Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Duplicate eCommerce Product Descriptions
-
I know that creating original product descriptions is best practices. What I don't understand is how other sites are able to generate significant traffic while still using duplicate product descriptions on all product pages. How are they not being penalized by Google?
-
From my experience as an SEO for a large eCommerce site (our own products), I tend to think that Google has a way of recognizing eCommerce site from purely informational ones and takes that into consideration when analyzing content.
As you say Chris, many producers will distribute their catalogs to all their dealers and they in turn will put those online. The same happens with our products here. Our dealers use the very description we provide them with and no one has ever been penalized for that.
As said, I personally think that Google takes the intent of your site (eCommerce, informational etc. ) into consideration when slapping duplicate content penalties.
Having said that, i have no data to back up that claim so go easy on me, it's only based on my gut feeling and practical observations.
-
I can definitely understand the frustration, but Google won't penalize sites for simply having duplicate content, and especially storefronts. Many merchants are provided with photos and product descriptions by the distributor, and when you're talking about hundreds or even thousands of products, it just not feasible for a merchant to change all of the descriptions and even more so if your inventory is changing on a monthly or even weekly basis. Then all of your changes get overwritten with the new upload.
A good example would be the SMC websites that you see on late night TV where they send out a CD with products to thousands of customers and 98% of them just upload the database into their stores with little to no alteration. They won't be penalized, but they just won't be able to sell much.
In those cases, the sites aren't going to be penalized. And if those sites are ranking well without changing the content, then Google is definitely looking at other factors to make that decision (traffic, bounce rate, time on site, etc.).
The sites Google are penalizing are the ones that intentionally try to game the system by stripping content from other sites and reposting them with literally no changes at all. Also sites that try to duplicate one of their stores multiple times in a cookie cutter fashion in order to trick the system to see if they can get multiple listings on the SERPs.
You haven't provided specific sites to review for a definitive answer here, but they don't sound like they're trying to do anything black hat. They're just lazy. But if your site will be selling the same products, altering your descriptions and images is the only way that you'll get the advanatage over them instead of just becoming "yet another one of those sites". Good luck!
-
Thanks for the Amazon comment Chris :). I understand the multitude of variables when asking this question but after looking at a group of sites with similar backlink profiles, site architecture, etc. and all use duplicate product descriptions I am taken aback that they are not penalized. Even looking at smaller sites that are not properly constructed or optimized use duplicate product descriptions and still drive traffic/rank. Then I read all about rewriting product descriptions from SEOMoz and others (this information gels with what I know to be true) but then see sites still rank with this thin/dupe content.
Any thoughts?
-
That could be for a variety of reasons. Is that site the only one that is offering that particular product? Is it a highly trafficked site with a lot of backlinks, reviews, and online activity? Are the pages simply coded properly using canonical tags which help them escape "wrath"? These are all valid questions when you're doing competitive analysis and all things that Google considers along with dozens of other considerations.
Your best practice is to create new descriptions, take new photos or alter the existing ones (add text, crop, change contrast, etc.). This way your listing is seen as fresh and original content and will eventually take precedence over their carbon copy approach. If you have a better page with better content that's more informative to the customer, Google will choose your listing over 20 other sites that all have the same photos and descriptions.
Originality always wins....in most cases. Keep in mind that there are many other considerations in the Google algorithms, so don't expect to beat out Amazon no matter how hard you try.
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
-
Duplicating words in the page title OK?
