Product description
A product description is the text that tells a shopper, in plain sentences, what a product is, what it is made of and what comes with it.
What it means
The product description is the prose on a product page and in a feed. It is written in sentences, while the specifications sit in fields. The most reliable way to write one is from the product’s own values, in a fixed order (what it is, what it fits, its measurements, its material, what is in the box), leaving a sentence out when its field is blank.
Google takes 1 to 5,000 characters and suggests putting the most important details in the first 160 to 500, because “customers must click to view product details to find the longer description”.1 It rules out promotional text, links, comparisons and capitals for emphasis.
Shopify adds advice for resellers: “don’t use a manufacturer’s exact description, because you want your products to be unique to search engines”.2
Think of it like this
A recipe makes the same split. The introduction tells you in a few sentences what you are making, and the ingredients list keeps the exact amounts. The description is the introduction.
For example
A supplier’s cell reads “PREMIUM QUALITY FREESTANDING BATH!! FREE DELIVERY”. Written from the row’s values, it becomes “A freestanding acrylic bath, 1,700 mm long, 800 mm wide and 580 mm deep, in white. It holds 250 litres and has no tap holes.”
Why it matters
Not to be confused with
A product description is not the meta description. The meta description is the short summary a search engine may show under a link; on Shopify, a blank SEO description falls back to the product description.4
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help. Description [description] and structured description [structured_description].
- Shopify Help Center. Product details page.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Misrepresentation.
- Shopify Help Center. Using CSV files to import and export products.