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Arguably the most important part of an Auction listing. Get them right and you'll reap the benefits - but! Get it wrong and your listing may as well be invisible.

What is a Keyword? Simply put, any and every word you use in your Auction listing title and description is a keyword. The "Book" definition is:

"A significant word or phrase in the title, subject headings, contents notes, abstract, or text of a record in an online catalog or database which can be used as a search term in a free-text search to retrieve all the records containing it."

The big difference between eBay and the regular Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo etc is a Buyer can search eBay by both the title and description for an item. This pretty much blows away the myth that a good Item Title is all you need - Yes, that's half the battle won but what about Buyers who are searching your description as well? If you lace your ebay description with the Top eBay Keywords, you're dramatically improving the status of your listing and more importantly - the visbility in buyers searches.

Right, you only get a limited number of spaces for the Item title (55 Characters) which makes it even more important to get the right keywords in that space to describe your item. here's where a few PowerSeller Top Tips or Secrets come into play.

1. Your Item Title does not have to make perfect sense.

2. Use negatives or item deflection in your title.

Your item title does not have to make perfect sense? That's correct. If you are selling any item, you can always get other Keywords to describe it. Let's say you want to sell a Jumper. The Item Title might look like so:

this is a wonderful sweater from H&M

The above was an actual eBay auction listing. If we break it down, we have 7 Keywords of which 2 are searchable to buyers and no Keyphrases. The problem is, none of the Keywords rate very highly in the Popular Searches or Keyword Searches and the chances are it is going to be missed and only really seen in the last few minutes on the results page. Let's face it, the Title does it absolutely no justice at all!!! When was the last time you did an eBay search for the word "this"? Now, let's spice it up a bit!

Red H&M Sweater, Cardigan Size 8 - HOT

The same listing, completely re-hashed but with keywords that work and all info taken from the listing! We now have 7 proven Keywords and Keyphrases available to buyers. The number 8 on its own is a very Hot Keyword as it is a womens clothing size - women search by size on eBay and that's a proven fact! By adding the word HOT at the end, this is also a proven tactic which naturally draws a buyers attention. It's the simple changes that can make huge differences to your listing and ultimately sales.

Using negatives or deflection in your auction listing can also have dramatic results. Let's say you want to sell an xbox, you might list the item like so:

x box with 5 top games unused

As before, the listing above was taken from eBay. I specifically chose this one because of the first word - x box. BE CAREFUL when you list because x box can be read as 2 Keywords! Better to put either x box, xbox in the same title or just go with xbox, which funnily enough makes the Top 10 on eBay.com! Back to the lesson and the listing in general.

Possibly 3 Keywords with x box being debatable! but with some simple negatives or deflection, we could quite easily get the following:

xbox + 5 New Games - Not PSP, xbox 360, ipod

I've only used 44 Characters in the above notional listing but once again the listing has dramatically increased in visibility to buyers. We now have a certain 8 Keywords and by using negatives i.e. Not PSP etc we have added the Top 3 Searches on eBay.co.uk to out Item Title. Any buyer searching for PSP, xbox 360 or ipod is also going to see our listing - and given the Top 10 stats, that's alot of potential buyers!!

OK, I hope the above has given you some food for thought. We will be looking at other methods and ways to spice up and improve your Item Title and Listing Descriptions. As a general rule, take your time and do your research here on the Auction Spider Keywords Pages. By adding just one Keyword, could mean the difference between a ghost listing that no one sees or an Attention Seeking Money Grabber which simply attracts Buyers.

Respectively Yours,

Rodge Tapply

http://www.auctionspider.co.uk