What should I do when there is no more stock for a product (e-commerce) ?
-
I´ve several clientes with magento, wp and brazilian Vtex.... usually when a product is out of stock the system allow you to delete or desallow but you will create a 404 erros. There is a plugin to redirect disallow products to home os a personalized page... looks good.
But I´ve just realized when you edit the name (and url) of a product it creats automatic redirect of the product...
Now I´m wondering never delete or disallow a product page anymore.... always edit with a new product so the redirect can send some PR to the new produtc....
Sounds too stupid or make any sense?
-
In this particular case is a female clothing company that provides new stuff each 3 months, they never repete the products!-)
Thanks for all the answers and I think I wlll customize and improve the user experience by implementing a dynamically-generated message via cookies during a 301 redirect. This would result in users who have landed on expired products receiving a message letting them know that the original product they were seeking is no longer available. This enhances the user experience because it informs users on why they are being redirected.
As I´m working with magento I will try to find a ready to go solution as a plugin but If I don´t, I will make my own and send to the forum !-)
Many Thanks !-)
-
Stephanie Chang wrote about this topic on the Moz blog at http://moz.com/blog/how-should-you-handle-expired-content as well, and that could give you some ideas too.
-
Your client's would have to OK it but often when products are no longer available it is an internal issue and not a lack of manufacturing. On my sites, if I chose to drop a line I will offer both alternatives if I have any but then also a link to where the exact product can be purchased (rel-nofollow of course).
It is more important to me that customers feel like clicking the link to my shop will never be a waste of time than it is to hope for the occasional conversion to another product.
Once a few click throughs mount up, I also find products I have the that the other shop does not and send a "Hi you may have noticed the X clicks I sent you for X product at URL. I noticed you do not offer X but have content relevant to it. If you think it would help us both out, I would welcome the partnership and be happy to keep sending business your way. I think a link to X would work well "here", let me know your thoughts.
I sell a lot more to people who are looking for exactly what I have then I ever did tried to convincing them that what I have is what they are really looking for.
-
Two options.
Option 1 - 301 redirect to a similar sub category level pages for that product.
Option 2 - Set up a landing page which states this product is no longer for sale, and show up similar items for sale. this is a common strategy used by group buying sites.
-
In the case where the client wants the product page removed from the site, we've had custom programming to implement 301 redirects, up one category level, so that the customer is take to relevant products in the same category that they were seeking.
-
I agree with Todd unless you have a good recommendations engine. If that's the case, related or suggested products would still provide value to the user even if the product is no longer attainable.
-
If the product will be coming back, I would direct those platforms to simply notify the user on the product page - while keeping the product page indexed.
If the product is not set to return, redirect to a similar product.
Hope this helps.
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
-
Image Sitemap for non indexed Products
Hi, we have several ecommerce sites. We want to do an image sitemap, as we have lots of attractive images. The question is, can you put images for non-indexed products there as well, or does that conflict with the normal sitemap (the images would be indexed, the products not)? Thanks in advance. Dieter Lang
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Storesco0 -
E-Commerce Mobile Pagination Dillema
Hi Everybody, I'm managing the SEO for an E-commerce site with different desktop and mobile sites (meaning, not responsive). We're changing the way reviews on mobile product pages will be displayed from 'view all' to pagination (due to server load). Basically the above the fold part of the page will always display the product, and below the fold will have x numbers of reviews on each page. But here is where it gets tricky: 1 - A different number of review pages will exist on mobile vs desktop (due to different no. of reviews per page on each device) - so I'm wondering what's the solution regarding canonicals. Usually every mobile page points to its desktop parallel, but now we'll have non-matching pages. 2 - The users will be able to change the no. of reviews displayed on each page. So the number of paginated pages will change accordingly. I was thinking about a solution where all the reviews will be in the first page's html (and only X of them will be displayed on screen), and all the other paginated pages will be created dynamically (with # and won't be indexed, so basically no pagination in mobile). Does anyone think this can be seen as cloaking or has any other thoughts? Thanks, Sarah
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Don340 -
Should I increase SEO activity while we are restructuring our B2C service offerings and planning a product relaunch in about 6-8 months?
My company has 2 distinct divisions: a B2B division and a B2C division. Right now we are restructuring our B2C service offerings and pulling back on marketing spend for B2C so that we can relaunch new B2C offerings in about 6-8 months. Our current company website will stay in place but will be revamped right before our B2C relaunch (will maintain the same domain). Currently, our company has little to no SEO presence for both B2C and B2B. I need to know if it is smart for us to increase SEO activity right now for the B2C division, knowing that it can take up to 6 months to get SEO traction so that when we do relaunch we have a strong established SEO presence. Thanks for your sharing your thoughts!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | VISANOW0 -
Keeping E Commerce Product Content Fresh
Hi, Some months ago we created unique content for each of our product descriptions - basically, we removed manufacturers description and made our own unique content. But our content is now, I feel, stale but I'm trying to work out how we can produce fresh content for the product pages and how much is needed for Google to notice the changes? My question is: What does google class as freshness? Would a new photo count? I've always thought that it has to be mainly text content but we do not get that many reviews as our products are not mainstream and it's a small market so are we to create extra bits of text content in the descriptions, and how much?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs20100 -
Product or Shop in URL
What do you think is better for seo and for sale, I am using woo-ecommerce for health products website. websitename.com/product/keyword OR websitename.com/shop/keyword
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MasonBaker0 -
Cons and pros of changing your e-commerce store domain name?
We have an online toy store, the domain is old over 10 years and we have some traffic, we are considering to change our domain name. There are two reasons why. First of all, we expand our product category, before we were only a puzzle store now we sell almost any kind of toy. And at this point, our current domain, PuzzleZoo.com is not representing our capacity. We also have toyzoo.com domain registered, that is also an old domain but there has been no activity with that domain. Our concern is, how do we avoid to lose ranking and keyword authority, are we going to start from the ground? What are the correct procedures to follow during this switch if we prefer to switch? As an alternative scenario, if we decide to keep both and open another e-store with toyzoo domain name and continue operating PuzzleZoo.com, with same products, will taht be a duplicate issue? If it is what are the consequences? (Just to add a note here, our PuzzleZoo is also a small brick and mortar store chain in CA and TX) ToyZoo will only be an online store. Even in this case at the eyes of Google, are we going to have a duplicate store that can potentially be penalized or PuzzleZoo being a brick and mortar store chain might help us to avoid being penalized? Should we switch the domain and redirect PuzzleZoo to ToyZoo, should we keep them both and running separately? We need to give a decision and I was wondering if there are any expert here that can give us a good intelligent advise on which path to go?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PuzzleZoo0 -
Volusion store product pages will not index
Hello, I have moved over to Volusion and was wondering if you guys know of any SEO practices that are Volusion specific. i have been working on this site now for 2 months and my impressions and rankings have dropped substantially My 301 redirects where in place before I flipped over and my keywords / titles/ tags etc.. are in place. However i am still not making any progress in the engines. I have noticed that my products are not being indexed per Webmaster tools. I have heard that volusion has something set up to where you must purchase their SEO package in order to rank. I am really at my wits end and currently I thinking about taking a loss and reverting back to my old Shoppe Pro site. Any help would be very appreciated
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kerry0217
.0 -
What directories are best for health or health related products?
I am trying to find out if there are any reputable directories related to health supplements and general health information.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DonovanHarrell0