Negative Effect on SEO From Duplicate Content

I found an intersting article at: Negative Effect on SEO from Duplicate Content | LetsTalkSEO.com talking about negative effect on SEO from duplicate content.

I recently made the decision to list the main ingredients from our manufacturers on the product pages.

My concerns are the following:

- I cannot change the list of ingredients in products, so it will be identical to the manufacturers' websites.

- The ingredient list will be the same for the different scents of each product.

I took the risk of providing more information about the products for the visitors, but I am afraid that will be considered as duplicates from a search engine point of view.

What would be your advice?

Thank you very much for your help

You run the risk of duplicate content. However, I can think of a way around it. Instead of just listing the ingredients exactly like the manufacturers do, instead, try to write it out. For example, you might say:

"This herbal conditioner contains ingredients such as blah, blah, blah and blah which are known for providing stronger, more durable hair..."

Basically, give the information, but put it in a unique sentence. That might help.

Thank you for your suggestion.

I will see how it works, because it may involve much more. It is like trying to make something better and create new problems in the same time :(

That's the burden of SEO. You make a change and then the next thing you know, you've made a mistake. I think if you add some unique content there for the ingredients, you'll be alright.

Yeah, if you have a ton of unique content around the ingredients I bet you'll be alright.

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Originally Posted by stickycarrots

Yeah, if you have a ton of unique content around the ingredients I bet you'll be alright.

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Everything is unique on our site, from descriptions to articles except the ingredients listed in our product descriptions, but we cannot do much about that and I think it is pretty important to know what main ingredients are in the products.

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Originally Posted by Natural Elements

I think it is pretty important to know what main ingredients are in the products.

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Hi,

This may be true for some people, however I believe those numbers are low.

I don't think I ever read the ingredients that are in any product I purchase. Most of the time I shop by looks. I think the picture is the important part.

When I was running a lingerie site. I know that the company would supply the pictures on a disk for us. I never used the new disk much. I used old pictures. Here is my reason why. My competition all updated there sites with the same pictures at the same time meaning they all had the same women in the same lingerie so if people would site shop at least the site had different pictures on it. The product might be the same but the photo was different :)

I buy 99% of the time on looks.

How it will make me feel or how I will feel to have it.

IMO your descriptions should touch the buyer with emotion.

Just a thought :)

Sami

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Originally Posted by Sami4u

I don't think I ever read the ingredients that are in any product I purchase. Most of the time I shop by looks. I think the picture is the important part.

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Thanks Sami,

That's right, most of people will not read the ingredients listed but some other do. You cannot imagine how many ladies ask for details :)

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IMO your descriptions should touch the buyer with emotion. Just a thought :)

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I think we provide that in our descriptions.

As far as the pictures importance, it is a big dilemma because the search engines take the loading page speed as a SERP factor. You have to make a choice between medium quality pictures or been penalized in the SERP if you display high quality pictures. It will take longer to load the pages.

I have also a dynamic display on the right column which also take some additional weight. We cannot have everything :(

Would listing the ingredients in a different order help?

I think even mixing up the order of the ingredients still will fall under duplicate content because Google can go, "Yup, every single one of those words is used in some shape or form." By adding more words to it--and the more the better--it becomes less obvious to Google.