Mobile Optimized Descriptions

[blackbird*singing]

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... 🙂

[treasure.hunter.d]

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@prefontained wrote:

I really wish I could un-see that photo. But I do agree that the chances are slim to none.

Whatever tools we will be getting will be announced & available "sometime in May" according to Griff.

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LOL :{)=

I really wonder why we suffer Ebay's ridiculous treatment of sellers. The only other entity that we allow to bully us and take our money like this is the govt. What a rush it would be to organize a North America wide one month boycott of paying our monthly bill! Surely that would have sufficient impact to bring them to heel.

Completely hypothetically speaking of course...

[blackbird*singing]

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@prefontained wrote:

I did want to add to this topic that the question has come regarding how eBay will handle character count for <p> tags and for bulleted listings. shipscript has sent an inquiry to eBay and we're just waiting to hear back.

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@shipscript I was wondering if you ever heard back from eBay about how <p> tags and bulleted listings will be handled with regards to character count? Apologies if you posted a response elsewhere - I did not see it.

[shipscript]

@blackbird*singing

I have not heard back. I will send a new request.

[gardeningsis]

Alot of this is over my head 🙂 But basically should I run all of my description into one paragraph instead of entering spaces between? Thanks

[shipscript]

@gardeningsis

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@gardeningsis wrote:

...should I run all of my description into one paragraph instead of entering spaces between?.

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No, your descriptions are not very long (they seldom reach 250 text characters and are probably no more than 500 code characters).  Leave them as they are.

[gardeningsis]

Thanks Shipscript for taking the time!

[shipscript]

@blackbird*singing

The word from Brian Burke, Director of Seller Experience,  is that the wording is intentionally vague because the details are not settled.  There will be more information early June, and eBay will also produce a comprehensive 30-page how-to document for various aspects of the upcoming changes. While the document will be "comprehensive", I doubt that it will answer all of our specific questions, but we should be able to get those answered by the team at that time or answer them ourselves through experimentation at that time.

[blackbird*singing]

That's great info - thanks so much for the update @shipscript

[springlering]

I am tryin gto get my store back up and running. I have spent days and days cutting descriptions down to a (dangerous, imho) 800 characters or less. 

But the first one I uploaded defaulted to a much shorter description.  I tried going back and putting in the   <div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"><span property="description">  thinggy, but all that did was screw around with the letter size.   (<<<<this has been auto-edited by the board, btw)

I feel like I'm drowning in this, or am I simply overthinking it?

[springlering]

btw that's the listings for the Star Wars scratchoff tickets. I see on a mobile device, it changed part of the font.  On a laptop it does not. On the mobile device, it appears to give me just 250 characters.

I use GarageSale for Mac, and used their "just white" template for that listing.

I used their "no template" option for the Batman figure, and it left a huge white area below the description, where the photos would normally go.

that also begs the question, what about links to outside photohosting? I like to have the extra photos, because it seems to me a lot of buyers aren't bright enough to click on the thumbnails, and I like big images to be "in their face".   Will those be considered flash, or any of that other nonsense?

I am so utterly confused. It's taken be three months to get up enough nerve to try to revise some listings to prepare for this.

Oh, My!!!!!!

[blackbird*singing]

@springlering Its still defaulting to the 250 characters instead of the 800 you specified as the new customizable mobile optimization has not gone live yet. As per above post we should have more info in early June.

That being said, you can use the html tagging to select 800 characters from your current listings so they will be prepared when the mobile optimization goes live.

Also keep in mind that line breaks count as 50 characters, so if that causes you to go over the 800 your description will default to the 250 (or if you used the html tagging, will crop to below 800 by full words).

[shipscript]

@blackbird*singing

I was looking at  this page

pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/bestpractices.htm

...where I found the link for this page:

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

Don't know how long it has been up, but Brian Burke said they would produce such a page.

The info on the Description Summary Tag does not address the P tag, except perhaps in an exclusionary fashion.  No other HTML tags may be used within the span tags except these:

• Ordered and unordered list tags (<ol>, </ol>, <ul>, </ul>, <li>, and </li>). Each list element (<li>element1</li>) will count as three characters toward the limit. The other necessary tags for lists (<ol>, </ol>, <ul>, </ul>, and </li>) will not count towards the character limit
• Each &nbsp; (non-breaking space) will count one character towards the character limit
• Each <br> or <br/> tag will count 50 characters towards the character limit

[blackbird*singing]

@shipscript That is a great find, thanks!

So for bulleted lists you're essentially including an additional 53 characters for each line (50 for the line break and 3 for the bullet point).

That first URL is no longer available (guessing that's why you didn't hyperlink it).

@tree*fern Were you the one who initially asked about bulleted lists? If so, this seems to be your answer.

@llllady You had asked about <p> tags. Looks like they may not be used inside of the span tags for mobile optimized. You can instead use two line breaks <br><br> and that would count as 100 characters.

[tree*fern]

Thanks for tagging me on this @blackbird*singing !   And thanks @shipscript

[shipscript]

Sorry, I dropped the http on the first link. The page is still there.

It has quite a shopping list of recommendations along with some code sample alternatives to active content.

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