Using Keywords To Get Your Products Noticed

Any market is only as good as the as the amount of customers it brings to the venue. The job of a market manager is to bring customers through the doors, that’s what sellers pay for, once the customers are in, then the market has done its job, it’s then down to the sellers to sell their products. EBay has done its job.  Millions of customers come to the site daily, as sellers it’s now up to us to get our products in the sights of potential customers.  It’s no good listing hundreds of products if no one can find them. So how can we increase our chance of getting our products noticed?

One of the simplest yet overlooked ways to make our listings more visible is the use of keywords. Keywords in the title of our listing will help to get our products under the noses of potential customers. So what exactly are keywords? Website owners and those familiar with search engine optimization seek to maximize their use of keywords because they know it’s an effective way of getting their products noticed. For the uninitiated, keywords are basically the words people type into searches to find a product.

When you list an item on eBay the first thing you fill in is the title. This is important. What you put into the title will determine how visible your product becomes and how easy it will be to find for potential customers.  Writing your title is a skill and you need to take your time over it. You have 55 characters and you need to use them all effectively to enhance the chance of your listing being seen. Let’s say for example, I’m selling an in car DVD player.  I’ve seen one where the seller had just put “DVD player” as the title. This is not the way to sell an item.

Remember you have 55 characters to get your listing noticed; you’ve paid for them so make them work for you. Back to my DVD player. If I was selling one I would list the full model:

Philips 7in twin screen in car DVD

Now I’ve listed exactly what it is I’m selling. If someone is looking for a Philips in car DVD player, my listing will show up in their search results. I have also though used keywords to spread my net wider. What if someone just types in “in car DVD player”? I’m still covered in my title. If someone types in “DVD player”, I’m still covered and my listing should show up. I haven’t put “player” on the end because I don’t want to waste my remaining characters which I can use for other keywords. Now think, what other words could people use to search for an in car DVD player? Maybe “in car entertainment” I can add this to the title:

Philips 7in twin screen in car DVD in car entertainment

Now you’re probably going to say, it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t matter; you can make it nice and neat in your description. Your title is to get your listing coming up in the searches. Use every character if possible. Think out of the box. Once you’ve written what your product is, model, name, tech details etc, use the remaining characters to add other descriptions that people may refer to your product as.

Don’t waste your title by describing your product as “new” or “great” etc. These are all things that you can explain in the description; with only 55 characters you can’t afford to waste them. Notice I used the number 7 and didn’t spell it out. By doing so I saved four characters. The objective of utilising keywords in your title is to get your listing hit by hungry buyers not to win a grammar test.

Here’s a few essentials when using your title:

• You don’t need to use plurals. EBay’s search engine will find the item whether singular or plural
• Write numbers rather than spell them out
• Don’t waste characters by using adjectives like “great2 2good” etc. You can mention this in your descriptions.
• Check your spelling. Some people search eBay for misspelled titles, looking to get things cheap. If you’ve got an auction running and you’ve mis-spelled the word few people will find it. Those who do may get it cheaper than you wanted to sell it for.
• Can’t think of alternative descriptions. Look at the titles of other eBay sellers, especially the successful ones. Copy them
• Think outside of the box, use your imagination.