What to do when all products are one of a kind WYSIWYG and url's are continuously changing. Lots of 404's

[aronwp]

Hey Guys, I'm working on a website with WYSIWYG one of a kind products and the url's are continuously changing. There are allot of duplicate page titles (56 currently) but that number is always changing too.

Let me give you guys a little background on the website. The site sells different types of live coral. So there may be anywhere from 20 - 150 corals of the same species. Each coral is a unique size, color etc. When the coral gets sold the site owner trashes the product creating a new 404. Sometimes the url gets indexed, other times they don't since the corals get sold within hours/days. I was thinking of optimizing each product with a keyword and re-using the url by having the client update the picture and price but that still leaves allot more products than keywords.

Here is an example of the corals with the same title http://austinaquafarms.com/product-category/acans/

Thanks for the help guys.  I'm not really sure what to do.

[EGOL]

Awesome coral!  Awesome.  http://austinaquafarms.com/product-category/acans/

If this was my site, I would make it just a few pages.  One page for each type of coral.

The individual product pages on the site right now have almost no information. So, I would put all of the information on a huge category page and optimize it perfectly for the type of coral.  Plus I would add several authoritative paragraphs of text onto the page - maybe in the right side bar with background info about the type of coral, how to care for it, tips for making it do well in your tank.  This extra content will enable the page to be more competitive and will pull in traffic for long tail keywrods.

Eliminating the product pages will eliminate the 404 problems, simplify maintaining the site and when visitor lands on the Acans page they will say WOW!  I think you will sell more... from this presentation... no guarantees, just my gut.

I also believe that it will pull all of the power that has seeped into the product pages back into the category page.    From my experience, a compact site with a small number of pages competes a LOT better than a larger site with a bunch of pages with very thin content.

Those thin content pages also put this site at risk for Panda problems if it does not have them already.

[aronwp]

Well I'm not sure it's possible to remove the product pages since the site is built with WordPress and Woocommerce. Each product creates a url. I can create a quick view box with an add to cart button for a better user experience but the product url will always be there.

Thinking about what you said  I may have a few options but I may be way off.

1. I can optimize the category page for the product keywords with more content and details. Then I can noindex all the product pages.

2. I can optimize the single product pages and add unique content to each product for about 10 products and noindex the rest.

Not sure if noindexing would be the right way to do it or if it would add more issues. Since I'm using WordPress and the yoast seo plugin I can have the website owner check the noindex button on all new products created. What do you think?

As far as content we are in the process of putting together a full content strategy and will have many tutorials and other great care info along with industry tips and blog posts.

[EGOL]

....but the product url will always be there.

I agree..... but if you never link to that page then Google should not know about it.

I am not familiar with Wordpress and Woocommerce, however, the shopping systems that I have used all allowed me to create "add to cart" buttons.  I could place these anywhere on the site - even in pdf documents.  I have never used the product pages that my shopping systems produce. Why?  I think that I can make product pages that are better optimzied for search and better arranged for customers.  So, I have lots of pages on my site that list multiple items and almost no pages that list a single item.  This has saved me a lot of time, I think that my site competes a lot better, I think that it makes more convenient shopping and I believe that I sell a lot more.

[aronwp]

The way woocommerce works is by creating a custom post type. (similar to a regular blog post but styled for products) and then dynamically adds the products to a product category page or anywhere else I want them displayed. Creating a custom post type for products also enables allot of customization and even advanced reporting.

[evolvingSEO]

Hey Aron

Just wanted to chime in on the wordpress bit. EGOL nailed the core answer though. But for the noindex, yes you can just noindex any pages you want to and this isn't going to cause any issues. Noindexed pages do not count towards Panda or low user metrics in the algo, so it's a great way to let the content exist but not have it cause trouble in the SERPs.

-Dan