Unique Title Tags OR Unique Content?

[rcarll]

The content management system for my e-commerce site will not allow me to add both: unique content and unique title tags to each of my product category pages. Since I am forced to choose one or the other...which one is more important for rankings? And please dont answer "get a new CM system"...thats not an option. Thanks

[mozalbin]

Unique content is absolutely the best option. I can't see why you don't can choose to have both but I won't question it further just because you asked

[rcarll]

I thought it was simple as that too. But without any title tags I dont see how I have any chance of ranking in a relatively competitive industry...

Do you have any personal experience or data for choosing the content over the tags? Keep in mind, these are product category pages like this - so the content will still be unique in the different names of the products. I just wont be able to add any additional content to that page...if you get what Im saying...

Do you still suggest to add additional content over the unique title tags?

[AdoptionHelp]

I agree, unique content will be more important. Without unique content you risk getting penalized for duplicating content on your site. On the other hand, Google and the others often fiddle with the title anyways, so there's no guarantee your carefully crafted unique titles will display at all.

I know its outside the scope of the question, but you mentioned being in a "relatively competitive industry" below... so I would highly suggest getting a CMS that can you can do proper on-page SEO with. Otherwise you're competing with a disadvantage right from the start.

[Check_City]

I can say from personal experience "inheriting" a bad code base or architecture and failing to correct it for the pain or cost of doing so makes everything else that much harder to do. In this day and age there is no excuse for not simply tackling the problem and doing things "right" .

Changing CMS and blog and converting nearly 8000 pages to them was tough and took nearly 3 months of continuous work by 2 full time employees, but the rewards far outweigh the costs and pain.