When to tell us about theme changes

A lot of our SEO work lives inside your Shopify theme. It isn’t just meta tags or headings – it’s the structure of your product and collection templates, and a library of reusable components built by our senior developer, Andy Russell.

These components connect directly to our tooling – Macaroni and Macalytics – so we can move faster, test safely, and roll out improvements across large catalogues without rebuilding from scratch.

Theme updates can break that connection if we’re not in the loop. This post explains what’s at stake, what lives inside your theme, and how to make upgrades smooth.

Why theme changes matter

Every site we manage includes a set of custom components that power discovery, internal linking, and structured data. They’re the foundation of your SEO performance, and how our tools understand your catalogue.

Product components

• Related collections – links to thematically similar collections to improve discovery and internal linking.

• Related products – displays other relevant products based on shared attributes or tags.

• Related condensed name – a shortened name used in related-product displays to keep layouts clean.

• Related image – image used for related content blocks, ensuring visual consistency across templates.

• Parent collection – identifies the main collection a product sits within, used for breadcrumbs and schema.

• Knowledge Base FAQ group – container for grouping FAQs related to a specific topic or product type.

• Knowledge Base FAQs – displays content from Shopify’s Knowledge Base app directly on the page. This is important because, by default, Knowledge Base content is only visible to Shopify’s AI search – this component ensures it’s also surfaced on your live site.

• FAQ questions – pulls individual FAQ question metafields into structured content.

• FAQ answers – pairs with FAQ questions to output answers and maintain structured data.

Collection components

• Knowledge Base FAQs – displays collection-level content from Shopify’s Knowledge Base app so visitors (and search engines) can see it directly on the page. Without this component, Knowledge Base entries are only used for AI search and don’t appear on the site.

• Knowledge Base FAQ groups – groups related FAQs within a collection for easier browsing and clearer structure.

• FAQ questions – pulls collection-level FAQ question metafields.

• FAQ answers – displays corresponding FAQ answers.

• Below-the-fold content block – section that displays additional content pulled from a metafield, often for SEO copy or supporting information.

• Related collections – links to sibling or complementary collections to support cross-navigation.

• Related products – shows popular or connected products within a collection.

• Related condensed name – shortened name used in related content modules.

• Related image – image asset associated with a related collection or product block.

• Parent collection – identifies the top-level category for schema and breadcrumb accuracy.

• Alternate breadcrumb display name – overrides a collection name in breadcrumbs when a cleaner or shorter label is needed.

• Final collection – flag used to indicate whether this collection is the last step in a breadcrumb trail, helping generate correct breadcrumb schema and navigation.

We also support Shopify’s newer metafields for linking products and articles, along with related-article templates.

When a new theme is installed or updated without our input, these pieces can be dropped or replaced. It’s rarely deliberate – most of the time it happens because the developer isn’t aware these components exist, what they do, or that they connect into Macaroni and Macalytics.

The result can be serious: broken schema, missing breadcrumbs, FAQs without structured data, or performance tracking that stops feeding into our analytics models.

How Macaroni and Macalytics keep us moving

Our connected tooling means your site doesn’t stand still.

• Macaroni – manages your structured product and collection data, syncing it with the right theme components.

• Macalytics – tracks performance at template and component level, showing what’s working and what isn’t.

When these connections stay intact, we can roll out structural updates across hundreds of collections in hours, test new schema or navigation patterns safely, and measure results precisely without waiting for manual tagging or QA. When they’re broken, everything slows down – we have to re-wire data models, rebuild schema, and reconnect tracking before progress resumes.

How to handle a theme change

One of the best ways to prevent issues is to make sure whoever is handling development knows that significant SEO work already exists within the theme. Before any development starts, it’s important they understand:

• There are existing components built by Blink that must be transferred over.
• These components are connected to Macaroni and Macalytics, so removing them will break the wider system.

Most of the problems we see come from this not being communicated at the start. Once development begins, decisions get made quickly and these links are easily lost. A short conversation up front saves days of work later.

1. Before you start – share the theme name or preview. We’ll review what needs to be transferred and provide notes for your developer.
2. During development – we’ll stay available to answer questions and check that key components are included.
3. Before go-live – we’ll test the staging site to confirm all Macaroni and Macalytics connections are intact.

Quick checklist before switching themes

• Product and collection schema components
• FAQ, breadcrumb and related content modules
• Metaobjects and metafields linked to Macaroni
• Macalytics event hooks and tracking IDs

If you’re unsure, send us the theme or preview link and we’ll confirm what needs to carry over.

The bottom line

Most clients upgrade their theme at some point – it’s a normal part of Shopify development. But our SEO systems are deeply connected to your templates and data. They’re what allow us to move quickly, measure accurately, and keep compounding results.

When we’re involved early (and when developers know what’s already in place) theme changes are smooth, fast and low-risk. When we’re not, they can undo months of structured work. A quick heads-up before development starts means your new design launches seamlessly, your data stays connected, and your performance keeps accelerating.