Remove inactive products from Google search

[only4kids]

When I make products inactive and not searchable, people can still find the products through Google and they try to place orders. How do I make sure that they are in fact inactive so when the person gets to the website he is told that the product can't be found like if he was to search for it on the website. Is the only way to manually delete all those products? 

[iweb_p3mbo]

Hi,

You can change the status of the product to disabled. This will result in a 404 when they visit the product page directly.

[only4kids]

Sorry I meant to say Disabled instead of inactive. I have put it as disabled but it still shows up on Google. 

[iweb_p3mbo]

Google's index will contain previously activated products until they remove them. As I said; magento serves a 404 for disabled products so eventually google will remove them.

If the product is showing on your actual site... then its highly likely its not disabled properly (e.g. not disabled in the correct store view etc..)

[only4kids]

My post was deleted. I am sorry if I can't link. 

I will try to recap without links.

- If I search for the product on my website it does not show up. 

- But the page is still active. e.g. I can open the page if I have the correct URL. 

- Because of the above Google will still index the page

So yes I agree it does not look like it isn't disabled correctly but don't know what else I can do:

- Status = Disabled

- Feed = No

- Visibility = Not Visible Individually

Am I missing something?

[carlosrob4]

Once the product is disabled, is it never gonna be active again? If not then use Google webmaster and submit the page removel request.

The other recomended way of doing this is add a upfront Popup message that product has been removed, please find a similar product "here". you can place a link to next alternative product.

[iweb_p3mbo]

Do you have multiple store views in your store? Status disabled is usually enough to stop Magento serving the page.

If you have multiple store views - please ensure that the product is disabled in all store views.

Lastly, do you have any extensions installed? As I said - this is not default behaviour so one of them could be causing it

[only4kids]

Most likely it will never be activated again but just in case the product comes back or I can use some of the information I would rather not delete it. 

My main concern is actually not that it is visible on Google. If they just received a message that the product is no longer available when they got to my page then no problem. What I don't understand is that I can still see the product with direct URL (or through Google) even though it is disabled. I have Mobile and regular store but I am only using the regular store while testing so the problem is not multi store as I see it. 

I do have extentions installed but I have just recently bought the store and the previous owner also agrees with me that the products should have been removed when disabled. 

[iweb_p3mbo]

Hi,

Could you please post a screenshot of an offending product (with the disabled status in view) (for each store view) and then also post a screenshot of the frontend with the product in-view too.

Hopefully we can spot something from them?

[only4kids]

Here you go:

http://puu.sh/jNjcq/a777cd8ff9.png

http://puu.sh/jNjg9/72e145b647.png

http://puu.sh/jNjkx/aac216f561.png

It seems very odd to me. It might be a code that has been made. If a product is out of stock it is removed from the page in terms of not being visible but still available to not lose value on Google while temporarily unavailable. Perhaps that code is preventing other products from being disabled?

Best regards

Henrik Thomsen