What to do with out-of-stock and discontinued products (SEO)

Every e-shop runs out of things. Some products return in two weeks, some next season, some never. The most common reaction is also the worst one: deleting the product in the admin. The page becomes a 404, its links are lost, and the shopper arriving from Google or an old Facebook post sees "Page not found".

The right call depends on two questions: will the product come back? and does the page have value (traffic, links, rankings)?

Scenario 1: Temporarily out of stock

The product will return. The page stays live, returns a 200 status, and keeps its URL.

What to do:

• Show availability clearly: "Out of stock – expected in 2 weeks", if you know. If you do not know, do not invent dates.
• Back-in-stock alerts: a "Notify me when available" email form. These are some of the best-performing emails a shop can send.
• Alternatives near the top: "Similar items in stock" close to where the buy button would be, not at the bottom of the page.
• Schema: set availability in your Product schema to OutOfStock (or BackOrder/PreOrder where true). Google prefers honest data.
• Feeds: Skroutz, BestPrice and Google Merchant Center need availability updated promptly. A product shown as in stock when it is not leads to complaints and can lead to penalties from the platforms.

What not to do: noindex it, redirect it or hide the page. You will lose rankings you need again in two weeks.

Should out-of-stock items stay in category listings?

Yes, but at the end. Set your sorting so in-stock products appear first. Hiding them from categories is an option, but it also cuts the internal links to those pages. For large catalogues with many sold-out items, sorting is usually the most balanced choice.

Scenario 2: Discontinued, with a successor

The model changed: "Shoe X 2025" has been replaced by "Shoe X 2026". The best option here is usually a 301 redirect from the old page to the new one.

• Visitors land on what they were actually looking for.
• Links and authority from the old page pass to the new one.
• Update internal links to point straight at the new page.

Alternatively, if the old page still attracts searches (spare parts, manuals, reviews), keep it as "Discontinued – see the new version" with a prominent link.

Scenario 3: Discontinued, no successor

The product is gone for good and there is nothing close to it. Three options:

1. 301 to the most relevant category, if the page had traffic or links. Be aware that Google may treat mass redirects to categories as soft 404s when the relationship is not obvious. Redirect to the narrowest relevant category, never the homepage.
2. Keep the page marked "No longer available" with alternatives, if it brings informational traffic.
3. 404 or 410, if the page had almost no traffic and no external links. That is fine. Google knows products come and go. Just make sure your 404 page is useful (search box, popular categories).

Never redirect every discontinued product to the homepage in bulk. It is a poor experience, and Google generally ignores it anyway.

Scenario 4: Seasonal products

Swimwear, Christmas decorations, school supplies. They return every year, ideally on the same URL. Keep the page live all year as "out of season" or refresh it with the new models so it keeps its rankings. The same goes for seasonal categories such as "Christmas gifts": a stable URL that returns every year is far stronger than a new one created each December.

How to tell whether a page is worth saving

Before deciding on a discontinued product, check:

• Search Console: impressions and clicks over the last 12 months?
• Analytics: any organic or referral traffic?
• Backlinks: does a blog, forum or comparison site link to it?

If the answer is "no" to all three, a 404 is acceptable. If it is "yes" to any of them, prefer a 301 or keeping the page.

Common WooCommerce traps

• The "Hide out of stock items from the catalogue" setting hides products from categories and search, but the page itself stays reachable. Make sure that is what you want.
• Deleting a product (rather than setting it to Draft or Private) also wipes its reviews and history. Prefer unpublishing plus a redirect.
• Redirects managed by a plugin that get lost after a theme change or a platform migration. Keep a list.

What about feeds?

Your out-of-stock policy has to apply to your XML feeds too, not just the site. A few practical rules:

• Temporarily unavailable items are either sent with the correct availability or removed from the feed, depending on each platform's requirements. Check the current Skroutz and BestPrice specifications.
• Discontinued items leave the feed the same day they are unpublished on the site.
• If your feed refreshes once a day but stock changes more often, consider a more frequent refresh. Orders for products you do not have cost you in cancellations and ratings.

Checklist by scenario

• [ ] Temporarily out of stock: page live, correct schema, back-in-stock alerts, alternatives, feeds updated
• [ ] Discontinued with successor: 301 to the successor, internal links updated
• [ ] Discontinued, no successor, page has value: 301 to the narrowest category or keep with alternatives
• [ ] Discontinued, no value: 404/410 with a helpful error page
• [ ] Seasonal: same URL every year
• [ ] Monthly 404 check in Search Console

Stock changes daily. Your out-of-stock policy should be written down and followed by whoever manages products, not decided from scratch each time. If you want help setting it up, together with feeds that update correctly, see our e-commerce SEO and product feeds services, or drop us a line.