Vendor Descriptions for SEO... Troublesome?

[jpretz]

Howdy!

I have been tossing this idea around in my head over the weekend and I cannot decide which answer is correct, so here I am! We a retailer of products and is currently in the midst of redesigning our site-- not only design but also content.

The issue that we are facing is with product descriptions from our vendors. We are able to access the product descriptions/specs from their websites and use them on ours, but my worry is that we will get tagged for duplicate content. Other retailers (as well as the vendors) are using this content as well, so I don't want this to have an adverse effect on our ranking.

There are so many products that it would be a large feat to re-write unique content-- not to mention that the majority of the rhetoric would be extremely similar. What have you seen in your experiences in similar situations? Is it bad to use the descriptions? Or do we need to bite the bullet and do our best to re-write hundreds of product descriptions?

Or is there a way to use the descriptions and tag it in a way that won't have Google penalize us?

I originally thought that if we have enough other unique content on our site, that it shouldn't be as big of a deal, but then I realized how much of our site's structure is our actual products.  Thanks in advance!

[RobertFisher]

JPretz,

IMO this is one of those cost benefit analysis questions: Is rewriting the product descriptions worth the result change? Well, you could test it on some percentage of products to see if it changes outcomes. Then decide. 
If the site is massive and the task daunting, testing will at least give you direction. But, at the end of the day, the more you differentiate your site and those duplicate products the better off you are. Think about every competitor selling a Blue Oyster Sweater. If they all use the manufacturer's description, there is no differentiation. If you differentiate and do so with images, text, etc. who will they see. What if you are using markup and they are not, etc.?

I like being differentiated.

Best,

[jpretz]

Thanks for your reply, Robert, I appreciate the insight. I agree about the differentiating factor. I'm just unsure if using the same content will really hurt us, but you make a good point about testing. We're ultimately not trying to compete on a nationwide level right now, more-so local, but the opportunity is potentially there for the future.

[EGOL]

If the site is massive and the task daunting, testing will at least give you direction. But, at the end of the day, the more you differentiate your site and those duplicate products the better off you are.

I agree!

We write all  of our own product descriptions, take almost all of our own photos. Our product descriptions approach article length for some products.  This can be done to improve salesmanship, include important long-tail keywords and make your content superior to everything else that is out there.

When people call or write to ask questions about a product (or return a product) we often beef up our descriptions.

For important products we can have two additional articles of 500 to 1500 words, with several original photos plus a video.  The results are very worthwhile.

If you are not one of the dominant sites in your niche you might not be able to justify all of that work... but... doing all of that work might make you one of the dominant sites in your niche.

Take Robert's advice and test a few - and do a great job on them.  I am willing to bet that your rankings go up and your long-tail traffic skyrockets.

[RobertFisher]

JPretz,

I'm just unsure if using the same content will really hurt us

I would say, "Define hurt." If the competitors are each selling ten items a day each on a given product and you are selling one, are you going to be hurt?

Then, if you are, make a change.

We know that duplicated content is a negative algorithmically, we know that the higher we rank the higher activity we have.

Hope that helps,

best

[jpretz]

Thanks, EGOL!

[jpretz]

That's where I'm at the crossroads, because we're not an eComm site, but we obviously want to be visible and provide great information for our visitors.