Criteria for Product Descriptions in the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide
For our advertisers, here we explain criteria for optimizing the effectiveness of product descriptions, as can be displayed with our Advertising Package.
Purpose of Product Descriptions
It is essential to keep in mind what the purpose of these product descriptions is:
Our users should be enabled to quickly and easily determine whether your company could be a suitable supplier for them, given their concrete needs. Based on that, they decide whether a visit to your website is worthwhile.
It is not about a purchase decision at this point; that comes much later. We are dealing with supplier preselection: Users generate a short list of suppliers for closer inspection, as there are too many to do that for all.
Note that your goal should not exactly be to obtain as much referral traffic as possible: It wouldn't help to attract a lot of people only to disappoint them afterwards because you don't have what they need. Rather, attract those whom you can serve well, thus obtaining more promising visitors.
Criteria
We have carefully worked out the following criteria, which we recommend keeping in mind when writing or improving your product descriptions:
Buyer Orientation
Product descriptions should focus on what matters to buyers, helping them judge the potential suitability for their purpose. For example, mention solutions, key features, or applications.
You should avoid supplier-internal jargon or self-congratulatory statements. Ideally, present a convincing USP.
Specificity of Offering
One should clearly explain what specifically this supplier offers, e.g. key details of products. For example, if ultrafast lasers are offered, in what wavelength and pulse duration regime do they work? And what is special about them? But don't be too specific: The exact size of the laser housing doesn't matter at this point — except perhaps if you have a surprisingly small housing.
Avoid generic explanations (e.g., what aspheric lenses are or how they work); for such things, people read encyclopedia articles.
Conciseness and Relevance
Descriptions should enable our users to quickly and easily determine whether your company could be a suitable supplier for them. Therefore, the text should be clear, short, easy to skim. It should not be overly detailed and avoid duplication.
When attracting users to your own website, you have every opportunity to supply them with more details there.
Never work with “keyword stuffing”: This is not an SEO operation, but addressing humans who like clear and concise statements.
Clarity and Readability
You should use a professional language with simple and not too long sentences. Use technical terms where necessary for the purpose, but avoid unnecessary detail. Avoid a jargon which only few specialists understand.
If multiple specifications are needed, bullet points should be used for good readability; they better structure the text. It can also make sense to split a long paragraph into two or three if it treats different products or aspects.
Tone and Professionalism
Building trust is essential. That is done with a professional language, making convincing factual statements while avoiding exaggeration or hype. One should usually avoid self-declarations like “the leading source” or “world's best”.
Language Quality
One should use fluent, natural English with no spelling or grammar errors.
Links
Each product description should contain one or more links which encourage users to get more information on the supplier's website. One link may well be sufficient (and is easier for users), but if you mention multiple products, it may be very appropriate to have separate links to separate landing pages.
Links should be well positioned in the text. For example, a generic “Learn more” link at the end is less useful than a specific contextual link in the text.