Are Bullet Points Bad For Context?

[AWCthreads]

Cyrus' webinar yesterday got me thinking about the use of bullet points and Google's increasing affection for context and semantics.

Because of their brevity, I can see bullet points parsing up context/semantics etc.

Some of our competitors (apparently trying to appeal to Google) are writing 2-4 sentences about the product in the desciption section followed by bullet points repeating the same information.  They'll also put a few sentences of description at the top of the page above the price and then repeat it below in the description (this is relatively common).

I put text in the description section and like bullet points as a shopper because I can quickly and easily see important information - therefore I use them heavily in product descriptions.

Is Google smart enough process bullet points and mash together context or would Google prefer content in well written sentences?

Should I be frying bigger fish?

[Nishadha]

Very interesting question but I think you should be frying bigger fish .

Even if you add them as bullet points it's still text and I think Google is smart enough to figure out the context. Also since you're adding a description you shouldn't have any worries.

Personally I like bullet points when shopping so as long as you don't overdo it I think it's a good strategy.

[Oren.]

I would go with frying bigger fish.  I've read usability/user experience studies that claim bullet points are helpful, and I think that they can be good when used appropriately, but I wouldn't stress too much about them.  I imagine everyone else has read the same studies, because I see bullet points used for the sake of bullet points all over the place.  That's not good for user experience, so I wouldn't go down that road.  You need to get customers to your page, but you also need to convert them.

[AWCthreads]

Thanks fellas.  Agreed.