Product listings

Choose what Etals writes

Every listing needs the same few texts. Nordvik chose four:

If a property doesn’t exist yet, open My Data > Categories > Properties & prompts and click New property. Give it a name, choose the type, tick the level it varies by and, if you like, write a short prompt. Nordvik made Body text a Formatted text property, so it can have subheadings. See Properties.

Then go to Setup > Onboarding, open the Categories chapter and click Set up. The window “Choose what Etals generates and what agents see” lists your properties in two columns.

The first column, Etals can generate, decides what Etals writes. Etals switches on what it suggests and marks it Suggested, so go through the list one field at a time. Nordvik keeps Body text, Intro text, Meta description and Meta title on. It leaves Short intro off, because Nordvik writes those itself and they should stay as they are.

Choose what agents see

The second column, Agents can see, decides what an agent reads about a listing while it writes. Keep on what helps. Nordvik keeps its own Short intro on, because it tells the agent what each range is about.

Turn off what could confuse the agent. Nordvik’s categories have no photos, so it turns off Images under More context for agents.

Click Finish setup. You can change both columns later in My Data > Categories > Properties & prompts. See What agents see.

Train the body text

The body text is where research pays off most, so Nordvik trains it before producing anything. The Categories chapter shows a training step for each text. Click Train next to Train Body text.

1. Pick a language under Test in. Under What is important, say what matters in your own words, or click one of the Hints from Etals. Nordvik wrote: “Help shoppers choose within the range. Use the words people search for, and end with a short FAQ that answers the questions they ask.”
2. Click Continue, keep Let Etals pick and click Start training. Etals writes the body text for three categories, so you can see how it reads.
3. Now ask for the research in the chat. Nordvik wrote: “Research what people search for and the questions they ask about these categories. Use what you find in the text and in the FAQ.”

The agent searches the web for what people type and what they ask about each of those categories. It adds what it finds to the Body text instructions, one short research note per category, plus a general rule: use the words shoppers search with, and answer three or four real questions in the FAQ. Then it writes the texts again.

The research covers the categories in the test. Ask for more if you like. Nordvik also wrote “Do the same research for Jackets”, plus one line on layout so every category looks the same: “Two or three short sections, each with a subheading, then the FAQ with each question as a subheading.”

4. When it reads right, click Approve and finish. What you taught is saved as the property’s instructions. See My data.

Train the intro, meta title and meta description the same way if you like. You can also produce right away and train later.

Start a grid with your categories

Open Produce Content and click New grid. Pick Categories, tick the listings you want and click Add to grid. Nordvik picked Jackets, Footwear and Backpacks.

Add research

Before Etals writes, let it research what people search for. A listing works best when it uses the words shoppers type, and those words change from market to market. People in Sweden search for “jackor”, people in the UK for “jackets” and “waterproof jacket”.

In the menu next to your categories, click Research, then SEO & GEO research. (Later you find it under Add > Research.) Tick the web shops you sell in, here Nordvik Outdoor SE and Nordvik Outdoor UK, and click Add research. One column covers them all.

SEO & GEO research looks at each listing on each website, in that website’s language:

• It reads the category and writes a long list of searches people could use, in the local language.
• It looks up how many times a month each one is searched.
• It picks one primary keyword and up to three supporting keywords that fit the page and have real demand.
• It checks that no other page on your site already owns those keywords, so two pages don’t compete for the same search.

If Google Search Console is connected, it also looks at the searches the page already shows up for.

Add the texts and languages

Click Add property, pick Intro text and then Write new content from your data. Tick the languages, here SV and EN, and click Add 2 localizations. Do the same for Body text, Meta title and Meta description.

Click the grid’s title to give it a name. Nordvik called it “Category pages, autumn”.

Try one category first

Hover the research cell of one listing and click Research. When the keywords appear, click the cell to see what research found. Results lists the keywords for each website, with how many times a month each one is searched. This is what it found for Nordvik’s Jackets listing:

Then click the play buttons in that row. Etals hands the agent the keywords for each website, with their monthly searches, so the English texts are built around the UK keywords and the Swedish ones around the Swedish keywords. The texts arrive as Draft, so you can read them before anything is saved. Sent to agents in the research window shows exactly what the writing agents read.

The keywords are also saved on the category, in the properties Primary keyword and Supporting keywords. Etals creates those two properties the first time research runs.

Read the body text

Click a body text to read it in full. It opens in an editor, where you can also change it. Nordvik’s English body text for Jackets has two short sections, “Choosing the right waterproof jacket or shell” and “Fleece jackets and insulated jackets for warmth”, and ends with the questions the training research found:

• Are softshell jackets waterproof?
• What does a 10,000 mm or 20,000 mm waterproof rating mean?
• Why is the inside of my rain jacket wet?
• Should I size up to fit layers underneath?

Generate the rest

When the first listing reads right, click Generate. The window shows the order, Research and then Generate: Etals first researches the listings that aren’t researched yet, then writes them. It also shows an estimate of the research cost. Turn on Send to proofreading if someone should check the texts first. Click Generate with the number of values, for example Generate 16 values.

When it’s done, the texts are committed to your categories and the grid shows Finished. From there they can go to your shop: export them, or send them to a connected platform.

Save it as a template

Click Save as template at the top of the grid. Give it a name, choose Fill empty or Replace all, decide on Send to proofreading and click Save template. The template keeps the properties, the languages and the research column.

Next time, open Produce Content and click the template under Templates. The grid opens with everything in place and asks “Which categories is this grid for?”.

Research first

Under Research first, pick a website under Website › language and click Add. Repeat for every web shop. Every run then researches the listings before it writes.

Choose when it runs

Under When it runs, keep When categories are added or changed, so new listings get written as they arrive.

Check what it writes and turn it on

Under What Etals produces, check the texts and the languages or websites they’re written in. The Produces summary on the right lists them too. Click Turn on automation.

You can also pick your template under Start from a template at the top of the builder.