The big guide to redirects

Redirects ensure that old URLs automatically send visitors to the correct page. This is important for avoiding broken links and maintaining your ranking in search results.

When should you set up redirects?

• You delete a product or take it offline while the URL is still receiving traffic from Google or links from other sites
• You change the URL (the "Address" field) of a product, a category, or a page
• You ’re migrating to Shoporama from another e-commerce platform with different URL structures
• You restructure your online store (e.g., merge categories)

Automatic redirects upon deletion and taking products offline

When you delete products or take them offline, Shoporama automatically suggests creating redirects. You’ll be taken to a page where you can choose which category, landing page, or product the old URLs should point to.

If the product has a main category, Shoporama automatically suggests it as the destination, so you often just need to click “Save Redirects.”

You can also use the “Set All To” feature to send all deleted products to the same destination with a single click.

Manual creation of redirects

1. Go to Webshop → Redirects in the admin menu
2. Click Create New
3. Enter the old URL (from path) and the new URL (to address)
4. Click Save

The "From" field must be the relative path without the domain, e.g., /old-url. The "To" field is the new address. It can be the full address including the domain, e.g., https://dinshop.dk/ny-url, or just the path /new-url if the page is located within your own store. The field is pre-filled with your shop’s address, so you only need to type the rest after it. If visitors need to be redirected to a different domain, you must use the full address.

If many old addresses have the same structure, a single redirect using a pattern can handle them all. Check the “Regular Expression” box and use $1 in the “To” field for the part of the old address that appears in parentheses in the “From” field. For example, “ From ^/shop/(.*)$” and “To /$1” will redirect /shop/sweater to /sweater. ^ means the URL starts here, (.*) is the rest of the URL, and $ means the URL ends there. This only works when the new URL is exactly the same as the old one. See more examples in How to Create Redirects on Shoporama.

Important Rules

• Redirects are 301 (permanent). This tells Google that the new URL has taken over
• Avoid chains: a redirect from A → B → C should be simplified to A → C
• Avoid loops: A → B → A results in an infinite redirect
• Shoporama automatically creates a 301 redirect from the old address when you change the URL (the “Address” field) for a product, category, page, landing page, or blog post. It appears in your list under Webshop → Redirects, where you can edit or delete it just like any other

Create redirects using AI

An AI assistant is ideal for bulk redirects, such as when you’re migrating to Shoporama from another e-commerce platform and need to create many redirects at once. You can describe the pattern or paste a list, and the AI will create all the redirects for you.

The AI can also help find and clean up chains, duplicates, or redirects pointing to pages that no longer exist.

Examples of prompts you can copy:

Here are 50 old URLs from my previous store. Create a 301 redirect for each one to the corresponding page in my new Shoporama store: [insert list].

Create redirects from all URLs starting with /shop/product/ to /products/ with the same slug afterward.

Find all redirects that point to pages returning a 404 error today, and suggest a new destination or delete them.

Read more about how you can manage your store with an AI assistant in the blog post “Now You Can Manage Your Entire Online Store via Chat.”

CSV Import of Redirects

If you have many redirects (e.g., when migrating from another system), you can import them via CSV under Web Store → Redirects → Import. The format is:

/old-url-1;/new-url-1
/old-url-2;/new-url-2

The file must use a semicolon as a separator and the UTF-8 character set. You can add two more columns with 0 or 1 for Regular Expression and Include Arguments. A header row such as from;to;regex;incl_args is skipped, and URLs that already have a redirect are also skipped.

Check Your Redirects

Under Webshop → Redirects, you can view all your active redirects. Use the search field to find a specific redirect, and click the number in the "Used" column to see where the traffic to the old URL is coming from.

See where traffic to your old addresses is coming from

Every time a redirect is used, Shoporama counts it. The number appears in the “Used” column on the redirect overview, and you can sort the list by it by clicking the column header. If the number is greater than zero, it’s also a link. Click on it, and you’ll be taken to the “Redirect Statistics” page for that specific redirect.

