eBay SEO: How to Boost Visibility and Rank No. 1

When it started, eBay was mostly known for hosting strange auctions like a jar of air from a concert or gravesite near Marilyn Monroe. If that’s all you were competing with today, you’d have no problem standing out. But eBay SEO is more important than ever before, as major brands from Best Buy to Samsung use it to compete with Amazon.

Ranking high on eBay searches is just as important as ranking high on Google. In fact, SimilarWeb analysis ranks eBay as the 12th most-visited website in the United States, as of September 5, 2019. And Statista pegs eBay’s active user accounts at 182 million as of the first half of 2019.

So, if you’re not already using eBay, here’s what you need to know to get started.

Use eBay SEO to Increase Customers

Creating eBay SEO-Friendly Listings

If you’re new to eBay, don’t worry – everyone will know. That’s because eBay has a reputation system that involves colored stars next to usernames. Star rankings indicate how much positive feedback a seller has received, and raising this level through sales is the most effective way to increase sales on eBay’s marketplace.

To do that, you’ll need killer SEO-friendly listings. It starts by entering a few keywords to see what already exists. This can prefill some of the fields for you.

Next, you’ll choose a category for your product listing. Be very specific about where you categorize listings because this is the foundation of eBay SEO. From there, you’ll be taken to eBay’s product sales template to fill out the rest of the details.

The first thing everyone will see is product photos, so take as many and as detailed photos as you can from every angle. The more photos you take, the fewer headaches you’ll have later on, especially when you inevitably wind up with a return request.

There’s a lot of information asked for, including UPC codes, size, color, condition, etc. Once you’ve checked each field, you can type a long-form product description. Consider this field a blog post and fill it with all the information you already listed for eBay’s systems. Be friendly, describe everything, and pack this area with all the long-tail SEO keywords you need.

From there, you simply select shipping choices and listing type options and publish. You’ll instantly get a handful of views, but don’t get too excited. It’s just bots. You still need to promote your listings.

Promoting Your eBay Listings

Like Amazon and other marketplaces, promoting eBay listings needs to happen across all your marketing channels. The platform makes it easy to extend your eBay SEO in other ways through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

Consider your branded profiles on these marketplaces and social platforms to be every bit as important as your owned websites. These are the online equivalents of malls and public spaces. The more innovative ways you participate in them, the more traffic and reputation you’ll build.

Don’t forget eBay’s forums. The eBay community is full of valuable information and active discussions. Talk to other sellers (who are also buyers) about what successes they’ve seen.

Building an eBay Store

Once you have at least 15 listings consistently posted, it’s time to upgrade your eBay Seller account into a full-fledged eBay Store, like Best Buy’s. On top of better visibility, eBay Stores enjoy a variety of on-platform perks.

Bulk listing features, analytics, and even coupons for shipping supplies and email marketing help are provided for eBay Stores. You can also create categories within your own listings, cross-promote them, and start building on-site ads to push your content even further. These powerful features unlock the real potential of eBay SEO, both onsite and off.

As powerful as eBay is, there are still inevitable gaps you’ll eventually run into. Luckily there’s a strong market of third-party tools available.

Navigating Third-Party eBay Tools

Because it’s now over 20 years old, eBay’s most prolific sellers learned to employ in-house web development teams. And not only is eBay aware of these tools – it actively works to promote reliable ones on its site.

These tools will help you connect eBay to SalesForce, Shopify, WordPress, or any other internal API you’re working with. It may be a good idea to consider partnering with a web development team yourself. Look for one that’s an expert on marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon and even Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.

Conclusion

It may be playing second fiddle to Amazon, but eBay is still the second-largest marketplace in the U.S. It beat Best Buy to the point that the former retail juggernaut is one of hundreds of retailers with eBay stores supporting their e-commerce efforts. It can do the same for the small- and medium-sized businesses that it has prized from the beginning.

Take the time to build visual, keyword-rich product descriptions for your website. Get them up to 1,500 words and cover everything from the technical details to the story behind it. These descriptions can then be easily adjusted to fit into eBay, Amazon, and other marketplaces.

With solid eBay SEO, you won’t just raise your eBay sales. Performing well in this marketplace will also raise the profile of your products across search engines. This, in turn, raises the profile of your own platforms.

So get started today on your eBay profile, because it takes time and sales to raise your star ranking.