What a good listing actually looks like

We read every listing that comes in, so we have seen several thousand of them. The ones that work share a shape, and it is not the shape most people start with.

The first two lines do the work

What you do, where you are, how to reach you. That is it. Everything else is a bonus for the small number of people who read further — and those people are already interested.

Name the thing, not the feeling

"Hand-thrown stoneware for kitchens" tells a visitor whether they are in the right place. "A passion for craft since 2011" does not, however true it is. Keep the story for the section below, where it belongs and where people will be glad to find it.

Give one way to reach you that you actually answer

A telephone number that goes to a voicemail nobody checks is worse than no number at all. If email is how you work, say so and say when you reply. If you take walk-ins, say which days.

Mention the awkward detail

Steps up to the door, a two-week waiting list, cash only, no parking, the fact that you close for lunch. A visitor who arrives prepared is a visitor who comes back. The awkward detail costs you one person and saves ten.

Keep it short enough to read on a phone

Two or three short paragraphs beat one long one. Lists are fine when they are lists of facts: services, materials, what you do not do.