Ecommerce combating canabilsation

[ATP]

Hey Mozzers,

I think i know the answer to this one but i just wanted to check my thinking if you wouldnt mind.

I have an ecommerce website with lots of very similar products, for example

Blue widget
Waterproof blue widget
Blue widget with Alarm

One of the pages is ranking top 10 for "blue widget", however the other intermittently swap with it, knocking that page out and itself into the top 10. Then a few weeks later it swaps back again. This seems like a clear case of keyword canablisation to me. And i am wondering on the best solution.

301: Obviously not an answer as i need all 3 products visible
Canonical to one of the pages: Doesn't seem correct either, the products are similiar but not the same, all 3 could rank for different longtails etc

I was suffering from something similiar on my closely related category pages and I combated that by interlinking them all with the relevant keywords to point to the relevant pages.

Should i do the same for these products such as... 
From 'Blue Widget' product link to "Blue widget with alarm" and "Waterproof Blue Widget"
From Waterproof blue widget and blue widget with alarm link to "Blue Widget"     (using the anchor text in the "").

This should tell serps that all pages are about blue widget but the main one is the "blue widgets" page. Correct?

As a follow up. Is this one of the reason ecommerce sights have related products options?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi,

E-commerce sites are littered with canonical issues for so many different reasons. The most common is like this, where there are cross-overs..

Your issues are probably being caused because you have a main Blue Widget page that carries everything (I assume).

Here is one way I would approach your issue... Probably not the best for your circumstance though.

-- Set canonical from Waterproof Blue Widgets to Blue Widgets
-- Set canonical from Alarm Blue Widgets to Blue Widgets

You might want to remove the primary page from Google's eyes as this could be seen as a doorway page.

The second (probably best) way is by targeting the pages a little more closely - of course, this is a little awkward to advise on because I can't see the site. You would need to add a more thorough description to the secondary pages and make sure they are very focussed. Internal links as you have described will also help here with very focused anchor texts. These links I would add high up the page in an introduction text.

I would then create some blog posts related to each product and link through from these too. Try and get the link high up in the copy again. Don't just stop at one though - you want to create hub pages for each and this is the best way to achieve it.

-Andy

[ATP]

Hi Andy thanks for the response,

Your presumptions are correct in some cases

Sometimes i have a category

Category: Awesome Widgets
Product: Blue Awesome Widget
Product: Awesome widget with stuff

However, Although there has been some cannibalism here, the category page (being linked from the homepage) and some internal linking always sorts it out and gains much more authority and ranking, removing the issue.

However, in this instance, where I am having the problem, all 3 are products with equal importance.
Blue Widget = the basic model, no thrills
Splash proof blue widget & Blue widget with alarm are more expensive completely different models with additional features

The keyword they're targeting doesn't have the traffic to be worth making its own category, 70% of those ranking above us are distributors selling our products using a duplicated copy of our descriptions etc (A practice i've stopped since arriving).

Because all 3 are so different (yet similiar enough to cause as issue) i dont feel canonicalising them although solving the issue feels like a cheap fix that has the unwanted side effect of stopping the product pages ranking for their own natural longtails.

I feel your second option is more appropriate. But am a little unsure to what extent to implement it.

My Current Plan
Each product currently has around 150 word bullet pointed description.

• Write 200-250+ words description, talk about the other models as upgrades and include links to "blue widget with alarm" etc (250 words is about right without waffling or creating a wall of text for these products)
• Restructure the 150 words of bullet point into a features and benefits box

This gives each page 400+ words of unique content once you include description, tech spec and features.

Questions Should I link every instance of "Blue Widget" to the blue widget product page or just once from each relevant page?

Say i write 3 blog posts to link to my blue widgets page - should these be closely related enough to have "blue widget" in the title or maybe just talk about more general widget stuff and link it in. I dont want to just create another page that can join the cannibalistic party.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Before I answer that, I would like to point you to this article on eConsultancy about internal linking. This is the go-to article that I show everyone and explains exactly how to do it.

Should I link every instance of "Blue Widget" to the blue widget product page or just once from each relevant page?

John Mueller has also just confirmed here, that internal linking to your product pages is not over optimisation. Here is the snippet of interest...

"In general, I don’t see any problems with internal links from articles on an e-commerce site. So if you are an expert on a topic, and you have products that belong to that topic, then maybe you will write some articles about this topic as well and give more insight on why you chose those products to sell, or the pros and cons, the variations of those products, and that is useful content to have. And that is something that sometimes does make sense to link to your product pages or the rest of your site.

So that is not something I’d see as being overly problematic. If this is done in a reasonable way, that you are not linking every keyword to different pages on your site, but rather saying this product is important, this product is important here, this is something we offer, this is something someone else offers, this is a link to the manufacturer directly. Then that is useful information to have, that is not something I’d remove."

Make articles about your Blue Widgets more Why / How, rather than 'buy these', and title the pages accordingly. Steer clear of titles that could cause duplication issues again, but there is no harm in talking about them in great detail and linking.

I hope this helps.

-Andy

[ATP]

Really good article that Andy, really enjoyed the read.

Thank you for your valuable input as always!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

No problem at all