One of the most important things you can do to increase your sales on eBay is to optimize your eBay auction title. Have you every wondered why one seller on eBay will get 3 to 5 times more for the same item. Although there is other factors that can effect the final price the number one factor is the auction title. An effective auction title will increase the number of potential customers clicking into and seeing your auction. The more people who see your auction the more likely it will sell and the higher the final bid price will be. The trick is to optimize you title for the eBay search engine. Why do you want to optimize it for the eBay search engine? Because most people who shop on eBay do not browse they search using the little search box at the top of the eBay home page. The more likely your item will come up in this search the more likely it will sell and get bid up.
1. Use Words People Will Search For on eBay
Think about what words other will use when looking for your item on eBay. You may even want to ask a friend what words they would use to find your item on eBay.
2. Use All 55 Characters
eBay gives you 55 characters including spaces for your title. Make sure you use them all. The one thing that really bothers me is when one of my students list an item on eBay and only uses one or two words in the title. Talk about a wast of money and time.
3. Don’t Get Too Excited
Don’t use expressive language just use searchable keywords. How many times have you gotten up on Saturday morning and searched for L@@K, WOW or WHOOPY on eBay. If you wouldn’t search for the word no one else would either.
4. Check Your Spelling
Make sure you double check your spelling in your title. Not only does bad spelling make you look unprofessional but it also reduces the number of people who will find your eBay auction and the amount you will make. If you think it never happens look up “shrit” or “neckless” on eBay. At the time of this writing there are 72 shrits and 157 necklesses. Guess what, they have very few bids. If you need a good shrit or neckless now is the time to buy!
5. Don’t Mislead
Yes it is true you want keywords in the title but use keywords that are related to the items you have up for auction. If you are selling a Dockers shirt do not put Tommy Hilfiger in the title. Do you really think that someone who is looking for a Tommy Hilfiger shirt would by a Dockers shirt? You may get more views but you will not get more sales or higher bids. The only thing you will do is make bidders upset. The second reason you do not want to do this is because if reported eBay may remove your auction for keyword spamming . If they pull your auction all you have done is lost money through listing fees and lost time.
6. Use eBay Tools to Perfect Your Title
Once you have written down what you think would make a good title double check it with eBay’s new BayEstimator tool. This tool will tell you the exact words people search for when searching for your item on eBay. This tool will allow you to tweak and optimize your title to eBay search perfection. It is easier to show you how this works rather than tell you so I have made a short video to show you exactly how it works.
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Bayestimator is one of the most valuable tools that Ebay offers ALL its sellers and means that even small sellers can gain the competitive search advantage that the powersellers have had for a while longer (at one point I thought the toll was no longer going to be supported when it was down for a while but they seem to have resurrected it :o))
It is simply a 5 minute exercise, when you get used to it, and the additional “footfall” it can generate can make a huge difference. I blogged about it a while ago and one of my readers emailed me to tell me that after applying the advice their final prices rose by 30% almost overnight…can you really not afford to see the cost versus effort benefits???
Thanks for your comment Mike. Getting those searchable keywords in the title is probably the most important thing you can do to increase your sell through rate and bid amount on your eBay items.
Tom
Good advice, very straight forward, clear and concise.
Although I do Not use E-Bay at all you do offer some good tips for newbies and pros alike.
Titles are important for any blog not just for sellers. They most definitely need to pertain to what the topic is about.
Keep up the great work my friend
Great post! What software do you use for the video you made?
Is this available online?
Hi Robert,
Thanks for stopping by. The tool I used to do the video is called Camtasia Studio. It is available at http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp .