Are Bullet Points Bad For Context?
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Cyrus' webinar yesterday got me thinking about the use of bullet points and Google's increasing affection for context and semantics.
Because of their brevity, I can see bullet points parsing up context/semantics etc.
Some of our competitors (apparently trying to appeal to Google) are writing 2-4 sentences about the product in the desciption section followed by bullet points repeating the same information. They'll also put a few sentences of description at the top of the page above the price and then repeat it below in the description (this is relatively common).
I put text in the description section and like bullet points as a shopper because I can quickly and easily see important information - therefore I use them heavily in product descriptions.
Is Google smart enough process bullet points and mash together context or would Google prefer content in well written sentences?
Should I be frying bigger fish?
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Thanks fellas. Agreed.
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I would go with frying bigger fish. I've read usability/user experience studies that claim bullet points are helpful, and I think that they can be good when used appropriately, but I wouldn't stress too much about them. I imagine everyone else has read the same studies, because I see bullet points used for the sake of bullet points all over the place. That's not good for user experience, so I wouldn't go down that road. You need to get customers to your page, but you also need to convert them.
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Very interesting question but I think you should be frying bigger fish .
Even if you add them as bullet points it's still text and I think Google is smart enough to figure out the context. Also since you're adding a description you shouldn't have any worries.
Personally I like bullet points when shopping so as long as you don't overdo it I think it's a good strategy.
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