Where should a discontinued product redirect?

Where should a discontinued product redirect?

'Q: Product is gone for good. 301 to the category or to a similar product?'

Short answer: To the closest equivalent product if one exists; only fall back to the category when nothing comparable replaces it.

The longer version: the deciding factor is relevance match. Someone landing on a redirect from 'Sony WH-1000XM4' wants headphones, ideally the XM5 — not a generic 'Audio' category where they restart their search. A tightly relevant product redirect preserves both rankings and conversions.

When there's a genuine successor, 301 to it. When there are several similar options but no clear heir, 301 to the subcategory holding them. Only when the product was truly one-of-a-kind and nothing fits does the broad category make sense.

The trap: 301-ing hundreds of dead products all to the homepage. Google reads mass redirects to an irrelevant target as soft 404s and may ignore them entirely, dropping the equity.

Rule of thumb: redirect to the page that best answers the original intent, not the easiest target to code.

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