Introduction Hi everyone! I’m Charlene Davis, author of “How to Sell Clothing, Shoes & Accessories on eBay” (Entrepreneur Press, 2006) and co-author of “Make Big Profits on eBay” (Entrepreneur Press, 2005). Today I want to talk about the importance of using strategic keywords in your auction titles and listings. When used wisely and appropriately, these gems can be your key to a successful eBay business. I’m going to open up the workshop with some of my own thoughts and ideas on keyword strategies; then after I have finished posting that material, I hope some of you will join in with your own tips and tactics and/or questions.

Think Like a Buyer With more than 80 million searches conducted on eBay every day, you have to think about how buyers will find you. Knowing exactly what your customers are looking for can help you write better titles and descriptions so they can find your auctions. By default, eBay conducts keyword searches on auction titles only if the buyer doesn’t check the box to “Search title and description”. This means your title needs to include the keywords that someone who is looking for your item might conduct a search for. Be creative in the language you use in your titles, but avoid keyword spamming which I will discuss in more detail later in this workshop. Although misspellings are usually the kiss of death, grammar can be sacrificed for the sake of squeezing in additional keywords. Think of everything your item relates to, and figure out how you might be able to get as many of those words as possible into your title. I’ll provide a couple of examples in a few minutes.

Small Details Matter Someone who is trying to sell a basic, white blouse is simply going to cough up listing fees without anyone looking at it if they don’t use essential keywords in the title. Even if it’s new-with-tags (NWT), there is a high likelihood it will get lost in the crowd of 5,000 other white blouses that are currently up for auction unless it has a coveted designer label. Figure out what is unique about that particular blouse. Could it be classified as vintage wear that is no longer made? Does it have special embroidery or lace; is it dressy or casual? Let browsers know if the blouse can be paired with a square dance skirt or worn under a sarong by adding relevant keywords.

Keyword Brainstorming Ideas At eBay Seller Central put your finger on the “eBay Pulse” (http://pulse.ebay.com/) to see what items buyers are watching and searching for the most often. Use Overture’s free keyword suggestion tool found at: http://inventory.overture.com. Keywords will be ranked in order of popularity giving you a better idea of what types of searches people have recently conducted online. Google AdWords (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) has a keyword tool that helps to generate potential keywords based on Google statistics and search performances.

Keywords and Compatibility eBay has a section in their Keyword Spam policy (http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/keyword-spam.html) that addresses “compatibility.” Sometimes sellers use brand-names to indicate their item is compatible with the product of a specific designer, which can cause confusion about who the manufacturer truly is. The policy states (in part): “Sellers may not mislead buyers into believing they could be purchasing a product made by the same company that makes the brand or model with which compatibility is claimed.” To avoid confusion sellers are recommended to include words such as “compatible with” or “fits” in the title and description.

Look Closely at Your Competitors Research completed auctions by looking at what keyword tactics successful sellers used in their auctions. You can do this using the Advanced Search feature and entering the appropriate keywords to find your competitors’ auctions. Then check the box for “Completed Listings Only,” ask it to sort by “Price: highest first,” and look for listings with a bold green dollar amount (red means the item didn’t sell). Although eBay only provides information on closed auctions for two weeks, if you have found a couple of sellers whose previous auctions you would like to see, click on their feedback and you will be able to pull up links to those auctions for up to 90 days. Many sellers invest in useful traffic analyzers to quickly and efficiently pick out strategic keywords, but if you have the time you can do it for free while picking up some extra tips along the way. Then test out applicable keywords in your own auctions and see if traffic increases.

Welcome and thanks for joining us today! We love workshops to be interactive, so please feel free to ask your questions that directly relate to this topic. Added note: If you click on the "Watch this discussion" link, you will receive an email each time someone posts to the workshop. Stop Watching: If at any time you no longer want to receive updates on a thread you are watching, just click on the link titled "Stop Watching Thread" found in the specific thread being watched. Also you can remove any watched thread by clicking on the "Watched Discussions" link located in the log in bar and deleting the watched thread. If you're new to the discussion boards, please be sure to check out the board tutorial: http://forums.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=200066500&tstart=0&ssPageName=CMDV:BD0003 A from our Legal Department: The statements and opinions made in this discussion board are those of the workshop host only and do not reflect eBay policy or eBay's opinion with respect to such statements. Cheers, Deirdre eBay Community Development

I want to make sure that as a Power Seller we stay clear of spamming. Currently we title our product, and include an in depth description covering many points of interest (mostly boats)to keep questions at bay.

What is considered too much redundancy of keywords within this format since the word 'boat' may appear frequently?

How can we be sensitive to SEO when entering in keywords into our store categories, etc?

Rawhide-Sales Team

Is it confusing for shoppers to put the retail price in the title of the auction? Your example 'CHANEL CASUAL WHITE TOP BLOUSE SHIRT SZ 42 NWT $990'. Would a new eBay shopper know this isn't the starting price of the auction?

Hi limitedwear! Depending on how much space you have in your title, you can add both NWT and New so that buyers searching with either term will find the item.

Thanks biz,
Do you have comments on the SEO within our store categories? This is the area that we can enter keywords per store category, but in our situation there's possibly an issue with describing our items such as "boat, boat motor, boat trailer, boat lift"... See what I mean?

If this is best for another topic, please advise.

Rawhide-Sales Team

Hi 777blessings (love your ID)! I will actually discuss starting bid prices, times and BIN (buy it now) issues in a different workshop, so stay tuned! Thanks for your interest.