Your Directory listing is the most important part of your online presence with Handmade Canberra. You should think about your profile listing as a business listing. It’s where prospective customers will find you and check out your products and business information, and it’s also where the Handmade Team go for information for the media call outs we receive from local news and media outlets. Your profile listing on our website is extremely valuable for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and as such, it is important that you pay attention to the content you add to your profile and make it the best it can be so that you can maximise your chance of exposure when opportunities arise!
To help you understand the importance of updating your profile information on a regular basis, we’ve put together a Quick Reference Guide on optimising your directory listing (image to the left). We have then provided further information below that, explaining what you need to do, why you need to do it and how to get it done. So what are you waiting for. Let’s get started!
If you would prefer to watch a step by step video on how to optimise your Handmade Canberra Profile, had to our YouTube channel.
Your Photos
Why are photos important?
The Handmade Team use the photos you include in your directory listing for our media call outs, social media posts, blog posts and newsletters. If these photos aren’t of the highest quality, it is likely that your business will not be featured in any of these places, in preference for a maker who does have good quality images. Styled images are our preference because they work particularly well across all media platforms, and your images need to be cropped to a square of 800 x 800 pixels to ensure that they resize well, whether we are using them in web related media opportunities or on our social media accounts. We prefer your images to be uploaded in .jpg format, but will also accept .png formats.
If you are unsure how to crop images, please watch our video tutorial on how to do this using the PicResize website
The correct naming of your images is also very important. We cannot stress this enough! When photos are uploaded by our stallholders, they go into a central repository called the Media Library. When we have over 600 people registered with us, and each stallholder is uploading 5 photos, well, it’s a LOT of photos. If we are looking to promote you via our media channels, we MUST be able to find your photos and we can’t do that if your photos are not named correctly. When we search the Media Library, we search for your Business Name first. If your images are named correctly, your images will appear and we can insert them into our marketing projects easily. If not, the search will return zero results and if this occurs, it will be likely you will miss out on the opportunity and another stallholder, whose images we can find, will be included instead.
Please also ensure that your photos do not include any watermark of any type. This includes any form of text overlayed on to the photo (ie. business name, product name or your logo). Likewise, please do not include any photos you have taken from Instagram that include the number of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ overlayed (ie. the heart and speech bubble icons that indicate how many people have liked and commented on your post). These photos are unusable for any of the media opportunities available to you through us.
How do I update my photos?
You will be able to update the photos you have in your directory listing in the “Update Your Details” section of the Stallholders Resource Area. You can upload them on the “Products” tab, in the box titled “Gallery”.
Profile Wording
Once you have your photos sorted, the next most important task is making sure the accompanying words accurately reflect what you make. When writing your profile text, please write it in the third person. This means you need to write it as though someone else is writing about you. Instead of using words like “I” or “we”, use words like “they” or “their”. It can be helpful to get someone else to write this for you, if you find writing in the third person difficult. You can see in the image to the left, that the profile information displays to the right of the photos you use, giving customers a complete overview of you and your business.
When updating the wording in your profile:
- Use the first two sentences to tell the customer who you are and what you make.
- Next, explain what makes your business stand out from the crowd. Outline the products you offer to get customers interested in learning more.
- Use keywords within the text that your customers may search for when using the directory.
- Change this information around regularly to keep it fresh and exciting.
Why is the wording in my profile important?
The profile wording is important for a few reasons. It is the main information given to customers to help them to decide whether they want to know more about your business. If your profile information is too short, or isn’t kept up to date and fresh, customers may not click through to your website, meaning you are missing out on potential customers.
The Handmade Canberra Team also use the profile information you provide for our media callouts, social media posts and information for our blog posts and newsletters, so we need you to be keeping the information updated and fresh and exciting. There are only so many times we can use the exact same wording about your business. This is also why we need the profile wording to be written in the third person. It helps us get more media opportunities across the line quickly for our stallholders.
The use of keywords that your customer may search for to find your business is imperative in your profile listing, to ensure you are being found when customers search the directory. For example, if you are a jeweller and don’t include the word “jewellery” in your profile wording as a minimum, you will not be displayed in searches across the directory for that word. Think about what customers would most likely search for to find your product and use the 100 words you have to capture as many of these keywords as you can (while making sure what you write still makes sense!)
How do I update my profile wording?
You will be able to update the profile wording you have in your directory listing in the “Update Your Details” section of the Stallholders Resource Area. It is on the “Business Information” tab and is the box titled “Explain your story in 100 words”.
The Short Description of your Business
As well as providing a detailed description of your business for your directory listing, you are also asked to provide a short description of 5-7 words. This needs to be a short sentence about what you make, not keywords. It is designed to give the customers a teaser for your business to help them decide whether they want to click on your directory listing to find out more. The image to the left shows you what the teaser for your business looks like for a customer. In this example, the short description is “Handmade concrete pieces”
Why is this important?
Customers searching the directory are presented with over 600 businesses. Your business name, main image and the short description of your business provide a snapshot of your business to the customer to help them decide whether they want to know more about you and your business.
The short description doesn’t need to be snappy and clever, it needs to tell customers what you do. For example, a short description of “Hand painted laser cut jewellery” is a lot more helpful to the customer than “eco-friendly, fun, quirky, colourful” (keywords) or “a curious assortment of things”.
The short description should provide enough information to the customer that if they couldn’t see your photos or your business name, they would still know what you make.
How do I update this?
You will be able to update the short description wording you have in your directory listing in the “Update Your Details” section of the Stallholders Resource Area. It is on the “Business Information” tab and is the box titled “5-7 words about your business”
Add your Indigenous Country
Your indigenous country displays at the top of your profile listing, above your address. It tells customers the Indigenous name for the land where you live. If you do not have an indigenous country listed on your Handmade profile, this field will not display on your directory listing.
How do I find my indigenous country?
The best way to find out your Indigenous Country is to first check the AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia. The map is interactive, so you can zoom in to your town to see the Indigenous name of the land it resides on. If you are still unsure you can contact your local council. Quite often it will be listed on the council’s website, but if not, give them a call.
How do I update this?
You will be able to update the Indigenous Country you have in your directory listing in the “Update Your Details” section of the Stallholders Resource Area. It is on the right hand side of the “Contact Information” tab.
Check your Directory Listing!
Once you have completed your profile and your information is live in the Directory, be sure to head to the directory and check that your listing is correct. Click on the links to your website, Instagram and Facebook to check that the links work and go where you would expect them to go, and make any necessary changes needed via the Stallholder Resource Area so that your profile is looking its best.
Below is an example of what the customers see when they view your Directory profile. Make sure you look at your Directory listing as a whole package and ask yourself if it clearly depicts who you are, what you make and if it makes you want to know more about your business. Because if it doesn’t, chances are your customers will feel that same way!
