Broken links quietly bleed both SEO rankings and sales, a customer hits a dead product page after clicking a Google result and just leaves. I run E-Commerce Paradise, where I cover high-ticket dropshipping, and here’s exactly how to find and fix broken links on your Shopify store.
Find Every Broken Link With a Real Site Audit
SEOWILL’s free tier audits up to 20 pages, scaling to unlimited pages on Premium, flagging broken links automatically.
Why Broken Links Happen on Shopify Stores
The most common causes are deleting a product without setting up a redirect, changing a URL handle after the page has already been indexed and linked to, discontinuing a collection, or switching themes and losing custom navigation links in the process. Products that go out of stock and get deleted rather than hidden are a particularly common source, especially for high-ticket niche stores that regularly rotate seasonal or discontinued SKUs.
Step 1: Run a Full Site Audit
Start with a tool that crawls your entire store and flags every broken internal and external link in one pass, rather than manually clicking through pages. SEOWILL’s audit feature does this automatically as part of both its free and paid tiers, scanning up to 20 pages free or up to 1,000+ pages on paid tiers, and surfacing a clear list of broken URLs rather than requiring you to hunt for them one by one.
Cross-reference the audit results against Google Search Console’s Coverage report, which shows pages Google has actually attempted to crawl and hit an error on, giving you a second data source beyond just what the app found.
Step 2: Categorize What You Find
Not every broken link needs the same fix. Sort what your audit surfaces into three buckets: pages that should redirect to a live replacement (a discontinued product that has a direct successor), pages that should redirect to a relevant category page (a discontinued product with no direct replacement), and genuinely dead links that should just be removed from navigation or content entirely.
Fix Broken Links Alongside Meta Tags and Structured Data
SEOWILL’s Pro tier bundles bulk meta tag editing and JSON-LD with its audit and broken link detection.
Step 3: Set Up 301 Redirects Correctly
Shopify’s built-in URL redirect tool (Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects) handles this natively without needing a separate app for basic redirect creation. Always use a 301 (permanent) redirect rather than a 302 (temporary), since 301s pass link equity to the new destination page, which matters directly for preserving whatever ranking value the old page had built up.
Avoid redirecting everything to your homepage as a blanket fix. Google’s own guidance treats mass homepage redirects as a weak signal since it doesn’t actually answer what the visitor was originally looking for, according to Google’s Search Central documentation on page experience. Redirect to the most specific relevant page available instead.
Step 4: Fix Internal Links Pointing to the Old URL
A redirect fixes what happens when someone clicks the old link, but it’s still worth manually updating internal links (navigation menus, related product blocks, blog post mentions) to point directly at the new URL rather than relying on the redirect chain. Redirect chains, a link that redirects to another redirect, can slow page load and occasionally break depending on how many hops are involved.
Step 5: Check External Backlinks Pointing to Broken Pages
If other sites link to a page on your store that no longer exists, a redirect on your end still preserves that link equity, but it’s worth identifying which external sites are linking to discontinued pages so you understand where valuable backlinks are pointing. Tools with backlink visibility, including SEOWILL’s backlink exchange dashboard, can help surface this alongside your regular link-building activity.
How Often to Re-Audit
Run a full broken link audit monthly for an actively changing catalog, or quarterly at minimum for a more stable product lineup. Stores that regularly discontinue products, common in high-ticket dropshipping where supplier catalogs shift, should audit more frequently since broken links accumulate faster than on a static catalog.
Coordinate this cadence with how you manage supplier relationships, since supplier-driven product discontinuations are one of the most common triggers for new broken links appearing on your store.
Why This Matters for Rankings, Not Just User Experience
Beyond the immediate lost sale from a frustrated visitor, broken links waste crawl budget, the finite number of pages search engines will crawl on your site in a given period, on dead ends instead of your actual content. For larger catalogs, this can meaningfully slow how quickly new or updated pages get indexed. A well-maintained link structure keeps search engine crawlers focused on pages that actually matter.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Don’t delete products outright when you mean to discontinue them, unpublish or archive instead if your workflow allows it, since deletion typically breaks the URL entirely rather than just hiding the product. Don’t set up redirect chains more than one hop deep. And don’t forget to update your XML sitemap after major redirect cleanup, since a stale sitemap listing old URLs can confuse crawlers even after redirects are in place.
Using Search Console to Verify Your Fixes Worked
After setting up redirects, don’t assume the job is done. Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool lets you check whether a specific URL now resolves correctly and request re-indexing once you’ve confirmed the fix. Search Console’s own documentation recommends monitoring the Coverage report for a few weeks after a large batch of redirect changes to confirm the error count is actually declining, according to Google Search Console’s help documentation on the Coverage report.
This verification step matters because a redirect that’s misconfigured (pointing to another broken page, or creating an infinite loop) can be worse than doing nothing, since it wastes crawl budget on a page that still never resolves successfully.
The Business Cost of Ignoring Broken Links
Beyond SEO, every broken link a paying customer hits is a completed marketing spend (the ad click, the email open, the organic search click) that produced zero return. For high-ticket stores where individual orders carry meaningful value, even a small percentage of visitors hitting dead links across a catalog adds up to real lost revenue over a year. The Small Business Administration’s guidance on managing an online business notes that maintaining site reliability and trust signals directly supports customer retention and repeat purchase behavior, according to SBA guidance on managing and marketing a small business.
FAQ
How do I find broken links on my Shopify store?
Run a full site audit through a tool like SEOWILL, and cross-reference the results against Google Search Console’s Coverage report for a second data source.
Should I use 301 or 302 redirects?
Use 301 (permanent) redirects for discontinued pages you don’t plan to bring back, since they pass link equity to the new destination.
Do I need a separate app for redirects on Shopify?
No, Shopify’s built-in URL Redirect tool under Online Store > Navigation handles basic redirect creation natively.
How often should I check for broken links?
Monthly for an actively changing catalog, quarterly at minimum for a more stable product lineup.
Does redirecting everything to my homepage fix the problem?
No, mass homepage redirects are a weak signal to search engines and don’t answer what the visitor was originally looking for. Redirect to the most specific relevant page instead.
Bottom Line
Broken links are one of the easiest technical SEO problems to fix once you know where they are, the hard part is finding them consistently as your catalog changes. A recurring audit cadence, whether manual or through a tool like SEOWILL, catches these before they accumulate into a real ranking and revenue problem.
Getting the technical basics right matters just as much as the bigger strategic decisions. If you haven’t yet locked in your niche or handled business formation, those pieces deserve the same attention as your site’s technical health.
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Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
