Duplicate products in v2013

[FrazerPart]

Our site is set up to generate a single product per page for all products.

We have a number of product already set up, with duplicates, that could benefit from having their short and long descriptions changed according to application.

I've been through the help pages and seen how to do this and have switched on the using "Duplicates Fields Configuration" under settings.
That seems straight forward.

Now what I want to understand is what happens if we select to configure duplicate page name, page title, meta description and also tick the "generate product page" field too.

Does this mean that sellerdeck will create a new SPP page for us with a new page title and a new page html page name, essentially allowing us to optimise each duplicate for maximum performance?

Any advise or shared experience would be greatly appreciated.

[Andy@codepath]

Hi Max. If you choose to allow distinct HTML page names for your duplicates you must manage these yourself. Sellerdeck will fail on upload if an original product's page name is the same as a duplicate's whilst distinct page names are permitted.

[FrazerPart]

Thanks Andy.
You are absolutely right. After switching this feature on (page name mods for duplicates), SellerDeck will expect unique html file names for all existing duplicate product pages. There is no quick and easy way of modifying the existing duplicate page names. I've had to go through and find every single one manually and modify it.

However, when moving forwards and creating new product duplicates, it would appear that SellerDeck does apply a unique html page name to the duplicate product automatically.

I'm not a confident user, but I think I have just created a duplicate product whereby all the meta data and page name and title and product description can all be modified.

Is this correct?

How will the Google product feed handle these new pages (generated by modifying a duplicate)? Any ideas anybody?

[Andy@codepath]

There is no quick and easy way of modifying the existing duplicate page names. I've had to go through and find every single one manually and modify it.

I could have written a simple script to do that for you - hope there weren't too many!

I'm not a confident user, but I think I have just created a duplicate product whereby all the meta data and page name and title and product description can all be modified.

Is this correct?

Yes

How will the Google product feed handle these new pages (generated by modifying a duplicate)? Any ideas anybody?

I can't confirm this, Max, buy my guess would be that the feed for the duplicate might not be accepted. Whilst the duplicate has a unique product reference within the product Catalog internally (denoted with a 1! prefix to the original) this is replaced by the original product reference on the website so you would effectively be submitting "1!PRODX" but "PRODX" would be the product reference on the page that Google was directed to. The Google spec states that the product references submitted must be unique (which they would be) but it's not clear how it uses that reference, and whether it is somehow related back to the submitted page.

[FrazerPart]

Thanks Andy.

That's what I was thinking too, although it wouldn't be impossible for Google to look at the barcode and mfr part number in the feed data and see that it's the same thing submitted in multiple guises

I'll submit the feeds with the duplicates and see how I get on

[Andy@codepath]

Thanks Andy.

That's what I was thinking too, although it wouldn't be impossible for Google to look at the barcode and mfr part number in the feed data and see that it's the same thing submitted in multiple guises

I'll submit the feeds with the duplicates and see how I get on

Sounds good - let me know what comes back.

[saucysal]

A possible different approach

I have an idea, but it may be wrong for you.

What if, rather than duplicating a product, you Copy and Paste with a different product reference (has to be), and then use components to link this to the original product reference, thus being able to still stock control the product with the same reference. We do something similar to this all the time. For example, we may have a product that is available at the full price, and another entry for the same product but at a lower price because of short date. For the clearance item, we use Component, Attribute, Choice to link this to the original product through Permutations for stock-taking purposes, but can change anything in the product descriptions, etc how we wish, so can give a warning about the date etc.

Sarah