Redirects for Retired Categories: How to Sunset Sections Without Sending Everyone to the Homepage

Retiring a category is not the same as deleting a page

Category URLs often represent entire topic clusters, navigation hubs, or legacy commerce sections. A weak redirect decision here can confuse both users and search engines.

The common mistake

Teams often redirect every retired category to the homepage or a broad parent section, even when the intent gap is obvious.

Better approach

Redirect retired categories only to the closest credible replacement. If no relevant destination exists, a clean 404 or 410 can be more honest than a generic catch-all redirect.