Hello!
I am looking for some guidance on an SEO issue. Currently in Google, one of my most popular products always appears in the #1 position on the Google search page when certain keywords are used. I think it is possibly because I was selling this product and using good keywords for it well before anyone else was listing this item. This single item/URL is bringing a lot of traffic to my store.
However, the original product is no longer available as there is a newer version of the same thing which has it's own product page. So the original listing in my store, in the product description, I just have a graphic banner letting the shopping know there is an updated version. And the shopper can just click on the banner and be taken to the updated/newer version of the product.
In CS-Cart (using 2.2.5) I still have not 'hidden' the older version because it is still extremely popular in the search engines. Then if Google crawls my store and can no longer 'see' the hidden product, I do not know if Google will drop the link/page from its search results.
So with that, here is my question:
In my .htaccess file, if I use a RedirectMatch permanent or redirect 301 command and reroute all traffic coming in for the original (old) product URL to the new/updated product URL … will I now lose that original listing that was appearing #1 in the Google search results? Or will Google switch out the old URL with the New URL and the #1 search results listing will remain #1?
Or would it just be better to keep it as is with the banner telling shoppers that there is the newer version of this product and click here to go to it?
Thank you very much everyone!!
Depends how different the product is. If its just a newer version with most the same description/specs then just change the description and image etc and keep the old URL in the search engines.
If it has vast differences then use a canonical or 301 redirect as you say, and no you shouldnt lose any juice.
If you have cs carts canonical addon installed then if you disable the old product and insert the new products url into the canonical field this sorts it for you.
John
Thank you John! 