Unlike an eCommerce website, eBay has a built-in base of over 60 million users, many of whom are actively shopping for products on a daily basis. This means that you don’t exactly have to go out shaking the bushes for customers. To get your products in front of those eager customers, however, requires that you give your eBay listings a higher profile. Whenever a customer searches for a product that you’re selling, you want your listings to pop up at the very top of the list.
This article offers several tips and tricks to improve the visibility of your products and increase the number of potential buyers looking at your eBay listings.
Optimize Your Listing’s Title
As most eBay sellers know, the title is perhaps the most critical element in your listing. When most people visit eBay, the first thing they do is conduct a search, and when eBay goes looking for items that match the visitor’s keyword entry, it searches listing titles. Strategically add the right keywords, and you give your listings a much higher profile.
Optimizing your auction title with appropriate keywords is vital in getting people to view your listing. Make sure you use all the most important keywords and phrases in your title. You have space for 55 characters. Use them all!
Make It Easy for Buyers to Understand What You’re Selling
While having appropriate keywords in your title is important, having a title consisting of nothing but keywords is not very helpful to buyers. First, make sure your title makes sense. If you have room, do the keyword stuffing at the end. Also, try to always use a gallery image (the small thumbnail image that appears next to your title in the search and category listings). Make sure the image clearly displays the item you’re selling so the buyer will understand exactly what you’re selling without having to even read your auction title. Buyers are much more likely to click into a listing if they know for sure that you have what they want.
Use a Unique Gallery Image
Search for something on eBay. Do you notice how all the listings essentially look the same? Most sellers use stock photos of the items they’re selling. Try using a unique image that stands out from the crowd (in a good way, of course). Visit the manufacturer’s website, if possible, and see if you can find a good image that nobody else is using. If you have a digital camera, take a few snapshots of your own. See our article, “Pumping Up Sales with Product Photos” for some additional tips.
Track the Effectiveness of Various Listing Upgrades
eBay listing upgrades, such as bold, border, highlight, and so on may increase the number of people who look at your auction. The only way to know for sure is through testing. Use a tool such as the Sellathon Viewtracker to determine if any of listing upgrades you test are helping or not.
Although driving traffic to your eBay listings is an important first step in selling products on eBay, it may not actually convince a shopper to buy the item you’re selling.
