Is Keyword Optimization Possible With Website Auction Listings?

Not too long ago, a seasoned flipper suggested that you might be able to hook a buyer by optimizing your website auction listings on places like Flippa for specific keywords. The idea was your listing would appear at the top of search results page when buyers conducted a keyword search.

He also theorized that keywords played a part in Flippa's tags when it came to how they ranked in the search results. For example, if you tagged your website listing as "revenue", but failed to use the keyword in the auction listing, it might affect the ranking. In order to maximize your exposure and get a better ranking, you should optimize for your keywords.

Now this may make sense, and perhaps the experienced website flipper really was on to something, but unfortunately, Flippa.com's search engine isn't that sophisticated. A recent interview with the marketing guy over at Flippa helped clear things up a bit.

With regards to the keyword optimization theory, the marketing guy for Flippa.com admitted that their search engine wasn't that complicated. So, if you do search for a specific keyword, what you get in return is the most recent listings with that keyword. In other words, Flippa's search engine is time-based so you really can't optimize for ranking. The above strategy might work, but only for as long as your website listing is "newer" relative to other listings with the same keywords.

A topic touched upon before amongst the seasoned and newbie flippers is the Flippa tagging system. The Flippa marketing guy didn't address the common complaints in the interview, but said that the tags aren't 100% reliable because they are easily spammed.