Titles

[arnl7178]

eBay say you should try to use as many characters as allowed in your selling titles.

Does anyone believe this makes a difference to sales?

I've seen some very short titles, such as, Red Heels, do extremely well.

What do others think?

[putney32]

personally, I try to think of what I would ''search'' if I just happened to need to buy whatever it is I have for sale

so yes Red Heels may work

but some may put in

Red Shoes and miss out

so I'd use Red Wittners High Heel Shoes Size 8 Leather

to cover a lot of possibilities

[***super_nova***]

If you have a short title it will limit the search possibilities.  Also in clothing and shoes I search by size, and do not even bother to go through those that do not state size.  There is just too many listings to spend time on those that will most likely not fit me.

[digital*ghost]

One thing I've noticed about my own listing titles, which I write generally with the first letter of each word captialised and everything else in lower case (with a couple of minor exceptions), is that they display completely differently in the tab of the browser.

To use putney's title as an example, I'll write it: 

Red Wittners High Heel Shoes Size 8 Leather

but the tab displays it as something like:

RED Wittners High HEEL SHOES Size 8 Leather

I am wondering if these have been selected as keywords and affect BM rankings, and it's consistently 3 words out of every title.

From tests, I also know that the order of words affects search results - even when using a sort order like ending soonest, so there might actually be something to economy of words. 

[bsal6160]

If you list in the correct category then keep the title to the basics. Use the available limit, however be mindful not to keyword spam. Nothing more annoying for a buyer than to be looking for one thing and other non-related items turn up.

With the shoe example;

wouldn't the buyer already be looking in the shoe section ? so why mention shoe in the title?

size ..most definitely

colour also YES

brand?? being a bit too narrow

leather ? are all wittner shoes made of leather? if yes then why even mention leather?

[arnl7178]

Interesting.

I'm not sure I believe that keywords make any difference at all actually.

I've been keeping an eye on my listings lately, and all of my jewellery listings are way way way down the list, some on the last page, even up to 25 days in the month.

Yet, some other listings, of say, collectables, rank much higher.

I use as many keywords as I can, and as much of the title space as possible. I can't tell if it makes any difference whatsoever.

Let's say, I search "Lapis Lazuli", and I have several Lapis pieces listed, they still rank near last, regardless of the title I use.

I might test is next time with something like "Lapis Lazuli Ring" and see how I go lol.

[wardy079]

I never look in the category, I just search for what I want because things come up all over the place.

for the above example, I would search Wittner shoes red size 8

i wonder how much I am missing out on?.

[digital*ghost]

Most people only use a few keywords, and generally refine if the results are too broad. The idea behind more keywords is to 'catch' as many search combinations as possible.

With the shoe example, theoretically you should show up when a buyer searches any of the following, which are more likely to be the original search terms:

leather shoes

red shoes

wittner size 8

red high heels

and so on.

One thing to remember is that eBay categories and sub categories are automatic search terms, so it's not absolutely necessary to have the word 'dress' in the title if the item is in the dress category etc. You can also use that to your advantage to fit common misspellings of terms - eg key ring and keyring, if you list in the Keyrings category, you can just put key ring in the title and the item will show up no matter which term is used by someone conducting a search. 

It's also good for anything with an apostrophe in the category, which most people omit when they're searching (eg the category might be Men's Wallets, but most type mens wallet - use mens in the title when listing in such categories, and you effectively have both). 

[xena-and-alex]

The more the better. If you include words that are related to your item more people can find it. You just need to make sure you aren't keyword spamming.

[zenremix777]

The more the better. If you include words that are related to your item more people can find it. You just need to make sure you aren't keyword spamming.

x2.

If you do max out the title space, it might be good to try and make the keywords fit in a sentence somehow or just so they don't look all jumbled up.