Harnessing the Power of SEO
If you're an eBay seller and you haven't heard of SEO or “Search Engine Optimization” now is the time to get educated. Web-designers have long used the principles of SEO in order to lure visitors to their websites in order to generate profit. But this strategy doesn't just work for websites, it is appropriate for eBay listings as well. The more people you can get to visit your listings, the more money you will make. And what's wrong with making more money?
How does SEO work?
When search engines decide how to display search results, they take a variety of criteria into consideration. Some of these criteria are based on internal aspects of the website in question, and others are functions of external aspects (such as the type and frequency of links to the website). Since the internal qualities are the most easily controllable, these are the type that we will focus on. A search engine will rate the relevance of the content of any website partially based on certain “keywords” which are contained within the page (or in our case, in the listing). If the page is rich with keywords which are relevant to the search being conducted, the page will have a high placement in search listings.
What can you do to make your listing SEO sensitive?
The first step towards making the content of your eBay listing SEO sensitive is to generate a list of keywords which are likely search terms which Internet users will use when they are looking for your type of products. Luckily, Google provides a tool which can assist you in creating this list. It' is simply called “The Keyword Tool” and can be found at the following URL:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Once you are operating Google's Keyword Tool you should follow the following directions for the best results:
1. Limit your analysis to the country or set of countries in which you do business. This may be just the U.K. or perhaps a larger selection of countries. You will see an on screen option for this consideration.
2. In the “How would you like to generate keyword ideas” field, click on “descriptive words and phrases.”
3. Type the name of the product or class of products which you sell.
4. Select the option labeled “Use Synonyms.”
5. Click on “Get keyword ideas” and Google will automatically populate a list of potential keywords.
At this point you will need to narrow this list of keywords down to about twenty. You can first eliminate any keywords which appear to be obviously irrelevant to your market or product. From the remaining keywords try to select keywords which have either a high search volume or a small competition level. (competition level is measured by the number of listings which appear after conducting a basic Google search on a given keyword. The fewer the results the less vigorous the competition.)
Once you have narrowed your list down to twenty keywords, you will have the basis for an SEO sensitive listing which will drawn in customers like moths to a flame.
