One of the biggest problems ecommerce sites face is duplicate content problems in the search engines. Google and others really don’t like finding the exact same copy across multiple domains. It hurts their results.
If every time you went to search Google and found that the top ten results were 80% similar, you’d probably stop using Google. Therefore, Google has devised a duplicate content penalty. If they find exact copy on different websites, they try to determine who the source of the content is and ignore the rest.
This is common in ecommerce websites (much more than you realize). Most ecommerce professionals use the manufacturer’s ad copy when setting up their products. It’s easy—the manufacturer already did some work for you, so why should you spend time re-writing it?
I’m glad you asked because I’m going to tell you.
Two reasons:
- Many people on the web are selling the same product and using the same ad copy. Therefore, somebody is going to get hit by Google’s duplicate content penalty, and chances are it’s going to be you.
- If you have some writing skill, a re-written description has proven much higher conversions than the manufacturer’s ad copy. That means more sales!
I know it’s a pain in the neck, but re-write it. Add a little salesmanship to the description. Make it catchy. Make it meaningful and valuable. You are a better marketer than the manufacturer. Now get to it! Things are moving fast in ecommerce!
Jason
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