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.
-
Hi Chris
Great insight, and you've confirmed some of my initial thoughts and feelings on the matter. I don't want to rewrite purely for google's sake (although that was the tone of the question due to this being an SEO website!). Many of the descriptions we have (from the feed) are rather poorly written, or block text which is hard to scan and read as a customer. I want to make that clearer.
I'm glad you've confirmed that picking a handful of products and doing those really well is a good idea... we're on the case!
As for user generated content, yup, we're asking for reviews but probably need to encourage more in-depth ones.
Thanks for taking the time to answer, it's much appreciated.
-
Hi Panu
Great response, thanks for taking the time to answer. It's not just about google (although we were hit by the panda update big time due to selling similar products to other websites using the same feed of descriptions - mainly manufacturer driven). The benefit of rewriting was two-fold;
1. Making the descriptions clearer and easier to read for our customers.
2. Providing unique & better content to differentiate ourselves in both the customer's eyes and therefore hopefully google's.
We're writing some great and indepth guides (1-2k words) in our blog, and have a very strong customer service ethos. However, in order to stay competitive we need a presence in google obviously, and at the moment there is little or none.
It's really tricky to know what to focus on. We are writing some really great and in-depth descriptions that our customers do love for some key products which are also highly competitive but don't feel that'll be enough... maybe time will tell!
50% is a good starting point, thank you.
Ewan
-
The best thing you can possibly do for getting more unique content is to encourage user-generated content which is typically in the form of reviews, but can be anything (photos, video reviews, FAQ's, etc).
Product descriptions are inherently and necessarily non-unique. I really believe that simply spinning phrases or rewriting a paragraph here and there is a low value activity. A much more sustainable activity is to pick a handful of interesting, current, high margin products and create the absolute best page about them on the web. A personal story, a groupon-style humorous reference, some unique research... whatever, and just dominate that product with content. You'll rank for that and also probably earn some love from customers for being so cool. Keep doing that one by one and carve out a niche. I bet if you do that 10 times really well you'll get a much better ROI for your time and/or cash than 10,000 pages of slightly varied copy.
Unique content only goes so far. A strong domain with piflered copy will outrank others with the same content all day long. They sometimes even beat sites with totally unique content. As unfair as this is, building domain authority takes of time and investment, and is rewarded with traffic for having trusted content.
Finally, my dablings in the dark side have taught me that Google is getting much smarter about spun content, aka content that is thinly unique. 30-40% unique is definitely not unique enough. Varying synonyms is not enough. Significantly unique content varies in theme, length, and style - all of which are algorithmically detectible. Hope that helps.
-
That really depends on how much authority your website has. I have noticed that websites with a lot of authority can stand to have a lot less unique content than new websites with few incoming links. However, since you are not scraping content from another website, I think it's safe to say that having product descriptions that are just about 50% unique should be fine just as long as you have unique titles, headings and some useful unique content.
Then again, since the Panda update has made it significantly more difficult to rank with thousands of pages of feeble content, I wonder how much effort should be placed into these product descriptions. Are they something that searchers will love to see in the SERPs? Is it really necessary to rank with all of these product pages or should you perhaps consider doing a few (say a hundred) high quality landing pages which link these product pages?
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
-
Unsolved Duplicate Contents in Order Pages of Multiple Products
Hi, I have a website containing 30 software products. Each product has an order page. The problem is that the layout and content of these 30 order pages are very similar, except for the product name, for example: https://www.datanumen.com/access-repair-order/
On-Page Optimization | | ccw
https://www.datanumen.com/outlook-repair-order/
https://www.datanumen.com/word-repair-order/ Siteliner has reports these pages as duplicate contents. I am thinking of noindex these pages. However, in such a case, if a user search for "DataNumen Outlook Repair order page", then he will not be able to see the order page of our product, which drives the revenue go away. So, how to deal with such a case? Thank you.1 -
The meta tags: Title and Description, showing unexpected results on google
When I type my company name on google "Navneet Gems", it shows a very different meta tag then what it actually is. How do I change this meta descrption when its non-existent on my homepage? The worst is, it is having a spelling mistake. We want to correct this.
