How to optimize content pages with ecommerce?

[isle_surf]

Some content pages act as buyers guides for certain products for example

Used Paddle Boards for Sale - http://www.islesurfboards.com/used-paddle-boards-for-sale.aspx this is a content page that gets huge amount of traffic and is pure content with no products on the page,

but we also have a ecommerce section of the site that is

Used Paddle Boards for Sale -http://www.islesurfboards.com/buy-used-paddle-boards-for-sale.aspx however this page just has a small paragraph and all the ecommerce product related to this section on the page.

The content only page above gets all the traffic and rank and then they click over to the actual ecomm section wiht the products from a link on that page.

Should i merge these two together so its just one page and put the content on the ecom page? If i do all the content with push the ecommerce products down which is not good so what does anyone recommend as a best practice? Also will this mess up the content pages rank is i merge them assuming i redirect?

or Keep them seperate like i have with a content page regarding "used paddle boards for sale" and an ecommerce page that sells acutal "used paddle boards for sale"

[TakeshiYoung]

One thing to try testing is to have your product at the top of the page, with all your content below it utilizing tabs. A great example of an ecommerce site that does this (that's killing it in SEO) is Overstock:

http://www.overstock.com/Office-Supplies/Ergo-Value-Mesh-Medium-Back-Task-Chair/3861788/product.html

See how they have the product at the top with a short paragraph and a buy button, but below it they have a bunch of tabs with content on them with additional info such as product details, reviews, q&a, etc. This is a great approach for balancing sales conversions and having more content on the page.

[NakulGoyal]

If I were you, I'd consider merging them. The intent of the page is to sell and I'd rather present them what they are looking for right there or a clear call to action.

I am guessing you have multiple sets of pages like these. What's I'd do is find 1-2 examples of lower risk pages and merge them. Make sure you use the better ranking page and optimize it better (if you can) and then 301 redirect the other page to this page.

Based on the results of this test, you should have a solid plan of action. I hope this helps.