WooCommerce product descriptions: how to turn supplier text into your own, product by product
WooCommerce product descriptions are worth writing yourself, even when the supplier provides ready-made text. Your own short description says in a few sentences who the product is for and what sets it apart. The full description answers the customer's questions: use, material, dimensions, care. Keep the supplier's text as a source of specifications, not as a finished description.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for WordPress site and WooCommerce store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 6 min read
Where the description problem comes from
A store with a few hundred products usually starts with an import. The supplier provides a file with the name, price, image and a description that dozens of other stores also have. Some products have no description at all, because the file didn't include one. The short description is often empty, and then next to the price the customer sees only the cart button.
Tuesday, 23:40. Description 31 of 40, cursor on the Description tab, the manufacturer's spec PDF open alongside. That's what fixing descriptions by hand looks like, and why most stores stop after a dozen or so.
Google is calm about copied descriptions: when similar content appears on many pages, it picks one to show. Its guide to consolidating duplicate URLs explains how. Your product page has no chance of winning against dozens of identical ones if nothing sets it apart. Google Search Central's guidance explains more broadly what Google considers helpful content.
Short description and description: what goes where
WooCommerce has two text fields on a product. The first is the description in the main editor, the second is the “Product short description” field below it. Where each one shows depends on the theme, but the WooCommerce documentation on adding products describes the typical layout.
| Short description | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it usually shows | next to the image and price | lower down, on the Description tab |
| Job | persuade in a few seconds | answer questions |
| Length | 2 or 3 sentences or a short list | as long as needed, with headings and a list of specifications |
| What to write | who it's for, the main benefit, 2 or 3 features | use, material, dimensions, care, what's included |
| What to avoid | repeating the product name | walls of text without paragraphs |
From supplier text to your own description: three products
Using a home and garden store as the example. The same pattern works in any sector.
Kula solar lantern 20 cm. The supplier gives: “LED solar lamp, IP44, 600 mAh battery, up to 8 h lighting time, PE material, white”. That's a list of specifications, not a description. Your own short description starts with the customer's situation: “A white globe that switches itself on at dusk. No cables: just place it in the sun on a flower bed or terrace.” The specifications move to a list in the full description, each with an explanation: IP44 means rain resistance, and the 8 hours apply to a full charge in summer.
Nitrile work gloves, size 9. The supplier's description is empty. Before writing anything, check what you don't know: the standard, the thickness, the number of pairs in a pack. You mustn't guess these details. The description keeps a marker to fill in, and you ask the supplier.
Lena three-seater sofa. The supplier gives two long marketing paragraphs. Here the work is cutting down: the short description says what kind of living room the sofa suits and whether it folds out, and the full description gets the headings Dimensions, Fabric, Care and Delivery. The supplier's text stays as the source of facts.
The order of work is always the same:
- Gather the facts from the supplier's description, the manufacturer's sheet and the product attributes.
- List what's missing, and don't guess those details.
- Write the short description: who it's for, the main benefit, 2 or 3 features.
- Build the full description: a paragraph on use, a list of specifications with explanations, care or assembly.
- Read it as a customer on a phone would. If they can't tell whether the product suits their situation, add that.
In its guide to product descriptions, Yoast gives similar advice: write for the customer and about their problem, rather than repeating catalogue data.
How to do it in batches with the chat
With a larger catalogue, the ready “Product descriptions and SEO in batches” task in the TellMyShop plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce helps. Your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) starts with the best-selling products of the last 90 days and those without a description or short description. It reads the product page first: attributes, variations, current description. Then it shows 2 or 3 samples so you can approve the style, and only then moves on to batches of up to 50 products at a time.
It doesn't invent missing specifications, such as material or dimensions. It marks them as [TO FILL IN] and gives you a list of questions. In this task it doesn't change prices, names or product URLs. When a new description is noticeably shorter than the old one, the preview warns you to check that nothing important is lost.
You: Rewrite the descriptions in the Lanterns category. Plain, friendly style, no exclamation marks.
Your chat: The category has 38 products: 22 have a description made only of specifications, 9 have no short description. Three samples first. Kula solar lantern 20 cm, short description:
Two products are missing the lighting time, so I've marked it [TO FILL IN].
You: The style works. Do the rest.
Your chat: Batch preview: 35 products, description and short description. I'll save it after your ‘yes’, and the operation number lets you undo the whole batch.
Card status: waiting for your “yes”old version: LED solar lamp IP44 600 mAh.
new version: A white globe that switches itself on at dusk. No cables: place it in the sun on a flower bed or terrace.
Wednesday, 8:15. The request, the batch preview and your ‘yes’ fit into one conversation. The free TellMyShop Free version shows how many products have no description, short description or Google description, reads the current texts and prepares a “before → after” plan for the ones you pick. You're the best judge of whether a description is a copy from the supplier, by comparing it with the supplier's file. Saving descriptions with a preview and undo from the change history needs TellMyShop Pro. The details are on the TellMyShop for WordPress and WooCommerce page, and prices are in the pricing.
Product description and Google description
These are two different things, and it's worth keeping them apart. The customer reads the product description on the product page. The Google title and description, the meta title and meta description, are seen by someone still choosing a search result. You set them in your SEO plugin, and the rules are different: a character limit, the key phrase first, a reason to click. We describe how to do this for hundreds of products in our post on WooCommerce product SEO. If the description is already good and the product still isn't selling, read why a product isn't selling. When you're tidying the whole catalogue, the WooCommerce category description will help too. You'll find more guides on the blog.
Questions and answers
What's the difference between the short description and the description in WooCommerce?
The short description usually shows next to the image and price, so in a few sentences it should say who the product is for and what sets it apart. The full description sits lower down, most often on the Description tab, and holds the details: use, specifications, care. The exact place depends on the theme.
Can I keep the descriptions copied from the supplier?
You can, but dozens of other stores then have the same text. Google usually picks one version of content like that to show, and your product page gives it no reason to pick yours. It's better to add at least your own paragraph on use and your own short description.
How long should a product description be?
There's no single number. The description should answer the questions a customer would ask in a physical shop: what it's for, what it's made of, what size it is, how to look after it. A lantern needs fewer words than a sofa, and technical data reads better as a list than as a paragraph.
What about products with variations?
You write the description on the parent product, because all variations see the shared description. Describe the differences between variations, such as sizes or colours, in one list or table in that same description. Leave the separate variation fields for short notes about a specific version.
Is the product description the same as the Google description?
No. The customer reads the product description on the product page. The Google description, or meta description, is the short text under the title in search results, and you set it in your SEO plugin. Both are worth having, but you write them separately and for different purposes.
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