How to Auto-Detect 404 Errors and Suggest Redirects on Shopify

Learn how to automatically detect Shopify 404 errors, monitor broken links in real time, and quickly fix them using a dedicated redirect management tool.

5 minutes, 22 seconds

How to Auto-Detect 404 Errors and Suggest Redirects on Shopify image

Every Shopify store, regardless of size, generates 404 "Page Not Found" errors whenever a page is deleted, a URL handle is changed, or a customer mistypes a link. These broken links frustrate customers, damage user experience, and actively harm your SEO rankings. Managing them manually is impossible at scale.

This guide details how to use a dedicated tool to automatically identify these broken links in real-time and provide actionable redirect suggestions, solving the 404 problem once and for all.

Quick Answer

You can and should auto-detect 404 errors and receive redirect suggestions on Shopify using a specialized third-party app. The core method involves installing a tool like SC Easy Redirects, which features a real-time 404 monitoring dashboard. The app automatically logs every broken URL attempt and analyzes it against your existing products and pages to suggest the most logical 301 redirect destination. This ensures zero SEO equity loss from broken links, maintains a flawless customer journey, and saves countless hours of manual link auditing.

What is SC Easy Redirects?

SC Easy Redirects is a Shopify app designed to simplify the complex and often time-consuming task of managing redirects. For 404 monitoring specifically, the app installs a real-time logger on your store that captures every instance a shopper or search engine hits a broken link. It then presents these broken links (the Source URLs) in an organized dashboard and uses intelligent algorithms to find and suggest the best new URL (the Destination) on your store.

Who needs SC Easy Redirects?

The app is essential for any merchant who:

Deletes or Changes Products: Needs to instantly catch 404s created when a popular product is discontinued or a handle is updated.
Aims for Perfect SEO: Requires a proactive system to ensure no link authority is lost due to broken internal or external links.
Has High Traffic: Generates hundreds or thousands of 404 errors daily from mistyped links, old campaigns, or scraped content.
Wants Automated Efficiency: Prefers spending minutes reviewing suggestions rather than hours manually tracking broken links using external tools.

Why 404 Auto-Detection Matters for You

Protect Search Rankings: Every 404 is a signal to search engines that your site is poorly maintained. Auto-detection ensures you quickly turn a "dead end" into an authoritative 301 redirect.
Improve User Experience (UX): Customers are immediately taken to the correct page instead of encountering a frustrating "Page Not Found" error, reducing bounce rate.
Catch External Errors: Reveals broken links coming from off-site sources (social media, partners, ads) that you didn't even know existed.
Boost Conversion: Ensures traffic generated by expensive paid campaigns or organic search is always directed toward a shoppable page.

How to set it up (Step-by-step)

Step 1: Prepare your store

Install the App: Install SC Easy Redirects from the Shopify App Store. The app will immediately integrate and begin monitoring your traffic without requiring any code changes.
Check Basic Settings: Ensure the app's 404 monitoring feature is turned on in the dashboard (it usually is by default).

Step 2: Install and configure the app(s)

Locate the Dashboard: Navigate to the dedicated 404 Monitoring or 404 Errors section within the app interface.
Set Time Frame: Configure the monitoring view to look at errors from the last 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days, focusing on the most recent, relevant data.

Step 3: Create rules and logic

Review Detected Errors: The dashboard will list all broken URLs (Source URLs) encountered by the app, often showing the number of times each error has occurred.
Analyze Suggestions: For each broken Source URL, the app will typically offer 1–3 suggested Destination URLs by searching your current product and page handles for the best match.
Create Redirect:

Option A (App Suggestion): Click the "Apply Redirect" button next to the best suggestion. The app instantly creates a 301 rule.
Option B (Custom): If the suggestion is incorrect, manually input the correct Destination URL and click "Add Redirect."

Step 4: Test the flow

Test Immediately: Once you create a new redirect, copy the original broken link (Source URL) and paste it into your browser.
Verify Landing: Ensure you are instantly and seamlessly landed on the new, correct Destination URL.
Check Status: Use the app’s built-in tools or an external checker to confirm the HTTP status is a 301 Permanent Redirect.

