Shall I 301 a Url that has a discontinued product or shall we remove from Googles index
-
My web site sells shoes. These items go out of fashion and are replaced. Shall I 301 a Url that has a discontinued product or shall we remove from Googles index using webmaster tools.
I seem to have a massive 301 list that carries on growing and Im concerned that to carry on doing 301s is not the right way.
-
Hi BruceA
Thanks for the comment, yes I 301 with all the you mention in mind, I was just worried that one could actually create to many 301s and therefor be penalized in some way.
-
Cross Selling products, have you thought or tried to add links to similar replacement products from the original product?
This style is now discontinued, here are some alternatives.... If the customer took the trouble to find and click onto your site, try and keep them on it and not to bounce straight back out.
Bruce
-
I see where both eyepaq and Highland are coming from. I personally hate landing on products that are no longer available and would prefer to land on a category giving me options,so that's why I have been implementing 301s. It just dawned on me that perhaps I may have missed a change in the goal posts from our trusted Google and redirecting may flag my site up. I did recently get a message in G webmaster tools about my redirects should be more relevant because of mobile use as a bad re direct would confuse the mobile shopper. I checked out the ones in question and i was happy that they were ok but it did make me think about the mobile shopper and weather actually it would be better to take the URL from the index altogether. Mobiles do seem to be used to surf my site more and more.
Cheers Guys
-
Hi,
It make sense to 301 redirect the old products to keep current Page Rank - PR won't be lost and it will be transferred to another similar page (assuming you will link to a similar page). if you remove the page - you will lose any PR that that particular page is holding. So I would definitely implement the 301 redirects and won’t cut down those pages that might have some incoming links, someone might have those in bookmarks and so on.
There is no limit as far as the overall number of 301 redirects per site. You can have millions if you want to. There is only a limit to the 301 chains.
Here is a video about this from long ago - but still very valid today - from Mat Cutts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1lVPrYoBkA
Hope it helps.
Cheers !
-
Never underestimate the power of legacy content. Yes, those shoes are no longer for sale but what if someone wants to consign a pair and needs details? Google might favor your site and send traffic your way. Mark it out of stock, add some products they might enjoy instead and move on. I've noticed that Amazon, Newegg, etc. don't delete their old URLs. Stuff I bought years ago is still out there.
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
-
"Display" referrals on google analytics
We have just had 200+ visits on the 'Display' channel within 5 minutes - these referrals are from all over the world and this is very out the ordinary for our business - should we be concerned? 9cHllwW
Reporting & Analytics | | RayflexGroup0 -
What about this (google crawl)?
Recently we did a serious effort on SEO with SEO Yoast (Wordpress). And after a few months of tweaking old articles we get this impact on crawl search.. Is this graph normal? s1TQgv9.png
Reporting & Analytics | | noodweerbenelux0 -
How to find goo.gl/ URLs in Google Analytics
Hello! How does one go about finding the impact of goo.gl/ shortened URLs in Google Analytics? (I know I should be using Campaigns, but this was for an old project.) Thanks in advance! Erik
Reporting & Analytics | | SmileMoreSEO0 -
How to set up a 301 redirect
I have just started using SEOmoz and found that we have both a www.adagiowaterfeatures.com site and a adagiowaterfeatures.com site. I have not been able to figure out how to set up the 301 redirect so the non-www site automatically goes to the www site. If anyone can tell me how the non-www site was set up to begin with I'd be interested. We only set up one site. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | AdagioWaterFeatures0 -
Google Analytics: Do url redirects show up
Good Morning from 6 degrees c mostly cloudy wetherby UK 🙂 A redirect has been set up with the effect that when you key in www.hyload.co.uk it forwards to www.ikogroup.co.uk My question is please...within Google analytics will referall traffic from www.hyload.co.uk show up in referral traffic or because its a redirect will it be counted as direct traffic. Thanks in advance, David
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
Count of words in all urls in a subdomian
Hi, I am trying to understand in a simple way how much content (words per url) are included in all urls under a subdomain. Is there a way to get this information from any of the tools ? thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | picolo0 -
Google API Tools - Next Analytics
Have you used any API tools like Next Analytics and/or can you recommend another tool that is particularly useful for a SEO?
Reporting & Analytics | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
Google Analytics - multiple counters
Hey there Mozzers! One of our customers wants to seperate one Google Analytics account into multiple accounts. The website is divided in three parts: Main: www.website.nl Sub1: www.website.nl/sub1 Sub2: http://www.website.nl/sub2 And they would like 4 different reports under one account. R1: Total count R2: Website.nl (without Sub 1 & Sub2) R3: Sub1 R4: Sub2 I know multiple counters will get in conflict with each other, so I have to implement some filters. E.g: We can configure a filter for R3 on "astmakids" in URL. My question is: is there a safe way to implement multiple Analytics filters on one website? And how will R3 see visitors that come from the root domain astmafonds.nl? Are they referrals? Thanks a lot in advance!! Partouter
Reporting & Analytics | | Partouter0