Interesting. I didn't know anything about this - affecting the sender and receiver. I'll do some more digging. Thanks for shedding light on this for me.

Hi Dr. Meyers. Thanks for the note and the link. I understand the first part of your response. However, I don't fully undertand the second part. How will an incoming affiliate link create duplicate content for me (the recipient of the link)?

I use H1 tags on category pages. Typically, category pages have short tail keywords and could use some reinforcement.  I could use an H1 tag on product pages in the descripton area, but haven't found it necessary since its in the title and product names are typically long tail.

I don't know how prevalent it is, but I've not heard of using an H1 tag on a product name. I'm not suggesting its wrong or would hurt anything. We rank well for products. I just don't use the practice myself and don't see the point in it.

I understand they don't want to use the product name in an H1 tag in the product description, but rather on the product name at the top of the page. There's no problem with tagging it in the description, I just don't know why it would be done on the name itself when they have a title tag for that.

Here's how they would set it up:

Insert Product Name Here

.

Thanks Tom. I've never heard of anyone putting an H1 tag on a product name and wouldn't do it myself.

So the only reason someone would put an H1 tag on a product name is because they are clueless, correct?

Why would you put an H1 tag on a product name? I came across this in another forum and thought I'd float it here.

Does Google interpret Affiliate links as paid links?

If so, can Affiliate links harm your rank if they are not properly tagged with a no-follow?

Thanks.

Hi Erica. I think what we will do (and weigh in on it please) is keep the homepage up with a notice to customers that some of the site content is moving to our parent site. We won't allow folks to buy anything, but we'll let them access their account to change/delete information if they would like.

Our parent site only sells a smattering of the products on the closing site and we'll 301 those. The two sites are so different I think people would be startled to be redirected to the parent site. What are thoughts of "when not to 301?"

I'm thinking we should put a date on the move so they can change account information by a specific time.

I thought I would put links on the home page to the parent product categories ( about 5 categories), so they can check out the parent site if they want.

Let's say we leave the homepage up for 30 days (60 or whatever) and take it down. If I don't put a 301 on it (and I wasn't going to), I should probably customize the 404 correct?

How long are 301's valid in Google? At some point does Google stop indexing the 301?

Thanks for any input you've got.

We're closing down one of our eCommerce sites. What is the best approach to do this? The site has a modest link profile (a young site). It does have a run of site link to the parent site. It also has a couple hundred email subscribers and established accounts.

Is there a gradual way to do this? How do I treat the subscribers and account holders? The impact won't be great, but I want to minimize collateral damage as much as possible.

Thanks.