An interesting discussion over at SearchEngineWatch Forum covers the way(s) of treating out-of-stock product pages that cannot be of any use to a visitor but still carry a lot of weight (in the form of inlinks, rankings and traffic).
So what can be done to make them worthwhile for a human visitor and at the same time take the full advantage of their SEO power?
- Use 301-redirect to a very related product version (e.g. “product name 2006″ to “product name 2008″). This will both be useful for a customer and get the new page ranked as high as its outdated more powerful version. However this solution can only be used in case if you do have two very related products (to avoid user bad experience) and also might be hard to manage with huge dynamic websites.
- Preserve the page and add “Related Products” section on a very prominent place on the page. Besides, you can host some alternative material (product guides and manuals) on these pages. Of course, you’ll need some additional tweaking with these pages to avoid misunderstanding: remove “buy” button, product promotions, etc. and make it perfectly clear that the product is currently out of stock. While this is easier to do, customers will be forced to click twice to reach the actual product page; so you might risk losing some conversions.
- Put new content on the old URL and move the old content to a new URL (this type of solution was long ago offered by Distilled when they were discussing how Danny Sullivan should have SEOed his conference page). This again can only be done with very relevant products and neutral URL strucutre (meaning you can’t host Product 2008 at domain.com/product-2006 URL).
I have had success using the 301 redirection method. It is best for the end user and the engines as long as the copy on the new page is explanatory, if necessary.
Thanks for emphasizing that 301’s should be reserved for “very related” pages. Always keep that user in mind :)
@ Ann, if it is a out-of-stock page, why do yo u recommend 301, why can’t a 302 help?
If the stock is back or the if new version of the same product is available, what will happen if we remove the 301, how the SEs will react to it, especially the big G?
@Software Testing : good point on removing 301… The reason why I recommend 301 is because the page power (links, rankings, etc) is transferred to the new page. However if you expect the product to be back on stock, you’d better not implement redirect at all – use solution #2: keep the page, make it clear the product is temporally out of stock and offer related products and information.
@ Ann, Thanks :)
But how SEs will react after removing a 301 redirect. Will it regain the old cache of the page or index the old page considering it as a new one.
@Software — I was confused by “permanent” and “temporary” redirects at first. When you use a permanent (301) redirect, it doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteeing that redirect will never be lifted or change, it simply means that (for the time being) this URL is wholly equivalent to that other URL.
A temporary redirect (302) should be used where you’re only redirecting a visitor in certain circumstances.
Say, for example, that someone has just commented on your blog. Instead of providing the updated page content in response to their form submission, it’s best to issue a 302 redirect them back to the canonical blog post URL. That way, if they click refresh, they won’t end up sending their comment again.
Ann,
Thanks for suggestion #2 – that is spot on advice. We have many handmade one-of-a-kind items like art and jewelry and once they are sold we’d like to keep the page alive as it helps with content. In order to have a positive customer experience, we’ll need to keep these types of items to a minimum (too many items that customers can’t buy anger customers) and as you suggest only on items that have relevance, page rank, links, etc…
Thanks,
Mendy
MUST remember:
The success of a page often comes from the links pointing into it. If a product is out of stock, it is a pretty poor practice to keep category page product listings and related item product links pointing to it. Why promote items people cannot purchase?
So, the loss of internal links would affect the SERP position most likely (because rarely do individual products garnish external backlinks).
My take:
1. Drop the product from category page product grids and related item lists
2. Keep the page live
3. Display replacement product (if available) as a STRONG call to action on the page
4. Cross-sell and up-sell related items
5. Maintain accessory selling on page (some people bookmark a product in order to come back and purchase related accessories)
You can pass pagerank in approx. 8 weeks to the new page using a few common HTML statements.