Dealing With Seo Issues Concerning Expired Pages

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Numerous questions have been asked regarding the management of expired product pages on a classified / auction site from time to time. Therefore in this article, we try to take a close look at this problem and cover the issues related to expired product pages as well as both ruins on the same concept. Dealing with them on normal basis so that no unfavourable effects are created on your SEO services should be known. Although SEO experts have found many such ways, their correct implementation at the same time is what matters the most.

Common examples of expired pages

When an item is temporarily Out of Stock: Obviously, if you are hopeful about a specific out-of-stock product to come back to you, you would not want to give up your already established page from SEO standpoint. It is better to let your customers know that the product which is right now out of stock will be available after some time. You may gain leads in advance for your item.

Product Goes Out Of Stock forever: when a product goes out-of-stock for good, it is advised to leave it up with a discontinued notice on the page. However, this may let ...
... you lose links equity.

Product is Replaced or Updated: When a product is replaced or updated, the page should be managed in the same as the out-of-stock page unless it needs to be maintained as an un-purchasable archive page, up one category/department, 301 it to the new product, or back to the home page.

Expired or Completed Auction Page: This should be handled in the same way as the page of out-of-stock product is managed.

Benefit of putting the product/auction page on '301' status rather than letting it expire and issuing a 404

The two prominent reasons for making this choice are link reclamation and storing up of existing link equity. Although it is true that not all your products/auctions pages will be receiving but a few will. Links are your treasure. You cannot afford to lose them or waste them at any cost and hence, you have to store or maintain them. Trying tricks with rel=canonical is also not recommended since search engines have their own decisions when it comes to it. Therefore, pick the simple way that always works and 301 or redirect the expired page to the new location. However, an automated system needs to be worked out if you are going to have a high volume of items doing the same thing. Use product names tags and product categories instead of them all expire. By leaving up many expired products/auctions, you actually create many useless pages. Every website has some specific inbound links equity and hence, should be wasted on useless product pages.

Lastly, if you have an idea that a product is about to come soon in the near future then you may try putting up a page for it in advance. However, ensure not to put up an empty and instead provide some relevant about the coming product. In addition to this a few more tricks can also be tried to keep up with the running SEO services.

A few more tricks

If possible, try to gain leads for future sales on your out of stock products.

You may redirect you're out of stock or discontinued products to replacement product pages or other suitable department pages through 301.

Automate redirection to reduce the pressure of maintenance.

About the Author: BrainPulse SEO India is a leading SEO Company of India using organic SEO Techniques to serve clients from all over the world effectively.