A lot of product pages with very similar content
-
I'm working with someone who's setting up an online jewelry store. The jewelry is available in many metal types, so we're creating filters to provide a good user experience in trying to narrow down their choice.
Let's take an example of a wedding ring that's available these options:
10kt yellow gold
10kt white gold
18kt yellow gold
18kt white gold
Palladium
PlatinumThese are all entered as separate products, so that they can be used in the filtering system. However, apart from some minor changes to the title and description most of the content will be identical, across these 6 product pages.
Also, many wedding ring styles are going to be very similar, so we're going to have very similar descriptions for a lot of the rings.
We're concerned about problems this might cause with the search engines in terms of duplicate content. There's 2 issues that I an see (there may be more!):
- They will not index many of the pages and we'll leak link juice to those pages that will never get indexed
- They do index all the variations, but the content is so similar, that we have different pages competing for essentially the same keywords
Also, these products are likely to come and go, so investing heavily on creating really unique content for them isn't really sustainable, affordable.
Any advise?
Thanks,
-
Thanks Ricko. That's is what we're thinking. Put it up and see what happens before blocking pages or anything like that.
There is an existing site there already. We're doing a redesign, using a new eCommerce platform. The site currently has a domain authority of 27, and all the category pages urls we'll be able to maintain, and they have page authority, which is good. So, it shouldn't take long for us to see what will happen with the new pages.
Thanks.
-
Ahh, I better understand your initial comment. Your concern makes complete sense.
I'd still go with the form technique and apply it to title tags as well (see EGOL's comment). It will help you better target longer tail which may be your best bet anyway (unless you're already a link powerhouse and can compete for the more general search phrases).
I wouldn't go an hide/canonical/disallow anything until i knew G was having a problem with it. But that's just me.
Is this site replacing an old one? What's that structure like and is anything working there?
-
Thanks for comprehensive reply, Ricko.
First, just to address what you mentioned about getting 2 listings: my concern was more about 2 of my pages competing for keywords, when actually 1 page with more page rank (rather than page rank being split over 2) would have a better chance of ranking. Do you know what I mean?
The form optimization solution sounds interesting, and this is stuff that we're planing to do, but manually. My concern is though: will this make the pages unique enough? It seems from what you said that it might just be?
On the last thing you mentioned about customer reviews: this is something that I've considered. The problem is the high number of products, and the relatively low level of sales volume (initially at least) making this a more long term solution.
Thanks,
Leigh
-
Nice reply... thumbsup!
-
Hey Leigh,
First off, I'd say that your #2 concern would be a great problem to have! I'd rather own 2 of the top listings than just 1!
In scenarios where product-level optimization is not feasible/efficient/etc, I'd try to get as many data points on each product as possible and do 'form optimization'. I see that your initial descriptions are going to be similar. You should enhance them a bit using product attribute info. It takes a bit of programming but worth it in the long run!
Do you have other product attributes which can be worked into each product page template?
Maybe stuff like:
- Size availability (2,3,4,etc.)
- Color/style options (white, gold, pink, etc.)
- Seasonal availability (winter, spring, year-round, etc.)
- Parent category names (wedding ring, anniversary necklace, etc.)
- Material (gold, sterling, etc)
- Fulfillment time [1 week, immediately, etc.)
- Weight
In this case, you can enhance your descriptions with that data. For example, your product page template would look like:
The [Insert Ring Name] is a [Insert material] [Insert parent category name] available in a variety of sizes including [insert size options, comma separated]. The [insert product name] is available [insert availability attribute] and usually ships [insert fulfillment time].
Would yield something like this on a specific product page:
The 14k yellow gold ring is a yellow gold wedding ring available in a variety of sizes including 1,2.3 and 4. The 14k yellow gold is available year round and usually ships in 1-week.
We're still seeing form optimization work pretty well as long as:
- The content is pretty useful and not just a bunch of keywords and attributes stuffed onto each page (aka, provide value, especially to the customer!)
- You have at least a few different data points for each product which can be utilized to hide the appearance of 'form optimization'
O yeah, not sure of your sales volume but push the h*ll out of getting customers to write reviews and make sure the reviews appear in a SE friendly way on the product pages themselves for added uniqueness.
See where I'm going with this? Hope this helps and good luck!
-
Thanks EGOL.
I agree. The problem is that each metal type needs to be a separate product in order for the filter system to work correctly. And the filtering is very important so that we can provide the best user experience possible.
-
When we have a group of products that have very similar descriptions we display all of them on one page. This allows easy customer comparisons and gives you a page with very substantive content. Also, sometimes google will say in the SERPs... "6+ items".
I believe that reducing the number of pages from six to one helps you run a more compact site that will compete better in the SERPs.
As for your title tag... you might be able to be creative and communicate that you have a nice selection of rings...
Milgrain Wedding Band: White/Yellow Gold, Palladium, Platinum
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to deal with canonicals on dup product pages in Magento?
What's the best way to sort canonicals on duplicate product pages generated from products being in more than one category in a Magento web store? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Kerry_Jones0 -
What is the best way to show content in Listing Pages?
If it is e-commerce site and a product listing page there is always a conflict how to show the content? As per my understanding we can show content in two different ways. 1. To show little content and use **Read more. (**In this case there is a direct message to the google: Here is the content visible and rest content is hidden but available for visitors to read more 2. Can use** Scroll bar**. So here is the message to Google and visitors that my full content is available here. So just scroll down to read further. So I want to know that which method of showing content is best and it's impact of SEO where there is UI constraint or both the method is ok without any SEO impact. Please share your suggestions. DCdRJpH
Technical SEO | | kathiravan0 -
Are backlinks the reason for my site's much lower SERP ranking, despite similar content?
