Talking of SEO for eBay I already wrote an article a couple of years ago (You can read it here), still true but in these years eBay is changed so I would like to update what said with the new in.
How to optimize your listing’s ranking and gain relevance on eBay
You will surely increase your product visibility and potentially the volume of your sales if you gain relevance on eBay.
What it means to have listing that are more relevant?
You know that on eBay you have the possibility to filter the listings and order the research query: among these filters, you will find “sort for best match”
What does eBay do to establish the best match?
eBay, to establish what is the best match and show to the users the best listings, is doing a check on the listings but also on the seller status.To do so, the marketplace bases its search on:
- the popularity of the item (history of the sales of that listing)
- Seller reputation (here how to become a Top Rated seller on eBay)
- The pertinence of the keywords used for the listing title
- Listing duration (especially when auctions are made)
What can you do as a seller to improve your listings?
- Be competitive when it comes to prices of products or shipping prices
- Reach the status of Top Rated seller
- Choose the right eBay category
- Write an incisive title, without grammar mistakes
- Add a clear and complete description
- Include quality photos (original and representative of the product)
- Use item specifics (ISBN, MPN, EAN, UPC,…)
- Gather identical items in a single one listing or a listing with variations
- Add clear sales rules (payment and shipping method, money back policies)
SEO for eBay: how to optimize listings for search engines
After the expedients I just cited to improve your listings and best match, you can also use strategies to do SEO for eBay and rank your listings in search engines.
You can see that Google reserves the first places in SERP for marketplace like Amazon, eBay, ePrice and price comparison shopping engines. If you increase your best match on eBay, you will also take advantage of the natural eBay ranking at the top of the Google search results.
I will make more example to help you gain visibility:
- Take advantage of the item description. You should use the 200 words you have to say what’s important about your item. Add keywords, without repeating them so much (no more than 5-7% of the final text)
- Add link in your description. Attention, not every link can be used on eBay, you can add only link to product page, with info about the shipping or eBay messages. Link to social, external websites, with shortened URL or to adult contents are strictly forbidden.
- Do good ‘til canceled listings and use Out of Stock function. Use “good ‘til canceled” listings and you will not fight each time to regain the ranking you reached. If you cancel the listing by mistake, don’t worry, you can use the function “reschedule”. With Out of Stock function, instead of closing the listing, it will be just disabled but still taking profit of the ranking gained.
- Sponsor your offers and your shop on the social media. Visits will produce more visits. If you take your users from Facebook to eBay, your listings will gain more raking thanks to the views received!
- Listing title. The title of the listing is fundamental for everyone: search engines, eBay and users. Add keywords linked to the items, the one that can be used for the users to search for that product on search engines. To find inspiration and suggestion, you can use the free Google tool Keyword Planner.
- Optimize the images. If you can edit your description html, then add the alternate tags to images. These are labels that search engines read to catch the meaning of an image. In this way, also your images will be indexed. Use keyword that describe the item and your image.
- Responsive eBay Template. The latest statistics say that the 57% of the purchase is made by mobile devices. If a user searches for an item from the smartphone, both the user and the search engine expect a great visualization in mobile devices. If your template is not updated, ask us how to do that.
Try to make these pieces of suggestion true. You will not see immediately results, but you have to wait and they will come step by step! If you tried or if you know other strategies to optimize eBay listings please share them with me, as I shared what I know.