Finding brand-page links that looked correct but sent shoppers to 404 pages

What was happening

A production brand page contained natural-language links to physical store information and online shopping. The text and styling were correct, but the underlying paths no longer matched the site's current routes, so clicking the links produced 404 pages.

Why the obvious solution was not enough

The page was custom editorial HTML rather than a generated product grid, so the platform could not automatically guarantee that manually entered href values remained valid when routes changed. Fixing the two visible links was necessary, but the reusable solution was to add route verification to the brand-page QA process.

How the solution works

1. Reproduce every editorial CTA as a customer would instead of assuming an internal-looking URL is valid.
2. Identify the canonical destination for store locations and the brand's online product route before changing the markup.
3. Replace stale hard-coded paths with the current site routes and use platform-generated URLs or configurable link fields where the theme structure allows it.
4. Review the rest of the page for sibling links created from the same copied template because one stale route often indicates the reference page contains more assumptions.
5. Add link verification to the launch checklist alongside responsive layout, images, metadata, and content review.
6. After publishing, test links from the production domain so redirects, locale handling, and collection availability are included in the check.

{%- assign stores_url = section.settings.stores_url -%}
{%- assign brand_url = section.settings.brand_collection.url -%}

<a href="{{ stores_url }}">Visit a store</a>
<a href="{{ brand_url }}">Shop the collection</a>

What should be verified before shipping

• Click every text CTA, image link, and button on the published brand page.
• Confirm the destination returns a normal page rather than relying on a redirect from an obsolete path.
• Test mobile navigation into the same destinations because menu and editorial links can use different route sources.
• Verify external links deliberately open in the intended context and internal links stay on the store domain.
• Repeat the link check whenever a copied brand template is used for a new page.

What changed

The immediate 404s were removed and route validation became part of the repeatable publishing checklist for future brand pages.

Reusable lesson

A content page is part of the conversion path even when it does not contain an add-to-cart button. Link integrity is functional QA, not editorial polish.