How to use Liquid for generating dynamic content?

If you’ve ever spent hours tweaking templates only to realize you need personalized content that shifts with user actions, or you’ve stared at a static product page that feels outdated for every visitor, you already know why Liquid has become the go-to template language for dynamic content. For the past seven years, my team has been a Liquid template provider, supporting e-commerce brands, SaaS platforms, and marketing agencies to build flexible, scalable content that updates in real time without forcing constant manual edits. I’ve seen firsthand how many teams either overlook Liquid’s simplicity or overcomplicate it with unnecessary workarounds, so today I’m breaking down practical, actionable ways to use Liquid for generating dynamic content—straight from the trenches of supporting hundreds of clients. Liquid

First, let’s get one thing straight: Liquid isn’t just for Shopify. I know that’s the first thing most people think when they hear the name, and yes, it powers millions of Shopify stores, but it’s also open-source, lightweight, and used by tools like Jekyll, WordPress, Salesforce, and HubSpot. Its core design is what makes it perfect for dynamic content: it’s a “logic-less” language, meaning it doesn’t have complex loops or object-oriented functionality built in—instead, it uses tags, objects, and filters to pull and manipulate data. That balance of simplicity and power is why we recommend it for every client from solo founders to 10,000+ employee enterprises.

Let’s start with the basics, because even seasoned Liquid users sometimes skip these fundamentals. Dynamic content with Liquid always revolves around three components: objects (the data you pull), tags (the logic you apply to that data), and filters (the tweaks you make to format or modify the data). For example, if you want to show a user’s first name on a welcome page, you’d pull the {{ customer.first_name }} object. That’s a simple example, but where Liquid shines is when you layer tags and filters to make that content adaptive.

Take personalized product recommendations—this is one of the most common dynamic use cases our clients come to us for. A few years back, a mid-sized outdoor gear brand approached us complaining that their product page recommendations were static; every visitor saw the same three hiking boots, regardless of whether they’d previously viewed a tent, bought a running jacket, or were browsing from a hot-weather market. We set up a Liquid implementation in less than an hour that pulled dynamic recommendations based on three data points: the user’s past browsing history, their location, and the product category they were viewing. The core code looked like this:

{% if customer %}
{% assign viewed_products = customer.last_viewed_products | split: ‘,’ %}
{% else %}
{% assign viewed_products = request.session.viewed_products | split: ‘,’ %}
{% endif %}

{% if location.country == ‘US’ or location.country == ‘CA’ %}
{% assign recommended_category = ‘cold-weather’ %}
{% elsif location.country == ‘AU’ or location.country == ‘IN’ %}
{% assign recommended_category = ‘warm-weather’ %}
{% else %}
{% assign recommended_category = ‘best-sellers’ %}
{% endif %}

{% for product in collections[recommended_category].products limit:3 %}

{% endfor %}

This code pulls the user’s location, checks if they’re a logged-in customer or a guest, then shows tailored recommendations. The client’s click-through rate on product pages went up 28% in the first month, and they only needed to update the core category tags once a season—no more manual edits to individual product pages. That’s the power of Liquid: it turns one template into hundreds of adaptive experiences.

Next, let’s talk about handling conditional content, which is where a lot of new Liquid users stumble. The key here is to keep conditionals simple—don’t nest more than three levels deep, because that leads to broken templates and hard-to-fix errors. For example, a boutique skincare brand we work with wanted to show different product messaging for new vs. returning customers, and also tailor that messaging based on whether they were browsing face care or body care. The wrong way to do this would be a mess of nested {% if %} statements that would break if a customer didn’t have a past order history. The right way is to use {% elsif %} to keep conditionals linear and test for only one variable at a time:

{% if customer.orders_count > 0 %}
{% assign customer_status = ‘returning’ %}
{% else %}
{% assign customer_status = ‘new’ %}
{% endif %}

{% if current_collection.handle == ‘face-care’ %}
{% if customer_status == ‘new’ %}

Welcome! Try our starter face set for 15% off your first order—perfect for gentle, daily care.

{% elsif customer_status == ‘returning’ %}

Love our face lines? Our regular customers get free mini masks with every face care purchase this month.

{% endif %}
{% elsif current_collection.handle == ‘body-care’ %}
{% if customer_status == ‘new’ %}

New to our brand? Our hydrating body lotion is a fan favorite—grab it and get a free sample of our sugar scrub.

{% elsif customer_status == ‘returning’ %}

Thank you for coming back! As a valued customer, get 20% off your next body care order and free shipping.

