How to handle disabled manufacturer categories

[larsbachs]

Hello there,

 

I have a lot of manufacturer categories that I have disabled and which won't be enabled again. But Google managed to crawl index them while they were active meaning they now show up in the search result. What I have done is submitting a new sitemap to Google to solve the issue.

 

My question goes how I should handle deactivated categories/manufactures on my site from a SEO perspective? Is it enough to disable the categories and let Google do its work or should I make a redirect to the main page or something else?

 

A bonus question is why doesn't Prestashop show a 404 when a manufacturer has been disabled? See what I mean here: http://korte-bukser.dk/23_bjorn-borg

 

Appreciates your help.

[Ronaldo Perez]

If the category has been completely removed and you do not sell similar productsin other categories, the best - show 404

If the disabled category, you get targeted traffic and you want to convert ... I would be in your place or tried to redirect the customer to the correct page, or show them any text

 

A bonus question

wow, I get bonus))

manufacturer disabled or deleted? If disabled - then this page is quite logical, you can tell the customer the reason forsuch conduct site (such as a temporary stop of supply by manufacturer)

[larsbachs]

#SergeyH

thank you for your reply. I agree that the best thing would be to show a 404 when a category no longer will be used. What confuses me is the following:

 

1. http://korte-bukser.dk/23_bjorn-borg -> when the manufaturer is DISABLED the page shows "

Manufacturer does not exist."

2. http://korte-bukser.dk/23_bjorn-borg -> when the manufaturer has been DELETED it stil shows "

Manufacturer does not exist."

Why doesn't PS doesn't show a 404 when a manufacturer has been deleted? In such a case I would expect to see

http://korte-bukser.dk/page-not-found

[Ronaldo Perez]

Aha, I checking, really if go to url /manufacturer.php?id_manufacturer=XXX show text "

Manufacturer does not exist.

"

hmm... strange, I thought that by default shows 404 page

[Mister Denial]

Personally I would go with a 301 redirect or at least a custom 404 error page. I know I immediately leave a website if the first page I visit is a 404, so if you don't want to lose the traffic, you should redirect them.