Art Of The Root - Shopify Store Audit
Settings · Products · Collections · Navigation · Pages · Apps
Executive summary
Art Of The Root is a mature, well-run store - excellent product content, strong product SEO, real multi-channel selling and wholesale, and proper use of Archive. The debt is in the layers that have grown unchecked: 107 collections with heavy duplication, 17 navigation menus (several legacy and full of dead links), a sprawling tag system, expired discount codes, and a redirect table at its 10,000 cap. Fix the collections and navigation first - they hurt SEO and shopper experience most - then the hygiene items.
Top priorities (high impact)
| Ref | Issue | Area | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| COL-1 | 107 collections with heavy duplication | Collections | Larger |
| NAV-1 | 17 menus, including legacy menus full of dead links | Navigation | Medium |
Store Settings
KEEP: a mature, well-run foundation
What’s happeningSSL is on the primary domain, US + International markets are live, all six policies exist (including a subscription policy), and the store is genuinely multi-channel - 10 sales channels including Faire and Collective wholesale. Unlike many stores, Archive is used properly (87 archived products).
Why it mattersThis is an advanced, healthy setup. The cleanup is about taming volume (collections, menus, tags, redirects), not fixing a broken base.
| Area | State |
|---|---|
| Products | 650 total - 505 active, 58 draft, 87 archived (they use Archive properly) |
| Collections | 107 - heavily duplicated (biggest cleanup area) |
| Navigation menus | 17 menus, several legacy with dead links |
| Pages | 25 pages (duplicate policy + wholesale pages) |
| Sales channels | 10 live - Online Store, Shop, Google, Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, POS, plus Faire + Collective wholesale |
| Markets | US (primary) + International (USD); Canada market exists but disabled |
| Discounts | Dozens of expired codes left in place |
| URL redirects | 10,000 - at Shopify's cap |
- Keep as-is. Optional: decide whether to enable the Canada market (it currently exists but is disabled, so Canadian shoppers check out in USD).
Products
Drafts and archived are in good shape - a light cleanup only
What’s happening58 products are Draft and 87 are Archived. The drafts are mostly discontinued crystals, jewelry, limited-edition sprays and "Pure & Natural" candles. Cross-referenced against the last 90 days of sales, none of the 58 drafts rank among the store's ~300 best-selling products.
Why it mattersDraft should mean "in progress," not "discontinued." Since these have no recent sales and clear archived equivalents exist, they are safe to clear - this is housekeeping, not a revenue risk.
- Archive the discontinued drafts (you already use Archive well) or delete true duplicates/tests.
- Keep Draft only for products actually being built.
Product SEO is strong - just close the gaps
What’s happeningMost products carry good custom SEO titles and meta descriptions (a real strength). But a subset of active products are on Shopify defaults - e.g. the Wicked Temptress perfume and the Bad Ass Bitch spray had null SEO.
Why it mattersYou have done the hard part; the gaps are pure upside. Every product without a custom title/description is leaving organic clicks on the table.
- Find active products with no custom SEO title/description and fill them using your existing house style.
- Prioritise best sellers and new arrivals.
Vendor is fragmented across three spellings
What’s happeningThe Vendor field holds "Art Of The Root", "Art of the Root", and "Art of the Root, Ltd." - three versions of the same brand.
Why it mattersVendor drives filtering, reporting and some channel feeds. Three spellings fragment all of it.
- Pick one canonical spelling and bulk-edit the other two into it.
SKU and UPC gaps
What’s happeningSKUs mostly follow a clean "ARO###" scheme with UPC barcodes - but there are gaps: some variants have a null or empty SKU (e.g. the Bad Ass Bitch spray), a stray marketplace SKU appears ("ced-743271913"), and barcodes are inconsistently formatted (mixed 12/13/14-digit GTINs with leading zeros).
Why it mattersClean, unique SKUs and consistent GTINs are what make wholesale (Faire/Collective), Google, and Shop feeds work reliably.
- Fill null/empty SKUs and replace off-scheme SKUs with the ARO pattern.
- Normalise barcodes to a single GTIN format; flag any product missing a UPC.
Channel-approval risk on product names and claims
What’s happeningMany best sellers use edgy names and claims - profanity ("Bad Ass Bitch", "Back Off B*tch"), sexual language ("sex appeal", "seduction"), and spell/curse/hex framing. That is your brand voice and it clearly sells, but Google, Meta and TikTok product policies frequently disapprove listings with profanity, sexual claims, or "guaranteed outcome" spell language.
