How to Fix 'Page with Redirect' & 'Soft 404' Errors in Google Search Console for Shopify
How to Fix 'Page with Redirect' & 'Soft 404' Errors in Google Search Console for Shopify
Opening Google Search Console (GSC) and discovering hundreds of URLs listed under "Page with redirect" or "Soft 404" in your Page Indexing report can be alarming for any Shopify store owner.
Understanding what these reports mean and how to address them is essential for maintaining a healthy crawl budget and strong search rankings.
1. Understanding "Page with Redirect" in GSC
A "Page with redirect" status is not necessarily an error. It simply means Google crawled a URL that issued an HTTP 301 or 302 redirect to another destination.
When it's normal:
- You migrated an old product
/products/old-itemand properly redirected it to/products/new-item. Google acknowledges the redirect and indexes the new destination instead.
When you need to take action:
- Redirect Chains: URL A → URL B → URL C. Fix this by updating your rules so URL A points directly to URL C.
- Sitemap Containing Redirected URLs: Ensure your
sitemap.xmlonly lists 200 OK canonical destination URLs, never intermediate redirect sources.
2. How to Fix "Soft 404" Warnings
A Soft 404 occurs when a page returns an HTTP 200 (Success) or 301 redirect status, but Google's algorithm detects that the page is actually empty, discontinued, or redirected to an irrelevant page (such as redirecting a deleted camera product to your homepage).
How to resolve Soft 404s:
1. Redirect to Closest Category: Always redirect deleted products to their specific parent collection (e.g.,/collections/cameras) rather than the root homepage.
2. Use AI Auto-Healing: Let GP Easy Redirects automatically map discontinued products to active equivalent SKUs to ensure search intent is satisfied.