Confused about sold out products

#538969
  • Resolved Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Hello – Just watched Rank Math’s video on what to do with sold out products, and I am a little confused! I do understand what was presented, but we aren’t a huge company (like Apple) so was wondering what the best option for us would be, regarding how to show or not show, sold out products?

    We have hundreds of sold out products that still show as “Search and Shop” which does give us errors from Google. I need to fix this, but before I start, I wanted to make sure I was making the changes correctly.

    I learned that I can change the Catalog visibility to “Search only” or “Hidden” but don’t know what is best? If I change to “search only” the product will still show up in a search on our website, along with current products for sale (not the best scenario.) But if we choose “Hidden” it won’t show at all, which is ok for generic things, but if you had a good product, that could still bring in traffic, wouldn’t it be best to choose “Search only” for that reason? That way the product still has searchability by Google?

    I assume that if we choose “Hidden” then we should click the Rank Math Advanced button and click the “NoIndex” button, right?

    Do Hidden items need to be removed from the XML Sitemap, or is that just for sold out products, being replaced by new products?

    Would appreciate some clarification on the above.

    Thanks in advance.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
1 2
  • Uzair

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Hello,

    Thank you so much for getting in touch and we understand your concern when it comes to out-of-stock products.

    We will try to tackle them one-by-one.

    we aren’t a huge company (like Apple) so was wondering what the best option for us would be, regarding how to show or not show, sold out products?

    You should mark the products as hidden. The only thing worse than not getting any traffic on your product pages from Google is when someone visits them, finds them to be out of stock, and bounces back to the SERPs.

    I learned that I can change the Catalog visibility to “Search only” or “Hidden” but don’t know what is best?

    As we mentioned in the video, it depends a lot on the products and whether they are temporarily out of stock, permanently out of stock or whether they are seasonal.

    Except for the seasonal products, it is always a good idea to mark the temporary and permanent out-of-stock products as “hidden”.

    But if we choose “Hidden” it won’t show at all, which is ok for generic things, but if you had a good product, that could still bring in traffic, wouldn’t it be best to choose “Search only” for that reason? That way the product still has searchability by Google?

    It would be then the users would bounce once they find the out of stock products.

    Alternatively, you can have related products on that out of stock product page so the users don’t feel disappointed when they visit your product page.

    I assume that if we choose “Hidden” then we should click the Rank Math Advanced button and click the “NoIndex” button, right?

    If you mark the product as Hidden, we will automatically mark it as noindex.

    Do Hidden items need to be removed from the XML Sitemap, or is that just for sold-out products, being replaced by new products?

    Hidden products will be removed from the XML Sitemaps since they are marked as hidden.

    Hope that helps.

    Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Thanks for the clarification!

    Trying to understand how this affects us brings up a few more questions though….

    #1 – Is it really bad to just delete products pages and images (vs hiding them) so our WP/WC database doesn’t get huge? I don’t see the point in keeping images/listings online, if they are hidden?

    #2 – When should sold out products be moved to hidden? I’ve always left sold out products on the website so customers could come back and check on them, if they had a question, or if there was an issue. I guess a hidden listing could always be made active again, if this happens?

    Another thing about sold out items…I have a lot of cases where I list something similar to a sold out listing. It is a lot easier to go find and copy an old listing, then create it from scratch. Searching in the admin area of WooCommerce is a nightmare. I usually search the actual website, for old products, so “hiding” items will be a PITA!

    #3 – What is the “search results only” choice used for then, in the catalog visibility area?

    #4 – While I am learning about all this, I wanted to ask about this scenario (which I’m sure is really bad.) In the past, if I was listing a new version, of a sold out item, I would just open that old (sold out) listing, (since it had the same title and it was still classified as “Shop and Search” since I didn’t know better), make a few text changes, change out the photos, and then publish the old listing, with the new info.

    Since we have a lot of items that use the same name/title, in the permalink area I always add our sku number for that product, to differentiate between products. So, when creating a copy of an old, sold out product, I would use the same listing, change photos, text, AND permalink. I’m sure this is breaking a lot of rules! Here is an example of an old and new listing:

    Sold out listing still classifed as “shop and search” (hsfy number is our sku number for that product.)