Why it mattersDisapprovals silently remove your top products from Shopping, Meta and TikTok feeds - directly capping paid and free reach on exactly the SKUs that convert.
- Check each channel (Google, Meta, TikTok) for disapproved products and the reasons.
- Where needed, set channel-specific titles/descriptions that keep the storefront voice but pass policy (softened wording, no profanity, no guaranteed outcomes).
KEEP: the catalog itself is excellent
What’s happeningTitles are descriptive and keyword-rich, most products have custom SEO, real photography, UPC barcodes and structured SKUs, and there is a deep, well-photographed catalog with subscriptions.
Why it mattersThis is a strong, mature catalog. The work below is about the layers around it - collections, navigation, tags - not the products.
- Keep the product standard. Apply the SEO/SKU gap fixes on top.
Collections
107 collections with heavy duplication
What’s happeningThe collection list has grown out of control. There are three overlapping altar collections (two both titled "Altar Supplies"), five best-seller collections (several containing all 650 products), an exact "Tumbled Crystals" duplicate, two conflicting wholesale collections ("25% Off" whose handle says 35), and legacy alphabetical splits (Candles A-I/J-P/Q-Z, Oils A-I/J-P/Q-Z).
Why it mattersDuplicate and near-duplicate collections split SEO signals, create thin indexable pages, and make the store hard to merchandise and navigate.
DUPLICATE / OVERLAP COUNTS Altar Supplies / Altar Supplies / Altar Tools 111 / 70 / 107 Best Sellers x5 (2 hold all 650 products) 39 / 58 / 650 / 650 / 647 Tumbled Crystals / Tumbled Crystals 3 / 3 (identical) Wholesale 25% Off / Wholesale 35% Off 35 / 200 (title vs handle mismatch) Candles A-I / J-P / Q-Z & Oils A-I / J-P / Q-Z legacy alphabetical splits
- Pick one canonical collection per concept; 301-redirect and delete the rest.
- Collapse the five best-seller collections into one; delete the alphabetical A-Z splits.
- Merge the duplicate altar, tumbled-crystal and wholesale collections.
Empty collections
What’s happeningFive collections have zero products: Aromatherapy Baths, Herbal Blends, Massage Candles, Mojo Bags/Gris Gris, and Specialty Oils.
Why it mattersEmpty collections are dead ends for shoppers and thin pages for Google.
- Populate the ones you intend to keep; delete the rest (with a 301 if they were ever linked).
Multiple seasonal promo collections live at once
What’s happeningAt least eight promo collections are live simultaneously - a Summer Sale (500 products), a Holiday Sale (492), Mother's Day, Self Love (514), a Money 20% flash, and two BOGO oil promos. Most have no SEO and several are clearly out of season.
Why it mattersOverlapping, out-of-date sale collections confuse shoppers, can get indexed as stale "sale" pages, and clutter merchandising.
- Keep one active promo collection at a time; unpublish/deindex the rest between campaigns.
- Adopt a single reusable promo collection instead of creating a new one per sale.
SEO gaps on the "all / utility" collections
What’s happeningThe spell-supply and by-intention collections are well optimised (strong titles + descriptions + images). The gaps are the big "All"/utility collections - All Candles, All Oils, Altar, Wealth & Success Intention, Ritual Supplies and others have no custom SEO.
Why it matters"All Oils" and "All Candles" are exactly the broad category terms worth ranking for. Leaving them on defaults wastes strong pages.
- Add SEO titles + descriptions to the All/category collections, matching your existing spell-supply quality.
App and internal collections in the mix
What’s happeningSeveral collections are app/utility: "AVADA - Best Sellers", "Faire Smart Collection (Do Not Edit)", "Best Seller (internal use)", "New Arrivals"/"Newest Products", and "Promo Eligible" - each holding most or all of the catalog.
Why it mattersThey are needed by their apps but should never be in navigation or the sitemap, or they become thin duplicate catalog pages.
- Keep the functional ones, but exclude them from search engines and menus. Delete any whose app is gone.
