Just a heads-up…. on your product listing pages, the Meta Descriptions (found at the very bottom of the listing page) have increased to 320 characters from 160 characters.
Why is this important?
- Longer meta descriptions give you more characters to describe your products, which in turn will help more customers find your products when searching the internet.
What should you do?
- The Meta Description field AUTOMATICALLY uses the first 320-characters of your item description. Therefore, make sure your opening paragraphs on your item listing pages describe your item very clearly, using keywords from your title to reinforce the description. IF your opening paragraphs cover all the things you want to cover for your item, you will NOT have to modify your Meta Description field – it will be done for you.
- If your item descriptions are not adequate to describe your product, you will want to edit the Meta Description for that product to make sure it is “customer-friendly” and “keyword rich”. Whatever is in your Meta Description field is the text that will show on your item on the internet. Always double-check this Meta Description field to make sure it contains the text you want it to contain.
- Do not panic thinking you need to quickly go in and modify all your listings to accommodate this new 320-character limit. Instead, choose your best products (most popular products) and start with those first. Make changes as necessary, working your way through your product list.
- When adding NEW products to your store, just make sure your first 320-characters in your item description is the text you want to show on your products in internet searches. If you do this, you won’t have to modify the Meta Description (saving you time).
For more information about your Meta Descriptions, please see the article I wrote Search Engine Listing Preview – Very Important Settings for Your Products
Very helpful information! Thanks for the heads up!