Should Your Keep Out Of Stock Item Active On Your Site ?
-
If you have sold out products that will never come back in stock. Should you remove the items and urls from your sitemap and site. Or should you keep them active with a sold out image. The purpose would be for search engines will think your site is larger due the products and amount of urls you have ?
-
Also, critical to remember a person who bought the product in the past may want to view their history for some reason (see descriptions and such).
-
Before you keep these types of pages you should determine if they have any links or any traffic. If they are pulling traffic that you would not otherwise receive then you can use the page to tell the history of the item (such as an antique or other one-of-a-kind piece).
If it is a standard product such as a pair of running shoes that has been replaced by a different model you can make the page informative and explain that the item was replaced by a new model and the impovements that were made.
Both of the above showcase your helpfulness and knowledge.
However, if this page has no links and pulls no traffic then delete it and redirect it. You don't need useless pages on your site.
-
I would keep the sold out items on my site and have a "we also recommend" section below the item in the inner page to show the client that you have items similar to the one that is sold out. I wouldn't add a sold out image; instead, I would code it so if an item is sold out, then the purchase button is replaced by a sold out button/image. Depending on the products that you carry, some of your sold out items may carry weight within SEO and may show up for relevant keyword searches; you don't want to lose that.
-
It depends on the product. If the item is unique, such as a book that is now out of print, we keep it on the site with a pop-up pointing people to either a new version or the related category.
If it is a t-shirt design, we remove the item and redirect it to the category page for the item unless there is a new item that is a direct replacement.
You have to consider your audience. People will probably be grateful to know that a particular book they were looking for is out of print but they probably don't care that a specific color and cut of shirt is unavailable.
-
I agree with Virage. As long as it makes business sense and the volume of your OOS products is not more then your current products. I would not want to have 500 OOS products and 50 In stock products on a site.
Stop linking to that page from your navigation (obviously) and then if somebody does indeed navigate to your OOS product page from elsewhere on the web, then they can see it's OOS and see related products and so on. That's a much better user experience in my opinion vs a 404.
-
I do keep out of stock product pages active for the very reason you mentioned: it's more unique content for the search engines to read, and also, if someone is searching for my out of stock item, I would still want them to find my site because it is very likely we would have a similar alternative option of which they may purchase instead.
If anything, our product pages always include a ton of information, including PDFs and pictures, that just seem helpful from a consumer's POV. Even if they do not end up purchasing said product from us, they can still research it with us!
It really thus depends on the nature of your website and your products, but there is great value in retaining unique content, so if your product page is filled with useful product information, I'd say definitely keep it available for the search engines and consider linking to alternative in-stock options for your visitors to pursue as well!
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
-
Is it a good idea to 301 redirect one same niche site towards another site for seo benefit
Hello friends, I have 2 android niche sites, one site is running on a technology dropped domain i catch 1 year ago it has, almost 400+ domains linking to different parts of the site, the other one i established from scratch and both are running from jan 2015. Now i want to redirect first site which already has 400 links pointing towards it to the home page of my 2nd android site. Is it a good idea to do so and does it give any boost in terms of seo?
Algorithm Updates | | RizwanAkbar0 -
How do I code SEO for a secondary site without impacting the main site?
We have a secondary site for our online magazine, how do I code the SEO so I don't steal links from the main site?
Algorithm Updates | | gacwebteam0 -
Site has disappeared since Panda 4 despite quality content, help!
Our site www.physicalwellbeing.co.uk has lost over 20 first page rankings since the end of May. I assume this is because of Panda 4.0. All content on the site is high quality and 100% unique, so we did not expect to get penalised. Although I read somewhere that if Google can't read particular js anymore they don't rank you as high. The site has not been blacklisted as all pages are showing in Google's index and there are no messages on webmaster tools. We have not taken part in any link schemes and have disavowed all low quality links that were pointing there just in case (after the penalty). Can anybody see anything on www.physicalwellbeing.co.uk that may have cause Panda update to affect it so negatively? Would really appreciate any help.
Algorithm Updates | | search_shop0 -
Ranking Drop After Switching Sites
I have a client who's rankings dropped after switching to out site. We know that rankings can drop a little after switching, but we are concerned that hers are still low. Any suggestions? As far as I can tell, the links to her site remained the same. Thanks Holly
Algorithm Updates | | hwade1 -
Difference between Google's link: operator and GWT's links to your sites
I haven't used the Google operator link: for a while, and I noticed that there is a big disparity between the operator "link:" and the GWT's links to your site. I compared these results on a number of websites, my own and competitors, and the difference seem to be the same across the board. Has Google made a recent change with how they display link results via the operator? Could this be an indication that they are clean out backlinks?
Algorithm Updates | | tdawson090 -
Where can I find research on consumer search habits for fashion items?
I will be pitching to an established major UK-based fashion brand in a few days. Their brand is well-known within their target demographic and they have only recently starting selling their collection online. They are currently unconvinced of the need to use SEO for any terms other than their own brand names for which they would naturally rank with little extra effort. Can anyone point me to any research or data that shows consumer trends to research fashion purchases online or trending away from shopping mall browsing habits?
Algorithm Updates | | richdan1 -
Google site links on sub pages
Hi all Had a look for info on this one but couldn't find much. I know these days that if you have a decent domain good will often automatically put site links on for your home if someone searches for your company name, however has anyone seen these links appear for sub pages? For example, lets say I had a .com domain with /en /fr /de sub folders, each seoed for their location. If I were to then have domain.com/en/ as no1 in Google for my company in the UK would I be able to get site links under this or does it only work on the 'proper' homepage domain.com/ A client of mine wants to reorganise their website so they have different location sections ranking in different markets but they also want to keep having sitewide links as they like the look of it Thanks Carl
Algorithm Updates | | Grumpy_Carl0 -
Dedicated IP Address on my forum site www.astigtayo.com?
Hello and Good Day, Does having a dedicated IP Address to my site affect my search engine ranking? https://www.astigtayo.com
Algorithm Updates | | ificallyoumine0