SI009 – Error Discontinued State
Overview
Assessment for error and discontinued product handling. Looks for 404 handling, discontinued product handling, user-friendly error messages, and fallback content in page (DOM/class/data patterns).
Probability that AI systems use this signal: Crawlers and generative AI pipelines consume structured and visible page signals for training and inference. Assessment-specific signals (e.g. schema, canonicals, trust cues) affect how likely a page is indexed and surfaced. The probability that this assessment's signal influences AI behavior is high when the page is in a product or compliance context.
Impact on geo compliance: Passing this assessment supports geo compliance by ensuring machine-readable and visible content meet standards that reduce the risk of wrong locale, pricing, or trust in AI-generated answers. Failing can lead to non-compliant or misleading surfacing.
What We Check
- **_extract_error_handling_information:** error_404, discontinued_handling, error_messages, fallback_content.
- **Scoring:** each +25 (total 100). **PASSED** if >= 60.
Pass / Fail and Score
- **PASSED** if score >= 60. Score: error_404 +25, discontinued_handling +25, error_messages +25, fallback_content +25. Max 100.
How to Fix When It Fails
- Implement 404 pages; handle discontinued products clearly; add user-friendly error messages; add fallback content.
Common Issues
- No 404 or discontinued handling; no error messages or fallback.
Dependencies
None.
How to Verify
- Check DOM/class/data patterns for 404 handling, discontinued product handling, error messages, and fallback content.
Additional Resources
- Error handling: 404 pages, discontinued product handling, user-friendly error messages, and fallback content improve UX and reduce broken signals for crawlers. Use clear HTTP status and optional structured data for 404/discontinued.
- Related: SD010 (availability), VC008 (broken assets). Discontinued products: consider redirects or clear “no longer available” messaging and updated schema.