eBay are running a series of Expert Advice Growth Webinars, the first of which was held on the 3rd March. We’re going to be picking out some of the key points for those that missed the webinar, although you can watch a replay.
Optimising eBay listings for off-eBay search engines
Optimise listing titles
Your listing title is the first thing Google looks at on a page. Use the primary keyword(s) at the start of your title. You’ll also want to avoid incorrect capitalisation, eBay jargon etc. Using terms such as BNIB (Brand New In Box) is not optimal, you have Item Condition and Item Specifics to display this information.
Correct categorisation
Making sure you use the correct category ensures that your item appears in the search engine’s results page. It adds additional context and automatically through eBay adds keywords to the page.
Improve description
Tweaking your item’s description supports ranking and visibility on search engines.
This is where you should include the brand name, model and synonyms. Don’t think that more is better however, avoid keyword stuffing as this may lead to your listing being penalized in search engine ranking. Write for a human to read your item description and you won’t go far wrong.
Product Identifiers & Item Specifics
Whilst it’s mandatory to add product identifiers to listings in certain categories, it makes sense to add them to all listings even if it’s optional. Search engines like Google are starting to insist on the Brand and GTIN so having them present on your listings makes sense.
Likewise search engines love structured data, so although only certain product attributes have mandatory Item Specifics, add as many as are appropriate to your product.
Optimising your eBay shop SEO
Keywords
Use keywords in your Shop name if possible. Of course this may be your company name but hopefully that’s descriptive of your business.
Shop Description
Write a compelling and keyword rich eBay Shop description. This should again be written for a human to read so don’t simply stuff it with keywords. A few short sentences describing what products you sell will work best.
The same guidelines apply to your eBay shop’s meta description. This is where you specifically tell search engines what your shop is about.
Link to your eBay Shop
Link to your eBay from everywhere that you can, for instance on eBay you can link from eBay Guides. Make sure that you link from your own website and any other sites that are willing to link to your shop (in context, not simply a “Links list” will help show search engines it’s a site worth noting.
Custom Shop Pages
Old eBay shops came with custom shop pages where you can set out some expert advice. Not only will your potential customers be able to find out more about your business and find additional useful information about the types of products that you sell, but search engines will also find these pages and build a better picture of what your ship is about.
One Response
Great tips here! Some high authority websites accept guest posts and submitting a post to a site relevant to your eBay store could be a great way to secure a link back to your eBay shop.