eBay SEO

Many people who have their own site dabble on eBay as well, or set up as a full fledged affiliate. Did you realize that SEO for eBay is just as important as elsewhere?

There are a couple of small differences between eBay and your standard site, so pay attention.

On a regular site, we talk about your home page, and your landing pages. On eBay, you have a ‘custom’ page. You want to treat this similarly to a home page, but you also want to showcase a few extra bits of information.

On eBay, your ‘street cred’ is everything. You want to assure people that you have been around and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Make sure you have an easy contact button, and be free with information that will give you good references and make people feel secure.

You still want to optimize for your products’ keywords, and pay attention to your store name and header! This is important because you still want to show on the search engines. Just being on eBay is not guaranteed to bring you traffic!

Use both search engine keyword tools and eBay Pulse to find the best keywords to optimize for. Implement them smoothly, and don’t overstuff. You are building a store for customers, not an AdSense site!

Categorizing your items is a top priority. The search engines may ignore you if you don’t have categories with real names – in other words, like dog hoodies, cat clothing and hamster hats as opposed to categories one, two and three.

Build links to your eBay location the same as you would to your website or blog, and get links from within eBay as well! Ask reviewers to link to you if they liked your product, and consider trading advertising with other affiliates.

Track your site. Ask for feedback. When you receive positive results, go a step farther and invite the happy customer to write a review. Don’t do this with a generic email – make your request personal and real. Let them know what a favor they would be doing you as you try to get your business off the ground.

An extra word about reviews – they are so easy to get if you go about it correctly. Provide a template to aid novices, and you should end up with a decent couple of sentences. Try something like this:

I was looking for …

I found (your product) and thought …

I bought (product) and it …

I have been happy with it because …

I especially like …

I would recommend this because …

This will let you provide direction and help garner a coherent review. Be sure to follow up and thank your reviewer, and let them know when their review is posted. Everyone likes seeing themselves in print!

As your eBay site grows, constantly look for ways to improve it. SEO is important, so don’t neglect this area of the web when it comes to improving traffic and generating sales!

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