At SingleFeed, we try to follow the shopping engine data feed specifications as closely as possible. We have tons of automated rules that help keep our merchants’ feeds clean so they are accepted by the shopping engines.
One rule that we’ve followed since close to inception is no promotional text in the product name or product description field. This is almost a universal rule on the shopping engines so implementing this rule was a no-brainer.
Shopzilla’s data feed specification states: “Do not misrepresent, include promotional or extraneous information in the Descriptions.” We understand ‘promotional’ information to mean no phrases like ‘Free Shipping’. Well, it seems that Zappos is getting away with breaking this rule:
I’m not exactly picking on Zappos with this post, although they should play by the same rules as everyone else. Rather, I want to point out that while Shopzilla allows up to 1000 characters in its description field, it only displays around 60 in the first example and around 300 in the second example.
In other words, for data feed optimization purposes, merchants should be selling as much as possible (within the rules of the shopping engines) in the first 50 or so characters of the product description field. Without a proper sell, a consumer will have to click on a ‘more’ button (in the examples above) and the merchant will be charged a click fee as that ‘more’ button is a click to the merchant’s site, not to a longer product description.
Some engines display a little more of the description, some engines display a little less. Make sure to view how your product descriptions are being displayed and then change your product descriptions accordingly.
I use this tactic as a means of adding not only the sale information, but also extra keywords to the description, like “Save 20% on all Widgets”.
Shopzilla reps told me that while I can use this tactic if I wish, it may result in more clicks with fewer sales from those looking to just read more about the sale.
I’ll test this concept and see if I get better results without the promo copy.
Comment by Laura Mandzok — November 27, 2007 @ 8:55 am
Yes, it’s definitely all about testing. And the Shopzilla reps are absolutely correct, it’s one thing to get more clicks, but you have to track and make sure you’re generating more sales.
Because the shopping engines don’t display that much copy for the description, I think the engines generate a lot of ‘curiosity’ clicks. So stacking the description field with promotion text could just fuel the fire. Using the first 50 characters of the description field in a calculated way, though, could be extremely beneficial.
Test, track, and let us know what you find out. Thanks! Hope the holiday shopping season is off to a great start for your clients.
Comment by Brian A. Smith — November 27, 2007 @ 9:50 am
I think placing promotional text in the first few lines of copy just for the shopping search engines is naïve & simply creates additional work for the up loader. If you examine conventional search engine SERPS, they put weight on the first few lines of text in addition to the title. Our site also use a hosted search solution. we have learned the first 3 lines returned by the search should contain essential information about the products. Thus the same relevant text appears at every level of search for us
Comment by Mitch Rezman — November 27, 2007 @ 10:25 am