When a product is archived using the new function, is it removed from the sitemap? Or will a 404 error be returned if the product appears in organic search?
If you have worked hard on your SEO, archiving the products will generate a 404. Which in return provides a very bad user experience in my view.
Why would anyone create a solution without taking SEO into account is beyond understanding.
For me, the solution is pointless.
All they had to do is to create an additional product status (Archive, Draft, Hide). Hide, as the name suggests, would hide from all categories and website search without affecting SEO. The archive feature as it currently stands, is your last resort.
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I don’t know if you’re speaking from your SEO point-of-view, but so far all the articles and information I read, show the other way.
If archiving products returns 404, then it is better than leaving those products that you don’t sell for years, right?
First, it may damage Google crawl since that URL is sitting duck all years through. There’s no update, there’s no new thing to that URL. It only further proves that your site is not managed well to Google.
Second, it hurts customer experience. Imagine googling something and it shows a product, but when you access to that site it is out-of-stock.
Try thinking as a customer, would you still remember which brand/site that is? Of course not, because it has created such an aweful and time-wasting experience.
Not to mention if you constantly searching for a particular product in the same field, and your site always gives them out-of-stock warnings. In time they will remember this brand as they never have anything available.
Read this article about completely retired items and temporarily out-of-stock products.
Well as far as I know wouldn’t hiding from all sales channel be the equivalent of this ‘hide’ status. Pretty sure hidden products from sales channels does not generate 404 error. Perhaps this is the way?
Digging up an old thread here as I came across it … but the ideal scenario would be for the page to 301 redirect to the closest most relevant URL whenever applicable (preferably with a note that says the product they requested is out of stock and that they’ve been presented the closest alternative(s). This is a much better experience than hitting a 404 page or an out of stock page.