisticated).

Where Magic doesn’t help:

  • About Us pages: Magic can write generic-sounding copy, but it can’t capture why you actually started your store. Always write About pages from scratch.
  • Specific product or service details: Magic invents specifications and guarantees if you ask it to. Verify everything against your real terms before publishing.
  • Brand voice: Magic’s tone presets are baseline, not your specific voice. Edit every Magic draft for word choice, rhythm, and the small turns of phrase that make your brand sound like itself.

A practical workflow: use Magic to produce first drafts of policy and FAQ pages in bulk, then schedule a focused review pass to edit each draft. This typically cuts page-creation time by 50-70% versus writing from scratch and produces stronger pages than leaving Magic’s output untouched.

Editing and Managing Your Shopify Pages

To edit any existing page, go to Online Store > Pages and click the title of the page you want to change. The same editor opens, and all the same fields are available. Make your edits and click Save.

Note: this Pages flow is for content pages (About, Contact, Shipping, etc.). To edit your Shopify home page, you use the theme editor instead, different admin area, different workflow.

For bulk management, the Pages list view gives you useful tools:

  • Bulk actions: Select multiple pages using the checkboxes, then use the Actions dropdown to delete or change visibility in one step.
  • Search and filter: Use the search bar at the top of the Pages list to find a specific page by title. You can also filter by visibility status.
  • Duplicate: On any page’s edit screen, click the … menu (top-right) and select Duplicate to create a copy. This is useful when creating multiple similar policy pages.
  • Hiding a page without deleting it: Set visibility to Hidden to take a page offline temporarily without losing its content or URL. Note that hidden pages are still crawlable, they do not serve a 403 to bots or visitors with the direct URL.

Page SEO: Making Your Shopify Pages Findable

Every Shopify page has its own SEO settings. Getting these right is the difference between a page that ranks and one that doesn’t. There are also a few Shopify-specific challenges that don’t apply to other platforms, worth knowing before you invest time in page content.

URL handle and the /pages/ prefix. All Shopify content pages live under the /pages/ path (e.g., yourstore.com/pages/about-us). You cannot change this prefix, it’s baked into Shopify’s routing. From a SEO standpoint, this is generally fine; Google treats /pages/ URLs like any other path. The risk is that thin or duplicate pages accumulate under this prefix. If you have 15 pages with less than 200 words each, Google may decide the entire /pages/ directory isn’t worth crawling frequently. Keep every page substantive.

URL handle best practices. Shopify auto-generates a handle from the page title (e.g., “About Our Team” becomes /pages/about-our-team). You can edit this manually. Keep handles short, lowercase, and keyword-relevant. Avoid changing the handle after a page is published and indexed, as this breaks existing links unless you set up a redirect.

Meta title. This is the clickable blue headline in Google search results. It should include your primary keyword and stay under 60 characters. Don’t just copy the page title, write a version aimed at search intent.

Meta description. Appears below the meta title in search results. Aim for 140-155 characters. Include your keyword and a clear reason to click. This doesn’t affect rankings directly but influences click-through rate.

Internal linking from products and blog posts. Shopify pages are often orphaned, they exist on the site but receive no internal links from products, blog posts, or the homepage. Google’s crawlers follow links; a page with no inbound links from the rest of your site may wait weeks to get indexed. Add links to your important pages from product descriptions, blog posts, and the footer. The About page and Shipping Policy in particular deserve links from multiple places.

Structured content. Use heading tags (H2 for main sections, H3 for subsections) inside your page content. This helps Google understand the page structure and can contribute to rich snippet eligibility for FAQ-style content.

Page length. Thin pages (under 300 words) are unlikely to rank. For informational pages targeting specific keywords, 500-1000 words is a reasonable target. Policy pages are the exception, accuracy matters more than length.

Page Templates and Customization

By default, Shopify applies your theme’s standard page template to every new page. This template controls the overall layout (sidebar or no sidebar, width, fonts, and any decorative elements defined by your theme).

Built-in template variants. Many themes ship with additional page templates for common use cases. For example, page.contact renders a contact form automatically, and page.faq may include expandable sections. Check your theme’s template list in the page editor dropdown to see what’s available.

Custom Liquid templates. If you’re on a theme that supports custom templates (most do), you can create new page templates in the theme code editor under Online Store > Themes > Edit code. New template files follow the naming convention page.your-template-name.liquid and appear in the template dropdown immediately.

Theme page builder sections. Modern Shopify themes (especially those built on Online Store 2.0) support sections on pages. This means you can add, remove, and reorder content blocks on a page using the visual theme editor, without touching code. Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize, navigate to the page in the preview, and use the left-hand panel to add sections.

For most store owners, the default template is enough to start. If your store grows to the point where you need distinct layouts for different content types (campaign pages, brand story pages, size guides), custom templates are the right solution.

Common Mistakes When Creating Shopify Pages

After auditing thousands of Shopify stores, the same five page-creation mistakes show up repeatedly. Each one is easy to avoid once you have seen it.

1. Leaving the URL handle on the default. Shopify auto-generates the handle from the title, including filler words like “and,” “the,” and “a.” A page titled “Shipping and Returns Policy” gets the handle shipping-and-returns-policy. Manually rewrite to shipping-returns. Shorter, cleaner, better for SEO.

2. Skipping the meta description. If you leave the meta description empty, Shopify pulls the first ~155 characters of body content. That usually produces an awkward sentence fragment in search results. Always write a custom meta description: one sentence, includes the page’s primary keyword, ends with a clear value statement.

3. Forgetting to add the page to navigation. Creating a page is half the job. If it is not linked from your main menu, footer, or another page, only direct-URL visitors will ever see it. Add new pages to Online Store > Navigation immediately after publishing.

4. Using “Hidden” visibility as a draft state. Hidden pages are crawlable by Google and can appear in search if Google finds the URL elsewhere. If you genuinely want a draft, leave the page unsaved or use a custom template with a noindex tag. Hidden is not the same as unpublished.

5. Reusing the default page template for everything. The default template is fine for About and Contact, but landing pages, comparison pages, and policy pages each benefit from a custom template that controls the layout. Most paid themes ship with three or four page templates. Use them.