Major site maintenance - easing SE damage

whats the best thing to show an SE?

[jammy]

imagine a smallish ecommerce site with 400+ product pages. the site needs to undergo a major overhaul for two months...

whats the best options for minimising damage, so when the site re-emerges the site isn't blacklisted or whatever?

am thinking a page (404 generated) with the overhaul news on it.

is a 404 the best method?

[Travoli]

Is it in any way possible to host the current site in its current form for those 2 months?

[engine]

It's also worth checking which pages are actually indexed. Those are really important pages - don't lose those out of the search engine indexes and directories.
If they get the wrong 404 (page missing entirely) they'll get dropped entirely.

[jammy]

no, the products etc, can't remain in current form.

it's basically because the suppliers are letting the owner down, which in turn lets the customers down, which is hugely more damaging than the SE...

the company started the site as an "addition" to their services... so at least the company aren't "the web-site" (eg, amazon).

the two months will allow new suppliers to be found, and a far more efficient service to be put in place from experience now gained.

[jammy]

engine, it's true those pages will be dropped, and it sounds silly to type this, but they would get picked back up again... wouldn't they? (gee that sounds bad!)

it's a real pain because more hits started coming in from the inktomi-area. google was a large percentage of referals for the site (80%+)...

[engine]

Jammy,
>they would get picked back up again... wouldn't they?

Er, well, don't take that chance. Actually, some of the databases you are in may drop the page when they get a 404 and it may not get back in easily, or without paying to be spidered.

Make it a priority to hang onto those pages in the indexes.

[Mark_A]

I have been reading this forum and now this thread with interest.

Engine can you be specific, are you advising jammy
to provide static alternatives to the previous product pages which although now obsolete, were indexed?

Are you saying that a 404 page to a new site map will not suffice because the 404 redirect itself could be enough to get the pages / site dropped?

[engine]

>provide static alternatives to the previous product pages which although now obsolete, were indexed?

Mark_A, hi,

To retain pages that exist in certain databases is the objective I had in mind. These could be of great value, especially for some search services as new, free listings are hard to come by. The pages that currently exist provide an entry point to the new website. Why not use that entry in the index to direct users to the new site?

I've pulled together a few of the threads here that discuss the options.

[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]

[kapow]

Hi Jammy

Can you temporarily re-write those pages e.g.:

"Widget-X is on hold whilst we carry out exciting new developments on our product for you. Please be patient and come back to this page in February when we unveil some industry leading improvements that we just know will impress you. Blah blah blah - marketing speak, blah blah..."

Then your page should maintain its position and you might even be able to turn the situation to your advantage by promoting the new developments on the page, - instead of "O Heck, our suppliers have dropped us in it, please wait while we sort this out.." :)