Saturday, December 4, 2010

Keyword Spamming on eBay - What Not to Do!

I listed an authentic Fendi hat couple of weeks ago and was researching prices. I came across this listing and, well, there are so many things wrong here I don't even know where to start. The first issue is keyword spamming. Look at this title:


An obvious and blatant attempt to get hits on their listing. This is called keyword spamming - using irrelevant words to get traffic to your listing. eBay does not like it when sellers manipulate the search engine in this way. It is inconvenient for buyers and an unfair marketing tactic. Keyword spamming is a big eBay no-no and your listing can be removed for this violation, and your DSRs will suffer. Don't do it.

As we look more closely at the listing, we see the shipping is $9.99. For a 3 ounce baseball hat? And then when you look closer at the shipping section, we see that the seller is using Media Mail - which is a class of mail only for media products (books, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, etc.) So, the buyer will pay $9.99 for a 3 oz hat to be shipped for 9 -15 day delivery?


As a buyer, watch out for listings like this. If the seller is this unscrupulous with his listing, odds are that the item is not of top quality and you won't receive very good service either.


3 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 5, 2010 at 7:09 AM

    Great advice. Also, post office has right to open suspect media mail packages. Seller shipped a camera media mail and along with the item, I got a postage due notice and had to pay the difference. Seller reimbursed me, but it was still a hassle.

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  2. YvetteDecember 5, 2010 at 10:33 AM

    I love reading your blog. I wanted to mention that I"m in Hawaii and media mail/parcel post shipping take a minimum of 4-6 weeks for a package to arrive and it's not trackable for at least a month until it reaches the continental US. So that hat would cost nearly $10 and I would have to wait 6 weeks to receive it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SerenaDecember 13, 2010 at 2:18 PM

    Another keyword spamming no-no is adding "not" to your keywords, such as "Not Fendi," just to attract buyers when they do a search for "Fendi."

    ReplyDelete