On-Page Optimization | | Navneet.Agarwal20160 -
Could you double check my new product markups?
Hey Mozzers! We are currently running a Google Shopping Ad campaign and one of the suggestions we had gotten from Google was to add product markups. I hired a developer to add the product markup to the product page templates (Magento, if it matters) and I just need help to double check his work before I approve and pay the final invoice. I've attached a screenshot of the page source with the item markups. I've also dropped the page source into Structured Data Testing Tool to see if there were any warnings. No warnings or errors. So it seems as if everything looks good, but I just wonder if it's a similar approach to SEO where the product markups could be better optimized. Thanks for the expert eyes on this! ruKjc
On-Page Optimization | | localwork1 -
Regarding Showing Shopper Approved Review on All Products
Hi All, We're planning to add Customers Reviews tab on product pages ! And, We'll display Shopper Approved reviews on product pages. But, I have biggest concern for internal duplication. If we will display similar reviews on all product pages then it will create internal duplication issue and We may get impact for Google Penalty. What should we Do to display Shopper approved reviews on all products.
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit0 -
Optimizing Product Keywords (that are similar)
Hi Guys Could someone let me know how varied my product keywords need to be? I'm about to add a variety of products to my site, and the only true way of differentiating them is by colour. Brown Hooded JacketGreen Hooded JacketRed Hooded JacketBlack Hooded JacketBrown Hooded Utility JacketGreen Hooded Utility JacketRed Hooded Utility JacketBlack Hooded Utility JacketAlso, am I optimizing my site correctly?Key Word - Brown Hooded JacketMy keywords are included in H1Enigma - Brown Hooded JacketPage TitleProduct Name & Key Word - London - Company NameURL,www.companyname.co.uk/brown-coats/enigma-hooded-jacketBody ContentThe key word "brown hooded jacket" is included and very described within the body of this specific pageImage TagBrown-Casual-Hooded-JacketMeta DescriptionKey word is used, should I choose to opt for this approach?I would really appreciate your help. Thanks, Faye
On-Page Optimization | | Faye2340 -
Product Attribute pages and Duplicate content
Hiya I have two queries is about a jewellery shop running on wordpress and woocommerce. 1. I am a little indecisive on how to index the product categories without creating duplicate pages which will get me into trouble. For example: All earrings are listed on the category page: chainsofgold.co.uk/buy/earrings/ We also have product attribute pages which lists all the subcategories for the earrings: chainsofgold.co.uk/earrings/creoles/
On-Page Optimization | | bongoheads
chainsofgold.co.uk/earrings/drop/
chainsofgold.co.uk/earrings/studs/ I have the category URL and the product attribute URLs set to be indexed on my sitemaps. Will this get me into trouble creating duplicate content with the main category page? Should I only have the main category indexed and "no-index, follow" all the product attribute pages? 2. I am also thinking about incorporating these product attribute URLS into my menu so when people hover over earrings they get shown the types of earrings they can buy. However, I have the woocommerce faceted navigation working on the category pages. So if someone is visiting the page chainsofgold.co.uk/buy/earrings/ The user can click on the left hand side, and select "drops". The URL they will get though is one which is not indexed: http://www.chainsofgold.co.uk/buy/earrings/?filter_earrings=123 Can I link to those product attribute pages without the risk of getting accused of creating duplicate content? Thank you for your help. Carolina0 -
Need help, i am lost
Hello all, I am new in this community. I have been for a while on Page 1 on Google with the keyword "Wooden Signs" with my website CreateYourWoodSign.com Since the Google update (April 24th i think)I completely disappeared from Google. I have not been able to come back since. Any help would you highly appreciated. Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | manu45
Emmanuel0 -
Page titles and descriptions
A website has several wigets to show Each wiget with its own page The wigets mostly just vary in size How would you suggest titles be done? Example: Wiget 1ft Wiget 2ft Wiget 3 ft an so on........ Would this trigger a duplicate content issue given “Wiget” leads in the page title?
On-Page Optimization | | APICDA0