Ecommerce Tabs

[RosemarieReed]

This isn't a unique problem but an e-commerce client has product information on a page, with separate tabs that have been historically loaded with a new page, which have been indexed.

• Product (/product): 8,450 Results
• Content1 (/product?tab=content1): 966 results
• Content2 (/product?tab=content2): 683 Results
• Content3 (/product?tab=content3): 1,750 Results
• Content4 (/product?tab=content4): 1,500 Results

All of the content shares a common product top section (summary of information) but has unique canonical url definitions, meta information, etc. The individual content tabs are all part of a larger grouping, which is why their index level is considerably less than the actual product page. As the client grows and updates this historical practice, one of the implementation options is making the content available on the page via an Ajax load.

The desire would be to maintain the ability to search for content1, content2, etc at that level and not spread the juice throughout all the main product pages. My question is what would the best setup be to maintain the historical ability to target the content individually via Search, while updating the UI/UX for a better customer experience? If the ajax route is the way to go, what are all the tasks necessary to properly handle without creating a separate duplicate pathing? Some of the tasks that I've outlined would be

• Using pushState to update the url when the tab is changed

• Is there an ability to also update canonicals & meta information?

what else am I missing? Any guidance would be great as Id love to get some thoguhts on the matter.

Thanks!

[Everett]

Hello Scott,

I am confident you will find the answers you're looking for here. However, I have a foundation question first. Why don't you just use hidden divs (display none) and simple javascript to allow the user to select which tab they're viewing without loading a new page or URL? Lots of eCommerce sites do this on product pages.

Google may give less "weight" to the content that isn't displayed by default, which is typically everything but the main product description tab (e.g. specs, additional features, shipping...). In most cases that's fine. But if you're worried about it you could always set the default to display all divs, and then IF they have javascript THEN collapse all but the main product description div, at least UNTIL the user executes javascript to display a div by clicking on a new tab. Make sense? It's the same end result, but done sort of backwards so all users with javascript turned off will by default see all of the content in-line instead of tabbed.

We can get into things like AJAX or Angular.js and other javascript frameworks, but that would definitely not be the optimal way to handle things in most situations.

[RosemarieReed]

It's a very good question and definetly an option although at this time it isn't a viable option since the company isn't interested in a change to the overall legacy architecture which has all the content separated as I stated above. There is the desire to keep the tabs as specific targetable content as they are all specific deeper dives into the product and not necessarily the types of content that you pointed out above (specs, shipping, etc). It's more of a travel product where there is an itinerary, property, room type options (all of which are chosen later in a booking).

Though the index numbers aren't all that impressive, the sites had a number of previous architectural and duplication issues that are finally beginning to clear up and normalize. There is a belief that the cleaning of ur parameters, canonicalizations, etc that has happened will improve those index numbers.

Thano you for the suggestion, it's definitely appreciated and something I've considered although as I mentioned I'm not sure if it is a direction I'll be able to convince them on.

[Everett]

If they want to keep those "tab content" pages as their own indexable URLs to capitalize on long-tail traffic and provide a more targeted page then I would advise making them separate landing pages instead of "tabbed" content URLs. If they want that content on the product page then I would advise embedding the content on the product page without the use of these external URLs. It sounds like they want to have their cake and eat it too?