Does Your E-Commerce Site Get Whacked For Duplicate Content?

We have talked aout [tag]duplicate content[/tag] before but it bears more discussion if you run an [tag]ecommerce site[/tag]. One reason why product pages on ecommerce sites appear in the search engine indexes and then disappear is because they're duplicates. You may not think your product pages are duplicates of one another, but the search engines, and especially Google often does.

By using a unique [tag]title tag, meta descriptions and meta keywords tag[/tag] on every page of your site, you'll have a better chance of those pages not being considered duplicates and delisted. Moreover, if you include unique product descriptions and this is not the generic ones provided by the manufacturer of products, as well as other unique elements on every page, your pages won't be [tag]duplicates of other pages[/tag]. It's important to note that when Google compares one web page to another web page and if the majority percentage of those pages contain the same content, then those pages will be duplicates. Google will keep the first page they find and ignore all the other duplicate pages they find.

If you're selling products and your competitor is also selling the same thing, then your product pages need to be different than their product pages. In many cases, the generic product descriptions of items are provided by the manufacturer and it's too easy to use the description that's provided. But, if you used the same product description that every other online store that sold that product used, your product page wouldn't stand out. It might even be considered a duplicate page if the majority of the content on the page is the product description.

So, you must include other additional information on the page. This is easy enough and you may simply rewrite the product description or, if you do not have the time or manpower to do that, then add a product review, links to related products, links to product pages with other colors, sizes, similar features etc, or perhaps a testimonial about the product. Simple things like this will eliminate the dreaded duplicate content.