Every time you change a URL on your Shopify store without setting up a redirect, you create a 404 error. Customers following old links hit a dead end. Google loses the connection between the old URL and the page it used to serve. Any SEO authority that page had accumulated effectively evaporates.

For a small store with steady traffic and occasional product updates, this might seem manageable. For a merchant with hundreds of products, a store migration, or a collection restructure in progress, the unmanaged 404 problem compounds quickly. A Google Search Console investigation commonly reveals stores with dozens or hundreds of 404 errors that have been quietly accumulating for months, each one representing lost traffic and degraded crawl efficiency.

301 redirects are the solution. A 301 tells search engines and browsers: "This page has permanently moved. Go here instead." The ranking authority of the old URL transfers to the new one. Customers following old links arrive at the right place. Google understands the change and updates its index accordingly.

When Do You Actually Need a 301 Redirect?

Not every URL change requires a redirect, but most do. The situations that always require redirects:

Product renamed or slug changed. If a product's URL handle is changed (for example, from /products/blue-running-shoes to /products/men-blue-running-shoes-v2), the old URL becomes a 404 immediately. Set up a redirect before or at the same time as the change.

Collection restructured. If you merge two collections into one, rename a collection, or delete a collection and redistribute its products, set up redirects from the old collection URLs to the most relevant replacement.

Site migration. Moving from a different platform to Shopify, moving between Shopify plans with domain changes, or moving from HTTP to HTTPS all require systematic redirect mapping.

Blog post URL changed. If a blog post's slug is edited after publication, the old URL needs a redirect. Blog posts accumulate backlinks over time. Losing those because of a URL edit is a straightforward own goal.

Domain change. If you move from an old domain to a new one, a redirect from every page of the old domain to the corresponding page on the new domain is essential. A blanket redirect of the old homepage to the new homepage loses all page-level authority.

Situations that do not require a redirect: adding a new page (there is no old URL to redirect from), fixing a typo in product content (the URL does not change), updating pricing or inventory.

How to Create Redirects in Shopify Admin

Shopify has a native URL redirect manager built into the admin panel.

Navigate to: Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects.

Click "Create URL redirect". Enter the old URL in "Redirect from" and the new URL in "Redirect to".

A few important rules:

The "Redirect from" field should be the path only, not the full domain. Use /products/old-slug, not https://yourstore.com/products/old-slug.
The "Redirect to" field can be a full URL (for redirecting to an external site) or a path.
Shopify validates that the destination URL exists. If you are redirecting to a page that has not yet been created, you may need to create the destination first.
Shopify does not allow you to set up a redirect for a URL that currently has an active page. If you want to redirect /products/blue-running-shoes, you need to either delete or change the product's URL handle first.

After creating a redirect, test it immediately: visit the old URL in a browser and confirm you are taken to the correct destination with no error.

Bulk Redirect Import via CSV

For migrations, collection restructures, or any situation involving more than 10 to 20 redirects, manual entry is impractical. Shopify supports bulk import via CSV.

The CSV format is simple:

Redirect from,Redirect to
/products/old-product-1,/products/new-product-1
/products/old-product-2,/products/new-product-2
/collections/old-collection,/collections/new-collection

To import: Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects > Import. Upload the CSV file. Shopify processes the file and creates all redirects in bulk. For large imports (thousands of URLs), the process may take several minutes.

Before a bulk import:

Verify your CSV has no duplicate "Redirect from" entries. Shopify will reject duplicate source URLs.
Check for redirect chains in your CSV (where old-URL-A redirects to old-URL-B, which also has a redirect). Resolve these in the CSV before import.
Test a sample of 10 to 20 redirects manually after import to confirm they are working.

For platform migrations, tools like Screaming Frog can crawl your old site, export all URLs, and help you map them to their new destinations before import.

Checking for Broken Links

Broken links (404s) caused by unset redirects fall into two categories: pages on your store that link to deleted or changed pages, and external sites linking to your old URLs.

Finding internal broken links:

Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs, £259/year for unlimited) crawls your entire store and reports all 404 responses. It shows you the broken URL and the page that contains the link to it, making it straightforward to either fix the internal link or set up a redirect.

Dead Link Checker (free at www.deadlinkchecker.com) is a lighter-weight option for smaller stores. It crawls your site and flags broken links without requiring a desktop app download.

Google Search Console (free) reports 404 errors in the Pages report. This shows you URLs that are returning 404 responses, prioritised by how often they are encountered by Googlebot and users. This is the most actionable source because it shows real traffic impact.

Finding external broken links:

External sites linking to your old URLs are harder to control but important to address. Google Search Console's Links report shows which external sites link to your pages. If an external site links to a URL that now returns 404, setting up a redirect restores the value of that link.

