A/B Testing - Should I add product descriptions on my category landing pages as well as on product pages and if so . how to do this to avoid duplicate content

[PeteC12]

Hi All,

I recently relaunched a new design on my tool hire eCommerce website and now display my products in grid form on my category landing pages as opposed to just a list view which we previously had on the old design.

My bounce rates are alot higher than they use to be and my gut instinct is telling me maybe this is wrong . I want to do some a/b testing using a list view.

My question is , previously in our list views we  just showed the images and pricing and had on page content on the bottom of the page. The user would click on the product image and they would then we taken to the product page which has the product description , t&c, etc etc..

1. If I was to do this in my a/b testing but change it so we also displayed the product descriptions as well on the category landing pages . Is there a special way to do this as in effect, we would have duplicate content as the product descriptions are also on the product page?. Does anyone have any thoughts on this as to whether its a No No from an SEO point of view ?...

Heres a short url link to one of my category pages - http://goo.gl/QJv5gw

Historically we use to rank well for the category landing pages and not for the product pages.Our Rankings are down , bounce rates are higher so I am trying to sort both. We have good content on pages etc.

Any advice greatly appreciated as always

thanks

Pete

[customerparadigm.com]

Before you do any testing, I'd recommend first reading this You Moz post, "Are You Hurting SEO with These 5 Split Testing Mistakes":
http://moz.com/ugc/are-you-hurting-seo-with-these-5-splittesting-mistakes

From this article, I'd recommend creating a separate version of your category page, but make sure to:

• No index / no follow the test page
• use rel = canonical on your test page to the control page

I hope this helps!

-- Jeff

[PeteC12]

Many Thanks Jeff

Much Appreciated.

Pete