What’s in a listing description?

Two of the most important areas of your ebay listing are the title and the description.

When a shopper starts at the ebay homepage and enters their search criteria in the bar near the top of the page, that search will look at the titles of all auctions in ebay and display the results on the following page.

If a shopper is in a specific category, area or on a page displaying previously search results, there will be a check box under the search box titles ‘Include title and description’. This search will display relevant matches in both the title and description of all ebay listings meeting any other criteria specified by the shopper.

Your title should contain as many important key words as possible. These include brand names, model numbers, condition, or any other descriptive words that you feel are important to bring attention to your listing. It is not necessary for the title to follow proper grammar or sentence structure, only to help buyers find your particular item and improve where it falls on the subsequent search page. You are allowed 55 characters in the title field, it is recommended to use every one to your advantage.

The item description is where you have almost free reign in describing your item to the best of your ability. This area needs to be as factual and relevant as possible, ebay has strict guidelines against false representation or keyword spamming (using terms or words such as brand names other than the item(s) you have listed for the sole purpose of showing up in other search criteria).
Your description must contain the basics like what exactly you have available, the brand, size, style, model, quantity. Other key items are size, location, condition (if damaged in any way, be as clear as you can as well as include good pictures so they buyer knows what they are bidding on). Is there an interesting story behind the item or the reason you are selling it? Include that. Nothing like having an interesting story and an ebayer forwards a link to the listing to their friends and so on.

Don’t forget to list any shipping options and selling conditions (as is, return policy, etc).

Doing this serves two purposes, it improves the chances that in interested buyer will find your listing as well as answers as many questions as possible so you receive fewer email questions to reply to.