Sunday, April 5, 2009

Tips on Writing Titles, Description, and Tags for Your Products

After learning and reading other people experiences and lessons, I found that appropriate title and description have been really helpful! I got many people found me (my jewelry) through Google searches. 

IMPORTANT: Google dislikes duplicate content and if I wrote the same description for my ArtFire listings to the same ones listed on Etsy or other venues, will probably penalize the listing, which will send it to the bottom of SERPS. The best plan is to try and target different keywords for each listing.


How to write titles, descriptions, and tags in listings
For example, you want to list this handmade soap of yours. It's made of glycerin, has grapefruit fragrance, with pretty posies as the decoration.


TITLE  
Remember: being descriptive is better than imaginative title such as "Queen of Neverland Soap"

Example: ---- Handmade Glycerin Soap - Grapefruit and Pretty Posies ----
Now you will have a shot at the following searches:
  • handmade glycerin soap
  • glycerin soap
  • grapefruit soap
  • and even
  • pretty posies 
If you get confused as what to write, check this Google AdWords: Keyword Tool to help you finding the popular searches that are related to your products.


    DESCRIPTION
    ---- By repeating this phrase Handmade Glycerin Soap - Grapefruit and pretty posies in the first 75 words of your description you will make the listing very strong for those searches and drive more traffic.... Also being descriptive on your first paragraph is better. Leave the Cinderella tales at the bottom of your description. 

    Do not forget to add measurements in both Standard and Metric system (inches and centimeter) especially if you're selling items where measurement is crucial such as jewelry, hand bound books, apparel, craft supplies. 

    Since Google Base is very picky about what can be submitted and what can't, check this post for Google Base Forbidden Words.



    TAGS 

    Tags may not be as important as titles and descriptions but it will help your products be found in internal searches and Google may read the first 10 tags.

    Example:  
    • handmade glycerin soap
    • grapefruit
    • pretty posies
    • colors
    • etc,..., ..., (repeat the main keywords on the first 10 tags; separate tags with comma).

    For ArtFire listings, ArtFire adds their main category as tags, so you don't need to add them to avoid keyword stuffing. I sell jewelry and most of my stuffs fall in the Jewelry category.

    This is one of my meta tags in this listing "open hoops earrings, cocoon beads, red purple swarovski crystals, medium small, ethnic basket weave, copper, original, custom made, unique gifts, popnicute, Jewelry, ArtFire". The last two tags in red were added by ArtFire.
    An insight from ArtFire's CFO:
    Duplicate words in tag's aren't a problem as long as it makes sense for that item. As an example, I think it would be fair to tag a cup used for drinking coffee as both a "coffee mug" and "coffee cup". The word "coffee" is repeated but in each case the tag fits. It would be going a bit overboard to tag the same item with "coffee, mug, cup, glass, coffee mug, coffee cup, coffee glass, mug for coffee, drinking cup, drinking mug, coffee drinking mug, coffee drinking cup, coffee drinking glass...." (You get the idea)
    To check your meta tags, go to a listing page, right click on any blank space and select "view page source" there you will find out how that particular item appear in Google.


    What can you include in your tags? 
    ArtFire allows up to 500 characters for tags. I will sum it up in here:

    IMPORTANT NOTE for ArtFire sellers: use the first 10 tags to help describe and label your products but do not use the same word twice for optimum result. As ArtFire explained in their SEO Guides.
    1. Materials. Describe in details. i.e: sterling silver, gold, wood, plastic, beads, iron, paint, etc.
    2. Adjectives that are related to your products. i.e: fun, girly, silly, etc.
    3. Related occasions/places/holidays where your customer can wear/use your products. i.e: cocktail party, barn, 4th of July, St. Patrick, etc.
    4. Colors. i.e: red, black, striped, gradation, etc.
    5. Shapes. i.e: square, rectangle, round, irregular, etc.
    7. Size.i.e: small, petite, big, etc.
    6. Supporting details. i.e: organic, recycled, upcycled, green products, original, etc.
    7. Trends. i.e: Twilight jewelry, Dragonball, LOTR, boho chic, etc.
    8. Group/Guild/Team names you're a member of. Especially helpful when your guilds/teams are having special offers. i.e: SRA, SRAJD, AJDJSS, etc.
    9. Your own name and/or business name.
    10. Your Target Market. i.e: girls, guys, women, baby, animals, etc.
    11. Achievements. i.e: award winning design, diamond certificates, etc.
    12. Style. i.e: wire wrapping, stringing, cowboy, city smart, nerd, etc.
    13. Sale is apparently okay as a tag word too since Google Base is only picking up titles and descriptions!
    ………………………………………………………………………………………………

    IMPORTANT insight from ArtFire Admins:
    1. Both Google and ArtFire search engine ignore capitalization.
    2. Phrases are better for Google, they are also better for ArtFire internal search as the proximity of the words has value.
    3. Plurals have little bearing on either, The internal search looks for exact match but how often are people searching for necklaces instead of necklace?
    4. The first 10 are critical to Google as they become your meta keywords and the closer to the front the more weight. However, there is some speculation that Google largely ignores meta keywords now. It may help with other search engines.
    5. Duplicating keywords in the first 10 tags may get you a penalty for keyword stuffing even if the search engine does not weight meta keywords in the algorithm.
    6. Titles are 10 times more important than tags for all searches (internal and external)
    7. First paragraph of description is also of key importance to Google.
    8. More details will help with long tail searches. But there are fewer of those types of searches. The key is to tag, title and describe what people are searching for. Sometimes more detail can help for getting more keywords, but it can also move the proximity of certain keywords further apart, diminishing their weight.
    9. Duplicating the primary keywords in your title, first paragraph of the description, and first few tags will likely benefit you slightly in both internal and external search.

    *** Make a copy of your tags and save it as a Notepad file or something for a quick turn around the next time you need something similar. ***


    NEW TO ARTFIRE? This is a great way to start The ArtFire 45 Day Success Guide for Sellers

    I hope this helps :)

    15 comments:

    1. Thanks for this post - I am bookmarking this for the future!
      ~Kirsten

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    2. Great post - thanks for the ideas, I always worry that I'm not tagging effectively.
      Kristin :)

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    3. Wow, I think that will help a whole bunch. Thanks so much Popnicute.

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    4. Thanks so much for this post, I know that it's going to be very helpful in the future. Consider it bookmarked!

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    5. Great Ideas, Thank you.
      ~~~Peace~~~
      Janell

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    6. Thanks for this list! I think I need to tweak mine a bit! I always think that I may be leaving "something" out! =)

      ~Julie
      http://creationswithheart.blogspot.com

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    7. Great post, very detailed!!

      Thanks for sharing!

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    8. Great tips, Popnicute! Thanks for posting this up

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    9. Great article! Just printed it out :-)

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    10. That's great info, I'm also bookmarking it. Thanks

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    11. Great info, I think you should add measurements to that list, not just size. I've passed up items just because no measurement s were given. And give those measurement in inches and cm.

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    12. oh good idea, Susan! thanks! i'll add it to the list! i think this blog may need some re-write too...

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    13. can't believe that I am just reading it now. Thanks for sharing!!!

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    14. OMG! I'm new to Artfire and this is info I didn't know at all and wouldn't have looked for. I saw your wonderful jewelry on there and it led me to this. Thanks Kay!
      Bookmarking for sure.

      ~Emily
      http://www.gaiacopia.com

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