Product Has Many Fitments - Is it ok to create a page for each fitment?

[simplesimonseo]

Hello

We are working on a site that sells motorcycle parts. The site sells some parts that fit several different motorbikes e.g. a motorcycle cover that fits many bikes. We know that when a customer searches they usually search for "BIKE MAKE & MODEL Cover" e.g. "Yamaha R1 Cover".

It would be silly to simply list every bike the cover fits in one advert as the list would be far too long so my question is would it be acceptable to create a separate product page for each fitment e.g. "Yamaha R1 Cover", "Yamaha R6 Cover", "Kawasaki ZX9 Cover".

I realize it is duplicate content and yes I suppose it will affect Google search results so would we be in line for a penalty? There could be hundreds of pages. We do not want the site to be removed from the index but we do feel that this is a sensible way of doing it as it would help the sites customers no end.

Thanks

[AWCthreads]

Hi Simon,

When faced with stuff like this, I try to vary the keyword research as best I can and start with broad match and narrow it down from there.

You used a conversational keyword in your question: "motorcycle cover" albeit a short tail. Would creating and optimizing a page for motorcycle covers be an option and then in the drop down put the different bikes they would fit?

Edit: Yamaha Motorcycle Covers exact match looks pretty good. Maybe parse it that way.

Its ironic you say, "I know say its silly to list all the bikes the cover fits", because your alternative is to create a whole page for every other option and as you suggest, there is inherent risk in that.

I'd try to identify the best option for generating traffic that will convert and minimize your exposure to duplicate content.

Ultimately, you'll probably find your solution will be a combination of doing things both ways depending on the product and traffic patterns.

[ResslerMotors]

First thing to find out is if there is sufficient traffic to any of the individual searches (Yamaha R1 Cover).  I'm going to assume that some motorcycles are more popular than others.  If that's the case, then I would start with the most popular motorcycle, and start creating landing pages specifically about that.  Maybe do this for the top 10 types that are purchased.

Make sure the content on these 10 pages is pretty convincing on why they should buy from you, but also make sure they are optimized for search.  Then it's the simple part:

1. Get ranked
2. Get traffic
3. Study analytics

If they lead to sales, keep going with other pages!  If not, then forget about it.  It's easy for one of us to tell you what to do, but the reality of the situation is that you could possibly benefit from this additional traffic, or it could just be a learning experience.

[AWCthreads]

Like most retail there are gonna be about 20-30% of your products doing 80% of your business. Attack those.

[ResslerMotors]

You said it much better than I did.

[AWCthreads]

Thanks - I have my moments :). Winnowing the field is the hard part. You've got to lay it all out there in a well-structured way that won't get you banged for duplicate content.

Then you've got to give it time for the products to percolate to the top.

If you've got a site with some authority I suppose the process will move more quickly, but if you're a start-up or a few years into it, you need the money now so you hang on to as much low hanging fruit as you can.

Its challenging.

[simplesimonseo]

Thanks for the responses. Listing for each make/model does increase sales and traffic. How likely do you think it is that this strategy would result in a penalty?

It seems logical that this is in the customers best interest since most people will search for "BIKE MAKE MODEL Motorcycle Cover"  as opposed to just e.g. "Medium size motorcycle cover". I guess this must be the same for many product ranges e.g. laptop chargers which fit different models.

Has anyone tried these tactics and been penalized?

[AWCthreads]

Specific to your industry or similar industry no. But as you suggest - in principle across ecommerce, yes.

If your title tags and product descriptions are not unique enough, you will get flagged for duplicate content in Webmaster tools. If you've got a bunch of products with a couple of words or product numbers or colors that make up the difference, you'll most likely get dinged - we have.

Will you get a site wide penalty drop in rank, product drop in rank or failure to improve rankings probably depends on how widespread your duplicate content is.

You'll want to use rel canonical tags on all your pages. There are other advanced steps to take in terms of identifying product landing pages, % exit pages and sales. Index the producers and no-index others etc.

I would also look at top ranking competitors and glean what you can from their structural delivery. If they're page 1, they're doing something right.

I'd also do a keyword search of this site for duplicate content and you may find other suggestions more specific to your products and industry. Good luck.