Keywords are not false advertising

From: Uncle Roger <sinasohn_at_ricochet.net>
Date: Tue Dec 15 19:33:18 1998

At 05:41 PM 12/13/98 EST, you wrote:
>search engine. Search engines use keywords. Finding the right keywords that

First off, I know of no search engine that keeps on top of eBay other than
eBay's own search engine. I doubt people are using AltaVista to find stuff
on eBay.

>The question then becomes "What do I list this as, that will trip the
keywords
>that people search for?" You end up packing the limited space for the
>description with keywords that are only related to the item you are selling.

I think you are confusing the description and the title. The title is what
shows up on the listing pages (45 chars max) while the description (no
limit, can include HTML) shows up only on the actual item page. With that
clarification...

EBay's search engine allows for searching the description as well as the
title. If you are looking for Donald Duck stuff (for example) and you only
search titles, you'll miss a lot of good items. An item with a title of
"disney toothbrush holders" doesn't mention Donald, but the description
did. (Bought the set of 6 for $10, gave the Donald one to Rachel, sold the
other five for $25.)

My recomendation is to make your *title* as descriptive and readable as
possible: "Donald Duck in a red car" and then, in the description, include
things like "made by Sun Rubber" and "has Goofy in the rumble seat" to
catch the folks searching for Sun Rubber or Goofy items. People just
looking through the category listings will see the title, and may find it
interesting enough to look at.

If you put "sun rubber donald duck goofy red car" as your title, you'll
lose the folks going through the category and won't get many more searchers.

And one of the most silly things I've seen is to put "for sale" in the
title -- Duh! That's only slightly worse than the people who put, simply,
"laptop computer" as the title of something in the portable computers
category.

>We are at the beginning of a revolution, I don't think anyone knows where it
>will shake out.

The only beginning bit is a new collectible: computers. Everything else is
old hat (even the auction format).


--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-

Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger_at_sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
Received on Tue Dec 15 1998 - 19:33:18 GMT

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