We’ve all heard of SEO by now: ‘search engine optimization’, which improves how each individual web page ranks on search engines. Part of the score that determines how your product pages will rank is based on the main site — that is, eBay in this case — but the rest is determined by the text and images on the URL in question, your product page. Because many people search on Google instead of going straight to eBay, it can greatly benefit you and cause a noticeable increase in your sales.
Fill it Up – eBay gives you 80 characters to work with for your product title, and you should use as many of them as possible every time. However, keep in mind that your customers will not always be able to see the full title. Depending on whether they are coming across the item on eBay or on one of several search engines (and whether they are searching on a computer or mobile device), they will only see parts of the title. However, they will always see the first few words of the title, and so this is the number one rule of any product title: order your words from most important to least important.
The first two or three words should always describe the absolute basics — what the item is, and if the brand is a recognizable name, what brand it is. From there, you can get to the bigger details like color and size. These first few words should be what you would expect people to be searching for. After you have the most common search terms out of the way, you can give smaller details like condition (if it’s a used item), special features, and potential benefits and uses.
Capitalization – As you’ve probably seen in eBay titles (and even in some descriptions), grammar tends to fly out the window when people are listing their items. While fully proper grammar isn’t necessary, using capitalization can enhance your title.
Capitalizing most of the words in a title can make it much easier to read. For example, which is easier to read: ‘brand new canon digital camera with free shipping’ or ‘Brand New Canon Digital Camera with Free Shipping’? For most people, it is the second one.
You can also use all-caps on ‘power words’ — words that might make or break a sale. However, don’t overdo it or you will lose all emphasis and risk overwhelming some buyers. For our example above, we might use ‘BRAND NEW Canon Digital Camera with FREE SHIPPING’.
What NOT to Do
- Don’t use any words that might make eBay doubt the legality of your product (banned, prohibited, etc)
- Don’t use synonyms or plurals. Google accounts for them already so they don’t improve your search ranking.
- Avoid filler words like ‘wow’ or ‘look’. These do nothing to help search, as no one searches for those words, and will only annoy most shoppers.
- You don’t have to make a proper sentence, but let your words make some sense together, Don’t just use a random jumble of related keywords.
