I am selling a bunch of stuff on eBay, and I am a bit disappointed at how many views my items get despite my moderate efforts to choose my keywords effectively.
I’m open to all input, but I’d specifically like to know the answer to something I am wondering about: Does the order of the words in the eBay listing title matter at all?
I ask because I have a SKU for each item, and my SKU - a six-digit alphanumeric code - is always the first “word” on my listing. I do this for my own organizational needs, it really keeps things organized and running efficiently. But, if this is interfering with my views, I’ll have to decide if the efficiency is worth the loss of views.
As an example, would one of these eBay listing titles be more visible to searchers than the other?
87BR38 - New with Tags Men’s 505 100% cotton straight fit 34x32 Levi’s Jeans
Levi’s Jeans New with Tags Men’s 505 100% cotton straight fit 34x32 - 87BR38
Also, while I’ve got your ear, you can “promote” your listings on eBay, supposedly making your item more visible while giving eBay a larger-than-normal cut of the sale. You can choose which level of promotion you want by percentage, with the eBay listing helpfully providing you with their suggestion (I’ve seen these suggestions range between 6% and 12%). I’ve been paying attention, but it is really difficult to determine the effect of these promotions. Any advice?
I’d go with option #2, if you absolutely have to include it in your title. eBay buyers want to feel like they’re buying something from someone’s garage - not from a well-organized warehouse with customized SKUs.
I agree. I don’t use eBay a lot, but even if the item appeared in the same place in the search list, I would be puzzled and a little suspicious about a description that starts with an incomprehensible alphanumeric string and doesn’t even mention what the item is (jeans) until the very last word of the description. If I were looking for jeans, I might skip right over it without even recognizing that it matched what I’m looking for.
Yeah, the first option reads to me like some cheap knockoff jeans with “Levi’s” stuck in at the end of the title for SEO purposes while option 2 looks like someone actually selling a pair of Levi’s jeans. I’d skip right over the first one.
One of my general rules of thumb when creating a listing is to look at the competition and see what they’re doing, copy it, and improve it in some small way.
One thing I’ve found is that people are generally lazy - they don’t take the time to include every relevant detail that would help someone find and choose my item. Fill out as much of eBay’s template as possible. Write a description and repeat the subject line in it. Don’t leave any room for misunderstanding or miscommunication.
It seems to be getting worse. When doing a test search for a few of my items, they did not even show up. I don’t know how anyone is finding anything I’m selling.
This is what I have done to increase my chances so far:
Simplify titles, including carefully chosen key words in a logical order. No all caps, no SKUs, no abbreviations, no unnecessary words. Brief, succinct, and explanatory.
Increased my promotion percentage on several items for testing purposes.
Other stuff that I already have in place that supposedly increases viewings:
I have an ebay store, with a logo
I have a user rating of >500 ratings, 100% positive
I use clear, consistent photos (mine are better than 90% of other ebayers)
I also did this: Another lister has an item listed that is identical to something I am selling. As a test, I copied his listing title word for word and edited my title to mirror his (his was the top featured listing when I searched for my title). Spoiler alert: a new search still shows his on top and mine nowhere to be found.
I’m not giving up. I am going to figure this out, assuming it is figure-out-able.
Anyway, the mystery is solved, at least partially.
I had set a “time away” notice because I am going on vacation tomorrow. Turns out that my Buy It Now listings do now show up in my store nor on searches when the notice is activated, unless you manually de-select it and allow purchases during the away time.
I think everything will be ok. I just need to do a lot of cleaning up of my listing titles.