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Does the markup that is transferred from MS Word docs negatively effect ebay listings?
I want to use MS Word for a listing description template and then copy and paste that into the Title and Description fields. Does the markup that is transferred from a MS Word docs negatively effect ebay listings in terms of SEO or appearance?
7 comments
paragon_sales
OP2 years agoThank you both! 😊
paragon_sales
OP2 years agoThank you very much for your prompt replies. I figured the MS Word code would be an issue but wasn't sure.
I guess the best way to set up a template would be to use HTML & inline CSS in Notepad and then copy and paste that. And then again, maybe all of that is too time consuming and not worth the effort. I have a tendency to make things more difficult than they need to be. Perhaps it's best to just do it all right in the listing description box.
Thanks again!
comics-scifi-collectibles
Mentor2 years agoSimpler is better sometimes with the description. Keep in mind that many buyers are using cellphones to view the listing and you want the listing to be able to be read easily.
Bullet points listing the facts about the items condition or accessory lists etc can be helpful in the description. You can use bullet points right in the listing description field.
shipscript
·2 years ago@paragon_sales
Simplified coding works best for phones and for extracting the correct info for the mobile description. As long as you export it first, Word should work. However, coding directly in Notepad also works.
If you are making a template for your descriptions, you can add that template to the custom template section of the description editor, pull it in for each listing, and populate with your new text.
shipscript
·2 years ago@paragon_sales
This post may interest you as one example of Word issues.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Seller-Tools/Ebay-template-quot-feature-quot-not-working/m-p/34396294#M46159
The seller is using Word to write a brief 600 character description, yet, due to repetitive editing or copy/paste, Word has bloated the hidden code to over half a million characters on his latest single paragraph of text.
shipscript
·2 years ago@paragon_sales
The Title field will not accept the underlying markup. So what you paste there, and in all other fields on the listing form, will be plain text. Not a problem. Some sellers put character-based icons in the title, but eBay has warned against doing that as those won't perform well in google search.
However, eBay's description editor is a "rich text" editor. It can accept the full MS Word markup, and therein lies the problem. The full Word document embeds all sorts of codes that help Word retrieve the original document code for re-editing. None of this code is relevant to HTML or to the description on eBay. It's just Word's own bookkeeping code and is a balloon-swelled glob of code that is specific to Word. That dead weight should be purged, and if not, it can sometimes trigger the "active content" warnings that @comics-scifi-collectibles mentioned.
The best approach is to not provide the full markup. If you can export your Word document as "web page filtered", or something along those lines, Word should strip off the proprietary codes that cause problems on eBay, and yet preserve the colors and fonts that you are probably trying to add to your listing.
Unless you are designing an extensive template, your colors and fonts could probably be more cleanly designed in MS WordPad or in your email client.
comics-scifi-collectibles
Mentor2 years ago@paragon_sales You would need to filter the MS word document through Notepad to remove hidden HTML code, which might defeat your purpose of wanting to use MS word compose the descriptions.
I have seen reports in the past of MS word confusing the bot filters that check for active content and being blocked.