Years after its launch, eBay is still going strong and remains the go-to auction site for millions of buyers worldwide.
But with so many vendors, shops, and products on there, it’s hard to ensure your products rise to the top of that all-important search results the first page.
Here are our tips for getting your products the attention they deserve from both search engines and shoppers.
Search engines are optimised to home in on titles, so incorporating keywords into the
Many eBay retailers fill their title tags with long strings of keywords with the idea of to capturing as many different searches as possible via ‘the long tail’.
This can be effective, especially for users using the eBay search engine. But although eBay generates plenty of its own search traffic, many users will arrive at your eBay listing page from external sources such as, you guessed it, Google – who just may penalise you for that very same behaviour.
Google gets twice the search traffic of eBay, so it makes sense to pander a bit towards Google’s SEO preferences.
One of these is Google’s love of unique title tags. Something’s going on beneath the Google hood that’s resulting in increased ranking kudos for less frequently occurring words – that is, those that aren’t in the most 5000 or so most common terms.
This doesn’t mean that you should start using words like ‘callipygian’ or ‘absquatulate’ in your product titles just because, but try and tweak your title to incorporate a product’s benefits, you might just capture this ‘rare word’ long-tail.
A page or product title is an important piece of SEO real estate, but it’s just one part of a larger whole. If you’re worried that dialling back your keyword density is going to affect your products’ search rankings, don’t be.
There are other ways to get the attention of Google’s busy search bots, such as offering more detailed product description copy alongside the microdata offered by eBay’s ‘item specifics’ section.
Not only that but cleaning up your titles can even boost click-through rates. How?
Product titles often appear side-by-side with other similar listings on search results pages, and if your title looks clearer and more relevant than a competing result, you just may well get that all-important click.
Fresh, unique content has high appeal to search engines. Avoid the temptation to reuse copy for similar items, and get creative in presenting and describing your products.
Product differentiation might take extra effort, but the increased rankings boost – and potential sales – is worth that initial outlay.
Information is power, especially in the highly competitive eCommerce world.
Research how much similar items have sold for, along with the kind of product titles, descriptions and images accompanying the listings.
You can do this by searching for your item with the ‘completed items’ box ticked. If the results return a product similar to yours, tick the ‘Have one to sell?’ box. This will automatically populate the product description page with other vendors’ product copy, showing the sales tricks and approaches being used.
However, it’s one thing to be inspired, and it’s another to copy wholesale. Treat the copyright of other vendors as sacrosanct, and make your own copy better, not the same.
Good quality descriptions will bring in search engine traffic, but good quality images can be the make-or-break moment for buyers.
Clear, crisp, high-quality images help garner a potential buyer’s trust in your products, as well as enticing them to click through to your product.
Head over to kong.academy/guides, where you’ll find tips & tricks for creating great pictures using just your smartphone, as well as a guide geared towards seasoned pros.
Sunday’s a traditional rest day for many, but not for eBay shoppers. eBay traffic soars on Sunday evenings when people have free time to browse the web and indulge in some retail therapy before work and school go back.
Take advantage of this and set your auction to end at a time when everyone’s online and ready to engage in a bidding war.
Tip: make sure your auction isn’t set to finish during a sports event or a long-awaited TV premiere, and remember that the longer the duration of the listing, the more exposure it’ll get – along with a better chance of selling.
You’re pressed with character limits, and your customers are pressed for time. Knowing the common eBay acronyms and abbreviations will help you stick to your character counts while offering a handy shorthand to customers quickly glancing through eBay search results.
Common terms include:
Seller ratings are a marker of trustworthiness. While large numbers of past sales are one way of achieving power seller status, the easiest way is to go above and beyond with customer service. Be communicative, commit to speedy shipping, and get fancy with your gift wrapping. Also, post feedback on your customer's page and they’re likely to return the favour.
Search engines love trackbacks for determining a page’s relevance or importance. This even applies to time-sensitive pages such as product listings, so show your listings some link love with links from your personal site, blog or even social media accounts.
Try the above and keep an eye on your traffic stats and sales metrics to see how they track with each change. Happy selling!
Remember you can book a courier suitable for eBay items you have sold with Parcel Monkey.
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