How do you make a product description enticing for customers and SEO friendly?
What should the perfect description include?
We’re going to be talking about this on #folksyhour tonight over on Twitter - it would be great to see as many of you there as possible. But even if you can’t come, we’d still love to know what works for you.
Have you experimented with different descriptions? Which ones seem to work best? What are the keywords that draw people in? What should you always include? What do customers want to know?
Keep missing Folksy hour but am determined to try and remember tonight! Writing product descriptions that are significantly different from each other even when the products are basically the same so that you are not ignored by search engines is definitely a challenge!
I try to include as much detailed information as I can in my descriptions - imagine there are no photos, then describe it - and always include measurements (both metric & imperial). I dislike brief descriptions when I’m shopping online, and hate having to ask for information, so tend to include everything!
I’m also put off by bad spelling and grammar, which I know is unreasonable but I can’t help it
I try to repeat the keywords I use in titles, and any variations I can think of e.g. handbag/purse for overseas buyers. A little bit of explanation of how it’s made is also useful and reinforces the fact that it’s handmade, not bought-in.
I’ never seem to be around for these twitter times.
For me it’s giving all the information the customer will require to make a purchase. Not a marathon read but clear and as brief as possible. Not too brief that you miss out important information.
The words you use will be the ones the customer would use in a search box to find the item. They would be in the title and the first line of the description. This helps with SEO’s
I find it tricky when writing descriptions not to make them all too samey which is quite difficult sometimes.
I like to keep them upbeat so it doesn’t become a chore to read.
I try to add absolutely everything I can think of of most importance ie: measurements, age suitability, a little bit of how it was made (without turning the description into an essay)
I spend way too long pondering over the descriptions, but they are sooooo important. It gives us the chance to enlighten, entice & hopefully interest our potential customers into falling in love with what we passionately handcraft
I try to include all important and relevant information, without writing an essay…
As a purchaser I haven’t got time to read an essay. I have seen some descriptions which have included information about the seller, and how they got in to doing what the do…on every single item they are selling!..I think that is distracting and should be in the ‘Meet the maker’ section.
I like to keep it simple, giving the basic facts of size, materials, etc without too much blurb. I know I hate wading through an essay when looking for relevant info on a product.
I’ve given up trying to make every description different - that’s ok when you have a few products, but not when you have hundreds lol.
I’d drop by #Folksyhour, but it’s always the same day and time, and that coincides with Holby, and as I only watch a couple of hours of TV a week I like to concentrate on the blood and gore properly
Possibly, but isn’t that meant to be what inspired you to make that particular product, rather than a biography about yourself or a description of your business? That’s how I interpret it anyway. I would have thought the ‘meet the maker’ section gives you the opportunity to give this sort of information,and you only need to write it the once rather than duplicate the same information on every listing, which is what Folksy is advising us not to do…
I guess that is true but if you are like me and use one listing for each type of product I am listing you only have to rype the inspiration area once. You can edit/enhance as you wish.
BTW, I don’t think putting the same information in each listing matters too much when it is in the inspiration area. Google does read the whole listing but if the description part is unique they really don’t care after that,
Oh carp, I missed it. Couldn’t do ;last week as was watching my daughter in a play and totally forgot tonight. Nuts. Am going to have a read and catch up!
I was unable to take part. But I think descriptions are important. They allow the prospective buyer to gain further insight into how you work and therefore the sort of product they will be buying.
Descriptions shouldn’t be too long. They should provide all necessary information in terms of size, materials used and depending on the item possibly how it’s made.
A little sentence or 2 should be put in the inspiration section and that should be about where the inspiration came from for that particular item.
And my total pet-peeve: Spelling and punctuation should be correct. It may sound petty (though I don’t think it is) when descriptions have either spelling mistakes and/or punctuation errors- and I don’t mean the one odd one. But I have seen long descriptions where by no punctuation at all has been used. And little 'i’s instead of capitals for the word ‘I’, that really grates too. If there are too many errors I won’t actually buy from that person- I assume if they have put that little effort into their description then their products must be the same. I don’t think a description for your shop is the same as just having a random chat on the forum.
Though I also think this all depends on how professional you want your shop and items to appear. I think professional but friendly and to the point. That’s what I look for as a buyer and therefore what I try and achieve as a seller. Maybe it also depends on what we each look for from sellers ourselves.
Interesting topic. Shame I missed the Twitter hour.
Hilary has written a really useful blog post about how to write good product descriptions. I’ll also be compiling the tips you’ve talked about here and the ones from #folksyhour in another blog post soon too, so keep your suggestions coming!
