E-commerce SEO when products are shared between sites

[toomeycustoms]

We have a couple of e-commerce sites that sell the same product. One focuses more on a niche category of the products, while the others contains a wide variety of products. Will we be hit with a penalty from google if the product descriptions are the same? If so, how much of a difference in content does there need to be? There are only so many ways to describe the product and it is usually done in a couple sentences.  The rest of the product description contains bullet points of the products and is the same for each product.

We are also looking for a SEO company to work with and wondered if there are companies out there that specialize in e-commerce seo that can work with a small ($500 month) budget. I've looked through the recommended companies directory here, but it seems most have minimum retainers around $1000 a month. Also, what should I look for in an SEO company?

[AdamThompson]

In answer to your how-to question:

I would definitly try to make the content unique, if you need the sites to be separate.

Is it necessary to have two sites? Do they target different market segments? If so, you can write your descriptions to appeal to the different markets.

In answer to your SEO company question:

Most SEO firms that do really good quality work probably won't work with a $500 budget, especially for an ecommerce site (i.e. you're competing nationwide, not just in a local market).

My company will take on clients at $500 per month, but I have to tell you that $500 per month will only pay for a small amount of high quality link building work. (If a company does offer you a lot at that price point, I would question the quality.) Unless you're in a very low competition market, it probably won't be enough.

[danatanseo]

One great way to make sure that the content on your identical product pages is unique is to collect separate customer reviews for each site. This will give you UGC that also gives you unique content. Of course, it takes time to collect the reviews, so the more unique you can make the existing content, the better off you'll be. Good luck!