Shopify Theme Developer - Discontinued Product & SEO Implementation (Martial Arts E-Commerce)

## About Kingz Kimonos Kingz Kimonos is a leading Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) brand with a strong Shopify-based e-commerce presence. We sell premium gis, rashguards, fight shorts, and training gear to a passionate global community. Our catalog includes 1,200+ SKUs with a significant number of legacy/discontinued products carrying substantial organic search equity. ## Project Context We have **386 discontinued products** that generate significant organic traffic and hold valuable backlinks. We're implementing a **"Live-but-Unavailable" strategy** — keeping discontinued products live with clear status indicators, removing purchase functionality, and redirecting purchase intent to alternative active products. This preserves SEO equity while improving user experience. This is part of our broader **GS1 barcode rollout** and Google Merchant Center optimization, coordinated with our GS1/GMC Specialist. ## What You'll Do **Metafield & Data Architecture:** - Implement custom.product_status metafield system (Active, Discontinued, Clearance, Pre-Order) - Create custom.alternative_products metafield for linking replacement items - Build bulk-update workflows for tagging 386 discontinued products **Liquid Template Development:** - Create dedicated Liquid template for discontinued product pages - Display prominent "This product has been discontinued" banner - Remove "Add to Cart" button and variant selectors completely - Build dynamic alternative product recommendation block (3–5 related products) - Support both automatic (collection-based) and manually curated alternatives **Schema Markup & Technical SEO:** - Implement schema.org/Product with Discontinued availability status - Ensure canonical tags, og:tags, and sitemap inclusion remain intact - Validate all structured data via Google Rich Results Test **Theme Customization & UX:** - Match existing brand aesthetic for discontinued page design - Create Theme Customizer controls for banner styling and messaging - Ensure full mobile responsiveness - Add collection page filter toggle for showing/hiding discontinued items **Quality Assurance:** - Audit all discontinued product URLs — zero 404 errors - Verify internal link integrity - Confirm Google Search Console shows no new crawl errors ## Required Skills - 3+ years Shopify Liquid development (custom code, not just apps) - Expert metafield implementation (definitions, types, bulk operations) - Strong technical SEO knowledge (structured data, canonicals, crawl optimization) - Schema.org JSON-LD implementation experience - Shopify 2.0 theme architecture (sections, blocks, templates) - Git version control **Strong Plus:** - Large catalog management (500+ SKUs) - E-commerce SEO migration experience - Google Merchant Center familiarity - Shopify Flow experience - GS1/GTIN knowledge ## Deliverables (Weeks 1–4) 1. Metafield architecture & implementation 2. Discontinued product Liquid template (desktop + mobile) 3. "Discontinued" banner section with Customizer controls 4. Alternative product recommendation engine 5. Schema.org/Discontinued structured data 6. Bulk tagging of 386 products 7. Collection page filter toggle 8. Full QA audit — zero 404s, valid schema, mobile tested 9. Documentation for ongoing product lifecycle management ## Why Work With Us - Immediate, meaningful impact on SEO preservation - Long-term engagement with ongoing theme work - Established BJJ brand with loyal customer base - Collaborative team (you'll work alongside our GS1/GMC Specialist) - Clear requirements with defined scope — no ambiguity We're looking for someone who can start within the next week and commit 15–25 hours/week during the initial 4-week sprint.