Google PANDA - What should I do?

Hi, Guys,

I run online store with 4k of products in 50 categories...
All of the products are from a XML file, that I got from my Supplier, and the problem is, that 50 other stores use this XML file and same product description...
There are weakly new product's and it's not possible to write a new content...

Any suggestion what should I do to get better ranking?

Thanks for any Advice!

Build more backlinks than the other sites using the same list.

Dupe content happen all the time, how does Google know who's the original source? They don't.

They just go by who has the highest authority, and authority comes from backlinks, and a bunch of other stuff.

Did you try this out by yourself?
I hope you are right

If you have 4K products, then for sure you have dupe content. The Panda update did hurt a lot of eCommerce sites like you.

So, let's say you have a handbag XYZ from BrandX. You could possibly have:
and so forth...

Your main page for this product should be:

So all the other pages would need the rel="canonical" tag.
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.yoursite.com/Accessories/HandBags/BrandX/XYZ.htm"/>

This will only tell Google, Yahoo and Bing that you have dupe content, and they will send all the authority to the main product page.

Don't waste time promoting dupe content, instead go for product pages and site sections and categories.

clade said:

Build more backlinks than the other sites using the same list.

Dupe content happen all the time, how does Google know who's the original source? They don't.

They just go by who has the highest authority, and authority comes from backlinks, and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

At last a sensible comment about dupe content!!

<<<<Don't waste time promoting dupe content, instead go for product pages and site sections and categories.>>>>

I do not understand this

why cant you outsource your product desciptions to be written. i run ecommerce stores too and i never use the product descriptions given by the manufacturers for two reasons- everyone else is using them because they were too lazy to write their own and 2- their product descritpions suck(in most cases) and are not very converting at all.

pogosa said:

<<<<Don't waste time promoting dupe content, instead go for product pages and site sections and categories.>>>>

I do not understand this

Click to expand...

Just promote the page you link to with the canonical tag.

clade said:

Dupe content happen all the time, how does Google know who's the original source? They don't.

They just go by who has the highest authority, and authority comes from backlinks, and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

You don't believe that they take into account the timestamp of indexing content when evaluating for duplicate material? This is Google we're talking about, they know everything about anything, including what's under your bed.

mdsurf said:

why cant you outsource your product desciptions to be written. i run ecommerce stores too and i never use the product descriptions given by the manufacturers for two reasons- everyone else is using them because they were too lazy to write their own and 2- their product descritpions suck(in most cases) and are not very converting at all.

Click to expand...

So true.

clade said:

Build more backlinks than the other sites using the same list.

Dupe content happen all the time, how does Google know who's the original source? They don't.

They just go by who has the highest authority, and authority comes from backlinks, and a bunch of other stuff.

Click to expand...

thnx bro for great info

Why can not rewrite product description?
I get every day a new XML file with products that's why hope you understand

Mostly the case of duplicate content and products. What you need to do is to promote the main category page rather than the individual pages of the products. The main category page should have a large number of authority links coming to it. Let the SE find the categories for itself.

mdsurf said:

why cant you outsource your product desciptions to be written. i run ecommerce stores too and i never use the product descriptions given by the manufacturers for two reasons- everyone else is using them because they were too lazy to write their own and 2- their product descritpions suck(in most cases) and are not very converting at all.

Click to expand...

Where do you outsource the writing of your product descriptions? I'm looking for a good company or person to do this.

A lot of companies outsource their descriptions, it can't be that expensive.

Originally Posted by clade
Build more backlinks than the other sites using the same list.

Dupe content happen all the time, how does Google know who's the original source? They don't.

They just go by who has the highest authority, and authority comes from backlinks, and a bunch of other stuff.


A very good suggestion to go with.You can surely follow that

I've got a lot of experience with this as I've developed some large scale affiliate data feed tools that runs on many sites.

Basically, the dupe content isn't helping you. This isn't the same thing as stealing the content from another site where there might be one or two other sites with the same content. You're using product descriptions that hundreds or even thousands of other sites are using. And Google does have it's methods of detecting the original source of content, not that it's always accurate but it does attempt to determine who the real owner is.

What you need to do is add unique content to your site and try to rank those pages, not the product pages made up of dupe content pulled from your feed.

Some sites do this by creating category description pages where they create a good 600-700 word intro to the category, place it high on the page within an jQuery slider or something so it doesn't eat up all the page's real estate.

Another option is to add custom content articles then either include relevant product info from your feed in that page or link to relevant product pages. These articles could be general buyers guides like "How to pick the best coffee table for your home". Create a whole series of guides and even articles on the latest news or offerings that relate to the types of products your site sells.

You could also add the ability for users of your site to leave ratings, comments or other user submitted content to product pages that would dilute the duplicate content.

Basically, Google declared war on data feed sites a long time ago, discounting them as spam. You need unique content.

And as with any site, more, quality back links always helps. But get the back links to your category pages and articles. You can try to get a bunch of back links to product pages made up of dupe content but it's only going to work if you can "out back link" all the other sites using the same data feed.

In the long run, that's not the best option. Adding good, unique content to your site not only convinces Google to rank you better, creates link bait but gives your visitors a better impression of your site. It's not just about getting traffic, you still have to convince that traffic to covert into sales.