Thin slicing SEO problem in e-commerce business

Hello,

The business I am working for have multiple products with different colors, patterns, designs etc.. The problem is that we use the same text with small variation in many product descriptions. I have read that having content with almost the same text recieves punishment from the "panda algorithm". So we copy paste the same text on many products, and then only make changes in small things such as color, pattern, material...

I want that the company I work for should ignore to copy paste that text, and instead focus on writing good category texts / writing a unique text on the products that are selling well. When adding new products I think that it is enough (to start with) to write product specifications like:
"Specification
Color:
Pattern:
Fits:
Etc..."

One possible problem to my idea is that we sell on "additional selling channels (like amazon)", and on those channels we just write the product specifications. My worry is that this will be seen as duplicate content by google, and that we will recieve punishment from that instead.

With my idea it would be easier to spot products without unique text though, it can hardly be done now.

What do you think? What should we do?

//Jonathan

 

Tons of e-commerce website have the same problem. In my opinion, the best is to keep JUST ONE page for ONE Product. And Mention ALL variations on that very same page itself. Benefits ---

• It will solve the duplicate content issue completely.
• Put more weight (value) on each product page. Google & End User will definitely appreciate it to show them all the variations in the same page itself. It will make your website more user-friendly and for sure more SEO friendly as Google keeps more valuable pages above the other pages in its search result.
• If your additional selling channels have exactly copy-pasted content of your website, then it is not an issue for your website as these channels will give the links to your website. It is advisable to keep content in brief on selling channels so that user visit your website for further details (But that brief details should be enough to make sales there itself).
• Whatever links you'll make/get will point to a single page for each product, then obviously that page gets all the juice and hence further, helps in getting higher organic ranks.
• Generally, Google makes a mistake (or we make some mistake) where google shows a wrong page in the search result. For example-- if you read for "red flower" then google may show "blue flower" page of your website in search result. Wrong Variation comes up in search results. Sometimes, this issue just doesn't get fixed even after thorough working around backlink anchors (internal and external both) and making sure that the word "red" don't exist on "blue flower" page. So, best option to avoid such annoying issues.... One page or each product is perfect.

Hope this will help you.

 

It is important to keep the contents more unique that helps the website be safe from any algorithm updates.

 

C&p is a huge no no. I find it on title tags all the time...

 

Duplicate content is normal to e-commerce sites and i think it indicates relationship between the products but still differentiates according to the weight, height, color and functions. This will specify the needs of the users in which they are compatible with.

 

Thank you for sharing your opinion!

What you said about the R&D made sense, if it provides valuable information to the customer.

I have spoken with one of the renowned SEO experts in my country, and he says that Google ignores duplicates of content with association products, "lists of products". We have this system with association products when products are equivalent, besides the color etc. I was not clear enough when I talked about the product texts. I wonder what I should do with the products that are inappropriate to have in these lists, and all of the other unique products. I think that we should write unique text for all products, which do not have a master (not linked to another product/association product).

- Or do google give exemption when it comes to the thin-slicing punishment for e-commerce?
- Should one not focus on the product pages to become landing pages?
- Do you not found it boring to read the same text, when the products somewhat differ from each other?

//Jonathan