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Appreciate the thoroughness of the response Ed, thanks for taking the time.

Hi all,

We are looking at changing our current e-commerce store to a new platform and in doing so thinking of making some changes to how we list products in sub-categories. We have seen related questions asking about splitting a single product into multiple products to rank for different terms, but we are wondering about combining multiple products into a single product page? The examples we have seen have been about fashion items with variants of colour and size. However, the products we sell have variances that change the appearance, dimensions and technical specification, so we would like to ask the MOZ community if combining products with these variances would still be deemed good practice?

We sell wood burning stoves and a good example of a product that we are considering combining is the Scan 85 stove, which is available in eight different configurations: 85-1, 85-2, 85-3 etc. Scan themselves refer to each version as a separate product and they are bought, stocked and sold as separate products. Wood burning stoves like this typically have a firebox in the centre and then design options that can change the top, side, base, door, colour and fuel. In this example, the firebox is the Scan 85 and the variation is the last number, each of which corresponds to a different design option changing both the appearance and dimensions (see attached image).

We have them listed as eight different products on our current site, one for each version. Primarily because each option has its own name (albeit 1-digit difference) which when we created the pages we thought that more pages would present us with more ranking opportunity. However, we have since learnt that because these eight pages are all so similar and it is difficult to write unique content about each product (with the 85-1 and 85-2 the only difference between the models are the black trim on the 85-1 and the silver trim on 85-2). Especially as when talking about the firebox itself, how well the fire burns, how controllable it is etc, will be the same for all versions. Likewise, earning backlinks to eight separate pages is also very difficult.

Exploring this lead, us to the question, when is a variant a variant and when is it a separate product? Are there hard and fast rules for what defines variants and products? Or does it simply vary from industry to industry product to product, and if so should we be looking at it from a UX or SEO POV, when making that decision?

Our hope is that if we combine these eight products into a single high-quality page, it will present us with a greater ranking opportunity for that one page over eight individual pages. We also hope that in doing so will allow us to create a more intuitive UX on a single page with a unique description, more reviews focused on one page and an explanation of the options available, all of which should lead to more conversions. Finally, by creating a better UX and unique detailed description we hope that there is a higher chance of us earning product level backlinks then we do with eight lower quality pages.

One of the issues in creating a single product page for all the variants is the sub-category/results pages, as we would be removing eight simple products and replacing them with one complex product. We have questions over how this would work from a filter/facet level whereby when you apply a filter there is an expectation that the image shown will match the criteria, so if we filter for stoves with a silver trim for example, there is an expectation to only see stoves that have a silver trim in the results. When you have separate product pages you have separate listings which makes this easier to only bring back the models matching the criteria. However, when you have a single page this is more complex as you will need a default image for non-filtered results and then the ability to assign an image to lots of different attributes so that the correct image is always shown that matches the criteria selected. All of which we have been assured is do-able but adds an extra level of complexity to the process from an admin side.

The alternative to doing this would be to create eight simple/child products and link them to one configurable/parent product. We could them list the simple products into the results pages and have them all linking back to the main configurable product which could load with the options of the simple product that was selected. From an SEO POV this brings in some more work, redirecting each page to the parent, but ultimately this could provide a better UX and might be the better solution. Has anyone got any experience in doing either of these options before?

Both options above with affect the number of products we have available, so does the number of products in a sub-category effect the ability for that category page to rank? We currently have around 500 products in our wood burning stoves category, with perhaps an additional 300 to add. If we go down the combining into a single product page route this will reduce the number of products by around a third. If we keep all the simple/child products, then this will stay around the same.

So, have we missed something obvious? Is there a glaring issue that we have overlooked from an SEO point of view as well as from the customer experience? We would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks, Reece

scan85-1.jpg

Dear Andy

would you explain more about  " with nothing where I would imagine it should be"  ??

Thanks

Arta

Just one quick question !

why it says , canada in seo borwser when my server is in uk? does it matter ? can i change it ?

Thank you for SEO-brower , i started using it .will get them to index/follow .

already got the sitemap in GWT.

Thanks for description and keywords advice , such a confusing subject ! its not easy to find something to describe you , be comprehensible for users and use them to get indexed and ranked as high as possible !

Thanks

Thank Andy :

where would you imagine things should be ? would you give me couple of examples?

also would yo tell me what do you think about this website :

http://www.stovesareus.co.uk/all-stoves/multi-fuel-stoves/aarrow-acorn-4-view.html

ps. link to tool doesn't work

Arta

Thank you for quick response !

so my question was how you know if your content is visible and accessible by Google , is there a straight answer for that ?

buy now button is next to price , but when product has price match option and accessories that users can add buy now button is underneath all those choices , do you think when users have a choice of buying this product cheaper or add accessories before go to checkout buy now button should still be next to price?

you are right about reviews we tried but cant get so many of them !

Hi Everybody :

how can you tell if the content on the product pages are accessible by google ?

please have a look at my product page :

http://www.fireplaceproducts.co.uk/stoves/aarrow-stoves/aarrow-ecoburn-defra-wood-burning-stove/

i used classes in product page to set the key features, construction ,...

i notices other companies done these as text and they get better ranks do you think that's the reason ?

also to test that i added the text exact same as the key features , construction ,... as additional information at the end of the product page , would you thin that would be considered as duplication ?

Kind Regards

Arta

Hi:

your two quite similar domains may be the reason that make google and bing confused, have you tried filling these forms:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_error/?tpl=mozilla

or check this one:

http://www.stopbadware.org/home/reviewinfo

and a question ,do both of your domains redirected to same content?

Good Luck !

Arta

Thanks Mike:

the report i am looking for is the one that anysed all  my seo faults generally like not having more blogs and so on.

even before i start any campaign .. can i still see that report there were some suggestions on some parts that i can really use.

Thanks

Arta

Appreciate the thoroughness of the response Ed, thanks for taking the time.

Hi:

your two quite similar domains may be the reason that make google and bing confused, have you tried filling these forms:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_error/?tpl=mozilla

or check this one:

http://www.stopbadware.org/home/reviewinfo

and a question ,do both of your domains redirected to same content?

Good Luck !

Arta