Shopify Horizon Theme: How to Display Separate Policy Links in Your Footer

Hey store owners! Ever found yourself scratching your head trying to get your Shopify Horizon theme to display individual policy links in the footer instead of that single "Terms & Policies" button that pops up a list? You're definitely not alone. This is a common design preference for many e-commerce businesses aiming for a cleaner, more direct user experience. At Shopping Cart Mover, we understand the nuances of Shopify theme customization, and we recently saw a fantastic discussion in the Shopify community that tackled this head-on, offering some super practical solutions. Let's dive into what we learned from Geronim0 and the helpful folks like veed and MBilal, and how you can implement these changes for a more professional-looking footer.

The Horizon Theme's Default Policy Links: A Common Headache

Geronim0 kicked off the conversation, showing us exactly what many of you face: a single "Terms & Policies" link in the footer. When clicked, it reveals a pop-up with individual policy links. While functional, it's not always the clean, direct look many store owners prefer. We want those Privacy Policy, Refund Policy, and Terms of Service links right there, front and center!

The Horizon theme, like many modern Shopify themes, often bundles policy links into a compact, space-saving element. This is great for minimalist designs, but for clarity and immediate access to crucial legal information, separate links are often superior. Not only does it enhance user trust, but it can also be beneficial for SEO, allowing search engines to directly crawl and index your individual policy pages. For any merchant looking to build a robust online presence, whether you're just starting a Shopify store or migrating an existing one, optimizing these foundational elements is key.

The good news is, the community came through with a couple of excellent ways to fix this, catering to different comfort levels with code. Let's explore both options in detail.

Solution 1: The No-Code (or Low-Code) Menu Block Approach

This is often the first place I'd recommend looking, especially if you're not keen on diving into theme code. It leverages Shopify's built-in navigation features, making it a robust and easily manageable solution for most store owners. Here's how veed laid it out, and it's a solid strategy:

1. Create a New Menu: In your Shopify admin, navigate to Content > Menus > Add menu. Give it a clear, descriptive name like "Legal" or "Footer Policies" to easily identify its purpose.
2. Add Your Policy Links: Click Add menu item. In the link field, start typing the name of your policy (e.g., "Privacy policy," "Refund policy," "Shipping policy," "Terms of service"). Shopify's intelligent search will help you select the correct policy page. Repeat this step for each policy you wish to display separately. Once all policies are added, click Save menu.
3. Add Menu Block to Footer: Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize. In the theme editor, select the Footer section. Click Add block > Menu and choose the "Legal" or "Footer Policies" menu you just created from the dropdown list. You can drag and drop this block to position it where you want your policy links to appear within the footer.
4. Hide the Default Policy Links Block: To avoid redundancy and the pop-up link, locate the existing Policy links block within the Policies and links section of your footer. Click the eye icon next to it to hide it. This ensures only your new, separate links are visible.

Pros of this approach: It's straightforward, requires no direct code editing, and utilizes Shopify's native navigation system. Any future changes to your policy pages will automatically update the links (though you'll need to manually add new policy types to the menu).
The catch: If you add a completely new policy type (e.g., an "Accessibility Policy" not previously linked), you have to remember to add it to this custom menu by hand.

Solution 2: Show Every Policy Inline with a Small Code Edit

For those comfortable with a bit of Liquid and CSS, or if you prefer a solution that automatically displays all policies without manual menu updates, this method is incredibly effective. It directly modifies the theme's structure to loop through all available policies and display them individually. This is particularly useful for future-proofing your footer against new policy additions.

Important Note: Always Duplicate Your Theme First! Before making any code changes, always duplicate your live theme (Themes > ... > Duplicate). Work on the duplicated copy. This creates a safe backup and allows you to test changes without affecting your live store.

1. Access Theme Code: From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes. On your duplicated theme, click Actions > Edit code.
2. Locate and Modify footer-policy-list.liquid: Open the file named blocks/footer-policy-list.liquid.
3. Replace the Popover Code: Keep the first line {% if shop.policies.size > 0 %} and its closing {% endif %}. Replace everything from down to with the following Liquid code. This snippet creates an unordered list (
   ) and iterates through each of your store's policies, generating a list item (
   • ) with a direct link to each policy page.

  {%- for policy in shop.policies -%}
    {%- if policy != blank -%}
      

        {{- policy.title | escape -}}
      
    {%- endif -%}
  {%- endfor -%}

.policy-inline-list {
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  justify-content: center;
  gap: 4px 16px;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  font-size: var(--font-size, 0.75rem);
  text-transform: var(--text-transform, none);

  @media screen and (min-width: 750px) {
    justify-content: flex-start;
  }
}