• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. On-Page Optimization
        4. Duplicate eCommerce Product Descriptions

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        Duplicate eCommerce Product Descriptions

        On-Page Optimization
        3
        5
        2925
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • mj775
          mj775 last edited by

          I know that creating original product descriptions is best practices. What I don't understand is how other sites are able to generate significant traffic while still using duplicate product descriptions on all product pages. How are they not being penalized by Google?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • pawelgra
            pawelgra @mj775 last edited by

            From my experience as an SEO for a large eCommerce site (our own products), I tend to think that Google has a way of recognizing eCommerce site from purely informational ones and takes that into consideration when analyzing content.

            As you say Chris, many producers will distribute their catalogs to all their dealers and they in turn will put those online. The same happens with our products here. Our dealers use the very description we provide them with and no one has ever been penalized for that.

            As said, I personally think that Google takes the intent of your site (eCommerce, informational etc. ) into consideration when slapping duplicate content penalties.

            Having said that, i have no data to back up that claim so go easy on me, it's only based on my gut feeling and practical observations.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GeorgiaSEOServices
              GeorgiaSEOServices @mj775 last edited by

              I can definitely understand the frustration, but Google won't penalize sites for simply having duplicate content, and especially storefronts. Many merchants are provided with photos and product descriptions by the distributor, and when you're talking about hundreds or even thousands of products, it just not feasible for a merchant to change all of the descriptions and even more so if your inventory is changing on a monthly or even weekly basis. Then all of your changes get overwritten with the new upload.

              A good example would be the SMC websites that you see on late night TV where they send out a CD with products to thousands of customers and 98% of them just upload the database into their stores with little to no alteration.  They won't be penalized, but they just won't be able to sell much.

              In those cases, the sites aren't going to be penalized. And if those sites are ranking well without changing the content, then Google is definitely looking at other factors to make that decision (traffic, bounce rate, time on site, etc.).

              The sites Google are penalizing are the ones that intentionally try to game the system by stripping content from other sites and reposting them with literally no changes at all. Also sites that try to duplicate one of their stores multiple times in a cookie cutter fashion in order to trick the system to see if they can get multiple listings on the SERPs.

              You haven't provided specific sites to review for a definitive answer here, but they don't sound like they're trying to do anything black hat. They're just lazy. But if your site will be selling the same products, altering your descriptions and images is the only way that you'll get the advanatage over them instead of just becoming "yet another one of those sites". Good luck!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • mj775
                mj775 @GeorgiaSEOServices last edited by

                Thanks for the Amazon comment Chris :). I understand the multitude of variables when asking this question but after looking at a group of sites with similar backlink profiles, site architecture, etc. and all use duplicate product descriptions I am taken aback that they are not penalized. Even looking at smaller sites that are not properly constructed or optimized use duplicate product descriptions and still drive traffic/rank. Then I read all about rewriting product descriptions from SEOMoz and others (this information gels with what I know to be true) but then see sites still rank with this thin/dupe content.

                Any thoughts?

                GeorgiaSEOServices pawelgra 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • GeorgiaSEOServices
                  GeorgiaSEOServices last edited by

                  That could be for a variety of reasons. Is that site the only one that is offering that particular product? Is it a highly trafficked site with a lot of backlinks, reviews, and online activity?  Are the pages simply coded properly using canonical tags which help them escape "wrath"? These are all valid questions when you're doing competitive analysis and all things that Google considers along with dozens of other considerations.

                  Your best practice is to create new descriptions, take new photos or alter the existing ones (add text, crop, change contrast, etc.). This way your listing is seen as fresh and original content and will eventually take precedence over their carbon copy approach. If you have a better page with better content that's more informative to the customer, Google will choose your listing over 20 other sites that all have the same photos and descriptions.

                  Originality always wins....in most cases. Keep in mind that there are many other considerations in the Google algorithms, so don't expect to beat out Amazon no matter how hard you try. 😉

                  mj775 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • wearehappymedia

                    Duplicate content with tagging and categories

                    Hello, Moz is showing that a site has duplicate content - which appears to be because of tags and categories. It is a relatively new site, with only a few blog publications so far. This means that the same articles are displayed under a number of different tags and categories... Is this something I should worry about, or just wait until I have more content? The 'tag' and 'category' pages are not really pages I would expect or aim for anyone to find in google results anyway. Would be glad to here any advice / opinions on this Thanks!

                    On-Page Optimization | | wearehappymedia
                    1
                  • ahyde

                    Duplicate page titles and hreflang tags

                    Moz is flagging a lot of pages on our site which have duplicate page titles. 99% of these are international pages which hreflang tags in the sitemap. Do I need to worry about this? I assumed that it wasn't an issue given the use of hreflang. And if that's the case, why is Moz flagging them as an issue? Thanks.

