Every webshop needs changes from time to time, big or small. A product may get a new name, categories may be reorganised, certain products may be dropped from the range, or the entire webshop may be migrated to another platform. There's nothing wrong with that in itself — but it's easy to forget about the old URLs, even though visitors can still arrive at those addresses from Google's results months later, and the old links can also live on across other websites and in customers' bookmarks. If they suddenly stop working, your search traffic can suffer for it.
This is where the 301 redirect comes in. It ensures that a visitor arriving at the old URL is automatically taken to the new, appropriate page, without having to do anything. It also signals to Google that the content has permanently moved to a new address, so a significant part of the SEO value earned by the previous page can be preserved. In a larger webshop, a great deal can ride on this, since hundreds or even thousands of URLs may be affected by a restructuring. If they're not handled, organic traffic can take a serious hit.
Setting up the redirect itself is usually not complicated — what requires more careful thought is where each old URL should lead. For a discontinued product page, for example, the home page isn't necessarily the best target, and with a reorganised category structure it's not enough to simply redirect every old URL somewhere. With a full webshop migration, there are even more things that can go wrong. Let's look at how to handle these situations, which mistakes to avoid, and what to pay attention to when using the Sellvio webshop platform.
What exactly is a 301 redirect?
With a 301 redirect, you tell browsers and search engines that a web page has permanently moved to another address. Technically it's an HTTP status code, which causes a visitor opening the old URL to land automatically on the new address. They don't have to go looking for the content, and they won't run into an error message — provided the redirect works properly.
Let's take a simple example. In a webshop selling shoes, a product page used to be available at webaruhaz.hu/noi-futocipo-2025, but after restructuring the range, the related content now lives at webaruhaz.hu/noi-futocipok. If you set up a 301 redirect between the two addresses, anyone clicking the old links will also land on the new page. Meanwhile Google is informed of the permanent address change, which helps it handle and index the new URL correctly.
Not every redirect works the same way, though. The 301 status code means a permanent move, while 302 means a temporary one. There's a third option as well, the 308 code, which also signals a permanent move but preserves the original HTTP request method too. For the typical URL changes that occur in webshops, the 301 redirect is usually the right choice.
Why is the 301 redirect so important for SEO?
A webshop's organic traffic isn't built overnight. It often takes years of work for a product page or category to earn good positions in Google's results. Over time, links from other websites may point to it as well, further strengthening its search presence. If such a page disappears and you don't take care of a proper redirect, former visitors can easily end up on a 404 error page. And with that, you don't just lose customers — you also put your hard-won search positions at risk.
The 301 redirect helps you avoid exactly this. It allows Google to associate the ranking signals attached to the old page with the new web address. According to the search engine's official documentation, a permanent redirect on its own doesn't cause PageRank loss. There's no guarantee, however, that the new URL will achieve exactly the same positions as the previous one. Where you send visitors matters a lot too. If you discontinue a running shoe category, for example, redirecting the old URL to a general clothing page is not a good idea. Google also examines the relevance of the new content, so it can be far more favourable if the former category genuinely has a suitable successor page. In short, the 301 redirect aims to preserve the SEO value you've already earned — but keeping your previous rankings also depends on choosing the right target page.
When do you need a 301 redirect in a webshop?
A webshop's product range changes over time, categories get restructured, and occasionally URLs have to be modified too. These changes can easily affect pages that have already earned good positions in Google, or that other sites link to. This is where the 301 redirect comes into play, guiding visitors — and robots — from the old address to the appropriate new page. Let's look at the cases where it's worth using.
When product names and URLs change
Product page URLs are often built from the product's name. If you later change the name, you may want to modify the URL as well. In that case, a 301 redirect must lead visitors from the old address to the new page — otherwise the previous links can easily become unreachable.
From an SEO standpoint, though, rewriting the URL after every name change isn't necessarily a good idea. Just because a few new keywords make it into the product's name doesn't mean it will rank better — and modifying an already well-performing URL carries unnecessary risk. It's often simpler and safer to keep the old address and only update the product's displayed name.
For discontinued products
Not every disappearing product should be treated the same way. One solution is appropriate when something is only temporarily out of stock, and quite another when it has been permanently discontinued.
For products that are temporarily unavailable, it's generally worth keeping the page. The customer can still find the item they're looking for, see its properties, and check how the stock situation is expected to develop.
