martinibuster - 8:06 am on May 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

I agree with MisterT. It's an opportunity to move that traffic to another product where the money resides. To not do so is to throw away the traffic, to waste an opportunity. Why throw away traffic that is in the buy cycle?

Killing the page is the same as if a potential customer walks into an actual store asking for a Widget 2000 and the potential customer is told no it's not stocked and shown the door. It's a stunningly foolish thing to do. The smart thing to do is say that we carry the Widget 2010, which does more and costs the same, etc.

Another thing that I like about MisterT's solution is that it doesn't waste link equity.