Im finding a site with lots of duplicated words in the title tags, I have always avoided doing this in the past, Is there any penalty for having a word repeated twice in the title, indeed is there a benefit from having it twice, IM assuming not
On-Page Optimization | | Donsimong
For example: Marketing Services in Milton Keynes | Our Services | TFA
https://www.t-f-a.co.uk/services the word service is repeated twice, in my opinion this is of no benefit at all and is better rewritten to remove the duplication1 -
Canonicalising a product with multiple variants
I am working with an ecommerce site and have encountered an issue I haven't come across before and would appreciate some advice on how to proceed. There are multiple variation products with one master product and then up to 20 or 30 variant products, the variation could be colour, size or both. The site has been set up to canonicalise all the variations to the master variant product, which I understand to be best practice. But, this is where the issue occurs, the master variant product URL 302 redirects to one of the variant product URLs. Example below. My question is, is this harmful to our SEO efforts? Would be be best to canonicalise to a preferred colour or size variation? EXAMPLE: Master variant product: www.example.co.uk/primary-category/product-123 Seeing this product on the page and clicking will 302 redirect to www.example/co.uk/primiary-category/product-123/colour-456 On page www.example/co.uk/primiary-category/product-123/colour-456 the canonical tag is www.example.co.uk/primary-category/product-123 Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | SimonKenworthy0 -
Product content length & links within product description
Hello, I have questions regarding content length and links within descriptions. With our ecommerce site, we have thousands of products, each with a unique description. In the product description, I have links to the parent category and grandparent category (if it has one) in the main product text which is generally about 175 words. Then I have a last paragraph that's about 75 words that includes links to our main homepage and our main product catalogue page. Is the content length long enough? I used to use text that was 500 words, and shortening it I still rank when launching new products, so I don't think an increase in text length will have any additional benefit. I do see conflicting information when I do searches, with some people recommending a minimum of 300 words and some saying to try and go a 1000 for category pages. In regards to the links, I noticed a competitor has stopped following this format, so I'm unsure if I should keep going too. Is it too many links to have each of the products link back to the main catalogue and homepage? Is it good to have links with anchor text to the categories a product is in? There are breadcrumbs on the page with these links already. There are already have heaps of links on our pages (footer, and a right sidebar with image links to relevant categories), so my pages do get flagged for too many links. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | JustinBSLW0 -
Duplicate Content Re: Product listing body copy on Website, Amazon & Ebay - issues ?
Hi Is it ok to have identical product body copy on market/platform listings same as the websites product listings ? In this case the products are the websites/own brand products (all pages canonicalised), so i take it shouldn't cause any issues or are you supposed to differentiate the product body copy on marketplace listings ? Im asking re seo reasons All Best Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
How many product subcategories are ok?
Let's say I have a sea glass ankle bracelet. On my site, my main keyword is "Sea Glass Jewelry" and have ranked relatively well for this, but this main page has over 200 products in it. I thought that if the URL has the keywords in it, it would be beneficial. I also have a section for all my bracelets, so it would be there and then, a more specific ankle bracelets category. So, technically, an ankle bracelet will show up 3x. Sea Glass Jewelry (all products go here) Bracelets (all bracelets go here) Ankle Bracelets (only ankle bracelets) The URL is only attached to the main category so to speak. If you click the ankle bracelets category, the url will still revert back to the original main category: seaglassjewelry/sterlinganklebracelet so I don't believe there is duplicate content. I have had my domain for years and it has ranked well until someone hacked into my site 2 years back. I have never been able to recover from this loss. Since then, I have tried to optimize my site, but nothing seems to be working and I just want to make sure that I am not hurting my ranking by doing this. Can someone confirm this is the best way to do it or make a suggestion? Thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | tiffany11030 -
Meta description for Privacy Policy?
Hello guys, Quick question about optimizing other pages on my woocommerce e-commerce store. Do I need to optimize pages like the cart page, checkout page, privacy policy, return policy, shipping policy, etc? Strictly talking about on page SEO for these pages, like meta titles, description. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | The_Kiwi_Man0 -
URL Domain Used in Meta Description
Today I was asked if using a domain url in your meta description can have a negative impact on your website. This description includes a list of the homepage url, but directs visitors to a different internal page of the website. My concern fell with directing visitors to a different page of the site, but promoting the homepage in the description/snippet. With Penguin 2.1 release on the 4th, I'm very cautious of my links/urls. What are your thoughts behind this? What are the possible, if any negative impacts this could have on a site? This URL does have a brand name as so the Title.
On-Page Optimization | | flcity150 -
Meta descriptions
Whats the deal with the date at the start of the meta descriptions? I have not really looked into this but I'm guessing its a blog thing? Take this search http://www.google.co.uk/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=6packproject#hl=en&xhr=t&q=interview+with+paul+knight&cp=26&pf=p&sclient=psy&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=interview+with+paul+knight&pbx=1&fp=835cd241c8d51fff The beautifully crafted meta description is now being cut short even though its within the character limit and is now only showing 36 characters! Is there a way to remove this? Thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | CraigAddyman0