Best regards,
A lot of people still have questions on this topic (http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/view-item.html) and a handful of you asked me to create a dedicated thread, so here goes...
For a while now eBay has been optimizing item descriptions for small mobile screens by showing small portions of the full descriptions based on keywords - the full description is still viewable but the link can be hard to find.
With the new changes (which I think are good) eBay is giving options for sellers to optimize their own descriptions for mobile listings and they are also making the link to view full description much more prominent.
Here's how it works:
eBay, based on keywords, will automatically select a limit of 250 characters (not words) from your description to show on mobile view. This is something they have been doing for a while now. In the example they provided via the Seller Update, that description was just 139 characters. They could have included the second sentence in the provided example and still only hit 230 characters, but the bots only picked up keywords in the first sentence so only 139 characters were displayed. So again, they will show UP TO 250 characters.
Mobile view is also being enhanced by including a prominent "Read more" link at the bottom so buyers can easily click through to view the full description. here is a screenshot as provided by an eBay Blue:
If your full item description is less than 800 characters (I am reading that as 799 or less) and uses HTML, CSS, or text-only then eBay will, by default, show the entire description of up to 799 characters instead of pulling out text to fit within the 250 limit.
Some people have asked if eBay can pull 800 characters for mobile why are they defaulting to a limit of 250 if your description is more than 800? Faster load time would be my guess.
You don't need to do anything and eBay will optimize your descriptions as noted above by default. Again, for a while now eBay has already been pulling summaries of up to 250 for mobile, but now the link to view full description is going to be more clear and if your description is less than 800 characters they will show the full description by default. More info about how to optimize your listings without customizing text here: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/view-item.html#tab=what-you-need-to-do
eBay is adding the option for you to choose your own text for optimized mobile views. If you DO want to customize then keep reading.
If your listing is 800 or more characters you have the option of using html tagging to choose which part of the description is optimized for mobile but the text needs to be consecutive - like you can't choose a sentence from the top of the description and another from the bottom. If you choose to do this, the html that can be used is shown on the FAQ page. http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/view-item.html#tab=faqs&faq=faq-vi-q09
General html tags (like tagging for a bold font) do not apply towards the character count. HTML tags that use up space (like a space between characters or a line break) do count in the 800 character count. A line break counts as 50 characters since that's about how many characters will display across a line on the mobile view. If you are using something like a Word document to count characters for you (no word yet on whether eBay will provide a character counter), please keep in mind how many characters a line break takes up.
If you tag more than 800 characters, eBay "will truncate the selection to below 800 characters. We will remove whole words to get below 800 characters, not partial words."
The official roll-out is this summer (I believe May 1st), but if you start html tagging now there will be "no visible impact on your listings". So if you want to start tagging now you can, it just won't go into effect yet. Do keep in mind that eBay has said they are going to provide some tools to help with this. They have not said what those tools will be yet. I made a suggestion that eBay implement these types of tools (and I hope they will take it under consideration): http://community.ebay.com/t5/2016-Spring-Seller-Update/Suggestion-for-Mobile-Optimized-Descriptions/...
I honestly do think this is a good change. It's enhancing the way mobile is currently handled and it's also giving sellers the option of customization if they so choose. Now, if only they would fix that "free shipping" glitch... 🙂
@the_fancy_fox wrote:
@shipscript wrote:I wanted to repeat eBay's special description tags within this thread, for those who use HTML.
The following paragraph and code are from:
http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/view-item.html#tab=faqs&faq=faq-vi-q09
If you have HTML authoring capabilities, you can indicate which content eBay should use for the View Item summary by encapsulating desired content (up to 800 characters) in special HTML markup. A simple way to tag your content is to include the following HTML around the text you wish to include in the mobile item description:
<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"><span property="description"> This paragraph contains almost 800 characters of text to be displayed in the mobile item description. And the text in this paragraph through this sentence contains 250 characters, which is the amount we will display without any actions on your part. When you tag this paragraph with these simple HTML breaks, the content will be displayed to shoppers looking at your item. This will allow the shopper to see the key information you want to display, without them having to click through to the complete description. If your complete description is 800 characters or less and uses basic HTML we will display the entire description without any action by you—so the best practice is to keep it within 800 characters. If you have a long description, make it easy for your buyers by using this option. </span></div>
And then, because the help page says (up to 800 characters), I wanted emphasize the correction that prefontained reported. An eBay blue confirmed that tagging text beyond 800 characters will result in truncation at a whole word under 800 characters. That means you don't have to count characters if you have too much text and not enough time.
eBay says we can start adding the tags now. They will have no effect until eBay turns on the feature this summer.
Using Inserts: I think adding the tags to an eBay insert would be the most efficient way to tag the text when manually editing the description. Inserts are on eBay's description editor, and can be used in either the RichText or HTML view of the editor. Create an insert with a dummy placeholder word, like SUMMARY, with a space on each side, and save (using save draft). Next time a listing is created or revised, click your cursor into the location in the listing where the insert will start. Select the insert from the droplist, and it will appear in the description, displaying your placeholder word. Then cut the summary paragraph and paste it over the placeholder text to move your desired text into the tags. In addition to displaying in your full description, that text will also appear as the mobile summary.
Ok, I have to ask... do we use the example as shown above? If so, why is there an outside website embedded in it? Can that be eliminated?
Great info ... thanks.
Just curious ... is the operating software between smartphone manufacturers fairly similar?
@slippinjimmy wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:Just curious ... is the operating software between smartphone manufacturers fairly similar?
95% of smartphones are either Applie iOS or Android operating systems.....
Thank you.
@prefontained wrote:
@s-t-r-e-t-c-h wrote:
@treasure.hunter.d wrote:This is such a "bush league" way of doing this. But what else to expect from Ebay.
You're not kidding. Why not just ask us to write the code for them so their system can become part of the 21st century.
BTW does all of this pertain to the ebay APP? Or how ebay listings are viewed in a BROWSER on a mobile device?
They are different.
My understanding is that it pertains to all mobile views - so even if on a tablet you're defaulted to a 'mobile optimized' version of the website, and there is a link you can click to "view classic site". So whether you're looking at the mobile version of the site or looking at the app, unless you're viewing the classic site then you're looking at a mobile optimized view. @shipscript please correct me if I'm wrong here.
I really do hope they offer some good tools for this (like my suggestions regarding short desc. field, character counter, etc as linked above). Would make it much more user-friendly.
Bout as much chance as this showing up in my living room any time soon...
