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e-commerce website vs. starting a blog (In: The Online Store Professional)
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freeflyer
Joined: Aug 06, 2007
# Posts: 211
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Posted: 2008-Feb-29 11:22
Hi all,
i'm optimising an e-commerce site which only holds 1 of each item in stock, after which it is deleted and a standard 'product not found' page is displayed when a visit is sent from the old indexed page in a searche engine. Getting a 301 on these deleted pages would be difficult due to complicated coding which is probably beyond me.
Now. obviously over time this will result in masses of duplicated indexed pages all with a 'product not found' page returned.
So, i'm thinking of blocking the product pages entirely via robots.txt (easily done), and just leaving the category pages (which never change) as spiderable links. Now, obviously this will cut down on my indexed pages substantially, but i think the category pages (Of which there are about 150) are enough for the search engines to go on (And index for the right terms).
So, my question is.. better to have just category pages and NO products indexed at all, than potentially hundreds of unwanted duplicated pages sitting in the index?
opinions?
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Dinkar
Staff
Joined: Aug 12, 2001
# Posts: 4391
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Posted: 2008-Feb-29 15:16
IMO, don't do that.
Also don't use 301. Instead of it, show the related product list to your visitors on "404 Not found" page.
Point to remember:
404 error should be shown to search engines only. Don't show this error to your visitors. Show them something like - "Product not available, please see the related products".
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freeflyer
Joined: Aug 06, 2007
# Posts: 211
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Posted: 2008-Feb-29 16:09
you're probably right, although i have no way to return a 404 or a 301 for empty product pages (that i know of).
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sem4u
Joined: Dec 16, 2003
# Posts: 262
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Posted: 2008-Feb-29 17:12
Have a look at what Amazon do...
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Quadrille
Joined: Nov 15, 2000
# Posts: 1064
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Posted: 2008-Feb-29 17:55
I agree it's not wise to block the SEs.
There's nothing wrong with a 301 to a special page that says "Sorry, the item you sought has sold out - take a look at these babies"
Or 301 to the 'nearest (if that won't confuse them)
Or have a custom 404 page that does the same thing.A 404 page signals a 404 error to SEs, but the visible page can be individualised to your site. Check with your host about this.
The big issue, however, is that constantly changing pages may contribute to site 'seo value' - but not much. So you need to concentrate your seo work on index pages, discussion pages, whatever pages ... and seed them with links to sales items (use server side includes / PHP includes if changes are frequent).
You have to come up with a system that simultaneously:
1. Does not confuse human visitors
2. Or SEs
3. Has stable content somewhere for returning visitors and SEs
4. Has a viable navigation system (xenu is your friend)
5. Isn't a job creation scheme.
Tall order!
Good Luck!
PS final thought - depending on your turnover rate and how 'related' the products are, it may be worth having several on a page., thus achieving many of your aims, particularly avoiding the need for 301/404 issues. Still need Acme Navigation, however!
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