    Old Title: Attract Abundance Mini Crystal Grid
    Old permalink: attract-abundance-mini-crystal-grid-hsfy01012123

    New listing:
    New Title: Attract Abundance Mini Crystal Grid
    New permalink: attract-abundance-mini-crystal-grid-hsfy12122301

    I know the Permalink is supposed to match the title, and I don’t know who told me to do this, but this is how I have created every listing for years. I don’t want the sku in the title, so the permalink area seemed the best place to put it? Is this a horrible practice?

    The above listing is a simple example. We sell a lot of Jewelry, and we might have 18 pairs of Labradorite Earrings. If I keep creating titles that just say: “Labradorite Earrings” the only thing that Woo Commerce will do is add a -1, or -2 to the Permalink area, right? This is why I have always put the sku in the permalink area.

    I don’t know what the proper way of doing the above should be?

    Hopefully that isn’t too confusing?

    Thanks for any info.

    Sandeepan Kumar

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    Let’s take the situation one after another

    Is it really bad to just delete products pages and images (vs hiding them) so our WP/WC database doesn’t get huge? I don’t see the point in keeping images/listings online, if they are hidden?

    If there’s limitation from the server in terms of innodes / space, I will certainly delete the product & images as it will free up the space. Now, before deleting I’ll set 301 redirect to something similar product as I don’t want user to land to homepage and make them work hard to find the product. Hidden products are still accessible via direct link and if someone arrived there, he will see the SOLD out product. Now, we should ask what we actually want. Should we redirect them to something similar or make them go to SOLD OUT product?

    When should sold out products be moved to hidden? I’ve always left sold out products on the website so customers could come back and check on them, if they had a question, or if there was an issue. I guess a hidden listing could always be made active again, if this happens?

    According to me sold out product should be made hidden as soon as they are sold out. It takes time from Google for the link to be removed. So, user can still access that product via direct link if they have any question / issues about the product. Moreover, the user account dashboard also has the link for the product they bought.

    Another thing about sold out items…I have a lot of cases where I list something similar to a sold out listing. It is a lot easier to go find and copy an old listing, then create it from scratch. Searching in the admin area of WooCommerce is a nightmare. I usually search the actual website, for old products, so “hiding” items will be a PITA!

    For better search result and user experience we need to take some pain. Gaining user and having a competitive ROI is what we all are looking for. We don’t want to loose customer. At the end, it’s all about selling your product to the user and users these days have too many options to buy from.

    While I am learning about all this, I wanted to ask about this scenario (which I’m sure is really bad.) In the past, if I was listing a new version, of a sold out item, I would just open that old (sold out) listing, (since it had the same title and it was still classified as “Shop and Search” since I didn’t know better), make a few text changes, change out the photos, and then publish the old listing, with the new info.

    I would certainly not use this method. There are few plugins which can help you in duplicating the post as editing the current one and changing the URL is not recommended. You are in fact creating 404 of the old product. If you want to do this in future, I would recommend creating 301 before doing it. You can set URL as whatever you want as far as it’s unique.

    I hope I had answered all your queries and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.

    Thank you

    Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Thanks for the answers but you missed a few questions!

    #3 – What is the “search results only” choice used for then, in the catalog visibility area?

    Continuation of question #4

    Since we have a lot of items that use the same name/title, in the permalink area I always add our sku number for that product, to differentiate between products. So, when creating a copy of an old, sold out product, I would use the same listing, change photos, text, AND permalink. I’m sure this is breaking a lot of rules! Here is an example of an old and new listing:

    Sold out listing still classifed as “shop and search” (hsfy number is our sku number for that product.)

    Old Title: Attract Abundance Mini Crystal Grid
    Old permalink: attract-abundance-mini-crystal-grid-hsfy01012123

    New listing:
    New Title: Attract Abundance Mini Crystal Grid
    New permalink: attract-abundance-mini-crystal-grid-hsfy12122301

    I know the Permalink is supposed to match the title, and I don’t know who told me to do this, but this is how I have created every listing for years. I don’t want the sku in the title, so the permalink area seemed the best place to put it? Is this a horrible practice?

