A lot of product pages with very similar content

[Leighm]

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
Platinum

These 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!):

1. They will not index many of the pages and we'll leak link juice to those pages that will never get indexed
2. 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,

[Leighm]

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.

[BTeubner]

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?

[Leighm]

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

[EGOL]

Nice reply... thumbsup!

[BTeubner]

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!

[Leighm]

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.

[EGOL]

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