15 replies to this topic

[Rudi]

A website has its products organized by categories — a central page for each. For example there are red, green and blue pages with products on each.

So, for example the red page that shows all red products is at:

http://example.com/red/

And some red products are:

http://example.com/red/product2
http://example.com/red/product9
http://example.com/red/product840

etc.

The website only sells 1 of each product.

So a product it is sold, it is moved to another page at the same level called sold. (This page is important for future visitors, so that they can see what has been sold and that the website is reputable.)

This sold page is found at the following link:

http://example.com/sold/

Now the question is:

Once a product is moved from appearing on the red page, to the sold page, should:
A) its URL stay the same, or
B change to be like this — with a 301 from the old link?

http://example.com/sold/product9

So it's a trade-off between having either spotless hierarchal information architecture, vs. keeping any existing SEO efforts, and avoiding losing them by using (frequent) 301s for about 10-40 sales a year.

Thank you!



Future SEO campaigns would involve ranking for words like red, blue, and so on as keywords. But not for the word "sold".

[chrishirst]

so that they can see what has been sold and that the website is reputable

????? How does what may be perceived as a "Sold" category of product make it reputable



Why not do what most systems would do and simply set a flag so the original page simply flags the product as
Sorry but this item has been SOLD! But to see other similar products try our [whatever range]

Or let the missing page return a 404 response and have a custom error page that declares it sold.

[Rudi]

That is how the website needs to be. The page of all the sold items makes it look reputable for the specific business that this is. It is not about volume sales, but about a few, good sales (as I mentioned, about 10-40 a year).

But that's not really the problem I'm having... any thoughts on which option, A) vs B ) would be better?

[Michael Martinez]

I would go with the redirect.

[Rudi]

Thanks Michael. Why so?

[Ron Carnell]

How would you feel if you were looking to buy a high-ticket item and Google sent you to a page where you couldn't buy the item you wanted? Where it used to be available, but no longer was?

I can understand the value of keeping the SOLD items on the site as implied testimonials. But that value only exists for potential buyers, not searchers looking for something you no longer have.

In my opinion, the only reason to have the SOLD pages indexed at all is for SEO purposes -- and that's usually not a very good reason. Having those pages surface in the SERPs is only going to serve to irritate searchers. And, historically, that tends to irritate Google somewhere down the line.

[Rudi]

This is not an e-commerce site, people don't buy from it. It's more like a catalogue of what's available. If someone sees an item as sold, they would hopefully know to call up and see if there are any similar ones.

The sold category makes it look reputable to potential clients. It wouldn't irritate potential buyers.

[chrishirst]

If someone sees an item as sold, they would hopefully know to call up and see if there are any similar ones.

Not going to happen.

Do you go past a house with a "sold by" estate agent/realtor board outside and ring them up to see if the have another one just like it?

[Rudi]

Chris,

Yes it is. The nature of this business is like that.

And yes, why do you think they put those signs up like that. That's exactly what I've done. How many times ave you seen an ad for a house that they no longer have when you call up but they offer you similar ones.

[chrishirst]

Chris,

Yes it is. The nature of this business is like that.

And yes, why do you think they put those signs up like that. That's exactly what I've done. How many times ave you seen an ad for a house that they no longer have when you call up but they offer you similar ones.

Never!

Not when there has been a "Sold" sign outside, when it has a "For sale" sign it certainly happens, which is why I suggested this:

Why not do what most systems would do and simply set a flag so the original page simply flags the product as
Sorry but this item has been SOLD! But to see other similar products try our [whatever range]

[Rudi]

OK, well that's maybe just you. But in either case, for this business, what I described is the way to go.

[Rudi]

And so let's get this straight, you find an apartment/house somewhere online, you call them, but then find out that they don't have it anymore — and they've never offered you something else/similar?

I would get a better agent next time

Edited by Rudi, 03 May 2012 - 08:48 AM.

[Jill]

I would keep the URL the same if possible, that's always best. If you can't, then 301 redirect it.

[Rudi]

Thanks Jill, you mean put everything into /blue/, /red/ and so on? And then once it becomes sold, just keep the URL as that?

[Jill]

Doesn't matter what the URL says, just don't change URLs unless you have to or their not SE friendly for some reason.