{% endif %}
{% endif %}

This is clean, easy to update, and if the brand wants to add a third customer status (like “lapsed” for someone who hasn’t ordered in over a year), they can just add a single line without rewriting the whole block. Our team pre-builds these conditional template blocks for clients all the time, and we always emphasize: test every conditional with edge cases. What if a customer has 0 orders (a new guest)? What if a page doesn’t have a collection handle? Adding a {% else %} clause that shows a default message prevents broken content when data is missing.

Another underrated feature of Liquid for dynamic content is its ability to handle user-generated content (UGC) and moderation. A food and beverage brand we support runs a monthly recipe contest where customers submit their own recipes, and they want to feature top submissions on their homepage, updated daily. Using Liquid, we built a system that pulls approved recipes from their CMS, filters out any that don’t meet the moderation guidelines, and shows only those from the last 30 days. The code for this leverages filters to sort and limit the content:

{% assign approved_recipes = site.recipes | where: ‘status’, ‘approved’ | where_exp: ‘recipe’, ‘recipe.date > ‘2024-01-01” | sort: ‘likes_count’ | reverse %}

{% for recipe in approved_recipes limit:5 %}

{% endfor %}

The brand’s moderation team only has to update a “status” field for each recipe in their CMS—no new template code needed, no manual updates to the homepage. That’s the biggest win with Liquid: it connects your content to your existing data systems, so dynamic content updates automatically without extra work. We’ve seen clients cut their content update time by 60% just by moving static content blocks to Liquid-based dynamic templates.

Now, let’s talk about common mistakes we see clients make that lead to poor performance or broken content. First, overusing loops. It’s tempting to write a loop that pulls 200 product items to show as many recommendations as possible, but that slows down page load times—Liquid can handle it, but rendering 200 items per page is unnecessary and hurts conversion rates. We recommend limiting loops to 3-5 items for recommendations, and never nesting more than two loops deep. Second, not escaping user input. If you’re pulling user-generated content into Liquid, always use the escape filter to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. For example, if you display a customer’s review, use {{ review.content | escape }} instead of just {{ review.content }}—this stops malicious code from being displayed on your page. Third, hardcoding values. If you’re writing a tag that says {% assign discount = '10' %}, you’ll have to update the template every time the discount changes. Instead, pull dynamic values from your CMS or database, like {% assign discount = current_collection.discount_percentage %}—this way, you only update the value in one place, and it applies everywhere it’s used.

If you’re new to Liquid, start small. Don’t rewrite your entire template in one week. Pick one area that’s tedious to update manually—like seasonal banner text, product recommendations, or blog post carousels—and turn that into a dynamic Liquid block. For example, instead of updating your homepage’s holiday banner every year, use a Liquid tag that pulls the current season from your CMS:

{% assign current_season = ‘holiday’ %}
{% if current_season == ‘spring’ %}
{% assign banner_text = ‘Spring into Savings: 20% Off All Garden Tools’ %}
{% elsif current_season == ‘holiday’ %}
{% assign banner_text = ‘Holiday Gift Sale: Free Shipping on All Orders Over $50’ %}
{% elsif current_season == ‘summer’ %}
{% assign banner_text = ‘Summer Refresh: 15% Off Outdoor Furniture’ %}
{% endif %}

{{ banner_text }}

This is a tiny change, but it saves you hours of manual work every season. Once you’re comfortable with that, add a conditional for location, then for customer status, and so on.

I’ve been working with Liquid for almost a decade now, and the biggest misconception I hear is that it’s only for developers. That’s not true—our templates are designed so that marketing teams can update text and rules without touching code, while developers handle the core structure. For example, a marketing manager can log into their brand’s CMS and update the discount percentage for a collection, or adjust the rules for recommended products, and the dynamic content updates automatically. That’s the magic of Liquid: it bridges the gap between technical and non-technical teams, so everyone can contribute to better, more adaptive content.

Health Gummies If you’re struggling with static content that feels stale, or if you’re tired of spending hours updating template blocks, our team has supported hundreds of businesses to implement Liquid-based dynamic content that drives conversions and reduces workload. Whether you need help building your first dynamic template, troubleshooting existing Liquid code, or scaling your system to support thousands of content items, we can tailor a solution to fit your needs. Reach out to our team to learn how Liquid can turn your static pages into personalized, adaptive experiences that work for every visitor.

References

1. Shopify Liquid Documentation. Liquid Template Language: Core Concepts. Retrieved from Shopify Developer Resources
2. Open-Source Liquid Project. Liquid: A Safe, Customer-Facing Template Language. GitHub Repository Documentation
3. HubSpot Developer Guides. Using Liquid for Dynamic Content in Marketing Templates. HubSpot Knowledge Base
4. Jekyll Static Site Generator. Liquid Integration for Blog and Content Sites. Jekyll Official Documentation

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