How to write product descriptions (with examples)

A visitor on a product page is trying to understand, from text alone, a product they can't pick up: Will this duvet cover fit a double bed? How long does this flask keep tea hot? Will this shirt shrink in the wash? If the description doesn't answer, they either message you to ask or move on to a store that does.

This guide covers what a product description has to answer, the structure that fits most products, how long it should be, and weak and strong examples for three product types. The title and snippet in search results are separate jobs; for those, see the guides on SEO titles and meta descriptions.

What a good product description answers

A description is the written version of the answers a good salesperson would give in a shop. For most products these four questions are enough; the example in the table is an imaginary bamboo duvet cover set:

Answer these questions in your customers' words. Google suggests thinking about the words a user might search for to find your content (Google SEO Starter Guide). Shoppers search for a “double duvet cover”, not “200×220”, so putting both in the same sentence answers both the search and the reader.

The structure of a product description

Every product has its own story, but the skeleton is the same for most of them. This order explains the product from the first sentences on, both to visitors who skim and to Google reading the page:

1. An opening paragraph (2–3 sentences): what the product is, who it's for and what problem it solves. Google creates search snippets primarily from the page content itself (Google: snippets), so make sure the first sentence makes sense on its own.
2. Key features (3–6 bullet points): each one a feature and its benefit. “Double-walled steel body” is the feature; “tea stays hot for longer” is the benefit.
3. Details: dimensions, materials, what's in the box, compatibility and care instructions. If there's a lot, put it in a table; size charts are easier to read than prose.
4. A short close: a usage tip, what it pairs with or who it makes a good gift for. A line like “Buy now!” adds nothing to a description.

A bullet list lets visitors who don't read every word find what they're looking for quickly. Keep paragraphs short: on a phone, anything over five lines looks like a wall of text.

Why the manufacturer's copy isn't enough

Manufacturers and suppliers give the same description to everyone who sells the product, and it's often bulk-uploaded to the store along with the product list. The result is dozens of stores selling the same product with word-for-word identical pages, and nothing that makes yours stand out among them.

Google's guide to helpful content asks you to check whether content that draws on other sources simply copies or rewrites them, or adds substantial value and originality of its own (Google: helpful content). That's why shuffling the words isn't enough; the value comes from what the manufacturer doesn't know:

• The questions your customers ask: answer the ones that keep coming up in messages, order notes and return reasons.
• Use cases: where, when and with whom the product gets used: camping, at the office, in a school bag.
• The benefit behind the spec: not just “500 ml” but “500 ml, about two large mugs of tea”.
• What only your store knows: what's in the package, your own sizing notes (“runs small, size up”) and the other products in your range it pairs with.

How long should a product description be?

Google has no preferred word count (Google), and the length of content alone doesn't matter for ranking (Google). The right length is whatever answers the shopper's questions: three paragraphs is too much for a mug, three sentences too little for an espresso machine.

These ranges are a starting point, not a rule. Roigo's SEO score checks that a product has a description and that it's at least 120 words long; Roigo AI writes product descriptions of 150–250 words.

Weak and strong examples

The products below are imaginary, and their sizes and features are only examples. Each comparison shows the opening paragraph; in the strong version, the feature list and details follow below it.

Home textiles: a bamboo duvet cover set

Kitchen and outdoors: a steel flask

Clothing: a linen shirt

A complete description

Here's the whole duvet cover example written in this structure, with one row per part:

Pre-publish checklist

Before you publish a description, go through these points:

• What the product is and who it's for are in the first two sentences.
• The feature list has 3–6 bullets, each giving a feature and its benefit.
• Sizes, materials, contents and care match the product card exactly.
• No sentences copied verbatim from the supplier's text are left.
• No shipping, discount, installment or warranty promises the site doesn't offer.
• No unprovable claims such as “the best”, “number one” or “the cheapest anywhere”.
• Size charts, images and videos are still in place.
• Paragraphs are short and the text reads comfortably on a phone.

Writing descriptions for hundreds of products

Writing twenty descriptions in this structure takes an afternoon; writing two thousand takes months. As the catalog grows, two options remain: build templates per product type and fill in the gaps by hand, or let AI write the first draft and check each one. For how AI-written copy fares on Google, see this guide.

In Roigo, this happens in SEO Studio:

1. Connect your ideasoft, ikas or Shopify store; on any other platform, upload your product list as Excel or CSV.
2. Select products one by one or in bulk and choose Write with Roigo AI. Pick a writing style (Professional, Friendly, Premium or Energetic) and, if you like, add a brand note such as “highlight the warranty period”.
3. Roigo AI writes each description in the structure from this guide: an opening paragraph, 3–6 bullets under a Key features heading and a short close on use or care, 150–250 words in all. It uses only the product's name, category, current description and the details in your store, and never adds sizes, materials, warranties, discounts or shipping information it wasn't given.
4. Tables, images and videos in the current description are added below the new copy exactly as they are, so your size chart isn't lost.
5. Compare each draft with the current version on the review screen, edit it if needed and approve. Only the fields that changed are written to your store and read back to verify them; prices and stock are never touched.

The same job also writes the product's SEO title and meta description: one AI credit covers a product's title, meta description and copy together. The Free plan includes a one-time 50, Pro 300 a month and Business 1,500 a month (compare plans). Jobs of more than 25 products are written in turn, usually finish within an hour and keep going if you leave the page. See the SEO Studio page for details.