Book Wall Clock from Rooster Jam
Every handmade seller I know is busy. You are busy with family, household chores, product creation, marketing, etc. Your time is valuable, and you don’t want to waste a second. When it comes to writing product descriptions for your handmade products, you want a simple, quick process that will sell more products, right?
So just how lengthy should a good product description be? The answer will probably depend on your personality. If you are a talkative person who embellishes every story with details, your product descriptions will likely be longer. If you are a direct, “just the facts, ma’am” kind of person, your descriptions will probably be shorter and more to the point. Truthfully, either style can produce a great product description, as long as you include the key elements.
Here are two sample product descriptions to illustrate:
A Short-and-Sweet Example – Floral Beaded Coin Purse:
Carry your cash, credit cards, and ID inside this durable yet elegant zippered coin purse. Perfect for any classy lady, young or old!
Specifics:
- Seed beads (black, green)
- Glass-cut beads (red, yellow, white, blue)
- Zipper closure
- 3.5 inches wide
- 2.5 inches high
If you like this floral, beaded design, you might also like the matching black beaded earrings available in my shop here: (insert upselling link here)
Purchase this elegant yet practical coin purse today to get the contents of your purse under control!
A Full of Details Example – Floral Beaded Coin Purse:
Carry your cash, credit cards, and ID in style inside this durable yet elegant zippered purse. Tired of being embarrassed by your old, beat-up wallet when you pay for purchases? Want a beautiful yet functional way to store your money?
After feeling embarrassed about my own tattered wallet, I was inspired to create this one-of-a-kind hand-beaded coin purse. Perfect for any classy lady, young or old!
Seed beads and glass-cut beads cover both the front and back of this coin purse. The beads are securely sewn to the fabric to help them withstand the rough treatment inside the average woman’s purse.
3.5 inches wide and 2.5 inches high, this zippered pouch is small enough to fit comfortably inside even a small purse, yet roomy enough to hold cash, coins, and cards comfortably inside. A black metal zipper closure ensures that your valuables won’t fall out into the abyss of your purse!
If you like this floral beaded design, you might also like the matching black beaded earrings available in my shop here: (insert upselling link here)
Purchase this elegant yet practical coin purse today to get the contents of your purse under control!
…………………………
Not only do you have to decide whether to make your product description short or lengthy, you must also consider whether to use some redundancy in your listings. Some handmade sellers ask, “Do I have to include the same details in every single listing in my shop? Isn’t that redundant?”
Consider this: If a customer stumbled upon your product listing without seeing any of your other listings, would there be enough information there to make the sale? You never know how a potential customer will enter your online shop. If he/she Googles some keywords that lead to one of your listings, that one listing (and its description) might be your only chance to hook that person into making a purchase from your shop. Of course, if a customer lands on the front page of your shop and browses through multiple listings, he/she might notice that your descriptions are somewhat repetitious, but I think a full description (as time-consuming as it is to write) might just be worth it.
Don’t forget that a full-of-details description often includes more keywords about your product — which will improve your SEO (and hopefully create more sales).
Whether you consider yourself a good writer or not, find a product description style that suits you (and your products), and nail it!
Sign up for my free e-course to get more details about this topic: How to Write Irresistible Product Descriptions.
How about you? Are your product descriptions lengthy or concise? Which style works better for you? Feel free to share a link to one of your listings in the comments, and tell us which style you prefer.
Additional Handmade Success posts about writing product descriptions:
How to Write a Product Description that Sells
Brainstorming: The Key to Fabulous Product Descriptions
5-Step Formula for Writing Product Descriptions that Sell
My descriptions are pretty concise. I think it does fit my personality… I hadn’t thought of that before! I also appreciate your opinion on making all your descriptions the same, I’ve tried to do that for all of my listings. Here’s a link to my shop: http://www.alterediris.etsy.com
Thanks for your feedback, Cheri. Love your shop! Concise is often better!
Unfortunately neither the the examples you have will gain much SEO. You must have the keywords in the first two sentences. Plus now Google does not like repetition or duplication from listing to listing. How much duplication is not specified.
This is from an etsy Relevancy and SEO for All Etsy Shops team discussion:
“Be sure to eliminate as much duplicated text as possible in listing descriptions so that none of your listings are caught in Google’s Duplicate Content Filter. You can read more about duplicate content here: http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/8523243
Etsy is not using the listing description at this time but Google reads all of the text on each web page and does use all the text for SEO. For Google it is important to emphasize one keyword phrase over all the others. This is called the primary keyword phrase and is usually the first keyword phrase in the listing title.”
So what you think may be the perfect product description may be way off when it comes to being found.
Great info, Ev! You are definitely right that early keywords are important.
There must be a PhD available fot all this information I am getting lately. So much to learn. I will put this at the top of my ‘relevancy’ list and try to go through my 149 (the more listings the better) items, and change some. I am being serious when i say ‘thank you’ for all you do. Am i supposed to use quotes? Dashes? Dots? Karen
Hi, Karen. Thanks for your kind comment. Just a plain ol’ thank you (no quotes needed) is fine.
Thank you so much for this perfect post Julie! I realized while reading that as a buyer I prefer the short and concise description better for items that have sizing information. It is nice to be able to find that easily in a listing.
I think it would make sense to have keywords at the begininning but some duplicate information further in the description. I feel that if every listing was different but the items are similar a buyer might get confused. I am still learning about SEO.
I love that you shared your links and your free guide too!
I love to read artistic descriptions….and write them, too. I’ve seen this “chase the SEO” ruin the beauty of a vendor discribe her beautiful embroidered linen coverlette. Now I read linen coverlette..linen coverlette…linen coverlette…..on and on and on! I miss the time when a beautiful crafted item had a beautifully constructed description.
I will admit that repeating your keywords DOES work. I’ve seen my views increase and my sales increase after making the redundant*cy* change!
I’m just feeling a bit nostalgic today.
I totally know what you are talking about Cindi! I miss the cool titles of items. Now it is something like wood sign, wedding gift, mothers day gift, brown, decor. I understand why it is done but I do miss the creativity that used to be there
Agreed, Cindi. Somehow, we need a balance of artistic and concise. Whew! That’s a challenge!
i prefer to keep mine short & sweet for two reasons. i am not a writer & i am a “get to the point” sort of girl. if i like what i see & it fits the bill i am sold
here’s an example of a typical listing in my shop… http://www.etsy.com/listing/90057693/padded-laptop-case-13-macbook-air
I’m a full description kind of guy, one it is better for the customer as they can not touch or hold your product. Two because it is better SEO for the product. If short in sweet is used because of time it is important to get the product details in there as you said. We always have to remember that the customer only has your description and image to choose to buy.
@Lynn: Thanks for sharing your listing example! I love the way you set off the sections by putting the [TITLES] in caps and brackets!
@Handmade Artists: You are exactly right about a full description helping the online buyer. Some people just won’t buy unless they know all the details.
I have just start to revamp my shop because my items are just not selling.
Just changed my logo and starting on studying photography techniques, getting a little more traffic flow now.
So excited to start your e-course. Thanks for the help.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBerriPatch?ref=si_shop
Cute hats Berri-Lynn! Photography is such a huge aspect of your shop. I think you will love Julies class!
Love your banner too!
Thanks a bunch kerry! Just added a new photo, and will redo the rest. Crossing my fingers!!!