Do broken links get my store penalised?

There is no penalty as such, but they waste crawl budget, damage the user journey and are a strong signal of an unmaintained site.

Should I delete or archive products?

Archive when the product may return, and always add a redirect when you delete one that had traffic or inbound links.

Links

Shopify broken links: how to find and fix every 404 link

Broken internal links are the most common finding on an established Shopify store, because deleting a product does not delete the links pointing at it. They waste crawl budget, leak link value and send buyers to a dead end.

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Where they come from

Products deleted instead of archived, leaving menu items and blog links behind.
Collection handles renamed without a redirect.
Hard-coded URLs in theme sections, banners and rich-text descriptions.
Links to a supplier or partner site that has since restructured.
Anchor links to sections removed in a theme update.

Finding them properly

A real check crawls the rendered storefront, follows every anchor href, records the final status code after redirects, and separates internal from external targets. Checking the sitemap alone misses the problem entirely, because broken links point at URLs the sitemap no longer contains.

Fixing each type

Situation	Correct fix
Product deleted, replacement exists	Point the link at the replacement and add a 301 redirect from the old URL
Collection renamed	Create a URL redirect from the old handle
Typo in a hard-coded link	Correct the href in the theme or content field
External site restructured	Update or remove the link
Redirect chain	Repoint the first URL directly at the final target

Automating the safe part

StoreFix detects this class of issue during the audit, applies the safe repair through the Shopify Admin API, stores the previous value so you can undo it, and re-runs the audit to confirm the fix landed.

Frequently asked questions

Do broken links get my store penalised?: There is no penalty as such, but they waste crawl budget, damage the user journey and are a strong signal of an unmaintained site.
Should I delete or archive products?: Archive when the product may return, and always add a redirect when you delete one that had traffic or inbound links.

Find these problems in your store. Fix them in one click.

StoreFix scans your Shopify store, repairs everything it can safely change, and runs the audit again to verify the result.