301 Redirect & Duplicate Content

[lbohen]

We currently have 16465 audiobook products presented at our Web store. 5411 of them are out-of-publication (OOP). Here's an example: Harry Potter Audiobook 2 : Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling - cassette audiobook

Many of the 5411 OOP products are duplicates and triplicates of one title but were offered on a different medium (cassette, CD or MP3 CD) or were a different type (abridged, unabridged, dramatized). The description (story-line) is the same for all.

Because we know once a page gets on the Internet, it can live there for years, we decided to keep OOP product pages at our Web store to:

1. Let those who may have searched for the product and clicked on a link to an OOP product's page that it was no longer available.

2. Invite them to explore our Web store.

3. Let them know that although the product may not be available on cassette, CD or MP3 CD, that it might be available as a digital download.

We know that Google does NOT like duplicate content from one site to another and even within the same site.

If we redirect all the 5411 pages to one OOP page, will this eliminate this duplicate content issue? The OOP page would explain that the title they were looking for is no longer available but that it might be available as a digital download.

[alsvik]

We are working on a system to 301 to closest relevant product/category with a text box being displayed showing the reason to the redirect and some usefull general links.

[KeriMorgret]

Stephanie Chang wrote a post at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-should-you-handle-expired-content that talks about handling expired content, that may help with some ideas for you.