This week’s Ask an SEO asked :

“We’re getting penalized by Google for thin content, but many of our products naturally have similar descriptions. What creative solutions have you seen work for ecommerce sites with large, similar product catalogs?”

This is a question that comes up a lot, and the answer is easy. Don’t optimize or worry about your product pages (PDPs). Product pages do not need to rank on their own unless it is a signature product. When someone looks for a specific product, that product page will show. If you try optimizing all of your product pages individually, they’ll compete against each other, and none of them will win.

Instead, try this:

• Add variant schema to your product pages vs. unique descriptions and content for each.
• Optimize your category/collection pages instead of your product pages.
• Build strong internal links.
• Create relevant content on your blog and supplemental pages to establish authority.
• Work on building external signals.

Variant Schema

Variant schema lets you take the same product with different sizes and colors and not have to struggle with optimizing for each one. It groups them together and works directly alongside your canonical links. Instead of writing 15 unique pages about the same product, you only need to do one and let variants handle the rest.

The canonical links will guide search engines to the main version and let them know which colors, sizes, and styles are in stock and what you sell. If your site is trustworthy enough, your product pages should be able to compete in the search results and get the traffic for specific product-based queries.

Optimize Collection Pages

Collection pages are the better solution to optimize when a lot of the products are the same. When FAQs, solutions, and consumers’ questions apply to multiple products, group them together and build the copy around this collection. You can answer the users’ questions and let them know your products or services solve their needs, and the search engines are smart enough to know you have the products.

Internal links can point to the specific products, and the filtering lets people match compatibility, whether it’s clothing sizes, versions of software or tools, or colors of products. This makes less work for you and the search engines, and you’re not building pages that will naturally cannibalize themselves.

Use Internal Links

Your internal links are going to be your best friend here. They help define what each product, brand, size, etc. are and the purpose. The wording you use matters, as this helps define what the person and the search engine will find on the page.

If you say baggy T-shirts for lounging, which could be terrycloth or bamboo, vs. baggy festival T-shirts, which may be cotton, since it is easier to clean. These are both the same style of T-shirt, but use “modifiers,” which are modified versions to define the purpose and use, so they don’t compete. The collection that houses both styles of baggy T-shirts is the one optimized for baggy T-shirts as a general phrase.

The content would be very similar across them, but the internal links help define when and who each should be shown to, and they get customers on your website to the correct collections or PDPs faster, so they can check out. Internal links include:

• In content links on blog posts, comparisons, PDPs, and collection pages.
• Breadcrumbs across your site.
• Menu items and navigation.
• Filtering if the filters get crawled and indexed and point to canonicalized pages.

The modifiers here make it easier for the search engines and users to understand your website and what you offer or sell. This, in turn, makes it so your product pages can be similar vs. having to find ways to spin 20 versions of the same thing and not make it spammy. And no, LLMs and AI are not a solution. Having them write unique variations is the same as using an article spinner. Save yourself the overoptimization devaluation and do proper SEO.

Establish Yourself As A Trustworthy Authority

The next step to getting product pages to rank is to make sure your website is trustworthy. Look at your blog, landing pages that are indexable, and other pages that you want search engines to judge you on. Now, ask yourself:

• Have I backed up all claims?
• Are any of these pages too similar? And if yes, should I combine them or delete the less valuable ones?
• Will the person on the page have an answer or a solution, or can I do better for them?
• Is each part of the content easy to find by thumbing through, or do I need to modify the structure or add jump links?
• Does my website cover each part of the entity without trying to do “SEO content”?
• Can we begin doing studies, tests, and building data sets that are unique and will help our customers?

These are the questions that help to define authoritative content. If the person has a question about the products or services in your space, they should be able to find it, absorb it, and not have to work to get answers. This includes products and services that are similar but not something you offer.

Your goal is to be the authoritative and unbiased resource for all things in your niche. That does not mean optimizing for every keyword or writing posts and pages by keyword. It does mean providing solutions with written text, video, how-to guides, explanations, comparisons, case studies, and making sure there is minimal fluff.

Build External Signals

Quality backlinks are important, but they aren’t as important as they used to be. External signals are more important as machine learning may take the context around a brand mention or citation, and this includes backlinks that are nofollow, sponsored, user-generated content, etc. Even without a backlink, people will see your brand, and when they do, they may search for it.

I have seen brand + product or brand + service searches begin driving product and collection pages up in search results when they occur naturally and en masse. When a product goes viral on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc., and users go to Google and type in [ABC company widgets], that company’s page for widgets starts to show up for the phrase “widgets.” It’s the external signals that are building trust.

External signals include:

In Summary

You don’t need to optimize every product page on your site; you only need proper technical SEO so they don’t compete with each other. Then you’ll want to build a quality shopping experience with helpful content and internal links to guide users and search engines to the correct pages. From there, build authoritative content that shows your website is the go-to resource for your industry. Now, focus on external signals that drive an action like a click on the link or a branded search, not just backlinks. This is how we work to optimize product pages for our clients.

More Resources:

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Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal