Best Practice for Archiving Products that are no longer stocked (or our of stock but returning)

[indianna]

Hi, I asked this question before but it didn't get solved so trying again.

I have a large product range; any items which will be restocked are left live with a 'back soon' notice, but seasonal items tend to be sold out and not repeated.

I would like to clean up the available range, making it easier to shop available products, archiving the products which will not be returning. From what I can see, deletion is not advisable and affects the SEO, however I can't see the best practice for archiving product or how it will / will not affect the SEO.

- Will archiving affect the SEO?

- Should URL redirects be set up for any products we do archive?

- If the redirect is suggested, is it better to redirect to a general page such as 'New In' or tailored pages depending on the product? Or does it make no difference, just as long as there's a redirect?

Thank you

[Elias · Accepted solution]

Hi, @indianna.

Thank you for reaching out and posting this question!

I understand that you have some products that will not be returning to the store and you have some concerns about whether deleting or archiving these products could affect your search engine optimizations (SEO). To clarify, archiving and deleting would be the same when it comes to SEO, as both of these actions prevent the page from being shown publicly or indexed by search engines. However, though I wouldn't consider myself to be an SEO expert, I do believe that deleting products wouldn't impact the SEO as much as most would believe.

Whether products are deleted due to discontinuation or unavailability, this is a common practice for retailers. For this reason, you can expect search engines, like Google, to periodically crawl your domain and update their index - this way, the deleted pages aren't generated in their search result and would not hurt your SEO. You can also submit your sitemap, so search engines can update their index sooner. If you'd like to learn more about this, then I'd recommend taking a look at Moz - Best Practices for Deleting Pages. 

That being said, if you have customers that are entering specific links (eg. saved or bookmarked) to deleted products and landing on the 404 page (eg. page doesn't exist), then you can consider setting up a URL redirect for these instances and direct them to a similar product or back to your homepage. The main goal for setting up redirects is to help customers avoid landing on a 404 page, so you can decide to redirect them where it makes the most sense for the deleted product.

I'd love to hear more about your business! What kinds of products do you sell? Are you running any ad campaigns or working with marketing experts at the moment?

[indianna]

Thank you Elias, that was really helpful 

[zimousdigi]

Hi @indianna ,

would you mind checking our app Nada: https://apps.shopify.com/nada-sort-hide-out-of-stock

It automatically hides (unpublishes from Online Store) the sold-out products and sets redirects so the SEO score is not harmed. . The setup is straightforward and fast.

Try the app for free for 7 days to see if it helps to solve your problem.

[Leffrey]

A different type of app is needed.  It is clear that you lose visitors each time you discontinue (archive or delete) another product.  You will have less indexed pages in the search engines and unique keywords from those now missing pages will not be indexed.  If your discontinued skus are similar to other skus on your website, then you wouldn't mind getting those visitors that would have found you by visiting your site from links to those discontinued styles.  They would be able to navigate your website and see the similar products that you are still selling.  It would be nice if there were an option when archiving to allow the page to remain online but not in the navigation and site search.  This way you wont lose the visitors but the pages will still be live for an incoming visitor from the search engine links, no 404 and they can continue shopping on the site for the similar products.  We have thousands of skus and discontinued a few hundred skus that were not selling enough recently and saw a traffic drop within a few weeks.  If there were an app or functionality that could accomplish this, then we would not have lost those visitors.

[ajoyforever]

Martin, love this concept. Is the app hard to set up? Does it affect anything else on the site?

[Leffrey]

Who is Martin?  Can you keep me in that loop, if you get a positive response?  I have a lot if other ideas that can help too. 

[ajoyforever]

Sorry, I thought I was responding to the poster above who mentioned this app. It sounds like a great concept: https://apps.shopify.com/nada-sort-hide-out-of-stock

[zimousdigi]

Hi @ajoyforever ,

It's very easy to use. It works via the Shopify API,no need to insert anything to the theme. Give it a try and let me know if it suits you needs. 😉

[ajoyforever]

Hi there. I tried the app but it only seemed to manage out of stocks or low stock notifications. You’d mentioned automatic product/page redirect when archiving an item, which is what I really need, but I didn’t see that functionality. 

[zimousdigi]

I see. The app works only with sold-out products. When the product is sold out, the app unpublishes it from Online Store and then set the redirect. So in your case you need the product to be archived rather than unpublished?

[ajoyforever]

Martin, the only options I have are "archive" and "delete." None to unpublish. Typically, I need to create a 404 redirect which is a pain!

[Elias]

Hey, @ajoyforever.

Thank you for joining the thread!

I believe @zimousdigi was referring to the product status, which allows you to toggle the product between active or draft statuses. This function behaves similarly to unpublishing a blog or unpublishing a page, where it removes the content from the online store but keeps the data in the admin.  

If you're looking for something that can help with creating redirects for 404 pages automatically, then you can also try SEOAnt - 404 Link Redirect. Or, if you'd like to explore more options, then you can see more third-party apps by searching redirect or 404 on the Shopify App Store as well. Should you need to get help with third-party apps, the app developer are always available to assist you. Simply get in touch with them using the contact information found at the bottom of their app's page.

If you have any other questions on this topic, then please don't hesitate to let me know!