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Content Types
What Lingomatic syncs from your Shopify store and how each content type works.
Storefront content
These are the main content types that make up your customer-facing store:
- Products — Titles, descriptions, SEO fields, eligible metafields, product-option content, and product-image alt text. Only active products are synced; draft and archived products are skipped. Active-product changes sync instantly.
- Collections — Collection titles, descriptions, and SEO fields. Syncs instantly via webhooks.
- Pages — Custom pages such as About Us and Contact. Checked every 15 minutes.
- Articles and blogs — Blog posts, blog names, and their translatable fields. Checked every 15 minutes.
Theme content
Text that comes from your Shopify theme rather than your content:
- Theme — Theme locale strings like "Add to cart", "Sold out", navigation labels, and other UI text.
- Theme Templates — Text in JSON template files.
- Theme Sections — Text in theme settings and section configurations.
Theme content is checked every 15 minutes. Lingomatic also listens for theme updates: if a live-theme update removes native theme translations, it checks Shopify and restores missing published keys.
When image translation is enabled for your store, Growth and Pro can re-draw shopper-visible text inside theme image pickers such as banners, size charts, and promotional tiles. Product gallery images are not re-rendered; their alt text is translated as regular product content. Every rendered image waits for approval before publishing.
Notifications
- Email Templates — Every notification template that Shopify exposes through its Translations API, such as order and shipping notifications. Availability follows the templates enabled for your store.
- Packing Slips — The packing slip template included with physical orders.
Store settings
- Shop — Store title and description fields exposed by Shopify.
- Shop Policies — Privacy policy, refund policy, terms of service, and other legal pages.
- Navigation Menus — Menu titles and link text in your header, footer, and sidebar menus.
- Filters — Product filter labels (size, color, etc.) that customers see on collection pages.
Product details
- Product Options — Option names like "Size", "Color", "Material".
- Product Option Values — The specific values like "Small", "Medium", "Large", "Red", "Blue".
Checkout, customer accounts & payments
Safe defaults: Theme checkout and customer-account keys follow your theme processing mode. Delivery methods and payment gateways are copied unchanged by default; selling plans are manual by default. You can review processing modes in Settings.
- Theme checkout and customer-account strings — Keys exposed by your theme, including common checkout, order, address, subscription, and payment labels. Lingomatic cannot translate text Shopify or a third-party checkout app does not expose through the Translations API.
- Delivery Methods — Shipping method names shown at checkout.
- Payment Gateways — Payment method names displayed to customers.
- Selling Plans — Subscription plan names and details.
- Selling Plan Groups — Groups of subscription options.
Custom data (metafields & metaobjects)
- Custom Fields (Metafields) — Translatable text metafields attached to supported resources. Non-text and unsafe structured types are skipped.
- Metaobjects — Merchant-defined custom content types Shopify exposes, such as size guides, ingredient lists, or store locators. Standard Shopify system definitions are skipped.
Third-party safety: Known review and page-builder namespaces (Judge.me, Loox, Yotpo, Stamped, Ali Reviews, PageFly, and Shogun) are excluded by default. In Glossary → Do Not Translate, you can include one of those namespaces or exclude any other namespace. Content stored only on an app's external servers cannot be translated through Shopify.
Shopify theme-key limits
Shopify limits the number of registered theme translation keys per language, and the limit varies by Shopify plan. Lingomatic publishes the most useful storefront and checkout keys first. Valid translations that do not fit are shown as Plan limited, not as errors. Pin important content or free theme translation slots, then publish again.
Sync timing
Content syncs to Lingomatic in two ways:
- Instant (webhooks) — Active products and collections sync within seconds of being updated in Shopify.
- Periodic (every 15 minutes) — All other content types are checked for changes every 15 minutes. A full sync can also be triggered manually from the app.