Do you have products that are no longer in stock or discontinued, and you want to remove their product page without affecting your SEO?
Here is a short document to guide you step by step according to different case scenarios. 😊
If the product is permanently unavailable:
Detailed explanations:
301 redirect
A 301 redirect is used to replace an old page. It’s particularly suitable for a product that is discontinued. This will indicate to the search engine to replace the old page on its index and transfer the juice on to the new one.
If no substitute product exists in the catalog, redirect the discontinued product page to the closest category page.
If you’ve got a similar product in the same category, redirect the discontinued product’s URL in 301 to the related or similar product page. Be careful: it can’t be disappointing for the Internet user, the related product’s choice must be relevant!
If you can’t keep the old URL (very precise URL no longer suitable for the replacement product), you can also create a new form and make a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
410 or 404 error
We’d rather have a 410 error than a 404 one. Indeed, the 410 indicates to Google that the page is permanently deleted, so it will quickly de-index it.
If the product is temporarily unavailable:
Detailed explanations:
1. 302 redirect
With a 302 redirect, you can temporarily guide users towards a new URL. It tells Googlebot that the product page’s URL is temporarily redirected to another page.
If a product is out of stock, you can temporarily redirect customers to a very comparable product until the product is back in stock.
2. Personalized message
If the product is unavailable for only a few days, you must keep it active in your catalog. The URL remains accessible, with a 200 response code, so you don’t lose either the positions or the link juice.
The page must clearly indicate that the product is out of stock. Why not display a replenishment deadline, put an expired status for example, or put “book” instead of “order”?
Here is a good example from Zalando:
Learn more on the same topic:
Have you found your answer?