If, however, a product has been permanently withdrawn, look at whether there's a genuinely suitable alternative. For an older robot vacuum's page, for instance, redirecting to the successor model's page may well be justified. But there's no particularly good reason to send that same visitor to the entire household appliances category.
When there's no suitable replacement page, a 404 — or a 410 HTTP response code signalling permanent removal — can also be the correct solution. The goal isn't to make 404 errors disappear at all costs, but to handle discontinued product pages in a way that fits their situation.
When restructuring categories
As a webshop's range grows, sooner or later the category structure has to change too. You might merge two previous categories, split a larger product group into several parts, or reorganise the navigation entirely. If old category pages disappear as a result, the previous URLs should, where possible, be redirected to the new pages that match their content.
Be especially careful with categories that have already built up significant traffic from Google. Before discontinuing or renaming them, check which searches bring them traffic. It also matters whether visitors will genuinely find on the new target page what they were originally looking for. A poorly chosen redirect can easily cost you part of the organic traffic you've worked to earn.
When changing webshop platform or domain
Migrating an entire webshop is a far more complex task. In the new system, product and category URLs are often structured differently, so a significant portion of the previously used URLs can change. If, for example, a store with several thousand products moves to the Sellvio platform, it's not enough to simply bring over the product data, images and categories. The mapping between old and new URLs has to be sorted out as well.
Without it, Google's results may still show the old addresses while visitors can no longer find the products they're looking for there. This is especially dangerous for pages that previously enjoyed stable rankings and significant organic traffic — in that case, there's something to lose.
Domain changes deserve similar attention, as do the switch from HTTP to HTTPS and the consolidation of addresses with and without the www prefix. For these changes, proper redirects don't just help visitors find their way — they also play an important role in preserving the search visibility you've already earned.
It matters where you redirect the old URL
A common mistake is to simply redirect the old URL of a discontinued product or category to the webshop's home page. At first glance it may seem like a good idea — at least the visitor doesn't end up on an error page. From a search engine optimisation standpoint, though, it's not a fortunate solution. If Google sees that the new page's content isn't properly related to what was available at the old URL, it may even treat the redirect as a soft 404 error. It's far better to try to find the most appropriate new address for every page you retire. For a phased-out product, the successor model can be a good choice; for two merged categories, the new combined category page; and for a blog article with a changed URL, the article itself at its new address. The point is that whoever clicks the old link should find on the new page what they were looking for — or at least a very similar, genuinely usable alternative.
Of course, not every disappearing page has a suitable replacement. In that case, don't force a redirect just to avoid showing a 404 error. A well-designed error page — offering a search box or links to the major categories, for example — can be far more useful to the visitor than a redirect pointing to completely different content. From an SEO perspective, the goal isn't that every old URL must keep working at all costs, but that retired pages are handled logically, in a way that also makes sense to visitors.
301 redirects in the Sellvio webshop platform
Optimising a webshop for search engines takes more than setting up the right metadata and search-friendly URLs; over time there will inevitably be discontinued product pages, changed category addresses and old links that no longer work. These are worth checking regularly too, especially if your webshop's range changes often.
Sellvio offers dedicated SEO settings for products, articles and other content, and in its custom URL management feature you can also create 301 redirects. According to the system's documentation, multiple custom web addresses can be assigned to a single piece of content. This can be useful, for example, when a product or category has received a new URL several times over the years and you want the older links to keep leading to the right page. In multilingual webshops, the SEO settings of each language version can be managed separately as well.
For uncovering broken web addresses, the SEO → 404 Log menu can help. Here you can see the URLs visitors tried to open where no content exists at that address any more. The log may also include the time of access, the referring page and the browser identifier. From this you might discover, for instance, that an old ad still points to a discontinued product, or that some external website carries a category link you changed long ago.
Sellvio also lets you choose whether non-existent pages return a 404 response or lead to the home page via a 301 or 302 redirect. These latter settings should be used with caution, though. From an SEO standpoint it's generally better to choose the appropriate target address for each retired page individually, rather than automatically sending every broken URL to the home page. In a webshop migration or a major category restructuring, well-configured redirects can matter enormously, since they can preserve a significant share of the search traffic you've already earned.
How should you plan a larger redirect project?