At the top of the page, you’ll see the old address and the new address it points to. Below that is a list with two columns:

• "Time " shows when the redirect was used
• "Referrer " shows the page the visitor clicked on to get there. Click the link to open the source in a new tab

What you can use the list for

• Confirm that a new redirect is working. If the count starts increasing, the redirect is being used by real visitors
• Find the pages that still link to you. If the source is a blog, a price comparison site, or a partner, you can contact them and ask them to update the link so the customer avoids an extra step
• Discover your own broken links. If the source is your own newsletter, an ad, or a page in your online store, the link should be fixed at the source rather than continuing to exist via a redirect
• Prioritize the cleanup. Leave redirects with a high volume of traffic as they are. You can decide what to do with the rest if the list becomes unmanageable

How to Interpret the Numbers

"Uses" is an indicator, not an exact visit count. To prevent a single bot from counting thousands of visits, Shoporama records a maximum of one use per redirect per five minutes. If the same redirect is hit ten times in a minute, it counts as one. The actual number of visits is therefore at least as high as what you see.

There are usually also fewer entries in the referrer list than the number shown in “Used.” This is because only one entry is saved when the visit has a known source. If someone types the address directly, clicks from a bookmark, or comes from a program that doesn’t provide a source, the visit is counted in “Used” but leaves no entry.

If you want all the numbers at once, you can click “Export” on the redirect overview to get the entire list as a CSV file.

When “Used” stays at zero

This doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an error—it might simply be that no one has visited the old address yet. But check the four classic causes:

1. The address still exists. If the “From” address points to a product, a category, a page, or a landing page that’s still online, Shoporama displays the content, and the redirect never takes effect. This is also noted below the “From” field when you create the redirect
2. The “From” address is misspelled. “From” must be the relative path without the domain, e.g., /old-url. The domain belongs only in the “To” field
3. You just created it. A redirect doesn’t count for the first five minutes after creation. If you test it yourself right away, the count will remain at 0
4. There’s actually no traffic. Look up the address in your analytics or in Google Search Console. If no one knows the old address, the redirect won’t do any harm either

The 404 log: how to find the redirects you’re missing

The Referrer list shows you what happens when a redirect is in place. The 404 log shows the opposite: the URLs people are trying to visit where there’s no page or redirect to take them to. This is where you’ll find the missing redirects.

You can find the log via the 404 Errors card on the admin dashboard. The card isn’t on the dashboard by default: click “Customize Dashboard,” then “Add Module,” and select “404 Errors ” under “Store Status.” The card displays the number of errors, and “View 404 Errors ” opens the list with the heading “You may need to create redirects for the following addresses.” It has five columns:

• "Count " shows how many times the address has been affected. Identical addresses are grouped on a single line, with the most frequently affected ones listed at the top
• The "Page Not Found" message is the address that failed. Click on it to see what the visitor saw
• "Visitor came from " shows one of the sources where the broken link is located
• "Create Redirect " opens the form with the "From" field pre-filled
• "Remove " deletes the address from the list, and the "Remove All " button at the bottom clears the entire log

The shortcut is the most important feature on the page: if you click “Create Redirect,” you only need to fill in the “To” field and click “Save.” The redirect takes effect immediately, the URL is automatically removed from the 404 log, and you’re sent back to the list, ready for the next one. Manually deleting a line, on the other hand, doesn’t fix anything. It just cleans up the list.

What’s Not Included in the Log

• Only 404 errors are recorded when the visitor came from a link on another website. Direct visits and clicks from your own pages aren’t included. This is intentional, because it’s the external links that cost you both traffic and SEO value
• Classic hacking attempts and bot scans are filtered out, such as URLs containing “wp-login,” “wp-admin, ” “.env,” or “.php.” The list is therefore far more useful than a raw server log
• The list shows the 100 most affected addresses
• If an address has been redirected, it won’t appear on the list again. Visitors are redirected, and the visit is counted in the “Used” column instead. If you set up the redirect somewhere other than in the 404 log, the old entry may remain; in that case, remove it using “Remove.”

If you’d like to learn more about what each error means and when you can safely ignore them, see “What Do 404 Errors Mean in the Backend?”

