Should I consolidate products that only vary by color?
-
I've been hired to help improve the SEO for a furniture e commerce site, and in their product listings you'll see several instances where the same product is repeated 5 times, varying only by 'finish'.(Usually Cherry, Mahogany, Maple, etc)
I would think that traditionally, this seems like a no brainer - that you would consolidate these products into variable products. But in the furniture realm, I'm concerned about losing those permalinks for people that might search specifically for 'mahogany desk'.
I'm pretty sure that we will ultimately decide to consolidate into Variable products. I was thinking there could be a sub header tag that said 'Available in: ' and listed the finishes there. But of course I've still lost the color in the url, title tag. I was just wondering if anyone had any advice for me in general. Really appreciate any kind of help. Paul
-
He did, I apologize for not updating this sooner. Thanks for your help EGOL, and Matt. This site is pretty amazing. I think by focusing on google so much, some of the magic as rubbed off. Love the site's design too, as a designer. Anyway, thanks again. Paul
-
Hi Paul!
Did EGOL settle this for you?
-
Thank you for taking the time to share your advice. It was helpful, thank you
-
Most of the time, I list color, finish, size, etc. variants on the same page, but show separate photos with captions that present them.
However, if there is search and buying volume enough for "green widgets" or "brass widgets" or whatever, then I will make a separate page for them. But, when I do that, I am willing to spend enough time to make a unique product description that generously describes and explains and shows, because a substantive page will be needed to avoid duplicate content in search engines.
Separate pages are a good idea if the potential sales can justify the cost and the competition is thick enough that separate pages are needed to become competitive for the different variants of the product.
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
-
Keyword appearing on almost every slug of product pages = over-optimizatio
Hello all, I have an online store, let's say for example I sell forks of all kinds and colors. So naturally, I have 'product category' pages with titles and slugs like: Big forks
On-Page Optimization | | Veptune
Small forks
Plastic forks
Red fork
etc.. And plenty of product pages with slugs and H1 like: Small red fork
Large plastic fork
18th-century fork
etc... Some category pages are well-ranked, others are not, the same goes for product pages. The problem is that for the main keyword, 'fork' (exact query in the search console), my site is completely absent. Google should logically have referenced my homepage (which has links to all categories) for this main keyword. I have also optimized the page for it, without overdoing it. I wonder if it's not because I have a lot of pages with 'fork' in the slug, and perhaps Google thinks it's too much (even though it's logical for this word to be present in all product pages because it's an essential word to describe the product). I wonder if I should not modify half of my product pages to remove the word 'fork' from the slug...(only from the slug, without touching the H1 because removing the word 'fork' would remove its meaning). Do you have any experiences with this kind of issue? I wouldn't ask the question if my homepage was behind the competition, but it's completely absent. Thanks0 -
Should I change our main category pages to product listing pages?
With the thought of improving user experience, as well as rankings in Google, I'm considering changing our main category pages to product listing pages (with sub-categories remaining, still). These main category pages are very standard and don't link to any informational content, such as buyers guides, etc. What's driven this is the latest Google core update. I've noticed our main competitor (who we were out-ranking before... but not now) now uses this approach. I can see the benefit from a user perspective, i.e. less clicks to reach products. What's the pros/cons from an SEO point of view, please? Could the potential duplication of content be an issue? For context, we have about 2,000 products and website is on Magento 2.
On-Page Optimization | | alifeofjoy1 -
Too many links on product pages
Hello, What do you do if there are too many links on product pages? With 18 products per page, there's 2 links per product for 120 links on many pages. There's 50 products in many categories, categories are at most 1 click from the home page. Should we use pagination or not? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
ECommerce Product Meta Descriptions vs. Product Descriptions
Wondering if using on-page product descriptions as the individual product meta descriptions is a best practice for an eCommerce site? Instead of writing two product descriptions (one regular and one meta), I am thinking if the product copy is SEO rich, we'd be good to use just the one for both purposes. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Seems that many companies follow this practice. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | kennyrowe1 -
How do you avoid duplicate content when you sell products that are produced by other manufacturers?
I have a packaging product site, and they sell products from various manufacturers. What can we do with the product detail pages? As of now, the client has copy pasted content straight from the "About" sections on the manufacturers' sites. Obviously, those manufacturers want my client to sell their products, and the products need to be described. How much of a no-no is this copy pasting, and how can I fix it?
On-Page Optimization | | lhc670 -
To Optimize Brand Name or Product Name First on Product Pages for E-Commerce Website?
We are using your free month trial for optimization of our E-Commerce website. In regards to individual product pages such as this one http://www.amgair.com/air-purifiers/iqair-healthpro-plus-air-purifier/, would it be more effective to have the page title start with the brand name and then the product (as we have it now) or forgo the brand name and start with just the product. IE: IQAir Healthpro Plus Air Purifier or HealthPro Plus Air Purifier by IQAir. These are commodity type products and are price restricted so all competitive websites advertise at the same pricing and it would be helpful not only to have a keyword phrase that is searched for a lot but also one that is easy to rank for. Please give me a recommendation when possible.
On-Page Optimization | | youhow0 -
How unique do product descriptions need to be?
I'm rewriting approximately 10,000 product descriptions, but for feasability it's useful to sometimes reuse some of the phrases that are there (and on other websites as they come straight from the manufacturer -eg. key features), how unique does the content have to be - are we talking 100%, 75%, 50% for it to be effective in google? Same question goes for the product title! Many thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | ewanr0 -
Product Title Formating Question
The majority of the products I sell require lengthy product titles, I have 600+ items that have titles over 70+ characters. In the interest of reducing the character count (Product Feeds) I'm trying to eliminate unnecessary "stop words" in the titles, such as "and", "with" etc.. I've listed an example of a current product listing below, followed by two different formats to reduce the character count. Which one if any is better for SEO or should I leave my titles alone and stick with my original format? Current Listing Example: DeWalt Dual Comfort Safety Glasses with Black Frame and Clear Anti-Fog Lens Suggested Listing Example: DeWalt Dual Comfort Safety Glasses-Black Frame-Clear Anti-Fog Lens DeWalt Dual Comfort Safety Glasses/Black Frame/Clear Anti-Fog Lens
On-Page Optimization | | MEldridge0