from Jan Griesel
plentymarkets 5.1 offers two new functions that will help you to avoid 404 errors. 404 errors (page not found) can be caused easily during your daily business, e.g. by changing your product range or reorganizing your category structure.
New sitemap
The Settings » Client (store) » Standard » SEO » Sitemap.xml menu has been revised. Now, all visible content is newly generated for each client every day. The individual content is saved in four different sitemap files: Categories of the type content, Categories of the type item, Items and Blog. You can define yourself which files should be generated. You can also specify whether each category should be included in the sitemap or not. Items and blog entries are always included in the sitemap if they were activated for the client in question.
The four sitemap files are then compiled together in one central domain.tld/sitemap.xml file.
Advantages over the previous sitemap
The previous sitemap increased in size steadily: newly entered content was identified and published in its own sitemap file every day. If content was deleted, the URL remained in the central sitemap until all sitemap files had been reset. Hence, invalid 404 URLs could also be transferred to search engines. In plentymarkets 5.1, all of the visible content is published on a daily basis. Therefore, old content is automatically deleted from the sitemap.
Deleting 404 URLs
Once a URL is part of a search engine's index such as Google, the search engine revisits the URL on a regular basis in order to determine any changes. Of course, you could also define new URL redirections for each change in your product range, however, this is very complex. We developed an alternative solution that completes this process for you automatically:
We added two further options to the Settings » Client (store) » Standard » Online store » Forwarding menu in plentymarkets 5.1. If a category URL or an item URL is no longer valid, the options Redirect for categories and Redirect for item pages will automatically trigger a redirect to a content or item search. The HTTP status message 301 (Moved permanently) will be sent simultaneously. This tells the search engine that it can delete the outdated URL.
Risks of soft 404
Automatic forwarding is useful if different or similar content can be found due to the wording in the previous URL. If no such content can be found, a soft 404 error may occur. You can use this forwarding if you usually offer similar content. We recommend that you discuss this matter with your SEO agency.
Setting up a 404 page
If you have not set up your own 404 page, go to Settings » Client (store) » Standard » Online store » Pages to do so.
If the plentymarkets CMS is not able to find the corresponding content for a URL, the page that you selected from the Page 404 drop-down menu will be displayed instead. Your SEO agency can provide you with useful tips on how to create your 404 page correctly.