The most costly 404 errors are paid clicks

If Shoporama detects 404 errors from clicks with a Google Ads click ID, a warning appears on the admin dashboard: “AdWords: It appears you’re driving AdWords traffic to pages that don’t exist.” Click “Get more info here,” and the 404 log will be filtered down to show only those specific URLs. In the filtered view, you’ll see each individual entry separately instead of a total count.

Check them first. You’ve paid for every single click, and they’re landing on a page that doesn’t exist. Either fix the landing page in your ad or set up a redirect immediately so you don’t waste money while the ad continues to run.

Workflow from 404 errors to working redirects

1. Open the 404 log from the “404 Errors” card on the admin dashboard (see above if the card isn’t there), and start at the top. The list is sorted with the most affected URLs first
2. Find the best replacement for each URL: the new version of the product, the category the item was in, or a relevant landing page
3. Click “Create Redirect,” enter the new address in the “To” field (it’s pre-filled with your store’s address, so you only need to fill in the rest), and click “Save”
4. Continue until the list is empty, or until there are only addresses left that you intentionally want to return a 404 error for
5. Check out Webshop → Redirects a few days later and sort by “Used.” If the new redirects are counted, they’re in use
6. Click the number to view the sources. If the old link is on another website, ask the owner to update it. If it’s in your own newsletter, your theme, or an ad, correct it at the source
7. Establish a regular routine: once a week for the first month after a migration, and then once a month

If you’ve just moved your store to Shoporama, the 404 log is your best quality control tool in the weeks that follow. See also Redirects When Moving a Store.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I find the 404 errors and redirect statistics?

You can find the 404 errors via the “404 Errors” card on the admin dashboard. The card isn’t displayed on the dashboard by default, so add it using “Customize” and “Add Module.” You’ll find the redirect overview with the “Used” column in the menu under Web Store → Redirects.

Do I need to create a redirect for every single URL on the 404 list?

No. Start with the ones that have the highest number in “Count,” and those where the source is a page you want to keep traffic from. If an address has no natural replacement, it’s better to let it return a 404 than to redirect everything to the homepage, since both the customer and Google will perceive it as a dead end. Use “Remove” on the lines you’ve decided on, so the list becomes a working tool instead of a growing pile.

Why does “Used” show 0, even though I can see traffic to the old URL?

The most common reason is that the address still exists as an actual page in the store. In that case, Shoporama displays the page, and the redirect never takes effect. Next, check that the “From” field contains the relative path without the domain. Also, keep in mind that the same redirect is counted only once every five minutes, so many quick clicks in rapid succession count as a single event.

Why are there fewer lines in the referrer list than the number shown in “Used”?

Because only one line is saved when the visit has a known source. Visits where the address is typed in directly, retrieved from a bookmark, or sent from a program that doesn’t provide a source are included in “Used,” but don’t generate a line. The list is therefore a selection of the sources that send people to the old address, not a complete list of all visits.

Can I see if my ads are sending customers to pages that don’t exist?

Yes. If Shoporama detects 404 errors from clicks with a Google Ads click ID, an AdWords warning appears on the admin dashboard with a link to a filtered list. These are your most costly errors, since the click was paid for. Correct the ad’s landing page or set up a redirect so that traffic lands in the right place.

Can I export the usage statistics for all redirects at once?

Yes. Click “Export” on the redirect overview. The CSV file includes, among other things, the source URL, destination URL, and number of hits for each redirect, so you can sort and prioritize them in a spreadsheet. The export applies to one online store at a time, so run it for each store if you have multiple ones.

We constantly have products that are being discontinued. Do I need to keep an eye on the 404 log for all of them?

No. When you delete products or take them offline, Shoporama already offers to create redirects for them, so most are covered in advance. The 404 log catches the rest—that is, the old URLs that still receive external traffic, such as from a price comparison site or an old blog post. If a new version of the product is available, redirect the old URL to it. Otherwise, the category is the best choice, as this will take the customer to a page with relevant alternatives.

Can I delete old redirects that are never used?

You can, but you don’t have to. Links on other websites can remain active for many years, and an unused redirect costs you nothing. If you need to use the old address again for a new page, feel free to create the page—a real page always takes precedence over a redirect with the same address.

Need help? Contact us at support@shoporama.dk.