Keywords and Categories for eBay Sellers

I was looking at our eBay Store traffic reports last night to see which search keywords our visitors were using to find our products, and got a little side-tracked. But not necessarily in a bad way. I ended up looking at some of eBay's keyword tools, and thought I'd share just in case some sellers don't know about them.



First, there's eBay Keywords, a big list of the most popular keywords used by eBay searchers. You can browse (they're organised alphabetically) or search, and eBay will show you the best matching categories and items for your selected keyword, related and alternative keywords, and the top eBay stores associated with your keyword.



eBay's Common Keywords is similar, but is browse-only. You can check common keywords and choose to see everything related to that keyword, or limit the view to only products, categories, or eBay Stores.



Both of these tools can be very handy in helping you make sure you've included the right keywords in your titles and descriptions.



Of course not every eBay shopper finds what they're looking for by searching. A lot of people browse their favorite categories looking for bargains. Which is why it's important to make sure you've got your items listed in the right categories. My advice:

• find similar products and see what categories they're in (and save them as favorite searches, sellers, or categories in MyEbay so you can check back occasionally)
• browse through categories occasionally looking for new ones
• if none of the existing categories really suit your item, suggest a new eBay category

Using the right keywords and product categories can have a serious impact on your sales, so don't just "set it and forget it." It's always good to periodically stop and take a look at what you're doing, look for new opportunities, tweak things a bit, or maybe even take off in a completely new direction.

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