When a product goes out of stock, your first instinct might be to delete the page or noindex it. That’s usually wrong.
Google recommends keeping temporarily out-of-stock product pages live to maintain rankings and link equity. The key is distinguishing between temporary stockouts and permanent discontinuations – then applying the right technical approach for each scenario.
The SEO cost of mishandling out-of-stock pages
Here’s what happens when you delete or noindex a temporarily unavailable product:
Lost rankings – That product page might have ranked for dozens of long-tail keywords. Delete it and you’re starting from zero when stock returns.
Wasted backlinks – External sites linking to your product pass zero authority if the page returns a 404 or noindex.
Slower re-indexing – Google has to re-crawl and re-rank the page when you restore it. Google can recognize stock status changes through product feeds without re-crawling, but only if the page stays live.
Poor user experience – Customers searching for your product hit a dead end instead of seeing alternatives or a waitlist.
I’ve seen stores lose 30–40% of their product page traffic after mass-deleting stockouts during supply chain issues. Recovery took months.
Decision framework: Temporary vs. permanent out-of-stock
Before you touch any settings, classify your out-of-stock products:
Temporary stockouts (keep pages live):
Standard inventory replenishment expected within 4–8 weeks, seasonal products that return annually, high-demand items with supplier delays, products with existing backlinks or significant organic traffic.
Permanent discontinuations (redirect or remove):
EOL products with no replacement planned, products you’re phasing out of your catalog, items that haven’t sold in 12+ months, supplier relationships that ended.
The technical treatment for each is completely different.
How to handle temporary out-of-stock products
Configure WooCommerce stock visibility
Keep the product published and visible in your catalog. In WooCommerce, go to Products → All Products and edit the out-of-stock item. Under Product data → Inventory, set stock status to “Out of stock” and allow backorders to “Allow, but notify customer” if you can fulfill later. Under Publish, leave status as Published.
Do not set products to “Hidden” or “Draft” – this removes them from sitemaps and category pages.
Update structured data for stock status
Google can recognize stock status through Schema.org structured data without re-crawling your page. Most WooCommerce SEO plugins automatically update your product schema when you change stock status.
Verify your schema includes:
"offers": { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/OutOfStock", "price": "89.99", "priceCurrency": "USD"}If you’re using ContentGecko with WooCommerce, our platform automatically updates structured data when product details change, including stock status.
Modify on-page messaging
Update your title tag and meta description to reflect temporary unavailability. Title: “Blue Wireless Headphones – Temporarily Out of Stock.” Meta description: “Our Blue Wireless Headphones are temporarily unavailable. Join our waitlist or view similar in-stock alternatives with free shipping.”
On the product page itself, display a prominent “Out of Stock” badge, add expected restock date if known (“Expected: March 15”), show a “Notify Me” email capture form, and recommend similar in-stock products.
Keep internal links active
When products return to stock, restore internal links to help Google recognize the status change quickly. Don’t remove out-of-stock products from category pages (use “Out of Stock” labels instead), related product recommendations, your XML sitemap, or blog posts that reference the product.
If you’ve written buyer guides or how-to content featuring the product, ContentGecko automatically maintains these internal links even when stock status changes – and updates the content to note temporary unavailability.
Implement lead capture
Add “notify me” options on out-of-stock pages to capture leads while maintaining SEO value. Plugins like Back In Stock Notifier for WooCommerce or WooCommerce Waitlist handle this automatically.
When the product returns, you have a qualified email list ready to buy – and Google sees continuous engagement signals on the page.
How to handle permanently discontinued products
Audit the page’s SEO value
Before redirecting or deleting, check backlinks using Ahrefs, Moz, or Google Search Console to find external links. Review the last 6 months of organic traffic in Search Console and note which keywords drove impressions.
If the page has quality backlinks or ranked for valuable keywords, implement a 301 redirect to a similar product to retain that SEO equity.
Find the best redirect target
Redirect to the most similar product in your catalog. Stay in the same category – if you sold “Blue Wireless Headphones,” redirect to your current wireless headphones model. Match the discontinued product’s price point and preserve the original search intent.
Avoid redirecting to your homepage or a generic category page – this wastes the link equity and frustrates users.
Implement the 301 redirect
Using Yoast SEO Premium: Edit the discontinued product, go to Advanced → Redirect this URL in the Yoast metabox, enter the new product URL and save.
Using Redirection plugin (free): Install Redirection from the WordPress plugin directory, go to Tools → Redirection → Add New, set source URL to /product/old-product-slug/ and target URL to /product/new-product-slug/, then click Add Redirect.
