Full breadcrumbs vs current SEF URLs (no IDs) + redirect strategy if it becomes

Hi Nicolas

On our website we currently use clean SEF URLs (no IDs in the path). We would like to display the full breadcrumb on product pages (Home > category > subcategory > product), but we understand that in HikaShop this may require adding a parameter/identifier to the product URL (related to the category/path), or even changing the URL format.

Before changing anything, we need to confirm the following:

Is there a way to show full breadcrumbs without changing our current SEF URL format?

Specifically: keep the friendly URL path exactly as it is, and if needed, let HikaShop resolve the breadcrumb internally.

Regarding the “Simplified breadcrumbs” option:

If we disable it to get full breadcrumbs, what exactly changes in the URLs? (does it add a category/path parameter?)

Can it generate multiple URLs for the same product (one per category)? If so, what is your official recommendation to avoid duplication issues (canonical URLs, “Force canonical URLs on listings”, etc.)?

Worst case, if there is no alternative and this requires changing URLs sitewide (both categories and products):

Does HikaShop provide any tool or recommended method to manage 301 redirects in bulk (export/import old URL → new URL mapping, integration with Joomla’s Redirect component, a plugin, etc.)?

We are concerned about doing this manually in .htaccess due to the volume. Is there a “simple and safe” approach you recommend (for example, a redirect mapping/table system) that avoids thousands of .htaccess rules?

Our goal is: full breadcrumbs + one canonical URL per product + zero SEO loss (no duplication, no unnecessary migrations).

Best regards
José Ángel Galiano

Hello,

You can achieve this with existing HikaShop settings:

1. Disable "Simplified breadcrumbs" to get full category path breadcrumbs (Home > Category > Subcategory > Product)
2. Set "Force canonical URLs on listings" (System > Configuration > Features tab) to "Use canonical URL and generate it if missing". This way, the first time a product page is accessed, HikaShop saves that URL as the product's canonical URL. On all subsequent accesses (even through different category paths), a canonical tag is added to tell search engines which URL is the official one.

You can also manually set a canonical URL on each product if you want full control.

With this setup, you get full breadcrumbs + one canonical URL per product + no duplicate content, without needing any redirects.

Hi Nicolas,

I wanted to let you know that in my configuration the “Simplified breadcrumbs” option was already disabled.

I have now set “Force canonical URLs on listings” to “Use canonical URL and generate it if missing.”

However, the breadcrumb on the product page shows only Home > Product page, and it does not display the category.

What can I do to fix this?

Thanks,
José Ángel Galiano

Hi,

Empty the "canonical URL" of the product, and access it again via the category. It should then display the proper breadcrumb.

Hi Nicolas,

Thanks for the guidance.

I tested it on our staging site and confirmed the behavior:

If I empty the product “Canonical URL” field and then access the product via a category, the breadcrumb becomes complete (Home > Category > Subcategory > Product).
However, the product URL becomes “dirty”, e.g. it includes .../category_pathway-XX, and the canonical tag also becomes that same URL:
<link rel="canonical" href=".../category_pathway-31">

If I set a clean canonical URL (without category_pathway), then the canonical becomes clean, but the breadcrumb becomes short (it loses the category).

This creates an SEO concern for us: if a product belongs to two categories, it can be accessed with different category_pathway-XX values, which could lead to multiple canonical variants / duplicate URLs.

What I really want is:

Clean product URL (no category_pathway) + full breadcrumb path, while keeping the canonical clean (no pathway).
Is that possible in HikaShop? If yes, what is the recommended configuration?

If it’s not possible in HikaShop and we decide to ensure each product is assigned to only one category:
2) Would you recommend implementing 301 redirects from the pathway URLs to the clean URL?

How should we do that at scale (best practice in Joomla/HikaShop)?

And how would that affect the canonicals shown/selected by Google?

Thanks in advance,
José Ángel Galiano

Hi,

We've just implemented a solution for this in the upcoming HikaShop 6.4.0 which will be released shortly.

The "Simplified breadcrumbs" setting in HikaShop configuration > Features > SEF URL Options now has a third option called "Auto (use main category)".

In this mode, HikaShop will:
- Keep clean product URLs without the category_pathway parameter
- Automatically build the full breadcrumb path (Home > Category > Subcategory > Product) using the product's main category (the first one in the category list of the product)

This means you get the best of both worlds: clean SEF URLs and full breadcrumbs with the category hierarchy, without any risk of duplicate content from multiple URL variants.

This "Auto" mode will be the default for new installs. For existing installs, you can activate it by going to HikaShop configuration > Features > SEF URL Options and changing the "Simplified breadcrumbs" setting to "Auto (use main category)".

If a product is in multiple categories, the breadcrumb will use the first category based on the ordering you've set in the product editor. You can reorder the categories of a product in the backend product edit form to control which one is used for the breadcrumb.

Hi Nicolas,

Thanks for the explanation — that “Auto (use main category)” option in 6.4.0 is exactly what we need.

Could you please let me know when HikaShop 6.4.0 is expected to be released?

At the moment, when I log into my account / downloads area, the latest version available to me is HikaShop 6.3.0.

Thanks,
José Ángel Galiano

Hi,

As I said, it will be shortly. Next week at the latest. I wanted to release it at the end of this week, but I still have things to work on before that.

Thanks so much Nicolas!!