SEO stuff for Ebay sites

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turbolapp

turbolapp

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I am trying out my hand at some ebay sites. I am doing it on a generic domain like hotbuys.com (not my site) and just doing directories like hotbuys.com/cellphones and hotbuys.com/wedding dresses....I plan to just start generating abunch of these sites under hotbuys.com. Now I KNOW that this type of generic domain is not the best type for optimal SEO. (I know it would be better to do cellphonesbuys.com and weddingdresssale.com or whatever) But I should still be able to generate a decent amount of traffic this way, especially if I've narrowed down the niche, yes?

Any SEO tips when doing this way (one domain with multiple directories)?
 


kind of obvious but, point keyword links to your sub directories, not your homepage

what are you going to use to build your stores? BANS, phpbay, etc?
 
From all my testing I have not found much of a difference if the keyword is in the domain (keywordhere.com), sub-folder (domain.com/keywordhere) or sub-domain (keywordhere.domain.com). As long as the keyword shows up in the url somewhere, you are good. Now the domain name does water down the density a bit so keep it short if possible.

I personally favor sub-domains as many natural links will have anchor text of just the root url and not directly to the page. So if your keyword is before the domain it sticks in the anchor text, if after the domain it will get dropped some of the time.

Fear not and forge forward .... many more things to worry about than just the url.
 
me too...one of my competitors has over 15,000,000 backlinks...he's got to be doing something shady, right?
 
PhillipMarlow said:
me too...one of my competitors has over 15,000,000 backlinks...he's got to be doing something shady, right?
Click to expand...

Yep, unless your domain is google.com, ebay.com or digg.com there is nothing natural about those links. It is, however, impressive to have that many pages with links indexed. Even if they are not legit links, that is a worthy competitor that I would not want to go head to head with.
 
Ok I've got another question for you while we're pondering the SEO of ebay sites...

You know how alot of free wordpress themes have hidden code created by the designer for their own SEO purposes? I have heard this can be bad for your own site's SEO. Is this true? And can you delete this code? If so, where is it usually?
 
turbolapp said:
Ok I've got another question for you while we're pondering the SEO of ebay sites...

You know how alot of free wordpress themes have hidden code created by the designer for their own SEO purposes? I have heard this can be bad for your own site's SEO. Is this true? And can you delete this code? If so, where is it usually?
Click to expand...

Not too many people hide their links. Most of them just put it in the footer and leave it at that. However, just check your page source and css if you're really concerned. If you don't see anything in the source or css, it's fine.
 
1. If the niches are unrelated (cellphones, wedding dresses), use subdomains for each one.
CellPhones.HotBuys.com
WeddingDresses.HotBuys.com

Subdomains Vs Subdirectories

2. Avoid any kind of interlinking - your links should come from outside HotBuys.com.

3. Stating the obvious: When you build links, each subdomain should be treated separately. An incoming link to CellPhones.HotBuys.com will not help WeddingDresses.HotBuys.com in any way. So, you need to have a link building plan for each subdomain.

4. Free Wordpress themes usually have an outgoing link in the footer - it is not hidden usually. Many free Wordpress themes provide the option of removing this link by paying a fee to the author. If you want to remove the footer, go to the Theme Editor, go to the footer, and remove the link from there.
 
Nice article vinny. It makes me feel better about always removing the authors links in the footer. :)
 
Make sure you have actual content with the PHPbay listings, directory submissions, social bookmarking and then just leave the site alone for a while. I have PHPbay sites i havent touched in months pulling in passive cash.
 
turbo

If you're using a generic domain and broad-match product search you might consider a site like DealsOfAmerica.com rather than an eBay site. Conversions will be similar if not better and the per-pop commission is huge compared to eBay (aside from the registration bonus.)

You can also do a lot of other things with a site like that, have a coupon section, run the occasional CPA offer banner on the site etc. The challenge of course is getting traffic -- there are several such sites out there, with DOA being one of the kings.

dealsofamerica*com
bensbargains*net
mybargainbuddy*com
techbargains*com
slickdeals*net

etc. etc. etc.

Competition is fierce, but so is competition for eBay bids you know?


Frank
 
turbolapp said:
I am trying out my hand at some ebay sites. I am doing it on a generic domain like hotbuys.com (not my site) and just doing directories like hotbuys.com/cellphones and hotbuys.com/wedding dresses....I plan to just start generating abunch of these sites under hotbuys.com. Now I KNOW that this type of generic domain is not the best type for optimal SEO. (I know it would be better to do cellphonesbuys.com and weddingdresssale.com or whatever) But I should still be able to generate a decent amount of traffic this way, especially if I've narrowed down the niche, yes?

