When to 404 vs Redirect During a Website Migration
Not every URL deserves to live forever.
During a migration, one of the most common questions is:
Should this page redirect, or should it return a 404?
Many teams default to redirecting everything to the homepage.
That is usually wrong.
Here is how to make the decision properly.
The Default Rule
If a page previously:
- Generated revenue
- Had backlinks
- Ranked in search
- Drove traffic
It should almost always be redirected.
If a page was:
- Obsolete
- Low value
- Thin
- No longer relevant
A 404 may be completely appropriate.
The key is intentionality.
Real Example: AmeriCommerce to Shopify
During the migration of texasbeardcompany.com from AmeriCommerce to Shopify, we documented 339 legacy URLs.
Most were redirected.
But not all.
We intentionally allowed certain URLs to return 404, including:
/texas-beard-co-affiliate-program/beard-care-subscription.html/the-soft-goat.html
These pages were either discontinued or strategically irrelevant.
Redirecting them would have added noise.
The important thing was verifying that nothing valuable disappeared accidentally.
That validation step is covered in the
Shopify migration SEO checklist.
When You Should Redirect
Redirect when the page:
1. Has a Direct Replacement
Example:
/store/p/33-Beard-Trimming-Scissors.html
→ redirect to the new Shopify product URL
Users and search engines expect continuity.
2. Has Strong Backlinks
Even if the product is discontinued, redirecting to:
- The parent collection
- A similar product
- A category overview
Preserves authority.
3. Consolidates Similar Content
If you merged:
- Multiple blog posts
- Duplicate category pages
- Overlapping product variations
Redirect the old URLs to the strongest canonical page.
When a 404 Is Better
404s are not bad.
They are honest.
You should allow a 404 when:
1. The Page Was Low-Quality or Irrelevant
If the content is outdated and has no value, letting it disappear is cleaner than forcing a redirect.
2. There Is No Logical Replacement
Redirecting everything to the homepage creates confusion.
For example:
Redirecting /beard-care-subscription.html to / does not help the user.
If there is no meaningful match, 404 is better.
3. The Page Was Never Important
If the URL:
- Had no traffic
- Had no backlinks
- Had no business value
Do not overcomplicate the migration.
Let it go.
The Worst Option: Homepage Dumping
One of the most common migration mistakes is redirecting everything to the homepage.
Search engines see that as a soft failure.
Users see it as broken.
If /natural-beard-balms/clove-citrus-beard-balm suddenly lands on /, that is not helpful.
Every redirect should make logical sense.
How to Decide at Scale
When migrating hundreds of URLs, you cannot rely on memory.
You need:
- A full inventory of legacy URLs
- Traffic data (if available)
- Backlink insight
- A structured comparison of old vs new
If you are not sure how to compare domains properly, read
How to compare your old and new website before launch.
At scale, you want to see:
- Which URLs now return 404
- Which URLs redirect
- Where they land
- Whether the destination is correct
This prevents accidental SEO loss.
If you are migrating to Shopify, scan both domains side-by-side to surface exactly this data across your full URL inventory.
What We Did in Practice
For the texasbeardcompany.com migration:
- 339 URLs inventoried
- 648 redirects created
- Select URLs intentionally left as 404
- All redirects verified before DNS cutover
No homepage dumping.
No redirect chains.
No traffic dip.
The difference was not luck.
It was validation.
Final Framework
During your migration, ask this for every URL:
- Did it matter?
- Does it have a logical replacement?
- Would a user expect continuity?
If yes → 301 redirect.
If no → 404.
What you should not do is guess.
Structured migration validation ensures that the pages you meant to keep are preserved, and the ones you meant to retire are truly gone.
That is how you migrate cleanly.
For a full validation workflow, start with the
Shopify migration SEO checklist.