[Solved] Best Practice For Adding New Products with Slightly Changed Descriptions?

[deepee]

Hi All

 

I look after a store that sells tech products that are frequently superseded by new products with additional features.

 

An example of an old product description and friendly URL might be:-

SDI to HDMI Mini Converter
sdi-to-hdmi-mini-converter.html

 

The new product might be slightly changed and could look like this:-

SDI to HDMI 4K Mini Converter

sdi-to-hdmi-4k-mini-converter.html

 

From the perspective of retaining links that will have already been indexed, is it better just to modify the descriptions on the original page, or to create a new product page and do a 301 redirect from old (offline) page to new page?

 

Thanks

deepee

Edited September 30, 2014 by deepee (see edit history)

[Dh42]

I would never take products down, unless they are being directly replaced by new versions. That being said, I would 301 redirect the old product page to the new product page. 

[deepee]

Thanks, so if we take this example where the only change to the the product description would be the addition of "4K".

A new page with "4K" appearing in the friendly URL would be better than retaining the description modified old page and existing friendly URL without the "4K"?

[parsifal]

Hi deepee.


If you intend to edit the old product and change title, descriptions etc., this means that the new product will keep the same ID (id_product in ps_products table).

Now, if you aren't using a module for removing the ID requirement for the products route/URL, your product would intially have, say the following full URL:
 

http://www.yourstore.com/productcatagory/5142-sdi-to-hdmi-mini-converter.html

 
After the edit, you would have the following URL:
 

http://www.yourstore.com/productcatagory/5142-sdi-to-hdmi-4k-mini-converter.html

For everyone that visits the old link, PrestaShop will automatically perform a 301 redirect to the new link. At least when running under the Apache web server with a correctly generated .htaccess file. In fact, even these kinds of URLs would work:
 

http://www.yourstore.com/5142-.html

http://www.yourstore.com/5142-WHATEVER-TEXT-HERE.html

You can test this yourself with real examples in your website. PrestaShop will perform an appropriate 301 redirect.

 

 

I don't think there is a SEO benefit one way or the other, since 301 redirects transfer the old "link juice" to the new link. There is an added benefit if you want to keep the old product in your store: historic reasons, information completeness etc., so it's really up to you.

Although, there may be other concerns when you are making an in-place editing of an old product to change it to a new product. For example, in my case this would be a big no-no, because in our company ERP every new product means a new ID necessarily. And since I import the products in PrestaShop with an ID that must match the ERP's ID, I couldn't do what you are asking.

Edited April 2, 2015 by parsifal (see edit history)

[deepee]

Thank you parsifal and to all.

That puts it in perspective and I'll mark the query solved