Original and unique content is always something Google says is a very important aspect of ranking and providing value. But what about when you sell a commodity item that everyone else sells, like pens or home appliances and so on?

You and a thousand other web sites are given the same photos, product descriptions, specifications, videos and so on from the manufacturer that everyone else gets. What makes your content better without you doing something better with the content manually?

The answer is nothing but does it matter?

Google’s John Mueller, in a Google Webmaster Hangout talked about just that. You can hear it around 20 minutes into that video or by clicking on the question:

Let’s say a company uses product descriptions on their own site and at the same time provides the descriptions via a database to official retailers who might reuse them on their website. How can correct content attribution / ownership be ensured?

John answered that in these cases, they won’t look into ownership of the content. Yes, he said that. Here is the transcription:

So in some cases, maybe original source of content is not always the most important thing.

Original content here, is not king – at least with product descriptions.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.