When you delete your products, does it affect your SEO?

[amir-a]

Hi Guys,

So i have lots of products that have sold out and I will no longer sell, so i have decided to archive those products.

Would this affect my SEO in any way? would I need to download an APP that creates redirection for those broken links or is this not necessary?

If you don't think I should archive those products, what other way is there to hide them from the admin page, as we have too many products.

Thanks

[Niki_K]

Hi Amiraa,

how about making the products unavailable on all of the sales channels? Later, if you do decide to make the product available again, you can just choose the channels instead of creating the product from scratch. Plus, the pages will be still searchable on Google.

Btw. I think that archiving the products also leads to 404 if I'm not mistaken. 

The other option is to set redirects. There is one article on Shopify about the redirects - https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/os/menus-and-links/url-redirect

[amir-a]

Hi Niki,

Thanks for your reply.

yes i'm sure if i delete them it will lead to 404 errors. is this a bad thing for my website ranking for other active pages? that's what i'm worries about

[Niki_K]

Yes, 404 affects SEO. Plus, what I think is even worse is when a potential customer clicks on link leading to one of your products (let’s say from an article, an email...) and 404 shows up - the user experience is very bad. There should be either redirect to the most relevant page on your website, or, you should set the products as unavailable.

[MBowland]

THIS!!!  This is the best advice I have found on this topic. Archiving affects SEO without setting up URL Redirects (which can be cumbersome with large quantity of archived products to manage).  Too many URL Redirects over time is also not good for your site performance from what I understand.

However, when I test this out you still get a 404 if the product was previously searched and is in a customer's browser history...

But to basically 'unpublish' the products removes them from your customer user experience but keeps the product SEO intact.

[GFDLuke]

Hey @amir-a,

This is a great question that you have asked. In short, deleting and archiving products can affect SEO due to 404 errors. I would recommend setting up 301 redirects from all collections/products that you choose to delete/archive. User Experience is a ranking factor and you never want a customer to land on a 404 error from a backlink. 

Shopify has created a post on how to do this and apps that can assist with bulk 301 redirects: https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-Discussion/Deleting-collections/m-p/1088141#M229874 

If you cover your tracks and set up 301 redirects, then your SEO should not be affected much. 

If you found this to be helpful, please give me a thumbs up!

[Propelguru]

There is no penalty for losing characters/items too quickly. However, it can have its drawbacks. We recommend that you keep this page for 6 months. Give the customer a message that the product has been cut and linked to the next quality product on the page. Delete this page after 6 months and repeat 301 for the next good product.

The 301 reference indicates direct links to everyone from the old page (and the scanner) to the new page. It also preserves the link value for the old pages.

If there are no related pages or products to switch to, you can switch to the product page.

[KieranR]

I would also add that it affects SEO more if the pages you are removing were/are getting a lot of traffic.

If the pages you're deleting get near-zero traffic, and has no backlinks then I almost wouldn't even bother with a redirect.

A workaround here is a concept of a "retired product" page. You could have a theme template with Add To Cart buttons disabled and layout/copy to the effect of "Hey sorry we no longer sell X_PRODUCT but here are some other Y_CATEGORY products you might like"

If a redirect or a "retired product" page works better for your SEO for your site, is really case by case, and depends on things like:

• how much traffic is/was that URL getting
• do you have a direct replacement product
• do you have a similar-ish product
• do you have equivalent category page, you could redirect it to instead
• are you removing it for legal reasons
• is it end of life, and not available anywhere but people still remember it and search for it by name/brand a lot, based on search vol (retired product candidate

[amir-a]

Thank you Kieran,

this is some great advice and makes total sense. much appreciated.

[SEOProStaff]

Hi @amir-a ,

Archiving or deleting products can impact your SEO if those product pages have incoming links or rank well in search results. When a product is removed, and no redirect is set up, it can lead to 404 errors, which might negatively affect your store's SEO over time. It's crucial to implement 301 redirects to relevant pages for any product that is being removed or archived. This maintains the link equity and provides a good user experience by guiding visitors to similar products or categories.

SEOPro can assist by identifying pages that might need attention after product changes, helping you manage redirects more efficiently, and ensuring your SEO doesn't suffer due to missing content. SEOPro's audit feature can be particularly useful in keeping your store's SEO health in check by providing insights and recommendations for improvements.

Full disclosure: We are the developer of this app.