Should I find a way to archive high authority product pages for an e-commerce site?

[pugh]

One of the sites that I work on has a high turnover of products as it sells cutting-edge technology products that quickly become outdated. For each product it is important to build a strong link profile as the competition is very high. I am therefore reluctant to remove pages once products have been discontinued (typically after 6-12 months). However, I do not want discontinued products to appear alongside the latest products as this will hinder the customer experience.

Is it worth me finding a way to archive the old products, so as to maintain the links that have been built up?

[pugh]

Thanks David, appreciate your advice.

[watkinsheating]

I would definately keep the url active. It is well worth your time.

I guess you could 301 it to your home page, but I would consider keeping the page up and changing the design. You could give the message that you specialize in cutting edge and product X is now obselete. Check out our other cool products: and give internal links to a dozen useful products. This will spread the link juice around to pages that need a boost rather than dumping it all on the homepage.

Don't forget to change up each retired page with different internal links so you don't get dinged for duplicate content.

That's my two cents. Wish you the best.