How do you avoid duplicate content when you sell products that are produced by other manufacturers?

[lhc67]

I have a packaging product site, and they sell products from various manufacturers. What can we do with the product detail pages? As of now, the client has copy pasted content straight from the "About" sections on the manufacturers' sites. Obviously, those manufacturers want my client to sell their products, and the products need to be described. How much of a no-no is this copy pasting, and how can I fix it?

[AmericanOutlets]

I'm in a very similar position at my company. Duplicate content is going to hurt your SERP rankings, period. You need to write your own product descriptions. Even a really short original description is better than something copied directly from the manufacturer.

[EugeneF]

There is only one solution.  Write original content.

One easy way to do this is

1. read the manufacturers product description.

2. set it aside.

3. write you new description using your words

4. compare the two descriptions; make sure you have used the same sentences and make sure you have covered all the important facts.

5. (Bonus time) provide additional useful information that the manufacturer didn't.

[GIGS20]

[This response edited by SEOmoz staff. This answer is a copy of http://www.ecreativeim.com/blog/2011/03/google-panda-change-seo-impact-on-ecommerce-sites/ and the answer below has been truncated to respect the copyright of the original author]

Google Panda algorithm change could have consequences for many smaller eCommerce sites — or even large ones that haven’t been putting in their SEO time. Unfortunately, far too many eCommerce sites run afoul of things that Google considers low-quality content, especially eCommerce sites with a very large number of products.

[deltasystems]

Copy and pasted what, exactly? If it's specifications, that's perfectly fine. If you are really worried about it (I would not be, I have clients that post specifications like this), you could always include the specifications in a PDF and offer a link to that. That's less helpful to visitors though, and they are really who you should be targeting first.

If it's a product description, then yes, that's definitely no good. Write your own description. Include a staff review. This paired with the ability for users to review/comment on the product will give you enough unique content to shine.

Look at big e-retailers if you want to see how others are doing content. Cabelas has a Q & A section, for example. Show widgets like Amazon does ('Customers Who Bought This Also Bought..) and provide short descriptions for each product tile.

Include video content if you can, or relevant how-tos. MidwayUSA does a good job of having supporting content.

Use microtags for everything you possibly can.

That should be enough work to last you a year! Cheers.