Should I return 404 from dynamic product page if product no longer exists?

Question

Background:

In my ASP.NET (Episerver) site, I have one product page whose content varies based on the product code parameter: www.mysite.com/product/[productcode]

There aren't multiple physical product pages - just the one that varies based on the productcode parameter. This is what I mean by "dynamic".

If the entered product code is not found in the database, the above url returns a 404 page (with a 404 status code in the header).

We never link internally to expired products, but it's possible that various affiliate sites link to outdated campaign products.

Question(s):

The 404 page is customizable, and we have taken steps towards making it user-friendly, but the focus of this question is on the status code:

Is it necessary (or encouraged) to return a 404 status code for expired/non-existent products?

Would I be just as well off by redirecting (301) to a "product not found" page, or simply showing the "product not found" content directly on the product page?

Is it errorneous to make a distinction between not found content (e.g. products, campaigns, jobs) vs not found pages?

My own research

My own research suggests that it is preferable to return the 404 status code for expired content:

Google explains that a "soft 404" (i.e. returning 200 OK but with "page not found" content) is bad practice. However, I'm not sure if this applies in my case, since I'm dealing with "content" and not "pages". Is this distinction erroneous?

Google seems to recommend returning 404 page, so the 404 page itself will not show up in search results.

This blog post suggests that soft 404 may be interpreted as a 404 anyway.

However, I've also read a bunch of (less official) blog posts that seem to suggest that the 404 response code is not important, and that the most important thing is to ensure that users do not bounce off the 404 page (and this can be helped by having custom 404 pages).

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I've not been able to find a clear answer to my specific situation, so I'm hoping to be pointed in the right direction. I'm tempted to just go with Google's general advice of returning 404 for not found content. I struggle with finding a clear answer

Answer 1

I would think you would need to return a 410 status code (gone) because this tells the spiders/clients that it is no longer in existence and remove it from the search engine/client cache.

Answer 2

Is it necessary (or encouraged) to return a 404 status code for expired/non-existent products?

From a technical perspective, yes - you should use either 404 (products that might be available again later in time) or 410 (product will not be sold on your website anymore). As someonone has already mentioned, 410 will delete your page faster from Google search results.

From a SEO perspective, the answer is: it depends. The advantage of using 404/410 is that you save crawl budget, and it can be used for more relevant content. Also, your pages won't be listed on SERPs anymore, so it is better from a UX perspective (users don't land on your website, first impression they get is "product not found").

But if you receive lots of traffic from backlinks and/ or from search engines for this page, it might be a good idea to continue this page for a while. You then should try to provide interesting content to the users looking for this product. E.g.: Why is this product not available anymore? Are there simalar products they can find in your shop?

A good read I found on this topic is https://www.contentkingapp.com/academy/discontinued-products/

Would I be just as well off by redirecting (301) to a "product not found" page, or simply showing the "product not found" content directly on the product page?

What counts for Google is the content and the status code of the final page. It does not make a big difference if there is a 301 redirect before or not (crawl budget would be one of the reasons why not using a redirect is still the best choice).

Is it errorneous to make a distinction between not found content (e.g. products, campaigns, jobs) vs not found pages?

There are lot of different scenarios and it makes sense to have a close look to each of them. Just sending the same 404 page whenever something goes wrong is not the best way to go.

Answer 3

I recommend you to choose one of the solution from below:

1. Keep the old product pages with information that product is no longer for sale (with HTTP status 200). Many big brands are using this method.
2. Redirect each of non existed product to the most similar/alternative product using 301 redirect. It's better than serving 404 or 410, because this kind of redirect will also pass the link juice from external backlinks and also if the product is back then you can simply remove the redirection and display the native product back again. Remember that redirecting product to homepage can be considered as soft 404 - that's why it's best to redirect to the most relevant/similar product.

Having a lot of 404 errors is not good for both user experience and Google (Search Console is reporting 404 errors). You might lose the trust for the URL if you will temporary serve 404 or 410 and then change it back to 200.