Ebay as SEO tool?

Ebay SEO ranking

[smokey sterling]

Hi everyone,
Does anyone know if putting items from your web site for sale on ebay helps your own popularity or relevance? For example, if my site sells a product, and i put a small selection of them for sale on ebay and call them "product keyword", with my company's name in the description with many relevant keywords(i don't think ebay allows links) would the popularity of ebay somehow give me more visibility? Or, would I have to open an Ebay storefront for it to have any impact on my site? Or is this a totally bad idea? Thanks for any input.
smokeysterling

[edited by: agerhart at 6:15 pm (utc) on Oct. 31, 2003]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]

[sun818]

> popularity of ebay somehow give me more visibility?

More visibility to your users, but not search engines. The content of what you post to eBay auctions and fixed price listings are removed from the eBay database within 2-3 months.

> Ebay storefront

eBay recently revised the Stores feature so you can add your own HTML. This will help in terms of SEO to a certain degree. Having your own web site though provides the most flexibility. If eBay goes under, so does the investment in your eBay Stores URL. So, I would focus on directing your eBay buyers to your web store (not eBay Store) via e-mail.

[smokey sterling]

Sun818,
So having a storefront isn't worth the trouble is the main goal is to send people to your "real" site?
smokeysterling

[sun818]

> So having a storefront isn't worth the trouble

That's just a personal opinion. The mantra around here seems to be "return on investment". If you find that having an eBay Store is more profitable than promoting your own web store, then by all means go with eBay Store. Personally, I find comfort in knowing that I am promoting my own web store and don't have the share the small pie with eBay.

I direct buyers to my web store every chance I get. When buyers use the "Ask Seller a Question", I suggest to the buyer they can purchase from our web store providing the link. I include the web store URL in my packing slip and invoices too.

[nakulgoyal]

I don't recommend this. If you just want a few hundren extra visits a month, it maybe worth to put a listing there.

However, it's good to work out better link building for you. More the links, more the traffic. Better the Ranks. So work on DECENT link building ONLY.