Will having an eBay auction listing be considered duplicate content?

[budbiss]

I have an ecommerce site and I want to put some of my products that I have on my site on eBay as well. If I use the same exact description for the eBay listing as I do for my product on my web site, am I setting myself up to be punished by Google?

[budbiss]

Does anyone have any experience with this?

I am thinking that just to stay on the safe side, I will not copy the descriptions word for word. But, this will be a problem in two ways: 1) Its obviously going to consume time having to create alternate descriptions; 2) The original description is pretty good, its difficult to say the same thing using different words.

Also, FYI, these items will be permanent listings on eBay since they will be listed on our company's eBay Store.

[tedster]

I think it's well worth the trouble to make the descriptions unique in each case, given that both will be in place indefinitely.

[trinorthlighting]

Yes, do exactly what tedster says, do not copy and paste descriptions. Change it up a bit. That is what we do and we do fine.

[budbiss]

Thanks guys, I will follow your suggestions. It will be a hassle, but I am thankful that atleast I am SEO-aware enough to ask the question. I feel sorry for the unsuspecting whom discover the consequences the hard way.