Product Descriptions (SEO)
-
Hello,
I sell products relating to wood. Although the products vary, I like to give description of the wood type for the customers who might not be familiar with it. Will it hurt my rankings to give the same descriptions for the same wood type as long as the majority of the description is different? Here is an example of the layout:
1. Different description for different products
2. The same short description for the same wood types (seen throughout multiple pages)
Hopefully my question makes sense.
-
What a niche, interesting question!
You could mean two things here, an on-page snippet that describes the product - or the Meta description which is strictly machine-read and which is used in Google's results (though not as a ranking factor! I'll get to this in a minute)
If you mean an on-page description, having duplicate snippets (so long as they are very small) with one changed word or term is not, by itself in isolation - likely to Garner a Google Panda penalty or algorithmic devaluation. If however the description is really the only unique element on the page, you may be at some small to moderate risk of that. But here's the thing - SEO is a competitive environment. Just because you don't get a penalty for not doing the best thing - does that mean you shouldn't do it? If one of your competitors is supplying more in-depth, better, more unique (value-add) information then they will outrank you (so long as their popularity / authority and trust metrics are similar to your own). Small comfort will it be, that you have no penalty - if your results for product URLs suck. Will it matter to you why you aren't getting traffic? Probably not - the commercial outcome could be the same
If you mean the Meta description, it probably won't matter very much at all - but let me lay some knowledge on you. Just because Meta descriptions have no special place in Google's ranking algorithm(s) that doesn't mean they can't benefit your SEO. But how can that be!? OK - so it's known that Meta descriptions (well written ones) have an elevated chance of forming SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position) snippets in Google's results. If your ranking position contains text which does a better job of compelling a Google user to click through to your website, it stands to reason that writing decent Meta descriptions can make your existing ranking positions supply more traffic and work harder for you (without even shifting). Neat huh? The key of course is that Meta descriptions should be written from a CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) perspective and not from a keyword / SEO perspective.
So - now you know. Do your best to compete and elevate yourself above others by supplying deeper, value-add (for end users) content on-page. In terms of Meta, CRO makes traffic flow!
Hope this was helpful
-
Hi there!
1- If you are referring to the descriptions to be shown in Google SERPs: Meta descriptions, there is no direct SEO harm in having them all the same. Although, having a specific description for each product/page could potentially improve CTR. If it is possible, optimize those to have better SERP performance.
2- If you refer to the content on the page, for each product, those need to be different so as google understands that they are not nearly duplicate and considers that many pages only respond to the same user intent or to only a few number of Google search terms.
Hope it helps.
Best luck.
GR -
Hi,
If indeed the majority of the content is unique to each product I don't think this will harm your SEO efforts. The alternative would be creating individual pages for the different wood types and place the description there. You can than link to one of those pages from the product pages. From an UX perspective this might not be an ideal solution though.
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
-
Index SEO Performance
Hi guys, I was wondering if there is a difference in SEO performance between a page which ends with .html or just with a slash. For example: www.domain.com/test/ - www.domain.com/test.html Which one is better? And is there a difference between productpages and productcategory pages. Because we see mostly productpages ending with .html and category pages ending with a slash. Take a look at some big dutch companies like: http://www.coolblue.nl/
On-Page Optimization | | Happy-SEO
http://www.bol.com/
https://www.zalando.nl/ (product page) There are doing this with a reason.... i guess.... Thanks.1 -
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 -
How shall be the permalinks fo Seo wordpress?
I just installed wp super cache plugin for wordpess, it´s asking me to edit the permalinks how shall they be to get a nice ranking and seo well done Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | emailfsoftware1 -
Changing to Friendly SEO Urls
This is my site, example of a product : [Link removed] Would I lose rank in Google for changing all to friendly SEO urls? Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | 7liberty0 -
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 -
Problem with Plugin: Wordpress SEO by Yoast
Hi Hi, I'm using the Plugin "Wordpress SEO by Yoast". Unfortunatelly, this plugin generates a sourcecode looking like this: name='description' content='XXXXXX.'/> Seomoz can't read this and tells me, that my pages have no description. Google doesn't matter and reads it correct. Is there anything I can do about this? Many greetings André
On-Page Optimization | | waynestock0 -
Unique Product Descriptions Vs. Speedy Launch
We are close to launching a new property and are also in the process of writing completely unique product descriptions for every product. This will continue to take a lot of time. We are debating the following two options: A. Launch soon with about 10-15% of descriptions being very unique and the rest being standard (mostly manufacture supplied). Then continue to update product content as we complete new fresh descriptions. B. Wait to launch until everything is unique. This will probably set us back 2 Months. We of course would like to go live sooner than later, but don't want to jeopardize anything as it pertains to rankings. The fear internally with launching now is that product pages get crawled, but don't make our best 1st impression with the engines. The counter argument is that it doesn't matter much, pages will get crawled again, and the fresh new content will be considered. Any inputs on this? Is '1st impression' with Google key, or is there no harm in launching and updating. Everything else is very sound -- architecture, on-site optimization, usability/crawlability etc. It's just the matter of the unique vs. generic product page content. Many thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | SEOPA0 -
Wordpress permlinks SEO question
What are SEO advantages or disadvantages of the following - /%postname%/ - adds a trailing / /%postname% - no trailing / /%postname%.html - creates .html URL Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | SamBuck0