It's no exaggeration to say that redirecting a few product pages is relatively easy to handle — but with thousands of URLs, more serious preparation is needed. Especially when changing webshop platforms, when the entire product and category structure may change. In that case, start by collecting the old web addresses. Product and category exports, the XML sitemap, and data from Google Search Console and your web analytics system are all useful for this.
The next step is building a so-called redirect map, pairing every old URL with the appropriate new address. It's not enough, however, to simply match pages by product ID — you also have to verify that they genuinely offer the same or similar content. This is especially important for pages that previously earned a lot of organic visitors, revenue or valuable external links. Redirecting those incorrectly can cause serious traffic loss.
After going live, be sure to test the configuration. The old URLs must forward with a 301 status code, and the target pages must work properly and be indexable, typically with a 200 HTTP response. Also make sure the redirect leads directly to the final web address whenever possible, not through several intermediate pages — long redirect chains needlessly slow down loading and can make Google's crawling harder too.
The most common mistakes that can hurt your search performance
We can say with confidence that badly configured redirects harm both search traffic and the customer experience. A common problem is the redirect chain, where an old URL reaches the final page through several intermediate addresses. This mainly happens when a product's web address has been changed multiple times. The unnecessary steps can slow down loading, so it's better if every old address leads directly to the current page.
Even more unpleasant is the redirect loop, where two or more URLs point at each other, so the visitor never reaches the content they're after. Also make sure your webshop's internal links don't lead to the old addresses. A 301 redirect is no substitute for updating internal links, so it's worth fixing outdated URLs in menus, product recommendations and blog articles as well.
Don't leave the XML sitemap and the canonical URLs out of the review either. The sitemap should ideally contain only the current pages intended for indexing, and canonical references shouldn't point back to retired addresses.
How long does it take Google to detect the redirect?
A 301 redirect can work immediately, but the change won't necessarily show up in Google's results right away. The search engine first has to recrawl the old web address, recognise the redirect, and then process the new page. How long that takes depends, among other things, on the webshop's size and how frequently it's crawled. Changing a handful of URLs can go relatively quickly, but migrating a webshop with tens of thousands of products can take weeks on Google's side. In the meantime, search rankings and traffic may fluctuate, which in itself doesn't indicate a problem. That's why it's worth checking the Search Console data regularly.
Google recommends keeping redirects in place for at least a year after a site move. If valuable external links still point to the old addresses, it's advisable to keep them longer — even permanently.
How can you verify that the redirects are correct?
The simplest way to check is to open the old web address and see whether you really land on the right new page. On its own, though, this doesn't prove the technical setup is correct, since the browser doesn't directly show the redirect's HTTP status code. To examine that, you can use browser developer tools, HTTP header checkers or SEO crawling software. For larger webshops, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, for example, makes it easy to uncover redirect chains and faulty target pages — though the free version is limited in the number of URLs it can crawl, so if you suspect a problem, it's worth calling in expert help.
Google Search Console also provides useful information about the status of redirected URLs; addresses containing a redirect appear in the page indexing report, while the URL inspection tool lets you check the indexing status of individual pages. It's important to know that the “Page with redirect” label is not a problem in itself — with a properly working 301 redirect, this is in fact the natural state.
Sellvio's 404 log provides further help in spotting retired or broken web addresses that don't yet have an appropriate redirect. It's also worth supplementing the review with an analysis of your organic traffic data, especially after moving important product and category pages. That way you can track whether the previous search impressions and clicks are gradually transferring to the new URLs, and whether any traffic drop appears that warrants further investigation.
The 301 redirect also protects your webshop's long-term value
A 301 redirect may look like a simple technical setting, but in reality it plays an important role in a webshop's long-term search performance. We all know that the positions earned in Google's results, the external links and the organic traffic built up over years represent serious business value — one that a careless URL change or a poorly prepared webshop migration can easily put at risk.
It should also be stressed that redirects must be applied thoughtfully: not every retired page needs a new target address, and a product name change doesn't necessarily justify changing the URL either. The decision should primarily weigh whether suitable replacement content exists, and how much search optimisation value the previous URL represents.
Sellvio's custom URL management options, 301 redirects and 404 error tracking provide the right technical foundation for this — especially when a business is migrating a webshop that already has significant organic traffic to a new platform. In a successful webshop migration, alongside the fresh look and modern features, it matters at least as much that the organic traffic you've earned and your returning customers can find the content in its new home.