Best way to handle expired ad in a classified
-
I don't think there is a definitive answer to this, but worth the discussion:
How to handle an expired ad in a classified / auction site?
Michael Gray mentioned you should 301 it to it's category page, and I'm inclined to agree with him. But some analysts say you should return a "product/ad expired" page with a 404.
For the user I think the 404 aproach is best, but from a SEO perspective that means I'm throwing link juice out.
What if I 301 him from the ad, and show a message saying why they're seeing the listing page instead of the product page?
Thoughts?
-
I would do #3.
-
Great inputs!
But what if, for legal reasons (price, pictures, etc), the ad has to be removed after it has expired. (real case here)
Ideas:
- Modify the ad page and return a 200? (remove ad data and add a message saying it's expired)
- Throw a friendly 404 page, saying the ad has expired and show other options for the user to navigate to
- 301 to it's parent page
(3) is my favourite, but (2) may be the best option for users.
Thoughts?
-
Interesting...
I don't know how "private" selling prices are in your area but maybe a couple pages on your site like thiese.....
WHAT YOU CAN BUY IN YOURCITY FOR $100,000
This would be a point of reference for buyers and sellers. Where I live there is a huge divergence between askin' and sellin' prices. They ask for the moon but get something a lot less.
RECENT SALES PRICES IN YOURCITY...
Nosy people would love this.
-
I do the same thing with our real estate site. If a listing has expired, I keep the page active, but I put a note at the top saying, "This listing has sold! Contact us and we can find you similar listings in the city."
My expired listings bring in a lot of search traffic.
-
Who is going to bet against Michael Gray? I think that you should listen to him.
I would give his answer one tweak. He says....
If the product goes out of stock forever, you have a couple choices. You can leave the page up with a discontinued notice on the page. IMHO that’s not the best way to go for search engines. Ideally I’d like to not lose any link equity and 301 the product page to a similar product, category/department page, or home page.
I would do exactly what he says 99% of the time, however, if that page is pulling a lot of search engine traffic and same manufacturer has a replacement product or something close that substitutes, I would leave that page in place and use it to explain... "This product has been retired but a new and improved widget is available... (then give the sales pitch for the new model with a buy button). This approach would be especially valuable if the product is something like running shoes where repeat customers with very high loyalty are looking to replace their favorite shoes up to several times per year.
When this shoe was replaced by Addiction there was a mad scramble to buy up all existing stock... (I am probably only person posting here old enough to have worn out a couple dozen pairs)
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best seo benefit location ( main page text or h1 , h2)?
i have learned that h1 has more value than h2 and h2 has more than h3, but lets say if i want to place my keywords in there. should i include them in the main body or should take advantage of header tags?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Sam09schulz0 -
Hiding ad code from bots
Hi. I have a client who is about to deploy ads on their site. To avoid bots clicking on those ads and skewing data, the company would like to prevent any bots from seeing any ads and, of course, that includes Googlebot. This seems like it could be cloaking and I'd rather not have a different version of the sites for bots. However, knowing that this will likely happen, I'm wondering how big of a problem it could be if they do this. This change isn't done to manipulate Googlebot's understanding of the page (ads don't affect rankings, etc.) and it will only be a very minimal impact on the page overall. So, if they go down this road and hide ads from bots, I'm trying to determine how big of a risk this could be. I found some old articles discussing this with some suggesting it was a problem and others saying it might be okay in some cases (links below). But I couldn't find any recent articles about this. Wondering if anybody has seen anything new or has a new perspective to share on this issue? Is it a problem if all bots (including Googlebot) are unable to see ads? https://mza.bundledseo.com/blog/white-hat-cloaking-it-exists-its-permitted-its-useful
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Matthew_Edgar
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4535445.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBO-1ETf_dY0 -
Best tips needed to compete in SEO industry? (Thank you in advance)
Hello Moz Friends, So I wanted to ask for your friendly tips. Im in Colorado and my competition has business names like Colorado SEO and then one company owns like 5 of the top 10 Google ranked sites under different names. Im an honest guy, but how does someone compete in a crazy competitive industry? How about you? Did you start at the very bottom and never got to the top? Or did you outrank the leaders? I know seo people are smart, but it's easy to wonder if there is any room left? So just wondering your success or failure stories with competing in a competitive market online Any tips are appreciated! Chris
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | asbchris0 -
Clean-up Question after a wordpress site Hack added pages with external links from a massive link wheel?
Hey All, Thought I would throw this out to ensure I am dotting my "i's" and crossing my "t's"..... Client WordPress site was hacked injected 3-4 pages that cross linked to hundreds (affiliate junk spam link wheel). Pages were removed, 3rd party cleared all malware/viruses. Heavy duty firewall and security monitoring are in place. Hacked pages are now showing as 404. No penalties, ranking issues....If anything there was a temporary BOOST in rankings due to the large link-wheel type net that the pages were receiving....That has since leveled out rankings. I guess my question is, in your opinion is it best to let those pages 404, I am noticing a large amount of links going to them from all over the world from this large link net that was built. I find the temptation to 301 re-direct deleted pages to the homepage difficult...lol..{the temptation is REAL}. Is there anything I am missing? Any other steps that YOU would take? I am assuming letting those pages 404 would be the best bet, as in time they will roll off index.... Thank you in advance, I appreciate any feedback or opinions....
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Anthony_Howard0 -
Best Location to find High Page Authority/ Domain Authority Expired Domains?
Hi, I've been looking online for the best locations to purchase expired domains with existing Page Authority/ Domain Authority attached to them. So far I've found: http://www.expireddomains.net
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | VelasquezEF
http://www.domainauthoritylinks.com
http://moonsy.com/expired_domains/ These site's are great but I'm wondering if I'm potentially missing other locations? Any other recommendations? Thanks.1 -
Attracting custom from 3 cities - Is this the best way to optimize?
Hi, I'm working for a client that draws custom from 3 nearby cities - I was thinking of creating a new page for 2 of the cities, reachable from within the website and not simply doorway pages. Each new page would include (1) General info (2) info relevant to the city in question, if relevant to client - perhaps well-known customers already coming from the city in question (3) transport from the city - directions. Is it OK to do this, or could Google see it as manipulative seeing that business is not geographically located in all 3 cities (in actual fact the business is in just one location, within the official borders of one city, in another city for some administrative services and 40 miles away from the third). Thanks in advance, Luke
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | McTaggart0 -
How to handle footer links after Penguin?
With the launch of Google's Penguin I know that footer links could possibly hurt rankings. Also too many links on a page are also bad. I have a client http://www.m-scribe.com That has footer links creating well over 100 links on many of their pages. How should I handle these footer links? Suggestions are greatly appreciated.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | RonMedlin0 -
What are the best methods of White Hat SEO?
What are the best methods of White Hat SEO? How can you create good quality White Hat links? For example, how do you convince someone to link to your site?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | harrygardiner0