This is the card-audit exercise from our Content workshop, cut down to something you can run alone in half an hour. Take your five best-selling SKUs, open a spreadsheet, score each card out of 12. The low scores tell you where the next week goes.
Why score a card at all
A shopper on a marketplace judges by photographs before reading a word. That is not laziness — it is the fastest available filter when twelve tabs are open. So the scoring model rewards one thing: are the answers placed where the eye already is?
The six lines. Score each 0, 1 or 2
1. SEO-based title
Built from how people actually search, not from your internal product name. 0 — the internal name. 1 — the category word is in there. 2 — the phrase a buyer would type, readable as a sentence.
2. Lifestyle photos plus white-background shots
Both, not either. White background answers "what exactly am I getting". Lifestyle answers "is this for someone like me". 0 — one type only. 2 — both, and the white-background shot shows scale.
3. Key selling points written ON the images
The single highest-return line on this list, and the one most often missing. If your three strongest benefits live only in the description, most shoppers will never meet them. 0 — nothing on the images. 2 — the top three benefits legible on a phone screen.
4. Description and composition matching the photos exactly
Mismatch here does not just confuse — it generates returns and one-star reviews about honesty. 0 — the photo shows a different pack size or variant. 2 — every claim in the text is visible in an image.
5. Usage instructions as a clear illustration
Drawn, not written. "How do I actually use this" is a purchase-blocking question in most categories and a paragraph does not clear it. 0 — text only. 2 — an illustrated sequence.
6. Video
0 — none. 1 — a product spin. 2 — the product being used by a person, under 30 seconds.
Two things that feel like points and are not
Keyword stuffing the title. As many search terms as will fit reads like a ransom note and converts like one. One photograph answers one of the shopper's ten questions. It is a floor, not a card.
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first.