How to avoid duplicate content on ecommerce pages?

[PEnterprises]

I am currently building the site architecture for a very large ecommerce site. I am wondering how I should build it out if I have products that I want to include in multiple categories within my site.

For example: Lets say I sell fitness equipment and I have categories for things such as: Treadmill, Exercise Bike, Stair Stepper, Weight Benches etc.

But then I also have specific brand category pages such a: Precor, Life Fitness, Hammer, Body Solid

So my question is how do I structure this so I am building this correctly? If I sell a Precor Treadmill I will want to include that product under the "Treadmill" category page as well as under the "Precor Equipment" category page.

Can I get some advice for the best way to structure this? It's obviously something I want to avoid at all costs of doing improperly and having to fix later.

Thank you

Jake

[JoeAmadon]

If you are worried about the category pages having duplicate content, that shouldn't be a big concern as most of the content should be unique from one page versus any other page. Some content is almost always going to be repeated to some extent on a website. You need to make sure there is enough unique content on the page to differentiate it as The page on your site about that keyword. Having multiple navigation paths to the same product is going to increase conversion as it makes it easier for customers to find what they want, so I would not shy away from that.

I believe the problem is how you serve the product page for products that are cross-listed. I don't know how your product pages are created, but you won't want more than one URL for any one product.If you use breadcrumbs, you'll have to choose which set of breadcrumbs you want your users to see, even if they came to the page via a different path. If any other content is dynamically created based on the category it is listed in, you'll have to make sure that the one page you serve adequately fulfills what the customer would expect to see based on other experiences with your site.

[PEnterprises]

Hmmm, I think all this confused me even more.

Maybe I should give a real life example. Lets say I have only ONE product page and url for the body solid g9s.

Let's say the url is www.site.com/home-gym-equipment/body-solid-g9s.html

There could also be a url that is www.site.com/body-solid/body-solid-g9s.html

Basically you are saying that it is ok to have that product page show up for both categories in my sites category product page. However, I should make sure that I choose only one of those paths to actually serve up as a product page? Also I would assume it makes more sense to serve up this page www.site.com/body-solid/body-solid-g9s.html no matter what path the use to get there as it would make more sense?

Am I understanding this? Thank you

Jake

[JoeAmadon]

Sorry I didn't make that a little clearer. But, yes, it sounds like you understand. Only serve one product page. List the product page in whatever categories seem appropriate.

As to which page to serve, I actually like the URL www.site.com/home-gym-equipment/body-solid-g9s.html as it provides additional keywords as opposed to just repeating keywords. But if Body Solid is a popular enough brand where lots of people shop specifically for that brand, then you might want to go with www.site.com/body-solid/body-solid-g9s.html.

[PEnterprises]

Thanks so much Joe. This is awesome. This level of help is incredible. This is the main reason I am staying with SEOmoz. Hope to see you around more. Thank you!

[CraigBradford]

Just a side note Jake, if it gets really bad for any pages and you don't feel that's an option you can always use the:

Hope this helps

[jndcom]

canonical tags totally save the day in regards to multiple category based products