Should I consolidate products that only vary by color?

[designbuildwp]

I've been hired to help improve the SEO for a furniture e commerce site, and in their product listings you'll see several instances where the same product is repeated 5 times, varying only by 'finish'.(Usually Cherry, Mahogany, Maple, etc)

I would think that traditionally, this seems like a no brainer - that you would consolidate these products into variable products. But in the furniture realm, I'm concerned about losing those permalinks for people that might search specifically for 'mahogany desk'.

I'm pretty sure that we will ultimately decide to consolidate into Variable products. I was thinking there could be a sub header tag that said 'Available in: ' and listed the finishes there. But of course I've still lost the color in the url, title tag.  I was just wondering if anyone had any advice for me in general. Really appreciate any kind of help. Paul

[EGOL]

Most of the time, I list color, finish, size, etc. variants on the same page, but show separate photos with captions that present them.

However, if there is search and buying volume enough for "green widgets" or "brass widgets" or whatever, then I will make a separate page for them.  But, when I do that, I am willing to spend enough time to make a unique product description that generously describes and explains and shows, because a substantive page will be needed to avoid duplicate content in search engines.

Separate pages are a good idea if the potential sales can justify the cost and the competition is thick enough that separate pages are needed to become competitive for the different variants of the product.

[designbuildwp]

Thank you for taking the time to share your advice. It was helpful, thank you

[MattRoney]

Hi Paul!

Did EGOL settle this for you?

[designbuildwp]

He did, I apologize for not updating this sooner. Thanks for your help EGOL, and Matt. This site is pretty amazing. I think by focusing on google so much, some of the magic as rubbed off. Love the site's design too, as a designer. Anyway, thanks again. Paul