How to handle product pages with similar information

[ironpac]

We have thousands of product pages with similar information but differentiating variables such as length/width.

Example:

http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/2100-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-14-X-74-.aspx

http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/2101-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-15-X-76-.aspx

http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/2102-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-16-X-92-.aspx

http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/2103-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-17-X-92-.aspx

We built individual products instead of grouped products because we recommend specific part numbers for specific make, model, year boats through our finder tool.

These pages have recently started showing up in SEOmoz as duplicate content and we are looking for solutions to solve it. We have considered creating a "parent page" that lists all sizes and then using a rel canonical on each individual page to tell google that the parent page is the preferred page.

Any thoughts or other ideas on this?

[BenFox]

Unless there are other factors limiting you I would probably bring all of the variables onto a single page and treat size as a variable similar to the way you treat colours.

So you don't currently have separate pages for Burgundy and Caribbean Blue covers so why not do the same for size? You would want to adjust the copy to indicate that the product is available in different sizes and obviously this would require reworking the page but if you're going to create a parent page anyway then you might as well.

Hope that helps.

[ironpac]

Thanks for the response, Ben. The reason we have separate pages for size is because we recommend a specific part number (size) for specific make, model years. That's our main dilemma here...

Example: A customer goes through our boat cover finder and selects "Bayliner, Capri 160 O/B (Years: 2001-2004).

We would specifically recommend part number 77016 for that customer...if we group 77016 with 77017, 77018, 77019...there would be no way to recommend the exact cover that will fit the customers boat. Instead, we would be recommending a "group" of covers which is unhelpful to the customer (and could cause a lot of returns).

[Everett]

Hello Jim,

Ben's suggestion is typically what I would suggest as well, but I understand you have a situation that is unique to companies that sell parts to items like boats, vehicles, appliances, etcetera... in which case a single product page with variables won't work because you're dealing with completely different skus / part numbers.

In this case I like your idea of creating a single landing page and then using the rel canonical tag on the others. This way the other pages are still available to users who need a specific product part number, but search engines can see that these are all URL-variations of the same content.

Another, similar option would be to use variables in the URL and instruct Google and Bing to ignore those variables and treat them as if they were the base URL. Example:

www.savvyboater.com/store/p/Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-17-X-92-.aspx**?variant=72216P**

www.savvyboater.com/store/p/Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-17-X-92-.aspx**?variant=72217P**

And this would be the canonical / base URL:

www.savvyboater.com/store/p/Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-17-X-92-.aspx

That may be a problem from the development side because your standard URL includes the product's unique identifier at the beginning, as in:

http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/**2100**-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-14-X-74-.aspx

An example of a problem that could arise is if you decide to just choose one product to be the main one, as in:

http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/**2100**-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-14-X-74-.aspx**?variant=72217P**

http://www.savvyboater.com/store/p/**2100**-Cover-for-V-Hull-Fishing-Boat-with-Side-Console-O-B-14-X-74-.aspx**?variant=****72216P**

But then what happens if 2100 goes out of stock or is removed? Would every other model then be inaccessible at that URL?

I'd have to know more about this before helping with that issue, but it may not be a problem at all. You'll have to discuss options with your developers and go from there.

Good luck!