In one of my previous posts I mentioned that when I am bored at work or just feeling uncreative, sometimes I’ll go through my shop and rewrite product descriptions here and there. I do this for a few reasons. First, when I am uploading new designs and building sections, I usually just slap up some generic description, using the same one for all the items and figuring I’ll come back to it later and write something more thought out. The second reason is that change is good. Especially for search engines.

Part of making your shop attractive to search engines is keeping it fresh. Freshness will keep the search engines coming bank for more. If the content becomes stagnant, then they will not come back as often, because they figure there’s not going to be anything new anyway.

Descriptions and text are the meat of a Cafepress shop. You could have the most awesome designs in the world, but without descriptions and text it would be really hard for shoppers to find them, since search engines can ‘t “see” images. But your descriptions also must be effective.

Whenever I’m perusing the Cafepress forums I always come across a few threads started by shopkeepers who want to know why they aren’t making any sales. I usually will check out their shops and one of the most obvious problems is their product descriptions (or lack of)

Say, for example, you have a t-shirt featuring a dog design titled “Cute Dog”.

Bad description #1: dog obama election t-shirt nintendo wii

Yes, there are people who do this. Simply listing keywords, some of which have nothing to do with the design. Probably banking on the chance that someone searching for “obama” or “nintendo wii” will run across their dog t-shirt and buy it. It doesn’t look very professional.

Bad description #2: Cute dog design. Also available on a tote bag, sweatshirt, ornament, sticker or hat.

While this is miles better than the first description, it’s still not great. You don’t really need to specify the other product names, because they are already on your main section page. (Assuming you have your design available on all those items, which you should). So it’s not really adding anything in the form of keywords.

Good Description: Whether a dog breeder or just a pet owner, dog lovers will adore this cute canine themed design! Makes a great gift for those whose four-legged friends are a part of the family. Woof!

It may sound a little cheesy, but it is rich in keyword phrases. “dog breeder” “pet owner” “dog lover” “canine” “gift” “four legged friends”

These are all things that a potential buyer might search for when looking for a shirt or gift for someone. Normally what I would do is add a description like this to all the products in a section. A few months later I come back and pick a few specific products at random and rewrite the description. I try and make it specific to the product, so if it’s a tote bag I might write something like “This cute canine themed bag is great for toting treats and other items when attending a dog show or just out for a walk in the park with your furry friend. Great gift for a dog lover.”

Descriptions like this help your shop seem more professional, and updating them every now and then helps keep your shop fresh in the eyes of the search engines.

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