GLOSSARY · R
Redirect map
The spreadsheet of old URL → new URL pairs used in a migration.
WHY IT MATTERS
Why it matters for a Shopify store.
A redirect map is the list of every old URL and the new URL it should point to. In a migration it is the difference between keeping your rankings and starting again.
It covers products, collections, pages, blog posts and anything with backlinks or traffic — not just the URLs that happen to be in the menu.
HOW CREATIVE LABS HANDLES IT
What we do about it on every project.
01
Collect every old URL
Sitemaps, crawls, analytics and backlink data are combined so nothing is missed.
02
Match to the closest page
Each URL maps to its true equivalent; only genuinely removed items go to a parent collection.
03
Import and verify
Redirects are imported to Shopify and every old URL is checked for a single 301 hop.
EXAMPLE
A typical example.
A Magento store with category paths like /men/shoes/running.html moves to Shopify.
The map pairs each old category and product URL with its Shopify collection or product, the CSV is imported, and a crawl confirms every old URL returns one clean redirect.
COMMON MISTAKES
What usually goes wrong.
Only mapping the menu
Old campaign pages and blog posts often carry the most links.
Mapping to the homepage
Search engines treat it as a lost page.
Building it after launch
By then old URLs are already returning 404s.
REDIRECT MAP
2 questions
How do I build a redirect map?
List every old URL from crawls, sitemaps and analytics, match each to its new URL, then import the pairs into Shopify as a CSV.
Does Shopify have a limit on redirects?
Shopify supports large numbers of URL redirects; very large maps are imported in batches.
Related terms
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