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Client asked me to temporarily replace homepage for product list, until he decides what should be on the homepage (that's not my business :))

I would like to know, how big impact it will have on the SEO ranking if I just use URL: www.example.com for product list and after several months it changes to homepage and product list will move to other URL (www.example.com/product/list)

I think it's not good idea to do it this way. I would rather redirect every request that lands on www.example.com to www.example.com/product/list . Is this solution more SEO friendly? Or do you have another ideas?

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  • Can you not load all data of product list on home page? Because you are thinking about URL redirection and that could affect SEO. – Helping Hands Oct 12 '15 at 8:50
  • I can do that.. But would not it be worse when product list after few months suddenly dissapear from that URL (www.example.bar - its content will completely change) and reappear on another? – Yess Oct 12 '15 at 9:06
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    I agree with your but to save it from SEO negative effect , this is only way I think you can apply. – Helping Hands Oct 12 '15 at 9:07
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You can make a 302 - temporary redirect. Example in PHP: 

header("Location: /product/list", true, 302); // temporal redirect

The browsers requests the /home url, gets status 302, new url: /example back from the server. Your browser now says "Oh ok, I'll now open /example for now".

Bots understand the redirect; the 302 makes them understand this is temporary. A 301 - status redirect would've said "The requested url is no longer used, use /example from now on". In terms of SEO this means your homepage won't be forgotten, just checked less often (which isn't a problem as it contains nothing valuable).

Alternatively, make a hybrid page. Make a generic homepage with some generic welcome text and some simple explanation about the company, slam a productlist beneath/nextto that and add "Quick pick:" above, making it seem like this is the way it should work.

Technically not a big difference, but for users it is; you've just skipped the unexplainable redirect (for them it is; they wanted home). In SEO terms this is also preferred, a homepage can create some valuable content you might need, especially for a product site.

This also gives you a start on what to do on the homepage. Installing a redirect will only be forgotten.

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    Yes, I think I would go for this approach, rather than temporarily showing the "product list" on the homepage URL. Then, when you have content for the homepage you simply remove the redirect. – MrWhite Oct 12 '15 at 11:22
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    Pretty well explained. Especially the "human behaviour" of browsers and bots. – Yess Oct 12 '15 at 13:38
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    s/temporal/temporary/ – Lightness Races in Orbit Oct 12 '15 at 13:59
  • I think the key thing, which isn't explicit here, is how does this method affect/maintain SEO, as opposed to others? – underscore_d Oct 12 '15 at 15:12
  • Added a tiny bit about that :) – Martijn Oct 13 '15 at 13:51

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