Broken links and 404 pages: how to find and fix them

You click a product in an email and land on "Page not found". At that moment, most customers don't go looking for another way through your site — they go to a competitor. Broken links appear quietly: you delete a sold-out product, rename a category, switch themes. The site grows, and the dead ends multiply without you ever knowing.

Why it matters

• Lost orders. Links from emails, ads, and shopping channels that lead to a 404 are paid traffic thrown out the window.
• Worse SEO. Google trusts pages with lots of broken links less, and deleted pages with history lose their accumulated "strength" if they don't redirect anywhere.
• Trust. A site full of errors feels abandoned — and for an e-shop, trust is everything.

How to find broken links

1. An automatic scan. Clicking around by hand doesn't stand a chance — an e-shop has hundreds of links. The free EshopMedic mini check-up tests your internal links and shows you exactly which page the broken link sits on and where it leads.
2. Google Search Console. In the indexing report (Pages → Not found 404) you can see which non-existent addresses Google keeps visiting — typically old products that other websites still link to.
3. Your own 404 statistics. Some platforms can show how many times the error page was displayed. A growing number = something frequently visited broke somewhere.

How to fix them the right way

1. A link to a page that exists → fix the link. A typo in the address, an old domain, http instead of https — just correct it in your admin.
2. A deleted page with a replacement → a 301 redirect. Redirect a sold-out product to its successor or its category, a discontinued category to the next level up. A 301 also passes along the accumulated SEO strength.
3. A deleted page with no replacement → leave the 404, but make it a nice one. A custom 404 page with a search box and links to your top categories saves some of the visitors. Don't redirect everything to the homepage — Google treats that as a "soft 404" and it confuses customers.
4. Outbound links. Other websites die. Every once in a while, check your links to suppliers, blogs, and how-to guides too — and delete or replace the dead ones.

How to prevent them

Dead ends can't be eliminated in one sweep — day-to-day operations keep creating them. What helps is discipline (every deletion = an immediate redirect) and regular checks: the Ongoing care plans test your links automatically and email you the moment something breaks. You fix the problem before your customers ever find it.

Frequently asked questions