Key takeaways
- Go to Online Store > Navigation > click the menu > drag items using the handle on the left.
- The item at the top of the list appears first in the navigation.
- Dropdown (child) items can also be reordered within their parent group.
- Save the menu after reordering for changes to take effect.
Changing the order of your navigation menu items in Shopify is a simple drag-and-drop operation. No code required.
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How to reorder menu items
Step 1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Navigation.
Step 2. Click the menu you want to reorder - typically Main menu or Footer.
Step 3. In the menu editor, hover over any item. A drag handle appears on the left side of the item - it looks like six dots arranged in a grid (or three horizontal lines, depending on your Shopify version).
Step 4. Click and hold the drag handle, then drag the item up or down to its new position.
Step 5. Release to drop it in the new position.
Step 6. Click Save menu to confirm the change.
The updated order appears in your store’s navigation immediately after saving.
Reordering dropdown items
Dropdown items (items nested under a parent) can be reordered independently within their group.
Hover over a child item to reveal its drag handle. Drag it up or down within the dropdown - it stays nested under its parent, just in a different position within the dropdown list.
You can’t drag a child item to become a top-level item using the same gesture. To convert a dropdown item back to a top-level item, drag it left until it’s no longer indented.
Navigation item order strategy
Most e-commerce stores follow a predictable navigation order that customers expect:
Left side of the nav (first items):
- Shop / All Products
- Collections (by category)
- New Arrivals / Sale
Right side (last items):
- About / Our Story
- Blog
- Contact
Putting your main collection links first makes sense because that’s where most visitors want to go. About and Contact pages can sit at the end or in the footer.
For stores with a small number of collections (3-5), flat navigation works well. For stores with many categories, consider grouping them into dropdown menus so the top nav stays clean.
Does navigation order affect SEO?
Navigation order has a minor but real effect on SEO. Links higher up in the page source (earlier in the menu) pass slightly more internal link equity to their destination pages.
From a practical standpoint, the SEO difference is small - you won’t see a dramatic ranking change from reordering your nav. The bigger SEO benefit comes from having your main category pages linked in the nav at all, which Shopify handles well.
More importantly, navigation order affects user behaviour. If your best-selling collection is buried at the end of the nav, fewer people will find it. Put your most important links first.
Reordering menus that have multiple levels
Shopify’s standard navigation supports two levels: top-level items and one level of nesting (dropdown).
When you reorder top-level items, any dropdown children they contain move with them. The internal order of the dropdown stays the same unless you specifically reorder the children.
The footer menu
The footer menu is edited exactly the same way - drag to reorder items. If your theme uses multiple footer columns, each column typically has its own assigned menu (e.g., “Footer column 1”, “Footer column 2”). You’d reorder the items within each menu separately.
