Shopify URL redirects: how and when to use them

A redirect tells browsers and search engines that a URL has moved. On Shopify they live under Online Store → Navigation → URL Redirects, and they're the difference between a relaunch that keeps its rankings and one that doesn't.

When you need one

Any time a URL that existed stops existing:

• You change a product, collection, page or article handle.
• You delete a product or collection that had traffic or links.
• You restructure collections, which changes their URLs — a real risk when store structure is revisited.
• You migrate from another platform. This is the big one.
• You merge two collections into one.
• You retire a seasonal collection.

That last one catches apparel and seasonal stores repeatedly: a catalogue cleared twice a year leaves hundreds of 404s behind, each one a page that had accumulated links and rankings.

Creating them

One at a time: enter the old path (/products/old-handle) and the new one (/products/new-handle). Shopify issues a 301.

In bulk: import a CSV with Redirect from and Redirect to columns. This is how you handle a migration, where the count runs to thousands.

Paths are relative to your domain. You can redirect to an external URL if you need to.

What Shopify does automatically

Two helpful behaviours worth knowing:

• Changing a handle in the admin offers to create the redirect for you. Accept it. It's a checkbox people untick without reading.
• Deleting a product does not create a redirect. That one is on you.

Don't rely on the automatic case for anything important. Verify it happened.

Redirect chains

The most common mistake after skipping redirects entirely. Old URL → interim URL → final URL bleeds ranking signal and slows crawling.

Point every old URL directly at its final destination. When you change a handle a second time, update the original redirect rather than adding a second one on top of the first.

Audit for chains after any large change: crawl your redirect list and confirm each one lands on a live page in a single hop.

What redirects can't fix

• Thin or missing content. A redirect to a page that doesn't serve the same need loses the ranking anyway.
• Redirecting everything to the homepage. A common shortcut after a migration, and search engines increasingly treat it as a soft 404. Map to the closest equivalent page, or let it 404 honestly.
• A page that should stay. Sometimes the answer is to keep the page rather than redirect it.

Testing them

After any launch or restructure:

1. Crawl the old URL list with a crawler and check the status codes.
2. Every one should return a single 301 to a live 200 page.
3. Look specifically for chains, loops and redirects to 404s.
4. Watch Search Console for crawl errors daily for a fortnight.

If a specific page's traffic collapses after a relaunch, it's nearly always a missing or broken redirect — findable and fixable in minutes.

Migrations need a mapping exercise

For a platform move, redirects aren't a launch-day task. Exporting every indexed URL, mapping each to its Shopify equivalent, and loading the file is a workstream with its own owner — see redirect mapping for the process and migrating without losing SEO for the wider job.

Housekeeping

Redirects accumulate. Once a year, export the list and check that each target still exists — a redirect pointing at a page you later deleted sends visitors and crawlers to a 404 through an extra hop, which is worse than either alternative.

A redirect costs thirty seconds and protects everything a URL earned. Skipping one is the cheapest mistake to make and one of the more expensive ones to discover.