SEO: one product with multiple variants, or separate products. Stuck in the middle.

[martinpaulnorth]

I have a problem I'm trying to find the best solution for. I have 10 times, lets say they are T-shirts for the sake of argument. 8 of the 10 are very similar, different designs of the same base idea. It would be hard to create separate content for them, most key words would be duplicated. The other 2 of the 10 are sufficiently different to deserve targeted keywords and descriptions. So, how to handle this..options are:

A) 10 separate products in a collection. 8 of them very similar, same keywords. 2 of them a little different. So a lot of duplicated content but easy on the eye to the user and easy to navigate a nicely laid out collection list. 

B) Two products, one with 8 variants and one with 2 variants both in a collection. No duplicated content and very targeted keywords. But not very easy to navigate for the user, user would have to click in and out of each product to see the full range.

C) Two products, all 10 variants but different primary images. So a user would be able to see all variants regardless of where the landed, but each product attracting different key words to different primary images.

D) some hybrid / duplication of the above!

Option a) is the nicest for the user, but with a range of products with duplicated content i'm not sure of the SEO implications here??

[puneet_unbundl]

Hi,

This is Puneet from unbundl.

We used to run our own merchandise store. It catered to lots of gifting products with printed t-shirts and mugs. 

In our experience, its better to have different pages for all the products. More products, more you get to experiment with order of words and phrase style.

Secondly, you could always add related products or images of similar design near Add to cart as variation but they will load a new poduct when clicked on

I hope I was helpful.

[martinpaulnorth]

thank you, appreciate your views !

[KieranR]

If people are searching for the different keywords - then it can be good to separate them as you'd get easy control over Title/SEO Title/Description etc. But if there's no search vol for long-tail then no point splitting.

[Niki_K]

Hi @martinpaulnorth,

product variations are always a pain in terms of SEO. 

As you mentioned in your post, if you have 10 separate products, it's great for the user since they see all of the variations in the collection easily. So, my points to this issue which might help you decide:

• How many products do you have in total? 10 products as mentioned? Or other products as well? Just asking, if you have "only" 10 products, I think it's worth investing in having separate product pages. Even if you use the same keywords you might change e.g. the descriptions on the product pages slightly to make sure that the entire content isn't 100% the same. Besides this, having 10 products in a collection is ok, having only 2 products doesn't look good.
• How much time do you have for managing separate products? It's about the content, stocking, images, loading time, content changes, etc. 
• How do your customers perform queries based on variant phrases? Do you think they will be ok with choosing the variations (such as color) on one product page or do they will need to see all of the colors listed in a collection? If you have a chance talking to one of your customers, it might be also a nice insight.

I hope these points will help you decide!