Optimizing Product Keywords (that are similar)

[Faye234]

Hi Monica

Thank you so much for your help. I think ultimately I'm wanting to know if Google penalises a site that has a variety of keywords which "closely" matched?

[MonicaOConnor]

No, I can't think of  penalty that would exist for this.

[MonicaOConnor]

What you could get penalized for is having duplicate content that isn't seen as relevant. Keep your copy fresh, unique and informative.

[Faye234]

Thanks Monica

If I was to use a specific keyword - Brown Hooded Jacket - could I use "Hooded Brown Jacket" as my keyword on another page? I'm hoping I can!

My concern is both keyword terms are almost the same, so would Google categorise them under the same search term or even penalise this practise? Or are both of these search terms ok and deemed as completely unique by Google?

Brown Hooded Jacket - Hooded Brown Jacket - Brown Jacket etc

Thanks

Faye

[MonicaOConnor]

As long as the content is unique on both pages I don't see anything wrong with this technically. Do you have two different brands of brown hooded jackets?

[Faye234]

Yes these are are two completely separate products with "unique" brand names. The content on each of these pages is also completely unique providing informative information for the user.

If it's good practice to have variations of which ultimately means the same thing, then I'll do this...?

[MonicaOConnor]

I have a keyword that applies to 18 of my products. 20kW generator. I target this keyterm on all 18 pages in no different variation. The only unique factor on these pages is the brand name. Generac 20kW generator, Cummins 20kW generator and so on.

I don't think you need the slight variation at all. If you want to target both variations of the keyword you can without fear of penalty. If you want to target the same keyword on both pages you can also do that without fear of penalty. Does that make sense?

[Faye234]

Thank you so much for clarifying this for me Monica.

You've been an absolute star.

Faye

[MonicaOConnor]

Awww, thanks. Glad I could help!

[Sheena_Schleicher]

Hi Faye -

It's unclear from your question whether these are all the same jacket that's available in different colors or if you have a variety of brands offering jackets of each different color.

I also can't tell if you're referring to only 1 URL or if you plan to have each jacket on a different URL. I would caution against having a bunch of different URLs targeting KWs only differentiated by their color. For one, a Panda penalty is possible - your site's pages may appear spammy in the same way a bunch of pages for the same service offered in different cities is now considered an outdated tactic.

It sounds like you're about to add a good amount of content to your site, so it would be good to better understand exactly how you're planning to go about this before moving forward. Happy to share my opinion if you can share a little more detail.