Duplicate eCommerce Product Descriptions

[mj775]

I know that creating original product descriptions is best practices. What I don't understand is how other sites are able to generate significant traffic while still using duplicate product descriptions on all product pages. How are they not being penalized by Google?

[GeorgiaSEOServices]

That could be for a variety of reasons. Is that site the only one that is offering that particular product? Is it a highly trafficked site with a lot of backlinks, reviews, and online activity?  Are the pages simply coded properly using canonical tags which help them escape "wrath"? These are all valid questions when you're doing competitive analysis and all things that Google considers along with dozens of other considerations.

Your best practice is to create new descriptions, take new photos or alter the existing ones (add text, crop, change contrast, etc.). This way your listing is seen as fresh and original content and will eventually take precedence over their carbon copy approach. If you have a better page with better content that's more informative to the customer, Google will choose your listing over 20 other sites that all have the same photos and descriptions.

Originality always wins....in most cases. Keep in mind that there are many other considerations in the Google algorithms, so don't expect to beat out Amazon no matter how hard you try.

[mj775]

Thanks for the Amazon comment Chris :). I understand the multitude of variables when asking this question but after looking at a group of sites with similar backlink profiles, site architecture, etc. and all use duplicate product descriptions I am taken aback that they are not penalized. Even looking at smaller sites that are not properly constructed or optimized use duplicate product descriptions and still drive traffic/rank. Then I read all about rewriting product descriptions from SEOMoz and others (this information gels with what I know to be true) but then see sites still rank with this thin/dupe content.

Any thoughts?

[GeorgiaSEOServices]

I can definitely understand the frustration, but Google won't penalize sites for simply having duplicate content, and especially storefronts. Many merchants are provided with photos and product descriptions by the distributor, and when you're talking about hundreds or even thousands of products, it just not feasible for a merchant to change all of the descriptions and even more so if your inventory is changing on a monthly or even weekly basis. Then all of your changes get overwritten with the new upload.

A good example would be the SMC websites that you see on late night TV where they send out a CD with products to thousands of customers and 98% of them just upload the database into their stores with little to no alteration.  They won't be penalized, but they just won't be able to sell much.

In those cases, the sites aren't going to be penalized. And if those sites are ranking well without changing the content, then Google is definitely looking at other factors to make that decision (traffic, bounce rate, time on site, etc.).

The sites Google are penalizing are the ones that intentionally try to game the system by stripping content from other sites and reposting them with literally no changes at all. Also sites that try to duplicate one of their stores multiple times in a cookie cutter fashion in order to trick the system to see if they can get multiple listings on the SERPs.

You haven't provided specific sites to review for a definitive answer here, but they don't sound like they're trying to do anything black hat. They're just lazy. But if your site will be selling the same products, altering your descriptions and images is the only way that you'll get the advanatage over them instead of just becoming "yet another one of those sites". Good luck!

[pawelgra]

From my experience as an SEO for a large eCommerce site (our own products), I tend to think that Google has a way of recognizing eCommerce site from purely informational ones and takes that into consideration when analyzing content.

As you say Chris, many producers will distribute their catalogs to all their dealers and they in turn will put those online. The same happens with our products here. Our dealers use the very description we provide them with and no one has ever been penalized for that.

As said, I personally think that Google takes the intent of your site (eCommerce, informational etc. ) into consideration when slapping duplicate content penalties.

Having said that, i have no data to back up that claim so go easy on me, it's only based on my gut feeling and practical observations.