Shop Front :: Descriptions and Labels for Handmade items!

This post in our series of Shop Front articles is all about writing the very best, accurate descriptions of your handmade item and supplies. Showing you how to write a ‘Power Paragraph’, naturally incorporate keywords and also how to format your descriptions for maximum impact and readability.

The Folksy Knowledge Base (a very useful resource for buying and selling on Folksy) recommends using the following points to help you construct your item description.

• What it is (eg evening bag, beret, wedding dress)
• How it was made
• What it is made from
• Size and weight
• Packaging and postal options

You are given a whopping 2500 words to describe an item. Long descriptions may be necessary if your item is of a complex nature but usually a short description is more likely to be read rather than scanned. Keywords are used in combination with labels and the title to ensure the best matches are returned to a search.

Keywords / Labels

Below is our imaginary Va Va Voom bag, mentioned in last weeks post on getting your item title right (now don’t go stealing the design!) We came up with the following list of keywords for our bag. There are 22 listed below but as we’re only allowed 20 to add to our Folksy shops we’ll need to prioritise these words – any left over can always be used in the description.

Physically descriptive words that real buyers are likely to use in a search –  red, leather, bag, handbag, shoulder bag, zipped pocket, rolled handles, hand stitched, flat base, black lining, magnetic closure, shiny, patent, small

Adjectives that appeal to our target audience and the press! – fashionable, on trend, handmade, quality, sexy, va va voom, eighties, 80s

Power Paragraph

We now have some great keywords and need to add that first important paragraph to the description incorporating these keywords, whilst succinctly describing our bag. Search engines will mostly be interested in the first paragraph (40-50 words or so – it doesn’t have to be one actual paragraph) so you have to make this count and ensure it is full of the keywords that a person may use when searching for an item. It must be readable and attractive – a string of keywords will turn off potential buyers as will overly florid and unnatural sounding sentences.

The first 40 to 50 words is also the text that is used when people add your link to facebook, or if you use an RSS feed to automatically update your blog or other social networking sites. All of the keywords we have used have been highlighted to show just how search engine friendly our ‘power paragraph’ is. We have repeated the most important keywords “red” and “handbag” – don’t be tempted to over use keywords, this can have a negative effect –  but do use variations of a word such as bag, handbag, handbags.

This patent leather red handbag is just what you need for a little extra va va voom!  Made from quality materials this handmade bag features a secure magnetic closure and internal zipped pocket with a hard wearing black cotton lining. The hand stitched, rolled handles are long enough to be worn over the shoulder and close to the body. Seriously sexy, this eighties inspired handbag is on trend and red hot!

Edit your description until it really works for you, removing unnecessary words and sentences until it captures the essence of the product you are selling. If you are writing a general paragraph that you have already used in your shop bio or another listing it may be easier to add a hyperlink instead. Take a look at other listings from successful sellers on Folksy or in any online shop for inspiration and develop your own style of writing your descriptions. This will also help to speed up the listing process. Consistency isn’t boring it’s branding (even if you are consistently eccentric!).

Don’t leave out important factors about the product – materials and dimensions are a must as it can be very difficult to gauge the size of an item or what it is made from through a photograph alone.

Formatting

We wrote up a tutorial for using some basic html to improve your shop bios in your profile a few weeks ago – use these codes to add impact to your descriptions too! Headline tags, line breaks and hyperlinks can all be used to add a professional finish to your descriptions and help with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) too.

We’d love to hear your comments! Will you be editing your descriptions to improve your SEO – add some links to your new descriptions here or tag us on our facebook fan page where we can see your power paragraph in action!  Find more great articles from this series here – Seller Tips :: Shop Front!

All the items pictured are available from www.folksy.com click the images for more details.