Using .htaccess (manual):
Redirect 301 /product/old-product-slug/ https://yourstore.com/product/new-product-slug/Verify the redirect in Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool.
Remove from sitemap and internal links
After implementing redirects, set the product to Draft or delete it in WooCommerce, remove internal links from blog posts and related products, and let your sitemap regenerate. Most SEO plugins handle this automatically.
Check your WooCommerce sitemap to confirm removal. For permanent discontinuations, clean removal signals to Google the page is gone permanently.
Monitor 404 errors
After redirecting discontinued products, monitor Google Search Console → Coverage → Excluded for “404 Not Found” errors, “Soft 404” errors, and crawl anomalies.
If Google still reports 404s, your redirect might not be working. Test with curl -I https://yourstore.com/old-product-url/ and verify you see:
HTTP/1.1 301 Moved PermanentlyLocation: https://yourstore.com/new-product-url/Advanced: Using robots.txt and canonical tags
When to use canonicals for out-of-stock products
Use canonical tags on out-of-stock pages to prevent duplicate content issues when showing alternative products. If your out-of-stock page displays similar products, set a self-referencing canonical:
<link rel="canonical" href="https://yourstore.com/product/blue-headphones/" />This tells Google the out-of-stock page is the authoritative version – not the alternatives you’re showcasing.
Most WooCommerce themes and SEO plugins add self-referencing canonicals by default. If yours doesn’t, read our guide on WooCommerce canonical tags.
When to block out-of-stock parameters in robots.txt
If you’re using query parameters to filter products by stock status (e.g., ?stock=out), block these URLs from crawling:
User-agent: *Disallow: /*?stock=outThis prevents Google from indexing filtered views that duplicate your main product pages. See our WooCommerce robots.txt guide for more parameter-blocking strategies.
How ContentGecko handles out-of-stock products automatically
Managing stock status across hundreds or thousands of products is tedious. ContentGecko monitors your WooCommerce catalog in real-time and automatically updates structured data when stock status changes (OutOfStock → InStock), adjusts internal links in blog content to prioritize in-stock alternatives, revises product mentions in buyer guides and how-to articles to note temporary unavailability, and maintains SEO-optimized pages without manual intervention.
For example, if your “Wireless Bluetooth Headphones” go out of stock, ContentGecko updates your “Best Wireless Headphones 2024” listicle to say: “Currently unavailable – see our in-stock alternative below.” When stock returns, the content auto-reverts.
Set up ContentGecko in minutes with our WordPress connector plugin – no dev work required.
Common mistakes to avoid
Soft 404s: Never leave a page live but empty with noindex. This creates poor UX and wastes crawl budget. If the product is temporarily unavailable, keep full content visible with an “Out of Stock” notice.
Removing products from categories: Don’t hide out-of-stock items from category pages unless they’re permanently discontinued. Use visual badges and keep them discoverable.
Deleting high-value pages: Before deleting any product, audit backlinks and traffic. A page with 50 referring domains is worth keeping even if the product never restocks – redirect it.
Overusing “unavailable-after” meta tag: Google’s unavailable_after meta tag provides no significant SEO advantage. Focus on stock status schema instead.
Ignoring URL structure during redirects: When redirecting discontinued products, ensure the target URL is clean and follows your site’s permalink structure. Redirecting to URLs with parameters or session IDs passes less authority.
Measuring the impact of your out-of-stock strategy
Track these metrics in Google Search Console and Google Analytics:
Impressions for out-of-stock pages – If impressions drop sharply, Google may have de-ranked the page. Check for accidental noindex tags.
CTR for “out of stock” queries – Optimize title tags to capture users searching for unavailable products.
Email signups from “Notify Me” forms – High signup rates validate your lead-capture strategy.
Return visits – Users bookmarking out-of-stock pages signal strong intent and help maintain rankings.
Use ContentGecko’s ecommerce SEO dashboard to segment product page performance by stock status and identify optimization opportunities.
TL;DR
For temporary stockouts: Keep pages live, update structured data to “OutOfStock,” add lead capture forms, and show alternative products. Don’t noindex or remove from sitemaps.
For permanent discontinuations: Implement 301 redirects to similar products, remove from internal links and sitemaps, and monitor Search Console for 404 errors.
Use structured data to help Google recognize stock changes faster. Avoid deleting pages with backlinks or traffic – redirect instead.
If you’re managing a large catalog, ContentGecko automates stock status updates across product pages and supporting content, so you never lose rankings to stockouts.