What to do with a deleted Shopify product's URL

Sold out, archived, draft or deleted: what each one returns

A product that sits in several collections also had URLs like /collections/bags/products/trail-pack-20l. Those 404 too. That is why one deleted product can show up several times in Search Console's "Not found (404)" list.

The decision tree

Answer these in order for each product you remove:

1. Is it coming back within a few months? Keep it active and sold out. Add a "notify me" form if your theme has one. Done.
2. Is there a direct replacement (new model, new color range, renamed version)? Archive or delete it, then 301 to the replacement.
3. Is there a close collection (same category)? 301 to that collection.
4. Did the page have clicks or outside links? Check Search Console > Performance > Pages, filtered by the product URL, for the last 16 months. If yes and there is no good target, keep a short "no longer available" product page that links to alternatives, or redirect to the parent collection.
5. None of the above? Let it 404. Google says 404s for pages that no longer exist are normal and do not hurt the rest of your site (Google Search Central, HTTP status codes).

Do not send every old product to the home page. Google may treat a redirect to an unrelated page as a soft 404, and shoppers who wanted that product leave.

How to find deleted product URLs

1. In Search Console, go to Indexing > Pages and open Not found (404).
2. Look for /products/ and /collections/.../products/ URLs.
3. For each, check Performance > Pages for clicks in the last 3 to 16 months.
4. Sort by clicks. Redirect the top ones first.

Our indexing problems fix guide explains the other statuses you will see in that report.

Adding the redirect

1. Archive, unpublish or delete the old product first. Shopify only redirects URLs that return a 404 (Shopify Help Center, URL redirects).
2. Go to Content > Menus > View URL redirects > Create URL redirect.
3. In Redirect from, enter the path only: /products/trail-pack-20l.
4. In Redirect to, enter the new path: /products/trail-pack-22l or /collections/daypacks.
5. Save, then open the old URL in a private window to test.

You only need to redirect the /products/ URL. The collection versions point their canonical at it, so Google already treats the clean URL as the main one.

For many products at once, use Import with a CSV. If your redirects do not fire, see Shopify URL redirect not working.

Empty collections and soft 404s

Removing products can leave a collection with no products. The page still loads with a 200 status but shows "No products found". Google often reports that as a Soft 404: a page that says "nothing here" but does not return a 404 status (Google Search Central, soft 404 errors).

Fix it one of three ways:

• Add products back to the collection.
• Merge it into a related collection and redirect the empty one (after you delete it).
• Delete the collection and redirect its URL to the parent collection.

A 10-minute monthly routine

1. Search Console > Indexing > Pages > Not found (404). Note new product URLs.
2. Check clicks for each in Performance.
3. Redirect the ones that had clicks.
4. Check your collections for empty ones.
5. Before you delete products in bulk, export their URLs from the admin so you can map redirects first.

A fictional example: northwind-outdoors.com retires 40 products at the end of a season. The owner exports their handles first, maps 12 to new models, 20 to their collections, and lets 8 with no clicks 404. The 404 list in Search Console then only shows URLs that were meant to go.