Item Description Doesn't Match What I Typed In Until You Click Full Description

[smlouky]

While I don't particularly care for the requirement to click the "Full Description" button to see the description of an item, that's not my issue. My issue is with the text it chooses for the item description it displays before you click the "Full Description" button.

This is the way I typed the full item description. I repeated myself in the bullet points becuase it only chose the first bullet point and then started at the beginning. I had to move my intro text to the middle, and combine the first and second bullet points just to get the text to appear similar to the way I created it. 

And here is how the listing appears if you don't click the Full Description button. You'll notice it starts in the middle of my description, not at the beginning. I suspect they're experimenting with AI technology to be "smart" about how they abbreviate descriptions. But I prefer they start at the beginning rather than in the middle. Is there any way I can make that happen?

[the_fancy_fox]

I played around with it. I would revise the listing, Look at it, go back revise again . Over and over till I got a sorta handle on what the programming was doing.

For me he only solution was one big ole run on sentence. Then it would take the first few lines. Looks terrible and unprofessional.

Its horrible programming at its finest. Seriously eBay, if you really want to do this, create a limited field so sellers can chose what they want displayed. 

[sandypurins]

@smlouky

It's my understanding that you can use this HTML code...

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"><span property="description">xxxxxxxxxxx</span></div>

to identify which text you want displayed on the main (first) page. More information is available here...

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/customizeyoursummary.html

[smlouky]

Thanks, I'll have a look. None of this was on a mobile device but perhaps it applies equally to the desktop. 

I'll let you know after I try it out.

[*eponymous*]

That's a helpful link!

Have you see the "useful tool" to preview before publishing?

The page needs to be updated:

for sellers using active content (JavaScript, Flash, etc.)

[readabouthorses]

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@*eponymous* wrote:

That's a helpful link!

Have you see the "useful tool" to preview before publishing?

The page needs to be updated:

for sellers using active content (JavaScript, Flash, etc.)

---

I asked about the "useful tool" on the Ebay For Business Facebook page when one of the eBay CS there brought up that page as a possible remedy for controlling what was pulled from listings. I was told the "tool" has not been released yet.

[shipscript]

@smlouky

The "mobile summary" tags that @sandypurins posted have been available for about a year. Here is how I incorporate the tags in a mobile friendly template:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<div style="max-width:700px; margin:auto; font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:16px;">
    ...optional header info...
<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product">
<span property="description">
    ...mobile summary...
</span></div>
   ...remaining content...
</div> 

These HTML code must be pasted into the HTML tab of the description editor.

The purpose of the tags is to solve the problem you are seeing.  If you have never looked at your listings on a mobile device, then you may not be aware that garbage text has been displaying for quite some time.  In my testing over the past two years, the only sense I could make of eBay's text extractions is that they looked for the most commonly used keywords and pulled the sentences containing them. So in my case, my most repeated words have been in my terms tabs - not very useful.

The summary tags mark a block of text that, in addition to continuing to display in the description, will be shown as the summary on mobile devices, to Google shopping, Facebook, and other merchandizing sites.  So you can see the importance of including it. The marked text is also pulled into the Open Graphics "og:description" header info at the top of eBay's listing page, for those who want to check for it without using a mobile device.

However, there are specific rules for marking text with those tags, and I have found if you include a <p> tag within the marked text, eBay will stop processing and show nothing on the mobile summary.

The summary is extracted at time of listing creation or revision, so you can correct the summary with revisions. The revisions may take a few moments to appear and propagate into the summary field after you save your changes.

[the_fancy_fox]

---

@sandypurins wrote:

@smlouky

It's my understanding that you can use this HTML code...

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"><span property="description">xxxxxxxxxxx</span></div>

to identify which text you want displayed on the main (first) page. More information is available here...

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/customizeyoursummary.html

---

But that didn't address the small description eBay is pulling is a lot less than 800 words. 

[smlouky]

Now this is pretty humorous, actually. I added the HTML code to my description, and now when I view the item -- either on a desktop or a mobile device -- it no longer requires me to click the Full Description button to see the entire description. It automatically displays it every time and there is no longer a Full Description button. So the additional description I entered is in the full description HTML code, but it never appears anywhere because the abbreviated description is no longer displayed.

I think I read that perhaps the Full Description button is a pilot test (from which I can't opt out). So I don't know if I'm not seeing the button because the pilot test is over, it's not my turn anymore or the additional HTML code I added somehow made eBay decide not to provide that option. 

Go figure! But thank you very much for the information. Perhaps one day soon I'll be able to test your theory.

[readabouthorses]

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@the_fancy_fox wrote:

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@sandypurins wrote:

@smlouky

It's my understanding that you can use this HTML code...

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"><span property="description">xxxxxxxxxxx</span></div>

to identify which text you want displayed on the main (first) page. More information is available here...

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/customizeyoursummary.html

---

But that didn't address the small description eBay is pulling is a lot less than 800 words. 

---

Maybe because it isn't 800 words ... it is 800 characters.

[the_fancy_fox]

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@readabouthorses wrote:

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@the_fancy_fox wrote:

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@sandypurins wrote:

@smlouky

It's my understanding that you can use this HTML code...

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"><span property="description">xxxxxxxxxxx</span></div>

to identify which text you want displayed on the main (first) page. More information is available here...

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/customizeyoursummary.html

---

But that didn't address the small description eBay is pulling is a lot less than 800 words. 

---

Maybe because it isn't 800 words ... it is 800 characters.

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LOL Yeah I knew that. Not enough coffee this morning.

[shipscript]

@smlouky

Clearing eBay cookies gets you out of seeing the button for full description, so you might have cleared your cookies along the way.  Even though you are out of the test, the mobile summary is still shown to mobile users, google, and shopping sites, so you basically had a preview of what mobile shoppers are seeing when they open your listing.

eBay will pick 250 characters  of random text to generate the summary. If you use eBay's tags, you can select up to 800 characters for the summary.