Most people do not sell on eBay enough to really become savvy in what helps their auctions or fixed priced items get the most exposure. This is one of the main reasons I share my eBay selling knowledge on my blog. I want to help everyday moms looking to keep their kids dress in great clothes without breaking the bank. And reselling their pre-owned clothing on eBay is one of the best ways to do that.
A lot of people may not think of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when they are getting ready to sell their children's outgrown clothes on eBay. In fact, most may not even know what SEO is. In basic terms, SEO means that you are focusing on driving quality high volume traffic to your site from search engines via natural search results. You can read the full SEO definition here from Wikipedia. For example, my blog This Mama Works It is about helping moms finds great deals on kids clothes and also about helping them recycle or resell their kids pre-owned clothing on eBay and other online venues. So when someone types in "sell kids clothes online" or "find great deals on kids clothes" I want my site to come up. Make sense? The only way for that to happen is if I focus on creating quality SEO content.
The same goes for your eBay store items and listings. It is not enough to depend on eBay to advertise your items. Just now I did an eBay search for the kids clothing brand Gymboree and got over 270,000 listings....yikes! If you are going to dedicate the amount of time needed to sell your items on eBay then you need follow some strategies to get the most bang for your buck. And SEO is one of those strategies.
Here are some simple ways you can Search Engine Optimize your eBay store items or auction:
Use keywords in title and description.Put together a list of keywords that describes your items accurately. Think about what buyers would type in when looking for the items you are selling. EBay listings show up in Google search results so putting together a quality keyword rich title and description could very easily result in your listing popping up in a search. In the description keywords should be focused in the beginning and end. But keywords should definitely be in the title. I am always amazed by the little effort sellers put into their titles when that is one of the most important features of your listing.
Creating backlinks to your items. Apparently, search engines love backlinks. It gives your site perceived credibility and authority. In your listings you can only have backlinks to your others items, store (if you have one), and your About Me page. However, with your About Me page you can have backlinks to your listing but also to other off eBay sites. You can also create backlinks to your items by linking to them from your blog.
Create lots of content beyond your eBay listings. This requires a bit more work and if you just sell seasonally or sporadically you may not see the need for this. However, the more you are out there in the web the more you can link back to your eBay items. You can create content by starting a blog , writing eBay reviews and guides, writing online articles, etc. All of these venues let you link back to your items and also give you more search engine visibility.
These are just a few tips to maximize your SEO for your eBay listinsgs. Here are some more resources I came across that I think you will find useful:
Ebay Learning Center on SEO ~ This provides some more basic SEO information.
Squiddo Len (SEO for Ebay Stores) ~ This provided a ton of really useful SEO information.
I hope this information helps you in preparing your listings for better exposure. If this all seems like to much work then check out this post where I talk about other ways you can make money from your kids outgrown clothes.
If you are looking for more in-depth information with selling on eBay then check out these others posts and the selling resource page I put together.
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You can only link to your About Me page and other items in your listings? Uh oh. I’ve got all sorts of links in there to Zappos, celebrity sites, you name it! Will I get shut down if eBay spots it?
PS: Do you use Terapeak?
Thanks for the Tips on Ebay…. I was just rustling around some of my old stuff and found my MOUNTAIN of beanie babies that I collected as a child…. I need to get rid of them!!! :S
So your blog will come in handy! Thanks Lady
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