| Despite 50 percent of online purchases being | | | | clear and readable. |
| researched via a search engine, most eBay sellers | | | | Choose Your eBay Store Name |
| ignore the potential of search engines to drive | | | | Your Store name appears in your eBay Store's |
| traffic to their listings. By optimizing your eBay | | | | URL and ideally it should contain your most |
| Store, your products could improve their rankings | | | | important keywords. For example, a bike Store |
| in the search results on major search engines and | | | | seller might choose "Mountain-Bikes-UK," which |
| boost your sales. | | | | would give a Store the URL |
| High rankings can drive huge amounts of traffic to | | | | Optimize All Store Pages |
| your products, and even with limited resources, it | | | | The title you give your product is very important, |
| is still possible to apply techniques that will increase | | | | as it also appears in the "title" tag of the listing |
| the rankings of your eBay Store and listings. | | | | web page, so you should include your search |
| How Search Engines Work | | | | engine keywords. |
| When looking for a product, a customer visits a | | | | Your product descriptions should also include your |
| search engine and enters a search term or | | | | keywords. Search engines attach the most |
| keyword, for which the search engine produces a | | | | importance to words in titles and bolded words, |
| list of results that it considers most relevant. It is | | | | so ensure that you have placed you keywords |
| by understanding how this list of results is | | | | prominently. For example a good item title would |
| produced that your eBay page can be optimized. | | | | be Palm T3 Handheld PDA New Boxed rather |
| The ranking of a web page for a keyword | | | | than Palm T3 New Boxed as the latter can not be |
| depends on three things: | | | | found for searches for PDA or handheld. |
| * The position and frequency of the keyword on | | | | You should also create custom pages for your |
| the web page: When producing results for a | | | | eBay Store. Custom pages are a set of unique |
| search term, search engines will rank your pages | | | | pages you can create or edit for your Store to |
| based on the keywords they contain and their | | | | help showcase items and special promotions, |
| prominence on the page. | | | | describe the history of your business, etc. ( Be |
| * The content of the page's HTML tags: The | | | | sure and include effective keywords on your |
| search engine also looks at the content of the | | | | custom pages too. |
| title and meta tags of the page's HTML code. | | | | Every seller should have an About Me page, and |
| Humans don't read "meta tags" - they are | | | | this is another good place to include your |
| included on a web page to help search engines | | | | keywords and links to your eBay Store ( now |
| understand what the page is about, so having | | | | has a new feature called eBay My World that |
| good meta tags that describe your website pages | | | | goes one step beyond About Me pages ( |
| is important. An article from Search Engine Watch | | | | Optimize Your eBay IDeBay includes your User ID |
| explains how to use meta tags if you want to dig | | | | in the "title" tag of your About Me page and |
| into this topic in more depth ( | | | | feedback pages. Your eBay User ID should reflect |
| * The links going to that web page: Search | | | | something about the product you sell, preferably |
| engines consider an inbound link as a vote of | | | | including your most important keyword. Try and |
| popularity. Google, for example, gives each web | | | | choose a memorable and individual eBay ID, as |
| page a score of 1 to 10 (called a PageRank) | | | | this will help customers find your eBay presence |
| depending on the number and origin of inbound | | | | by searching. For example an eBay name like |
| links. For a given search, the page with the higher | | | | "PDA-Wonderland" will be easier to find in Google |
| PageRank will appear higher in the list of search | | | | than "Online-Deals." |
| results. Here's how Google explains its PageRank | | | | Optimize Your eBay Store Keywords |
| technology ( | | | | In the "Manage my Store" area, eBay enables the |
| When listing on eBay you have direct control over | | | | selection of search engine keywords. These |
| the content - and hence the keywords - you | | | | keywords appear in the "title" tag for your Store |
| include. However, you can only access the page | | | | pages, and so it is important that you specify |
| meta tags indirectly, through configuring your | | | | relevant keywords for each page. Also make |
| Store and listings. | | | | sure to include your keywords in your Store's |
| Step 1: Choose Your Keywords | | | | description, as this appears in the description meta |
| The first stage of search engine optimization is to | | | | tag of your eBay Store pages. |
| choose effective keywords. To select keywords, | | | | Reviews and GuideseBay Reviews and Guides ( |
| put yourself in the shoes of your customers and | | | | are a great way of driving traffic to your listings, |
| consider what keywords you would enter if you | | | | from both inside and outside eBay. Articles you |
| were looking for your products online.eBay Store | | | | write for eBay's Reviews and Guides containing |
| traffic reports are useful as they contain the | | | | your chosen keywords and linked to your eBay |
| search terms that users are entering in order to | | | | Store have the potential to drive traffic to your |
| find your listings ( Note that eBay Stores are | | | | listings. |
| called Shops in the UK. | | | | Use Search Tags on Your Content PageseBay |
| You can also use Yahoo's keyword tool ( for | | | | recommends using "search tags" in your content |
| popular web search keywords and eBay Pulse ( | | | | pages, such as eBay My World, Blogs and |
| to find popular eBay searches. Choose more | | | | Reviews & Guides. Search tags identify |
| general keywords for your eBay Store, and | | | | topics and concepts in your content. "So if you |
| choose product-specific keywords for your | | | | wrote about Pez dispensers in your blog, you |
| individual listings. | | | | could use tags like "Pez," "dispensers" and |
| For example a PDA seller might choose Palm, | | | | "collectibles" to increase your visibility in search |
| Handheld and PDA as keywords for their Store. | | | | results" ( |
| For the listings they also use the keywords | | | | Step 3: Build Links to Stores and Listings |
| referring to the item model number and features. | | | | To improve the search-engine ranking of your |
| Step 2: Optimize Your eBay Presence | | | | eBay Store, create as many links to your eBay |
| Repeating a keyword in a number of different | | | | Store as possible. Encourage your business |
| places such as your Store URL, title and item | | | | partners to link to your eBay Store. Enter your |
| description will increase the search engine's | | | | Store into online directories such as ( Do not |
| perception of how relevant your web page is to a | | | | ignore the potential of links within eBay to boost |
| particular keyword. However, be careful not to go | | | | your ranking - always link to your eBay Store |
| overboard - "keyword spamming" is penalized by | | | | from your listings and also from all of your guides |
| the search engines. Your description should also be | | | | or reviews. |