Hi all, I'm trying to determine why my site (surfaceoptics.com) ranks so much lower than my competitor's sites. I do not believe the site / page content explains this differential in ranking, and I've done on-site / on-page SEO work without much or any improvement. In fact I believe my site is very similar in quality to competitor sites that rank much higher for my target keyword of: hyperspectral imaging. This leads me to believe there is a technical problem with the site that I'm not seeing, or that the answer lies in our backlink profile. The problem is that I've compared our site with 4 of our competitors in the Open Site Explorer and I'm not seeing a strong trend when it comes to backlinks either. Some competitors have more links / better backlink profiles but then other sites have no external links to their pages and lower PA and DA and still outrank us by 30+ positions. How should I go about determining if the problem is backlinks or some technical issue with the site?
Technical SEO | | erin_soc0 -
Page that appears on SERPs is not the page that has been optimized for users
This may seem like a pretty newbie question, but I haven't been able to find any answers to it (I may not be looking correctly). My site used to rank decently for the KW "Gold name necklace" with this page in the search results:http://www.mynamenecklace.co.uk/Products.aspx?p=302This was the page that I was working on optimizing for user experience (load time, image quality, ease of use, etc.) since this page was were users were getting to via search. A couple months ago the Google SERP's started showing this page for the same query (also ranked a little lower, but not important for this specific question):http://www.mynamenecklace.co.uk/Products.aspx?p=314Which is a white gold version of the necklaces. This is not what most users have in mind (when searching for gold name necklace) so it's much less effective and engaging.How do I tell Google to go back to old page/ give preference to older page / tell them that we have a better version of the page / etc. without having to noindex any of the content? Both of these pages have value and are for different queries, so I can't canonical them to a single page. As far as external links go, more links are pointing to the Yellow gold version and not the white gold one.Any ideas on how to remedy this?Thanks.
Technical SEO | | Don340 -
Crawl Test Report only shows home page and no inner site pages?
Hi, My site is [removed] When I first tried to set up a new campaign for the site, I received the error: Roger has detected a problem: We have detected that the root domain [removed] does not respond to web requests. Using this domain, we will be unable to crawl your site or present accurate SERP information. I then ran a Crawl Test per the FAQ. The SEOmoz crawl report only shows my home page URL and does not have any inner site pages. This is a Joomla site. What is the problem? Thanks! Dave
Technical SEO | | crave810 -
Handling 301s: Multiple pages to a single page (consolidation)
Been scouring the interwebs and haven't found much information on redirecting two serparate pages to a single new page. Here is what it boils down to: Let's say a website has two pages, both with good page authority of products that are becoming fazed out. The products, Widget A and Widget B, are still popular search terms, but they are being combined into ONE product, Widget C. While Widget A and Widget B STILL have plenty to do with Widget C, Widget C is now the new page, the main focus page, and the page you want everyone to see and Google to recognize. Now, do I 301 Widget A and Widget B pages to Widget C, ALTHOUGH Widgets A and B previously had nothing to do with one another? (Remember, we want to try and keep some of that authority the two page have had.) OR do we keep Widget A and Widget B pages "alive", take them off the main navigation, and then put a "disclaimer" on the pages announcing they are now part of Widget C and link to Widget C? OR Should Widgets A and B page be canonicalized to Widget C? Again, keep in mind, widgets A and B previously were not similar, but NOW they are and result in Widget C. (If you are confused, we can provide a REAL work example of what we are talkinga about, but decided to not be specific to our industry for this.) Appreciate any and all thoughts on this.
Technical SEO | | JU19850 -
Is optimising on page mobile site content a waiste of time?
Good Morning from dull & overcast 2 degrees C wetherby UK 😞 Whilst Ive changed markup for seo purposes on desktop versions I would like to know if the principles of optimising on page content ie modifyting <title><h1> is exactly the same for <a href="http://www.innoviafilms.com/m/Home.aspx">http://www.innoviafilms.com/m/Home.aspx</a></p> <p>Whilst the desktop version of innovia films ranks well for the terms the client requested some time back now their attention is focusing on the mobile site but I feel a bit confused and I'll try my best to explain...</p> <p>Is it not totally redundant to "Optimise" a mobile site content as when i search via google on a smartphone i'm seeing the SERPS from the desktop version and when I click on a snippet the mobile site just piggybacks on the back of the listing anyway.</p> <p>Put another way is it not a royal waist of time tinkering with mobile site on page content for long as Googles SERPS on a smartphone are exactly the same as on a desktop ie they are not too seperate entities.</p> <p>Or am i totally wrong and you could optimise a mobile for a completely different term to its parent desktop version.?</p> <p>Tried to explain this the best i can, my head hurts... :-(</p> <p>Any insights</p> <p>welcome :-)</p></title>
Technical SEO | | Nightwing0 -
Page MozRank and MozTrust 0 for Home Page, Makes No Sense?
Hey Mozzers! I'm a bit confused by a site that is showing a 0 for home page MozRank and MozTrust, while its subdomain and root domain metrics look decent (relatively). I am posting images of the page metrics and subdomain metrics to show the disparity: http://i.imgur.com/3i0jq.png http://i.imgur.com/ydfme.png Is it normal to see this type of disparity? The home page has very little inbound links, but the big goose egg has me wondering if there is something else going on. Has anyone else experienced this? Or, does anyone have speculation as to why a home page would have a 0 MozRank while the subdomain metrics look much better? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | ClarityVentures0