What is the Ideal Structure for User Generated Product Reviews on My Site?

[Corp]

I apologize for the lengthy post, but I need help!

Here is my current structure for product reviews:

My product pages displays a set number of user product reviews before displaying a link to "see all reviews". So:

http://www.domain.com/product/product-page

Has product details, specs (usually generic from manufacturer) and 5 user product reviews. If there are more than 5, there is a link to see all reviews:

http://www.domain.com/reviews/product-page?page=1

Where each page would display 10 user product reviews, and paginate until all user reviews are displayed.

I am thinking about using the Rel Canonical tag on the paginated reviews pages to reference back to the main product page. So:

http://www.domain.com/reviews/product-page?page=1

http://www.domain.com/reviews/product-page?page=2

http://www.domain.com/reviews/product-page?page=3

Would have the canonical URL of:

http://www.domain.com/product/product-page

Does this structure make sense? I'm unclear what strategy I should use, but currently the product review pages account for less than 2% of overall organic traffic.

Thanks ahead of time!

[Corp]

Thanks for the input Marcus!

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Will

If your current product page has variations but only varies based on the reviews it is showing then there is not really anything unique (bar the reviews) on these pages and the main content (product details) is the same.

Maybe something like what Amazon does:

1. Main Product page with some reviews or snippets

2. Reviews page (dynamic) which the primary content is the reviews

Then, the different review pages can rank on their own merit and all that user generated content does not go to waste.

You could use a static URL for your product page and a dynamic URL for your reviews page so it would be something like this:

/category/product-name.html
/category/product-name/reviews/?page=1 
/category/product-name/reviews/?page=2
/category/product-name/reviews/?page=3
etc

Check out these amazon links:

product:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Dragon-Tattoo-Millennium-Trilogy/dp/1847242537

reviews:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1847245455/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&pageNumber=2

The amazon links are a bit crazy, but it is a sound concept overall.

Hope it helps!

Marcus

[Corp]

Hi Marcus,

Perhaps I'll need a few glasses myself to decipher your message? I kid I kid.

I believe the structure you are referring to is what I currently have. The main product page, and additional pages with paginated user reviews. The only difference is your example list static URLs for the paginated reviews vs using a page # parameter as I have.

And could you please clarify:

"if you use rel canonical back to your main product page you are losing the benefit of all of those additional reviews."

What would happen in a scenario such as:

1. I'm a spider, crawling through your product review pages
2. On the 2nd page, a very nice, useful, thorough product review
3. That 2nd page rel canonicals back to the main product page
4. There is a SE query matching the 2nd page product review exactly

Would the main product page be listed on the SERPs, or since there was a rel canonical URL of the main product page, it poofs and disappears altogether?

[Marcus_Miller]

Hmm, it's a tricky one but surely, if you use rel canonical back to your main product page you are losing the benefit of all of those additional reviews.

Just spitballing here but would it not be better to have the main product page with the first five or so reviews on and then create unique, paginated pages for the product reviews with a summary of the product details (so the reviews were the primary content).

So, we would have

product-name.html
product-name-reviews-page1.html
product-name-reviews-page2.html

This way, you get lots of nice long tail potential from the additional review pages that summarise the product, show the unique reviews  and make it VERY easy to link back to the main product page to buy?

Seems a shame to have loads of great user generated reviews and then stop yourself ranking for them. Just make the purpose of the page clear as reviews of and the path to the main page very clear so user A with concern X can have his fears allayed and click through to buy.

Had a few glasses of wine, so hope, that makes sense.