Add the right keywords with Keyword Boost

Keyword Boost is the panel on the Listing Helper review step that suggests high-search keywords for your listing and shows you, at a glance, which ones are already working for you and which ones are not.

What the panel shows you

Keyword Boost displays a row of suggested search term chips above your draft. Each chip is one of two states:

• Covered: the keyword already appears somewhere in your title or in one of your item specifics. Covered chips are dimmed and marked with a tick, so you can see them without needing to act on them.
• Actionable: the keyword is not yet in your listing. These chips are highlighted and offer two one-tap actions: add it to the title, or add it as an item specific.

A small counter above the chips tells you how many of the suggested keywords are currently covered, for example “3/7 in your listing”, so you can see your progress without counting chips yourself.

Add to title: the primary action

Clicking an actionable chip adds that keyword straight into your title. This is the primary action because eBay search weighs title text most heavily, and because, as covered below, eBay has no separate keywords field to put it in instead.

1. Open a listing on the review step and look at the Keyword Boost row.
2. Find an actionable (non-dimmed) chip for a keyword you want in your title.
3. Click the chip itself (the plus icon side) to fold it into the title.
4. Check the title preview to confirm the wording still reads naturally, and adjust manually if needed.

Add as item specific: the secondary action

Each actionable chip also has a small tag icon next to the add-to-title button. Clicking it adds the keyword as an item specific instead of the title. This is a secondary convenience for keywords that do not naturally fit the title, or for when the title is already full. Item specifics you add this way are labelled generically and you can relabel them afterwards if you want a more precise specific name.

Why there is no separate keywords box

It is worth being clear about what Keyword Boost is actually doing, because sellers sometimes expect a hidden or backend keywords field similar to what some other marketplaces offer. eBay does not have one.

Because of this, publishing a listing with updated keywords needs a Full Access eBay connection. A read-only connection lets you view and draft changes, but cannot push the updated title or specifics live to eBay.

Getting the most from it

Aim to clear the actionable chips down to zero where the wording genuinely makes sense for your item. Do not force a keyword into the title if it reads awkwardly or misdescribes the item just to tick a chip off. Keyword Boost is there to surface search terms you might have missed, not to dictate exact wording. See the related articles below for more on the wider listing optimisation checks DashVue runs alongside it.