If a retailer’s website shows a product for sale as out of stock, Google may reduce the display of the product page.
This was mentioned by Google search advocate John Mueller in a recent Google Search Central SEO office hours hangout.
A question was submitted by an e-commerce store owner asking whether search rankings for transactional keywords could be adversely affected if a product is sold out.
Mueller said that in theory, Google could reduce the visibility of out-of-stock product pages.
However, it doesn’t have to be. Read his full answer in the section below.
Google treats out-of-stock products as soft 404s
Mueller doesn’t rule out the possibility that out-of-stock products can reduce visibility in search results.
He explains that Google treats “out of stock” as a soft 404 error.
“It may be out of stock. It’s a simplification. I think that the fact that it is displayed as a normal search result has various factors in the product itself.
It can also appear as an organic shopping result. I think it’s possible that you won’t see organic shopping results if you don’t have it in stock, but I’m not 100% sure.
Also, when it comes to regular search results, when we see that something is out of stock, we consider it to be something like a soft 404 error and remove that URL from the search results as well.
In theory, if something goes out of stock, it can affect your visibility in search. “
Google will still show product pages if relevant
Whether or not Google treats your product page as a soft 404 error depends on how much value it provides beyond the product itself.
If this page doubles as a resource for information about the product (information that may be useful even if the product is out of stock), it may still appear in search results.
Muller continues:
“It doesn’t have to be. The pages are still very relevant to people searching for a particular product, especially if there’s a lot of information about that product on those pages. does not necessarily mean that the page disappears from searches.”
Finally, Mueller adds that the rest of the site’s rankings aren’t affected by out-of-stock products.
“Another important thing to note here is that if one product goes out of stock, the ranking for the rest of the site will not be affected.
So even if you remove that particular product thinking it resembles a soft 404 page, users searching for other products on your site will see them normally. It is not meant to have any adverse effect on replacing other parts of the site. “
Listen to Mueller’s full response in the video below.
Featured Image: Gorodenkov/Shutterstock
