Optimising Your (Auction) Listings

When selling on an online auction you need to remember that you're combining old fashion copy writing marketing to sell with what amounts to SEO (search engine optimisation). It's all about keywords, baby.

The basics behind an auction site's search facility are very similar to the way search engines work. The user types in a keyword, the search engine scans its database for matches and displays the results.

So how do you know which keywords to use? Obviously, use those that best describe the item. For a pair of boots this would include the colour, style, brand, height, and any other factual information about the boots. Even if you've already stated all of these in the Item Description (on ebay) you will have to restate them in the title and write up if you want to appear for relevant keyword searches.

And don't forget, the auction's search engine cannot read your picture so describe the item as fully and accurately as possible in good, old fashioned English.

But people don't only search for items by factual terms. Quite often they will search using what could be described as subjective adjectives. Words like unusual or unique are common search terms. Sexy is often used in listings but I personally think it's old and tired (and so often used incorrectly in my humble opinion). People don't search for superlatives such as "best" though. Try to vary your listings with other subjective terms that the user might either be searching for or find appealing when they view your listing.

And remember too use a variety of words and even spellings. For example, some people will type in "topshop" and some will search for "top shop" so use both. If a style of colour could be described in two ways then do just that. Start off with what you would call it and then follow it up by stating that "one might describe it as..." This works well with tan/beige, crop trousers/capris, etc...

Remember that while some auction sites, such as Totalbids, will search the entire listing others, such as Ebay, give the user the option of searching only the words in the listing's title unless the searcher knows to use the advanced search features. So put your best foot forward and include the most obvious keywords in the title. This might include brand/make, colour/size/specs and type of item/name.