Todo steps when you switch products offline.
-
Dear SEOMoz community,
By means of this message I hope someone can clear this up for me.
Let's say you have a web shop and sometimes you have to put a product offline, because they are not in production anymore.
Could anyone tell me they activities that you have to undertook when you switch products to offline? Think about the redirection of URL, etc.
Preferably a specific answer will be most appreciated :).
Thanks in advance,
Martin
-
The process we use with several clients follows this flow
is the product out of stock temporarily?
-Yes, leave page up but remove from category pagesis product out of stock permenantly?
-Yes, redirect to category page and remove category page links (if not done automatically). -
That should do it. Nothing else really to consider as long as the page no longer has internal links going to it.
On a side note, ensure that the redirect is relevant. For example, if you were a visitor to a website and thought you were looking for a torch, you wouldn't be happy if you were redirected to a bird cage. This would usually just result in them leaving your site and would probably have an adverse effect on your site's performance as drop rates would increase.
If something really cannot be redirected to another similar page then redirecting to the homepage is your best bet.
-
Thanks for your quick responce, I appreciate.
Is that everything what I should do? Or are there other aspects I have to consider?
We are redirecting them like u said.
Best regards,
Martin
-
I'm assuming by taking them offline you mean discontinuing the product permanently? If so, it is important that you 301 redirect (always 301 redirect unless the product is coming back at some point) the page to the nearest closest product or if there is nothing similar that you sell, redirecting it back to the closest category page.
Hope this helps a little?
Matt
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Could a dropdown list of products dilute the page content?
Hi all, On our site, due to the fact we only have some 120 or so products split across 5 different categories we have a dropdown menu that displays all of the products in the menu. Forgetting usability for a moment, my question is whether by having links to all of products appear on each and every page (because they are in the main menu), are we diluting the content on the page. For example, if I take a particular product - the main phrase I want that page to be discovered for is "perspex sheet". This phrase does appear in the H1, H2 and within the main description of the product - but, as mentioned, each of our pages has some 120+ internal links due to the menu which contain all sorts of product names that arent relevant to "perspex sheet". The Moz report does flag a Medium issue on every page due to the number of internal links. I don't know whether I'm making a fuss about nothing, or whether this does have some serious side effects. It's an eCommerce site so of course im nervous of making changes that could have an adverse affect on our rankings. I thought there used to be a tool on Moz that showed what phrases a page was optimised for but i can no longer find that tool. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards,
Technical SEO | | SimplyPlastic
Al0 -
Why has google stopped showing one domain and switching to showing another that points to the same website?
My client has a website here: http://www.savannahchiropractic.com/ The site ranked really well for searches for the term "savannah chiroprtactor". Sometime last week (April 21 mobilegeddon?) the site slipped in rankings, but reappeared under the domain name: "www.whitemarshchiropractic.com" Both URLs go to the exact same site. and I don't even think that the whitemarshchripractic.com site is a redirect. I'm not sure how it's setup, but it's definitely not a duplicate site. The ranking is still lower than the savannahchiropractic.com site, but now appears. Anyone have any insights on this?
Technical SEO | | aj6130 -
Switching host
Hi guys, some questions about host switching. Actually my blog is hosted on siteground growbig Plan. I was thinking about upgrading to gogeek Plan (their PRO shared hosting). Do you think that better technologies and server speed response can improve My ranking? Another question: if I switch server they will change ip. Does it affect My SEO negatively? And after the switch and ip changing Is too much if I re-change ip buying a dedicated ip? Will I risk to hurt My Raking? Sorry For my foreign english 🙂 Thanks so much!
Technical SEO | | Italianseolover0 -
Does bait and switch redirecting affect SEO?
Yeah, the question might be an odd one, but I'm new to SEO. Currently we've been considering creating links to certain pages on our site that instantly redirect to a landing page like this (referring to it as bait and switch redirecting): http://www.ecornell.com/certificate-programs/human-resources-management-training/advanced-certificate-in-strategic-hr-management/crt/ILRASHRC1/?lp=http://info.ecornell.com/executive-certificate-in-hr-leadership%3Fls=xxx%26of=xxx This essentially causes the user to "hop" from the content page directly to the landing page. Now, the content page is indexed otherwise, so I'm wondering if time on page (which is basically 0) or anything else might affect page rank. Also, if this is something we shouldn't do, that'd be great to know too. It feels sort of dirty, but I can't find any resources telling me it's bad, or how it would affect pagerank. I've read about pagejacking, but this doesn't seem to fall into the same category. Thanks! Alan
Technical SEO | | amccarty0 -
Repetition of Product Names considered Spamming?
We have long lists of products are displayed on individual web pages ... with the only variations being in product dimensions and prices. Could the Search Engines consider these lengthy lists of products for sale to be attempted spamming efforts? (Example: http://www.just-insulation.com/overview_of_celotex_product_buy_cheapest.html) Thank you.
Technical SEO | | Collie0 -
Does google like Category pages or pages with lots of Products on them?
We are having an issue with getting Google to rank the page we want. To have this page http://www.jakewilson.com/c/52/-/346/Cruiser-Motorcycle-Tires rank for the key word Cruiser Motorcycle Tires; however, this page http://www.jakewilson.com/t/52/-/343/752/Cruiser-Motorcycle-Tires is ranking instead and it has less links and page authority according to site explorer and it is farther down in the hierarchy. I am wondering if google just likes pages that have actual products on them instead of a page leading to the page with all the products. Thoughts?
Technical SEO | | DoRM0 -
Impact issues when switching from .com to uk
Buon Giorno from wetherby UK 5 degrees C and rivers bursting their banks everywhere 😞 This site http://www.sandtoft.com/ has requested a switch in url forwardfing in that they want the following to happen: When u enter the .com url it forwards to the .co.uk domain (the opposite from what it is today ie when you eneter .co.uk it switches to the .com url) So my question is please... "Will changing the .com url to .co.uk via forwarding affect SERPS in any significant manner" My view is the impact will be a minor dip in the serps followed by a recovery. Any insights welcome 🙂
Technical SEO | | Nightwing0 -
Switching to HTTPS
I'm trying to get my server PCI Compliant and they want me to switch the forums at http://www.usacarry.com/forums/ over to https because of the logins. Could this possibly affect my existing rankings?
Technical SEO | | USACarry0