Create new and original content

By far the most significant first step any listing can do is creating new and original content. Search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) use web robots (spider/crawler) designed to search a website and grab keywords and text from the listing to be listed on their search engine. If your site does not have lots of content, your chances of being found are significantly decreased.

Tip: Because of abuse from content farms Google and other search engines are paying closer attention to the quality of your content. Make sure all of the content is quality content and that it is going to help your visitors find your product or service. Just creating content to create content does not help you or your visitors. Always be asking yourself “Is this page or listing good enough to be in a glossy magazine or news paper article?”.

Update content frequently

Listings that have not been updated in over a month are considered abandoned pages by most visitors.

Frequently update and add new content to your listing. If you your listing contains frequently updated content, visitors have yet another reason to bookmark and return, and search engine crawlers will visit your listing more often.

Add content even if your listing only sells products

Most users do not visit a website or listing only to purchase a product. If your listing sells anything it should have complete information about the products such as how to setup the product, how it can be used, reviews, and comments from other users. Not only will this bring more visitors to your listing, it is also likely they will convert into visitors that buy what is being sold.

User generated content such as product reviews is a must for any listing that sells products. Most people expect at least a general review of a product, and good reviews from many users can often talk the visitor into purchasing the product.

The importance of the first paragraph

The first paragraph of information is the most important paragraph on your listing. Search engines pay close attention to the first paragraph and the first paragraph is what is going to catch the readers eyes. Placing important keywords into this paragraph and making sure it is well written can help improve your rank and will decrease your bounce rate.

Add a catchy picture

People are visual creatures, adding one or more pictures that help grab the visitor’s eyes, build interest, and make sure they don’t leave the listing immediately. When adding a picture also make sure to add an description to the image that describes the picture and has keywords of your product or service that a search engine is also going to notice.

Page title

Most search engines use the title of your listing when displaying your site in their search results. Therefore, it is always a smart idea to focus on every listing title. For example, this listing title is “Advertising Tips”, this title is not only descriptive but also uses keywords: Advertising, Tips. Follow the tips below when creating a title.

• Be as specific as possible and include what is unique.
• Always use the most important keywords at the start of your title.
• Use no more than 10 to 12 words in your title. (70 characters)