Draft Products / Don't Show in "Live" Store, But Reachable through URL

Store Design
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Topic summary

A user is migrating their store to Shopify and wants discontinued products to remain accessible via their Google-indexed URLs while being hidden from site search and collection pages.

Current Issue:

  • Products set to “Draft” status are not searchable and don’t appear in collections
  • Uncertainty about whether draft product URLs remain accessible once the store goes live

Key Finding:
Draft products return a 404 error when accessed directly by visitors. Preview links only work when logged into Shopify admin. Google will eventually deindex these 404 URLs.

Recommended Solution:

  1. Keep products as Active instead of Draft
  2. Remove from all collections and avoid searchable tags
  3. Add a ‘noindex’ meta tag using Liquid code for products tagged as ‘discontinued’
  4. Optionally display a discontinuation notice on the product page

This approach maintains URL accessibility for direct/Google traffic while preventing products from appearing in site navigation or search results.

Summarized with AI on October 30. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hello,

When items we sell are discontinued, we want the product page, which is indexed by Google to still be accessible through the url of that product page but we do not want that product to be searchable/findable on the website itself, and we don’t want the product to show up on any collection pages.

So right now we have these discontinued products set to “Draft”. As a draft item the items are not searchable on our website, and they do not show up on product pages. But are the urls of these draft products , urls which are indexed by Google, still reachable ? Or will Shopify redirect anyone who tries to go to the url of a draft product to some other page ?

Our site is still in testing phase, being migrated from another platform to Shopify, and it’s not ‘live’ which is why we can’t answer this ourselves right now.

From our admin, we can certainly preview the product page of the “draft” items so it appears the urls will be reachable, I just don’t know once we make the website live if those “draft” product urls will automatically redirect somewhere else.

Thanks

Stephen

2

@stevronsmds When a product is set to Draft in Shopify, it is not published to the storefront. While you can preview draft products from the admin, those preview links are temporary and only accessible when logged into your Shopify admin.

Once your store goes live:

  • Draft products will return a 404 (Page Not Found) error for any visitors trying to access the URL directly.

  • Shopify will not automatically redirect visitors to another page.

  • Google will eventually deindex these URLs since they will return a 404.

Solution for Discontinued Products

If you want to keep the product URLs accessible for users coming from Google or direct links, but not show them in search results or collections:

  1. Set Products to Active: Keep the product status as Active instead of Draft.

  2. Remove From Collections and Search:

    • Unlink the product from all collections.

    • Ensure the product is not tagged or categorized in any searchable way.

  3. Use a ‘Noindex’ Tag: Add a meta tag in the theme’s product template for discontinued products:

    liquid

{% if product.tags contains 'discontinued' %}
  
{% endif %}

This prevents search engines from further indexing it but keeps the URL accessible.

  • Add a Notice: Optionally, display a “This product has been discontinued” message using Liquid.

This approach will maintain the URL for historical access and SEO purposes while ensuring the product doesn’t appear on the website’s search or collections. Let me know if you’d like additional help implementing this!