                    On-Page Optimization | | ahyde
                    0
                  • jeeyer

                    Duplicate page titles and Content in Woocommerce

                    Hi Guys, I'm new to Moz and really liking it so far!
                    I run a eCommerce site on Wordpress + WooCommerce and ofcourse use Yoast for SEO optimalisation I've got a question about my first Crawl report which showed over 600 issues! 😐 I've read that this is something that happens more often (http://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/blog/setup-wordpress-for-seo-success). Most of them are categorized under:
                    1. Duplicate Page Titles or;
                    2. Duplicate Page Content. Duplicate Page Titles:
                    These are almost only: product category pages and product tags. Is this problem beeing solved by giving them the right SEO SERP? I see that a lot of categories don't have a proper SEO SERP set up in yoast! Do I need to add this to clear this issue, or do I need to change the actual Title? And how about the Product tags? Another point (bit more off-topic) I've read here:  http://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/community/q/yoast-seo-plugin-to-index-or-not-to-index-categories  that it's advised to noindex/follow Categories and Tags but isn't that a wierd idea to do for a eCommerce site?! Duplicate Page Content:
                    Same goes here almost only Product Categories and product tags that are displayed as duplicate Page content! When I check the results I can click on a blue button for example "+ 17 duplicates" and that shows me (in this case 17 URLS) but they are not related to the fist in any way so not sure where to start here? Thanks for taking the time to help out!
                    Joost

                    On-Page Optimization | | jeeyer
                    0
                  • Kdruckenbrod

                    Business Name is Meta Description

                    I would like to know what your opinion would be regarding the business name displayed in the meta description. Would you write your business name as: Business Name or BusinessName™ (no space with Trademark) I used MOZ example from here (Meta Descriptions Best Practice) and inserted the different business names. Welcome to Business Name in San Diego, California - the nation's largest urban cultural park. Home of 15 major museums, renowned performing arts venues... Welcome to businessname™ in San Diego, California - the nation's largest urban cultural park. Home of 15 major museums, renowned performing arts venues... I'm not sure which would be best for Google and other search engines. Thanks for your help.

                    On-Page Optimization | | Kdruckenbrod
                    0
                  • AndieF

                    ECommerce Filtering Affect on SEO

                    I'm building an eCommerce website which has an advanced filter on the left hand side of the category pages. It allows users to tick boxes for colours, sizes, materials, and so on. When they've made their choices they submit (this will likely be an AJAX thing in a future release, but isn't at time of writing). The new filtered page has a new URL, which is made up of the IDs of the filter's they've ticked - it's a bit like /department/2/17-7-4/10/ My concern is that the filtered pages are, on the most part, going to be the same as the parent. Which may lead to duplicate content. My other concern is that these two URLs would lead to the exact same page (although the system would never generate the 'wrong' URL) /department/2/17-7-4/10/ /department/2/**10/**17-7-4/ But I can't think of a way of canonicalising that automatically. Tricky. So the meat of the question is this: should I worry about this causing issues with the SEO - or can I have trust in Google to work it out?

                    On-Page Optimization | | AndieF
                    0
                  • BipSum

                    Should I watermark my product images

                    I am in the process of creating new images for my products to use on my website.  Are there any advantages or disadvantages of watermarking each image?  Is there an SEO impact good or bad?  I am aware that filename and Alt tags are important, but am unsure if google dislikes watermarked images.

                    On-Page Optimization | | BipSum
                    1
                  • nux

                    Related products - random products or static

                    Hello, I was curious about where to get related products from.  Currently I just grab some random products from the same category. Would there be any benefit to always linking to the same related products on a product page? Thanks

                    On-Page Optimization | | nux
                    0
                  • CraigAddyman

                    Meta descriptions

                    Whats the deal with the date at the start of the meta descriptions? I have not really looked into this but I'm guessing its a blog thing? Take this search http://www.google.co.uk/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=6packproject#hl=en&xhr=t&q=interview+with+paul+knight&cp=26&pf=p&sclient=psy&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=interview+with+paul+knight&pbx=1&fp=835cd241c8d51fff The beautifully crafted meta description is now being cut short even though its within the character limit and is now only showing 36 characters! Is there a way to remove this? Thanks in advance

                    On-Page Optimization | | CraigAddyman
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  • Digital Marketers
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter

                  Access all your tools in one place. Whether you're tracking progress or analyzing data, everything you need is at your fingertips.

                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.