How to Batch Redirect 404 Pages in Shopify? | Global Selling SEO Guide (5)
What is 404? Simply put, your page is gone for some reason (like you manually deleted it), but Google will permanently record it in search engines.
What is 404?
Simply put, your page is gone for some reason (like you manually deleted it), but as long as Google crawled it, it will permanently record your page and its URL in search engines. Since you deleted the content, when users enter this page, a 404 appears.
Do 404 Pages Negatively Affect SEO?
Google's official blog in 2011 had relevant explanations. See screenshot, and hope everyone can browse and learn:
https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2011/05/do-404s-hurt-my-site
My simple summary: Routine deletions causing 404s don't have serious negative effects, but please ensure your overall site user experience. Don't have internal links pointing to 404s, and especially don't easily change URLs that already have good rankings.
Other advanced scenarios like server issues, domain migration, etc. are not discussed here.
What Situations Cause 404 Pages on Shopify Independent Sites?
For example, you launched product A yesterday with URL www.abc.com/product/a, but for some reason you don't want to sell it anymore, so you deleted product A. Then www.abc.com/product/a becomes a 404 page.
Other similar situations: deleting sales channels, blogs, or any pages will cause 404s.
How to Solve 404s?
Principle: Use redirect to solve, meaning you give this 404 link a new "home." When you click the 404 link, it automatically jumps to the URL you need to redirect to.
For example, when www.abc.com/product/a redirects to www.abc.com/, users clicking the former won't see a 404 but will directly jump to the latter homepage.
How to Operate in Shopify:
1. Online Store - Navigation - URL Redirects
2. Import File Redirect (Batch) or Set Individual Redirects
3.1 Set Individual Redirect:
Fill in and save according to instructions. For example, if you want to redirect https://lvsao.myshopify.com/products/socks to homepage https://lvsao.myshopify.com, fill in as shown.
3.2 Batch Redirect:
Download Shopify redirect template, fill according to needs, and upload. (Some people take shortcuts, redirecting all 1000 404 pages to homepage.)
Any Tips to Quickly Find and Fix 404s in Bulk?
How to Find Your 404s?
In Google Search Console's Pages report, you can see your current 404 pages. Click in to see all your 404 pages. Then click export to any file format you know. The second sheet will show all URLs. Then use the batch redirect template above and import according to your needs.
