What's the playbook for a product that just went out of stock?

What's the playbook for a product that just went out of stock?

'Q: One of our bestsellers is out of stock. Do I 404 it, 301 it, or leave it?'

Short answer: Keep the page live and 200 if the product is coming back; only redirect or 410 if it's gone for good.

The longer version: Walk the tree.
— Restocking soon? Keep it 200. Add an 'email me when back' form. Keep it in the sitemap. You lose nothing.
— Discontinued but has a clear successor? 301 to the new model, not the category.
— Discontinued, no successor, but still gets traffic and links? Keep it live, mark schema availability as OutOfStock, and recommend alternatives on-page.
— Gone, no traffic, no links? 410 Gone.

Example: a retailer 404'd seasonal items every winter, then rebuilt the same URLs each spring — losing rankings annually. Switching to 'keep live + OutOfStock schema' fixed the yearly reset.

Rule of thumb: temporary stock problems are never a permanent URL decision.

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