How To Optimize Similar Product Pages

[hfranz]

I found some really good resources on here regarding how to optimize for product pages, however I have one question.

We carry about 20 different products lines. EX: Cold Saws, Band Saws, Press Brakes etc. For the cold saws product line we have Manual Cold Saws and Automatic Cold Saws. Same for Band Saws.

Since the products are very similar and people are technically only search for manual cold saws, manual coldsaws, manual cold saw machines etc. Each product line has between 10 and 50 machines.

How do we optimize each product page for 1 keyword phrase.? Can I have about 5 manual cold saw pages target the same keyword phrase or does each page have to be targeting completely different key phrases?  like, manual coldsaws, manual cold saws, affordable manual coldsaws, etc.

[APICDA]

Hi HFranz,

I have found its good to have each item set up individually.  That way you do not have multiple pages fighting over the same search results.

[jenmcardle]

**How do we optimize each product page for 1 keyword phrase.? **

You need to be very careful when attempting to optimize pages for such similar keywords. "manual coldsaws", "manual cold saws" and "affordable manual cold saws" would likely best be presented as a single page optimized for "manual cold saws".

I tried a search for "manual coldsaws" and Google showed results for "manual cold sores" automatically with the option to click a link to search for "manual coldsaws". It does not seem worthwhile to specifically create a page for this uncommon misspelling.

I recognize you are trying to target all the various keyword combinations a user may enter as a search query. My recommendation would be to make a single, high quality page which focuses the target keyword but may include content on slight variations as you feel necessary. The content for a single, high quality web page costs hundreds of dollars to create. A single infographic may cost thousands of dollars. Content is expensive! I would suggest not wasting it on variations which do not offer a lot of value to users.

If you use this idea, you can use anchors and headers to divide the page into sections. Wikipedia does this very well. The main page can focus "manual cold saws" but you can have a section on "best quality" and another section on "most affordable".

It sounds like the sole reason you are considering this method is to adjust for search engines. This is where I fall back to the saying you have heard many times...design your site for people, not search engines.

PS. I checked the traffic for "manual cold saws" and was unable to see any organic traffic numbers for that query. I would suggest it is not a keyword worth spending any extra time on for page variations.

[hfranz]

This makes a lot of sense. So since we have about 20 manual cold saws, how do I optimized for the 20 manual cold saw pages, if there is not many other search recommendations for that key phrase. That is not even the most important key phrase for us, it was just an example, but what if that is the situation but the exact and phrase search volume is very high. What else do I do to get around optimized multiple pages for that same phrase? Or do I not optimize that page.

[APICDA]

Is this an e commerce site?

What are you trying to get visitors to do? Come to the site, the specific page, make an online purchase, submit for an online or hard copy catalog.  Its hard to give you the correct answer with out knowing more about  how  you are using your website.

Do you actually need to have each and every page perfectly optimized for search.... what about long tailed search?

[hfranz]

Yes it will be eCommerce. We want people to come to that page or the parent category page to find what they need and either request a quote or purchase online. Can you explain long tailed search as i am not to familiar with that.