Step 5: Go live and monitor

Clear the Queue: Regularly review the 404 monitoring dashboard to address new errors daily or weekly.
Identify Trends: Look for recurring errors that may indicate a persistent broken link in an old email campaign, a partner site, or a major structural change you missed.
Monitor Performance: Check your SEO tools (like Google Search Console) to see the number of 404 errors reported decreasing as you apply the redirects from the app.

Real-Life Examples

Industry / Business Type	Problem	How They Set It Up	Result
Specialty Coffee Retailer	Discontinued an old coffee blend. Search engines kept hitting the old URL, causing 404s.	The app auto-detected the 404 after the page was deleted and suggested the main "Coffee Blends" collection page.	Traffic that would have bounced was successfully redirected to a high-converting collection page.
Fashion Brand	An Instagram influencer linked to a dress URL with a typo (/blue-dress-sml instead of /blue-dress-sm).	The app logged the typo 404, and the suggestion feature correctly identified the valid /blue-dress-sm handle.	The typo link was fixed in seconds, saving hundreds of potential clicks from a valuable social campaign.
B2B Hardware Supplier	Migrated their blog to a new subdomain, forgetting to handle thousands of old blog post links.	The app instantly detected the huge spike in 404s and allowed the manager to bulk-redirect all /blogs/old-handle/* to the new blog’s main page.	Prevented a major SEO disaster by re-capturing link authority for thousands of old, valuable content pages.

Recommended Setup

For a highly efficient 404 and redirect management workflow, the stack is simple and powerful.

Main app – SC Easy Redirects: The indispensable tool. Use its 404 Monitoring Dashboard as your single source of truth for all broken links on your store. Its suggestion feature transforms a manual audit into a simple point-and-click fix.
Supporting Tool – Google Search Console (GSC): While the app handles real-time detection, GSC provides search engine-specific data on the health of your site's links, helping you prioritize the highest-impact 404s that Google cares about most.

Best Practices

Review Daily/Weekly: The 404 log should be checked regularly (daily for high-traffic stores) to prevent long-term damage from broken links.
Prioritize Traffic Volume: When fixing 404s in the dashboard, focus first on the errors that show the highest number of hits, as these are causing the most pain.
Redirect to Closest Match: If a product is gone, redirect it to the most relevant category page, not the homepage. The goal is relevance to minimize user bounce.
Filter and Group: Use the app's filtering tools to group similar errors (e.g., all old blog links) so you can apply a single rule (e.g., a regex redirect) to fix them all at once.
Never Delete a Redirect: Once a redirect is set, never delete it. You can disable it, but removing it entirely will cause the 404 to return.

Summary

Manually chasing down 404 errors is outdated and ineffective. By using the auto-detect and suggestion features of a tool like SC Easy Redirects, you shift your focus from passive error identification (via slow, external tools) to proactive, instantaneous problem-solving. This not only preserves your valuable SEO equity but also delivers a smooth, professional experience for every shopper, significantly impacting your store's conversion rate.

If you are tired of losing traffic to broken links, you can try SC Easy Redirects and let the app do the heavy lifting of auto-detection for you.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

+ How quickly does the app detect a new 404?

The app typically starts logging a new 404 error within seconds of the first time it is accessed by a user or bot on your store. This real-time logging is one of the biggest advantages over external tools that may update only weekly.

+ What kind of suggestions does the app provide?

The app's suggestion feature looks at the text in the broken URL (the old handle) and searches your store's existing product, page, and collection handles for the closest textual match. For example, if the broken link is /products/blue-shirt-v1, it will likely suggest /products/blue-shirt-v2.

+ If I delete a product, will the app automatically create a redirect?

No. Shopify requires explicit permission for redirects. The app will, however, immediately log the resulting 404 when that deleted product's URL is hit, making it simple for you to review the error and apply the suggested redirect in one click.

+ Does the 404 monitoring slow down my Shopify store?

No. The 404 logging process is a lightweight, asynchronous operation that runs in the background. It is designed to be highly optimized and has negligible impact on your store's page loading speed.

+ Should I redirect a 404 to the homepage?

Only as a last resort. Redirecting all broken links to the homepage creates a poor user experience. Always try to redirect to the most relevant page (a category, a collection, or the updated product page). Use the app's suggestion feature to find a relevant landing page first.