Out of Stock page ranking

[ChristopherGlaeser]

When a competitive site is consistently ranking for a product that is never in stock, or in some cases, has been discontinued for several years and will never again be in stock, is there a way to communicate that information to Google?

[Everett]

The first thing I would do in this particular situation is to contact Kaboodle and see if you can get the Buy link to go to your store instead. They may have to remove that entry and you can post a new one.

That sparqstore domain expired on 01/26/2011 and is pending renewal or deletion from Network Solutions. It may be worth looking into how much it would cost to buy the domain and redirect relevant URLs like that to your product page.

That Kaboodle page is indeed a form of spam. It is what I would call a "stub page". Whether you report that page or not is up to you. Eugino provided the link above to where you would do the reporting. I would just say first that you should contact someone - by phone if possible - at Kaboodle to give them the chance to remove the page, as often this is just a matter of pour housekeeping and not outright spam.

Good luck.

[ChristopherGlaeser]

Thanks for responding.  Regarding your first question, how do I know the item will not be in stock, here is an example:

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/sparq-xlr8-digital-timing-system

That item was discontinued five years ago.  If you click on the "Buy It Now" button, you will notice that it links to a url that is no longer maintained.  I receive many inquiries about this product because it is similar to our line of products, so I wrote an article that not only discusses the product, but also mentions that the product was discontinued years ago.  The article ranks well, but many people are frustrated by these stale links on other sites.  I've contacted some of the shops that have stale links to clean things up though it does require considerable effort.  It just seems that Google should be better at spotting these dead products, especially when "buy it now" points to a dead site.

Thanks again for responding.

Best,
Christopher

[socialengaged]

There are many things to consider: first, if its your competitor, how would you know that the product will not be in stock anymore? If the whole website is ranking well, and no spammy procedures have been made by this website, there is no way to communicate it to Google, I think. And anyway, if its not a big problem, Google will not take it into consideration anyway.

Please note that Google has many ways in order to understand if a page is relevant (one of this is bounce rate, etc.)

So if a customer is not satisfied with what he/she finds in your competitors page, cause there is not the product that is being looked for, he/she will leave the page, and Google will notice that.

I would:

1. Try tell your competitor (even  as unsatisfied customer) that the page in which they offer the product, is not valid, so please if they can take action to make it more relevant or remove it if needed.

2. Try rank better for that product on my own website. Once I'll have shares, compelling content, great user experience on page (and a few bunch of natural links if possible ), my page would rank better and outdo my competitors page (even if domain age and auth may be higher)

Anyway, if you really would like to send a request to Google, you can read this guide https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93713?hl=en

Hope this helps

Eugenio | Social Engagement