If you own an eCommerce site, a product can run out of stock. When a product becomes permanently unavailable, what should you do with the product page in your online store? Delete that specific page? Set up a redirect? Show alternatives? Or just leave the page as it is? This Ask Yoast will help you make the best decision when a product goes out of stock.
Brad Griffin out of Texas USA emailed us:
“When a WooCommerce product is out of stock, I’ve got a couple of options: a redirect; a fallback URL; a waiting list; or delete it and do nothing. Let’s assume that the product is a one-time sale, it’s not coming back. What should I do with that URL?
Check out the video or read the answer below!
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Best practice product out of stock
In the video, we explain which options you have when a product goes out of stock and what would be the best decision:
” Well, Brad, simply delete it and do nothing is not an option, because people might have linked to that URL, so you want to send them somewhere decent. And a waiting list would be weird, because the product is not coming back.
So, I think you’ve got two options:
1. Redirect them to the category that the original product was in and make sure that they land on something that feels somewhat close to what they were looking for if they wanted to get to that URL.
2. Show them a page saying: Hey, we had this product. We’ve sold it, but we’ve got these other options:…, …, …, (show alternatives).
Those are really your only two real options.
Good luck!”
Ask Yoast
In the series Ask Yoast we answer SEO questions from followers. Need some advice about SEO? Let us help you out! Send your question to ask@yoast.com.