ECommerce Products substantially similar but with important differences?

[BM7]

Hi eCommerce gurus,

We sell a number of products, electrical in nature where the unit is from a group (sub-model is probably a good description) but each has important different physical properties. An example description is:

#1 Clipsal C-Bus Wireless Plug Adapter 1 Channel Leading Edge Dimmer, 3A

C-Bus Wireless Plug Adaptors allow mains GPO operated equipment to be controlled as part of a C-Bus Wireless network. The buttons on a C-Bus Wireless Plug Adaptor are able to control a load connected directly to the unit and control loads connected to other C-Bus Wireless units. Also, buttons on C-Bus Wireless Wall Switches can control a load connected to a Plug Adaptor.Each button can be programmed to function as an on/off, dimmer or scene control, as well as a number of other options.

The other 2 in this group are:

#2 Clipsal C-Bus Wireless Plug Adapter 1 Channel Trailing Edge Dimmer, 2A

#3 Clipsal C-Bus Wireless Plug Adapter 1 Channel Relay, 10A

but the item description details are really the same as #1.

This trips Roger's duplicate content error and so probably Google's as well.

I can consolidate into one product with 'options' but then can't list the three products discretely on Google shopping etc, and currently the 'Category' is a much wider 'Wireless Automation Products' which I don't really want to sub-categorise into 'C-Bus Wireless Plug Adapters' with three items in it making it harder for people to find.

I can 'Spin' the description but this seem stupid and even more so for other items I have that have 12 different derivations of the same basic product

Any Suggestions?

[TomRayner]

I'm afraid it will have to be a case of one or the other - either create unique content for the pages or consolidate them into one listing.

You've nailed the reasons already, so I'll offer a bit of advice into making the decision of which option to choose.  I'd look at your analytics data and see how many times those individual product pages have had users entering the website from them, which you could also break down further to see which users have entered via google shopping.

If there's a substantial amount that you believe has led to conversions, then unique content might be the way forward.  If not, then I don't think it losing the other two listings from Google shopping would be much of a sacrifice.

[Marcus_Miller]

I think that is really good advice.

[BM7]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for that answer, unfortunately what I expected. I am currently just rel=canonical-ing to one of the items like the good ol' Google 'Green T Shirt' example.

If I reduce the item detail to the differences between the items, it then becomes 'thin content' in the template, so it's bad both directions. Looks like 'Spun' individual item descriptions seems the preferred method, but there is only so much you can say about what is essentially the same unit with just different types of output controller but otherwise with identical features. IMHO a situation many will have that Google just doesn't understand (or perhaps want to understand ).

Thanks again.