Any SEO tips when doing this way (one domain with multiple directories)?
Click to expand...

Turbo,

In would suggest your own domain name for each. Here's why: If you've been reading PHPbay Pro Tips - Make Money on Ebay with PHPbay Pro | EPNTips.com you'll remember that in one of my posts i talked about creating an entire site around one niche will help you outrank sites that just have pages or sections about a niche.

If your site auctions are on hotbuys.com/wedding hotbuys.com/cellphones etc.. than google will see your site as a store with various products. But if you build a site called "weddingdresses.com and have 20 pages all about wedding dresses, google will see you as an entire site about wedding dresses. This will help you rank better than other site with just a wedding dress section (obviously other factors will be taken into account)

To illustrate this, my site Fender Blues Junior amps - The unofficial site of Fender Blues Jr amps ranks in top 3-4 for the term "fender blues junior"

I'm ahead of huge online music stores with pages about this product (Guitar Center, ZZsounds, Musicians friend, etc). I'm even ahead of a HUGE review site with a whole section of reviews on blues juniors (harmony central).

I'm pretty sure it's because i built any entire site around my keyword and have relevant links with good anchors pointing to my homepage.

I doubt i would have the same results if i did all the same stuff as a sub page of an amp site (BuyAnAmp.com/fenderbluesjunior)

The trick is to create an entire site based on your niche, not just a section. Otherwise google sees yor home URL as a general resource, not specific to a product. So hotbuys.com home page would not show up for "wedding". Additionally Hotbuys.com will have inbound links for all kinds of stuff, Vs. a niche site which gets links with all related anchor tags...

Hope that helps. Just my $0.02
 
jill_domains said:
2. Avoid any kind of interlinking - your links should come from outside HotBuys.com.
Click to expand...

Not sure i agree with that. I have GREAT results when i link to my homepage with the anchor text being my target keyword. I suggest doing it AT LEAST once per page/post...

but maybe it's different if you have a site with different sections, but i assume you woul still want to link hotbuys.com/weddings/dresses to hotbuys.com/weddings
 
rgordon83 said:
Turbo,

In would suggest your own domain name for each. Here's why: If you've been reading PHPbay Pro Tips - Make Money on Ebay with PHPbay Pro | EPNTips.com you'll remember that in one of my posts i talked about creating an entire site around one niche will help you outrank sites that just have pages or sections about a niche.

If your site auctions are on hotbuys.com/wedding hotbuys.com/cellphones etc.. than google will see your site as a store with various products. But if you build a site called "weddingdresses.com and have 20 pages all about wedding dresses, google will see you as an entire site about wedding dresses. This will help you rank better than other site with just a wedding dress section (obviously other factors will be taken into account)

To illustrate this, my site Fender Blues Junior amps - The unofficial site of Fender Blues Jr amps ranks in top 3-4 for the term "fender blues junior"

I'm ahead of huge online music stores with pages about this product (Guitar Center, ZZsounds, Musicians friend, etc). I'm even ahead of a HUGE review site with a whole section of reviews on blues juniors (harmony central).

I'm pretty sure it's because i built any entire site around my keyword and have relevant links with good anchors pointing to my homepage.

I doubt i would have the same results if i did all the same stuff as a sub page of an amp site (BuyAnAmp.com/fenderbluesjunior)

The trick is to create an entire site based on your niche, not just a section. Otherwise google sees yor home URL as a general resource, not specific to a product. So hotbuys.com home page would not show up for "wedding". Additionally Hotbuys.com will have inbound links for all kinds of stuff, Vs. a niche site which gets links with all related anchor tags...

Hope that helps. Just my $0.02
Click to expand...

After doing alot of research about it today I agree with this statement. Root directories would not be wise for SEO for these types of sites. However, using a subdomain should work just as well since the SEs read keywordphrase.hotbuys.com as it's own individual site (unlike hotbuys.com/keywordphrase which they would just read as just an extension of the main site) AS LONG as I do all the normal SEO (content, backlinks, directory submissions, interlinking...etc) for these subdomains sites, I think it would work.
 
Domains are so cheap today I'm not sure why you'd want to bother with a bunch of sub domains.

I think it's better to build each niche on it's own domain not only for SEO purposes but it looks more professional to the visitor.
 
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