What content is best for product descriptions. What do you use?

I run an online shoe store and I notice alot of my large competitors writing a general description about the brand (nike,adidas, etc) and also the type of shoe(running,basketball, etc). They then have a very short description about the actual shoes that they're selling.

Is this the way to go? I have normally written a nice original description of each shoe but this gets very hard especially with my inventory moving so fast.

I was wondering what everyone thought about writing a general description with the info above (brand/style description) and then just writing small writeups on the actual shoes.

This would cause alot of repeat content though on my product pages.


What do you guys do?

Thanks

Eddie

 

Many shoe sellers (both large businesses and simple affiliates) think that it isn't necessary.

"All buyers care about is the look of the shoe, the size, and the brand name" is what many would say.

"Nobody is going to read all that description text when there are 20 shoes on one page, so why do it?"

The way I look at it, it can't hurt.

But since most of the shoes in any one category is basically the same, I would focus more on benefits, getting the visitors to picture the shoes on them, to imagine....

"...how nice these simple white Nike shoes will go with your khakis...."

"For you single guys on the prowl, the simple yet appealing look of these inexpensive yet comfortable plain white Nike shoes is what many women like to see with that pair of khakis you have hanging in your closet.

Talk about simple yet appealing style..."

"...can your social life, your appearance afford not to spend $60?!"

So doing this far outweighs descriptions.

In plain descriptions, though, Zappos seems to have done this the best.

But doesn't the well-known shoe stores do this anyway?

Don't practically all shoppers look at, maybe, three different kinds of shoes, at the most?

So does it really matter if it is repeat content?

I myself only look at a couple. I know what I want, I know what I am looking for, so...

You can't forget your women shoppers, so having an imaginative description and giving the benefits and the way they will look in them is vital.

You can't be there by her side in person to tell her how nice those cushioned sandals will show off her "very pretty" freshly-painted nails, so you do it with words for her to read.

You can really sell to single women, also!

It's a business. It helps pay the bills. It helps feed the family. So any affilliate should take that extra step.

The trick is, for each category of shoes, write up a few paragraphs of "I have got to get these shoe" text, and shotgun them all over the page.

For example, start off with a "you'll look cool in these...." Then show about 10 or so shoes. Then show another paragraph of sell words. Then show a few more pairs. Then another paragraph of sell words....

That way you don't have to write basically the same thing 10,001 times over.

If you want to hear, learn more, and if you think your budget can handle a copywriter, send me an e-mail.

Regardless, good luck with it.

 

Would you know which is better for the search engines? Would a shorter description of the actual shoe and repeat content about the style and brand be good for the pages search optimization?

 

http://searchenginewatch.com/2156041

Also, type in a whole array of keywords, and then look at the shoe sites on page one for examples to go by.

 

A couple of things here...My first question is it sounds like you have something that is working, custom descriptions and fast-moving sales, why would you want to tamper with success? If anything, I'd look into ways to do more of the same.

I suspect Perry's, I know what I want and look at three pairs, is the exception more than the norm. I was in a huge shoe store the other day and saw only one person know exactly what he wanted, walk in, go to the shoes and walk back out in under 5 minutes. Even the staff commented amongst themselves how unusual that was. Most everyone else had to try on several different sizes to find a good fit, if they found one at all.

I would be careful using any sort of gender terms with athletic shoes. There's more and more ladies like me who have large feet and often buy men's shoes. Having male-centric descriptions wouldn't totally stop me from buying from you but it would get annoying after a while. On the other hand, I doubt there's many ladies buying wing tips.

His advice otherwise is spot on.

Could you set up your site with Manufacturer pages? For example, the Nike page would have a bit about the brand and then links to Men's Nikes, Lady's Nikes and Children's Nikes and if applicable Clearance Nikes (or similar). Categorization always helps with the search engines. I would try to build as many static pages as I could since it sounds like your details pages are coming and going.

I would also set up a way for your shoppers to leave comments. For example, my "real" size is 10.5 wide but lately I'm having to try on size 12s. For some reason the shoe companies are making the larger lady's sizes much smaller. Out of about 2 dozen pairs I tried on, only one was a true size 12 and was way too big, like it should have been. Use your customers to help build the content for you.

 

Keep in mind it may be time consuming. Though all this information is being picked up by the search engines. So weather it helps a customer decide to take the leap and buy from you or not wouldn't make a difference. Of coarse like YMC said, don't tamper with success. If it's not broken don't fix it.