Product Variations in Ecommerce: Combine or Canonicalize?

[evan89]

Hello,

I have an ecommerce site that sells pond pumps. I have every pump separated because each pump has different flow rates, specs, and replacement parts. All of the content is original, and even the content on the pages are (more than) 15% different - so it isn't getting flagged by Moz as duplicate content. Essentially it is set up like this:

Acme Pond Pumps

• Acme Pond Pump 100
• Acme Pond Pump 200
• Acme Pond Pump 300

I am wondering if it is best to leave all of the products as separate pages, or if I should canonicalize them to the category page? Will each of the pages pass link juice upward anyways? The difference between the products are the specs, parts, and model number.

Thoughts?

[SamuelScott]

First, I'd say that just because Moz does not flag a page as duplicate content does not mean Google would not think it is duplicate content. As great as Moz is, even Moz cannot know for sure what Google thinks about any specific issue.

Second, I'd look at your keyword research. Are people searching only for general, category-based terms such as "Acme Pond Pumps"? If so, then you might want to no-index all the specific product pages (that may have duplicate content). But if people are searching on a detailed, specific terms such as "Acme Pond Pump 100" and "Acme Pond Pump 200," then you want all of them to be indexed individually. In the second example, I'd try to make each product page as original as possible -- which is something you seem to be doing.

I wouldn't worry about passing "link juice" upwards. As long as you have a flat hierarchy so that all of the product pages are no more than three levels/clicks away from the home page, there should be no crawling/indexation issues.

I hope that helps -- let me know in a reply if you have any other questions!

[evan89]

Hey Samuel,

I feel like this confirms some of the thoughts that I had. The different terms are, searched, so I think it will be best to leave them as individuals.

Thanks for your contribution!