Sold Products appear as duplicate pages 'Page Not Found' ???

[well-its-1-louder]

Hi there,

I'm down to just 6 duplicate page warnings but I'm not sure how to deal with this one:

Information Page Not Found!

http://www.vintageheirloom.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=6

My Ecommerce shopping site products are unique, 1 of a kind. So once one product has sold and been delivered we take the product off our website, hence the Information Page Not Found!

As I understand when search engines re-index these warnings will drop off but new sold products would replace them. So redirecting seems like hard work and never ending.

Is it ok to ignore these warnings?

Thanks Mozzers..

[danatanseo]

Woohoo! Yes, I think it's a great solution too. I have a lot of respect for B & H Photo (even though they are a competitor, lol) - They know what they are doing.

[well-its-1-louder]

Dana

I like it, I like it a lot!

This makes a lot of sense, hadn't thought of that.

My ecommerce site allows me to keep the product 'Active' but I just remove the Links to category so it doesn't appear by default and voila, problem solved.

For example this product: http://www.vintageheirloom.com/vintage-designers/bottega-veneta/silk-rafia-style-bag-1347390241

Isn't visible in this category anymore: http://www.vintageheirloom.com/vintage-designers/bottega-veneta

Perfect solution

[danatanseo]

I do no several sites that never take a page down for products that are no longer available. Here is an example:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/677584-REG/Yamaha_P_95S_PG_95_Digital_Stage_Piano.html

It's really kind of a brilliant approach, definitely one we are considering. Notice how there is a note on the page that says "This product is no longer available" and then there is a link that says "View Similar Items." So not only are they retaining the original page and its authority, they are making the most of their internal linking structure too.

[well-its-1-louder]

HI Dana

I'm hoping there is an alternative to 301 redirects, not that this is a big problem for me, we aren't a large sales website.

Our shopping cart comes with a friendly looking 404 page site structure menu bars, footer etc all intact, but thanks your right I should add more user friendly text.

Let's both keep our fingers crossed, sounds like it is an issue for your site too.

[danatanseo]

Interesting scenario. You are correct in that yes, those pages would eventually drop off. However, you have a couple of problems. First, in the event that your product page has built up some page authority, you are going to lose that when the page goes away unless you execute a 301 redirect, at the very least back to a category page. The other problem is just from a visitor/usability standpoint. That is, you don't want potential visitors being served up a bunch of 404 pages because that's going to negatively impact your traffic, bounce rate, etc.

As much work as it is, I would do 301s and create a user-friendly, branded 404 page, so you're covered from both aspects. It looks like you already have a custom 404. I would just add language to it that explains better to a visitor why they are on that page and then give them a link that takes them directly back to your storefront.

There may be some other alternatives that folks here can suggest. I'll be interested to see what others have to say as I too am in the e-commerce space and clearance products often fall into a similar situation for us. Hope this helps!

Dana