I'd love to get some opinions about this...

Lets say that you've structured the individual product pages on your e-commerce site to all match each other. As far as text content goes, they're not very strong, and because of their similarities there is a possibility of them being seen as duplicate content.

Here's the trade-off question:

Do you set those pages to noindex to maybe improve the SE's view of your overall website, or do you leave them in the index in the hopes that the few times they're used as an entry page will pay off? Let's assume, for this question, that the vast majority of your traffic enters through your main page and 3-5 landing pages (regional perhaps?) that you've designed.

I'm sure much of the answer would depend on your product and the purchase process associated with it. I'd imagine visitors entering your site on that individual product page would be a lot more likely to buy if they knew exactly what they were looking for and it was not a big-ticket purchase (which translates to less of a need for "shopping around").

What say you, EF?

Originally Posted by handsome rob

I'd love to get some opinions about this...

Lets say that you've structured the individual product pages on your e-commerce site to all match each other. As far as text content goes, they're not very strong, and because of their similarities there is a possibility of them being seen as duplicate content.

Here's the trade-off question:

Do you set those pages to noindex to maybe improve the SE's view of your overall website, or do you leave them in the index in the hopes that the few times they're used as an entry page will pay off? Let's assume, for this question, that the vast majority of your traffic enters through your main page and 3-5 landing pages (regional perhaps?) that you've designed.

I'm sure much of the answer would depend on your product and the purchase process associated with it. I'd imagine visitors entering your site on that individual product page would be a lot more likely to buy if they knew exactly what they were looking for and it was not a big-ticket purchase (which translates to less of a need for "shopping around").

What say you, EF?

hmm.. I don't understand why you wouldnt change all those product pages so that they are optimized for the product name they are about?
Just alter the texts so that they aren't similar no more....

I agree with SEO Portal...

Even if you have some of the same content on each product page, it will be fine as long as you have a small paragraph describing the product that the page is about...more importantly, you need to make sure that the titles, metas, and h1 tags are different. Do that, and the SE's will know the difference.

I'm more referring to headings than descriptions.

Size:
Color:
Weight:
Horsepower:
Price:
Location:

etc.

Originally Posted by handsome rob

I'm more referring to headings than descriptions.

Size:
Color:
Weight:
Horsepower:
Price:
Location:

etc.

that's what is the same about the pages?.. I assume you will be ok then...

Originally Posted by SEO Portal

that's what is the same about the pages?.. I assume you will be ok then...

I agree... you should be fine