Ahrefs and Semrush both crawl your backlink profile and flag links pointing to 404 pages. Either tool will show you the broken destination URL and the source site, so you can prioritise setting up redirects for pages that have valuable backlinks.

Redirect Chains: What They Are and How to Fix Them

A redirect chain occurs when URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C. Instead of going directly from A to C, the browser and search engine have to follow two redirects.

This is a problem because:

Each additional hop in a chain introduces latency. Page load time increases.
Google passes less ranking authority through chains than through a direct redirect. The exact amount of authority preserved is debated, but a shorter chain is always better.
Chains can become loops if not carefully managed, causing infinite redirects that result in an error.

Shopify's redirect manager does not automatically resolve chains. If you set up A redirects to B, then later set up B redirects to C, you have created a chain.

To audit for redirect chains: Use Screaming Frog. In the Reports menu, select "Redirect Chains". It will list all URLs in your crawl that involve more than one hop.

To fix a redirect chain: Edit the original redirect (A redirects to B) to point directly to the final destination (A redirects to C). Remove the intermediate redirect if it is no longer needed for any other reason.

A well-managed redirect file should contain no chains. Every redirect should go directly from old URL to final destination.

Monitoring 404 Errors in Search Console

Google Search Console is your ongoing early warning system for redirect problems.

Navigate to: Pages (or Coverage) > Not Found (404). This report shows all URLs returning 404 responses that Google has encountered, sorted by detection date and affected status.

Review this report monthly at minimum. Look for:

New 404s appearing after a product update or theme change: these need immediate redirects
High-traffic 404s: URLs that are generating significant impressions despite returning 404 (meaning there is demand, but you are not capturing it)
Clusters of similar 404 URLs: if multiple 404s share a URL pattern, a systematic collection or product restructure may have broken links without redirects being set

Set up a Google Search Console email alert for critical coverage issues. This sends an email when Search Console detects a significant new indexation issue, including spikes in 404 errors.

Best Practices for Keeping Redirect Count Manageable

Redirects add overhead to every page request that goes through them. On Shopify, redirects are handled efficiently, but a store with thousands of accumulated redirects from years of unmanaged URL changes is not ideal.

Practical principles:

Set up redirects before changing URLs, not after. The moment a URL changes without a redirect, traffic and authority are lost. Do not wait until the 404 appears in Search Console.

Purge obsolete redirects annually. If a redirect points from an old URL to a page that no longer exists (a second broken link in the chain), it serves no purpose. Review your redirect list annually and remove entries where the destination page has been deleted.

Keep your URL structure stable. The best redirect is the one you never need to create. Establish a stable URL naming convention for products and collections and stick to it. Avoid changing product URL handles after products have been live and indexed for more than a few weeks.

Do not redirect everything to the homepage. A common lazy approach during migrations is to redirect all old URLs to the homepage. Google recognises this as a soft 404 and does not treat it as a genuine redirect. Redirect old product URLs to the closest relevant product or collection, not the homepage.

Key Actions to Take Now

Open Google Search Console's Pages report and filter for 404 errors. Address any 404s that have been present for more than 30 days by either creating a redirect or updating internal links.
Run Screaming Frog over your store (free up to 500 URLs). Export the 404 report and identify whether broken links are caused by missing redirects or incorrect internal links.
Check for redirect chains in Screaming Frog's Reports menu. Resolve any chains by pointing source URLs directly to their final destinations.
Before your next product rename or collection restructure, set up the redirect in Shopify admin first, then make the URL change.
If you are planning a migration or major URL restructure, build a redirect CSV mapping old URLs to new URLs before making any live changes.
Set up a monthly calendar reminder to check Search Console's 404 report and act on new entries within the same week.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should I keep old redirects in place? Permanently, or at least for several years. Backlinks from external sites can persist for years. If someone bookmarked an old product URL, or a blog post from three years ago links to your old product page, that redirect continues to serve a purpose. The only redirects worth removing are those where the destination no longer exists (which becomes a chain or a dead link anyway).

Does Shopify charge for the number of redirects I create? No. There is no limit on the number of URL redirects in Shopify admin. Large merchants routinely manage thousands of redirects without issues.

Will creating a redirect recover rankings I have already lost from a 404? Partially. If a page has been returning 404 for a short time (days to a few weeks), creating a redirect to a highly relevant destination should recover most of its ranking position within Google's next crawl cycle. If the page has been 404ing for months, Google may have de-indexed it, and recovery will be slower and less complete. Speed of response matters.

Should I redirect to the exact equivalent page or just the nearest collection? Always redirect to the most specific equivalent available. A deleted product should redirect to the nearest alternative product, not the collection. A deleted collection should redirect to the parent category or the most relevant remaining collection. Redirecting to a more specific destination preserves more of the original page's intent and provides a better user experience.

Shopify 301 Redirects: How to Manage URL Changes Without Losing Rankings