KEEP: the by-intention collections are a real asset
What’s happeningThe spell-supply / by-intention collections (Money Drawing, Protection, Love & Attraction, Uncrossing, Healing, etc.) are well built - images, smart rules, and strong keyword-led SEO.
Why it mattersThis is exactly the right way to merchandise a spiritual catalog and it is clearly working. The cleanup protects it by removing the duplicates competing with it.
- Keep these as the model for the collections that still need SEO and images.
Pages & Content
Duplicate policy and wholesale pages
What’s happeningManual pages /pages/privacy-policy, /pages/return-policy and /pages/terms-conditions duplicate the native Shopify policies, there is both a "Return Policy" page and an unpublished "Returns & Exchanges" page, and wholesale exists as four pages: two "Wholesale Application" pages, "Order Wholesale From Us Today", and the wholesale info page.
Why it mattersDuplicate policy/wholesale pages split SEO, are extra things to keep in sync, and let shoppers land on an out-of-date version.
- Keep one source per policy (native Shopify Policy) and 301 the duplicates.
- Consolidate wholesale to a single page; redirect the others.
Stale, app and empty pages
What’s happeningThe page list includes an "Affiliate Empty Page", two GrowthHero.io redirect pages, and an unpublished "FAQ" page (while the nav points to an app-hosted FAQ).
Why it mattersLeftover app/empty pages are clutter and can occasionally be found or indexed.
- Delete the empty/app-redirect pages you no longer use.
- Decide on one FAQ (page or app) and point the nav at it.
Apps & Hygiene
Dozens of expired discount codes left in place
What’s happeningThe discount list is full of long-expired codes - app-generated "saWholesale..." codes from 2022 and one-offs going back to CYBER20 (2016).
Why it mattersExpired-code clutter makes the discount area hard to manage and hides the codes that matter.
- Bulk-delete expired codes; keep only active and clearly-labelled scheduled ones.
URL redirects are at the 10,000 cap
What’s happeningThe store has 10,000 URL redirects - Shopify's maximum. Once at the cap, new 301s can fail to save.
Why it mattersThe collection and page cleanup above depends on being able to add fresh 301 redirects. If the table is full, those redirects will not stick and you lose SEO equity.
- Audit and prune obsolete redirects (old/broken targets, redirect chains) to free headroom.
- Then run the URL cleanup so every changed handle gets a working 301.
App residue
What’s happeningCollections, pages and a stray SKU show the fingerprints of several apps - AVADA, Faire, Collective, GrowthHero, AfterShip and a marketplace connector ("ced-" SKU).
Why it mattersUninstalling an app does not remove the data it created; left behind it becomes permanent clutter.
- Review installed apps; for any removed, delete its leftover collections, pages and metafields.
KEEP: multi-channel and content are strengths
What’s happeningTen sales channels including Faire and Collective wholesale, subscriptions live, and a 158-article blog ("Tips, Tricks, Spells & Rituals").
Why it mattersThe blog is a serious SEO/content asset and the wholesale + multi-channel setup is mature. Protect them while you clean up around them.
- Keep. Point the blog's internal links at the surviving canonical collections after the collection cleanup.
Cleanup checklist
Grouped by effort. Colour = impact.
Quick wins (hours)
- PROD-1 - Drafts and archived are in good shape - a light cleanup only Products
- PROD-3 - Vendor is fragmented across three spellings Products
- COL-2 - Empty collections Collections
- COL-3 - Multiple seasonal promo collections live at once Collections
- COL-5 - App and internal collections in the mix Collections
- NAV-2 - Menu names are dated / internal Navigation
- PAGE-1 - Duplicate policy and wholesale pages Pages & Content
- PAGE-2 - Stale, app and empty pages Pages & Content
- HYG-1 - Dozens of expired discount codes left in place Apps & Hygiene
Medium projects (up to ~1 day each)
- PROD-2 - Product SEO is strong - just close the gaps Products
- PROD-4 - SKU and UPC gaps Products
- PROD-6 - Channel-approval risk on product names and claims Products
- COL-4 - SEO gaps on the "all / utility" collections Collections
- NAV-1 - 17 menus, including legacy menus full of dead links Navigation
- HYG-2 - URL redirects are at the 10,000 cap Apps & Hygiene
- HYG-3 - App residue Apps & Hygiene
Larger projects (multi-day)
- COL-1 - 107 collections with heavy duplication Collections