Important keywords in product names

[RomiSverige]

Hi!

among other we sell motorcycle clothing, which you can buy as a set (both jacket and pants) or single piece. Currently we name the products with the labeling in the beginning, e.g:

Motorcycle pants R2000, Motorcycle jacket R2000, Motorcycle kit R2000

Motorcycle pants R4000, Motorcycle jacket R4000, Motorcycle kit R4000

This is causing keyword stuffing and cannibalization in the category pages as all the product names include important keywords.

On the other hand it would be beneficial to keep the labeling in the name for search queries for the exact product.

What be your recommendations? I tend to take the labeling away.

[RomiSverige]

Hi Tyler,

thank you for your quick reply. This is definitely great input, but yeah, my description of the problem wasn't quite clear. Sorry for that.

The issue right now is, that we have category pages with high keyword stuffing/ cannibalization. Following the example from above, our "motorcycle jackets" category page looks somewhat like this:

<a>Motorcycle jacket R2000</a>

<a>Motorcycle jacket R4000</a>

<a>Motorcycle jacket SuperCool</a>

<a>Motorcycle jacket Terminator</a>

etc.

And since the Motorcycle jacket category page shall be/ is the one ranking for keywords like "motorcycle jacket", we have a keyword cannibalization here.

On the other hand, if someone is searching for "motorcycle jacket R2000" if want to ensure the product page of the R2000 jacket is shown, not the product pages for the kit or the pants.

[TLM]

Without knowing the existing site architecture it is a little difficult to give a specific answer, but my two cents:

Are the 'like products' on the same page? For instance are...

Motorcycle pants R2000, Motorcycle jacket R2000, and Motorcycle kit R2000 on Page A

...and...

Motorcycle pants R4000, Motorcycle jacket R4000, and Motorcycle kit R4000 on Page B

...that is the image I am getting from your description.

Would it work with your site architecture to have a guide page for each category and then link to the product pages from there? The pants guide could talk about how amazing your motorcycle pants are, the relevant specs and about how wonderful your butt would look in a pair. The link could land on a product page that is a collection of all the pants you offer, it could be a link to the R2000 'set' page (where you sell all the products under one page), it could theoretically land on whatever you think is most user-friendly and would increase your ROI.

Ideally, and in my humble opinion, you would optimize your first page -however you choose to lay out the internal linking- for SEO and to show in relevant SERPs. Give some great original content; make that page have personality/establish your brand and brand persona (fun, serious, edgy, whatever); and something people would feel good about sharing with their buddies on facebook. Your awesome page on pants, for example, could be the canonical page and some appropriate usage of the 'rel=canonical' element could ensure that, if your user lands on the buy page (the one where all the size selections, etc... take place), that the linking metrics find their way to the page you want to rank, and have optimized for ranking, while the user happily shops and buys. This should avoid eating your own tail when it comes to talking about pants on subsequent pages -let's be honest, you can't sell pants without talking about pants.

I hope that this was clear and offered some sort of insight, but please take it only as a consideration which should be examined critically and with other options in mind. I am sure there are some other great ideas to be put forth and I would love to see some others post their thoughts!