Approach for discontinued categories and products

[drewk]

My web site previously offered several categories of an indoor type of product, which have since been permanently discontinued. We do still offer a full line of the outdoor type of these products. The usage is quite different (indoor vs. outdoor), and customers looking for the indoor variety are not likely to be immediately interested in the outdoor ones. But the pages for the discontinued categories and products have built up significant page authority and rank quite well even for more generic searches which are not indoor or outdoor specific. I am interested in opinions on what approach to take for the discontinued category pages and product pages.

Currently, the discontinued pages are accessible by direct link, but have been removed from the site's navigation menus and on-site search. The pages include some messaging for visitors to inform that we no longer offer this type of product, with some links to active categories.

We can remove these pages and serve a 404 error page. Or, we can redirect these pages to the outdoor product category (but all would have to be redirected to a single category, as the specific outdoor categories and products don't map logically to specific indoor ones). Or, we can keep as-is.

I am interested in opinions on approach, either between these options above, or other alternatives.

[ATP]

Hi there,

You have kind of answered your own question in my opinion.

"The usage is quite different (indoor vs. outdoor)" & "the specific outdoor categories and products don't map logically to specific indoor ones"

You only want to be redirecting if the location is useful to the customer. Thinking "i dont want to loose the authority i've built up", whilst a valid chain of thought doesn't mean you should redirect it somewhere for the sake of it

I would personally take 1 of 3 approaches

1. Find a suitable replacement line of products from another supplier so you have somewhere valid to sent the customers
2. 404 the pages and accept you no longer offer a service that users searching for this phrase would find useful
3. Write an informative article / piece on the subject, highlighting the possible use of an outdoor version instead of the indoor as a place-holder piece of content or permanent replacement until new content can be sourced.

Some may disagree but thats what I would do