    The above listing is a simple example. We also sell a lot of Jewelry, and we might have 18 pairs of Labradorite Earrings. If I keep creating titles that just say: “Labradorite Earrings” the only thing that Woo Commerce will do is add a -1, or -2 to the Permalink area, right? This is why I have always put the sku in the permalink area.

    I don’t know what the proper way of doing the above should be?

    Reinelle

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Hello,

    #3 – What is the “search results only” choice used for then, in the catalog visibility area?

    This option would be best selected in case your products are temporarily out of stock or seasonal where you still wanted your customers to view the product. This helps them to reduce the effort in searching for the product or skimming the category pages.

    You can also watch this video where we tackle how to deal with out-of-stock products:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=macHOTgvARc

    Continuation of question #4

    As my colleague mentioned above, you should avoid this as the previous product you are modifying would land on a 404 page. However, if you have been doing those before, then we recommend setting a 301 redirect instead so the previous product’s link juice can be passed as well.

    Also, this could lead to duplicate title issue since they are showing different products with the same title. If you have two pages with different content but the same page title, then you should think about giving the individual pages page titles that are more specific.

    Hope that helps.

    Thank you.

    Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    That’s the video I already watched! So, it wasn’t so helpful that I didn’t have other questions!

    Does the “Search Results Only” hurt your Google/SEO rankings because no price would be showing?

    Right now, on one website, we have a lot of products that are out of stock, but still show as “Shop and Search”. I do want to keep these products on the site (and have them in a “recently sold” category), because it shows the history of what we’ve sold (i.e., authentic Designer Handbags.)

    I am trying to find an alternative to “Shop and Search” or “Hidden.” So, would the “Search Results Only” be the best option for this scenario?

    Jeremy

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Hello,

    Having a product page with no price may indeed affect the ranking.

    Search engines want to provide the most relevant and helpful results to their users and if the users click on your product page from the search results and find that the product is out of stock or has no price listed, they may quickly leave your website, leading to a high bounce rate which we already explained before.

    However, it’s generally okay to have a category page that contains the history of sold-out products as long as it is properly marked as noindex so the search engine will no longer see it as you intend this page for the users only.

    Please note that if you plan on adding stocks for a particular out-of-stock product, then you need to indicate when this product is expected to be available again and for that, you can choose the “Search Results Only” method.

    Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need my assistance with anything else.

    Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Thanks for all the info.

    Princess

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Hello,

    We are super happy that this resolved your issue. If you have any other questions in the future, know that we are here to help you.

    If you don’t mind me asking, could you please leave us a review (if you haven’t already) on https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/seo-by-rank-math/reviews/#new-post about your overall experience with Rank Math? We appreciate your time and patience.

    If you do have another question in the future, please feel free to create a new forum topic, and it will be our pleasure to assist you again.

    Thank you.

    Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Had another question about this issue….

    I’ve changed my sold out products to “hidden” and I believe one of the reps above said that once you do that, then the listing is automatically set to “No Index” as well?

    I just opened a hidden listing, and the “Index” box is still checked.

    Do we have to manually check the NoIndex box when we change a product to hidden, or if the listing is hidden it doesn’t need the NoIndex box checked?

    Kind of confused again…

    Reinelle

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Hello,

    Sorry for the confusion, but the Noindex Hidden Products option is only available using the upgraded version (Rank Math PRO).

    Here’s a link for more information:
    https://rankmath.com/kb/general-settings/#noindex-hidden-products

    In the free version, you may need to set their robots meta to noindex manually as you have described.

    Looking forward to helping you.

    Thank you.

    Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    It would really help if answers were given that pertained to us, rather than just blanket answers for “Pro” subscribers.

    Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    If we purchase Rank Math Pro now, will it apply the “No Index” to all the products we’ve already hidden?

    Reinelle

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Hello,

    Apologies for missing that part from the replies.

    Yes, once you have enabled the option, all of your hidden products will be affected as well.

    Thank you.

    Kevin Wilson

    2 years, 9 months ago

    Rank Math free

    The above wasn’t really an answer, especially since it seems we are getting erroneous info here.

    So you are saying, if we purchase Rank Math Pro, then ALL the products we have ALREADY HIDDEN, will automatically be set to “NoIndex?”

    RankBot

    2 years, 8 months ago

    Hello,

    Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.

    If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.

    Thank you.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
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