Redirects (301)

A redirect permanently forwards an old URL to a new one. 301 redirects carry rankings and link equity across and are indispensable in store migrations.

If a page's URL changes without a redirect in place, visitors and search engines hit a dead end: 404 errors, lost rankings, broken links from ads and newsletters. A 301 redirect tells Google the content has moved permanently and transfers most of the accumulated SEO authority to the new URL.

In a store migration, redirect mapping is one of the most important SEO tasks: every indexed old URL (products, categories, content pages) needs a target in the new store. Since Shopify has fixed URL structures (/products/, /collections/, /pages/), practically all URLs change when moving from Shopware, Magento or WooCommerce.

In Shopify, redirects are managed under 'URL redirects' and can be imported via CSV. Important: point redirects to the closest matching content, not wholesale to the homepage and monitor crawl errors in Google Search Console after go-live.

Shopify SEO

Related terms

Store Migration
A store migration is the move of an online store to a new platform, from Shopware, Magento or WooCommerce to Shopify, for example, including data, design and integrations.
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E-Commerce SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) covers everything that helps a store get found in unpaid Google results.
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Sitemap
An XML sitemap lists all indexable URLs of a website and helps search engines crawl the store completely and efficiently.
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