How Do You Handle Discontinued Products In SEO-Friendly Ways?

Story Based Question

Imagine you’re working for an e-commerce store that sells a wide range of electronics. One day, the company decides to discontinue a popular phone model that had been generating a lot of traffic to your website. Now, you’re faced with the challenge of maintaining that traffic and preventing a drop in rankings after the product is no longer available. You need a strategy that will help preserve SEO value without leaving your customers hanging or frustrated. What do you do?

Exact Answer

You can handle discontinued products in SEO-friendly ways by redirecting the old product pages to relevant, similar products, updating content, or using a custom 404 page with helpful suggestions for alternatives.

Explanation

When you discontinue a product, it doesn’t mean the SEO efforts for that product have to go to waste. You can redirect users to other relevant pages, keep your site clean, and provide the best possible user experience. The goal is to ensure you’re not losing valuable traffic, and you’re still providing value to visitors.

Here’s why it works:

1. Redirecting to similar products: A 301 redirect sends users and search engines to a similar, active page. By doing this, you keep the SEO link juice and avoid 404 errors, which can hurt your rankings. For example, if the discontinued phone was a top-selling model, you could redirect the product page to a newer, similar model. Google will transfer most of the SEO value to the new page, and users can still find a similar item they might want to buy.
2. Content updates: You can keep the page live and update it with a message explaining the product’s discontinuation, and then suggest alternatives or provide links to other pages. This can help preserve your SEO rankings by keeping the page active and relevant.
3. Custom 404 pages: If you prefer not to redirect, creating a custom 404 page with recommendations for other products can be helpful. This way, visitors who land on a non-existent page won’t bounce right away. Instead, they’ll be guided to something they might find useful.

Example

Let’s say your e-commerce store sold the “SuperPhone X”, a phone that was extremely popular but has now been discontinued. You’ve noticed that the product page still gets a lot of traffic, even though it’s no longer available. Here’s how you could handle it:

1. Redirect Strategy: You find that the “SuperPhone X” was similar to the newer “SuperPhone Y” model. So, you set up a 301 redirect from the “SuperPhone X” product page to the “SuperPhone Y” page. This keeps the SEO value intact, and people who were looking for the older phone now see a newer version of it.
2. Content Update: Alternatively, you could update the “SuperPhone X” page, add a message at the top that says, “The SuperPhone X is no longer available, but check out the SuperPhone Y for similar features!” You also update the page’s content to include links to the “SuperPhone Y” and other related products, keeping the page relevant and active for both users and search engines.
3. Custom 404 Page: If you decide to leave the page dead and not redirect, you create a custom 404 error page that says, “We’re sorry, this product is no longer available. But don’t worry! Here are some similar phones you may love: [List of alternatives].”

Handling discontinued products in SEO-friendly ways keeps your website efficient and ensures you don’t lose valuable traffic. Redirecting, updating content, or using a custom 404 page with alternatives are simple but effective strategies. By following these methods, you’ll maintain a great user experience and protect your site’s SEO performance.