Search Results showing way more than keywords?

[wrm827]

Maybe this is common knowledge here already but every time I search for an item I get way more broad results including other part numbers, sometimes hundreds of results but when I sort by lowest first it shows the actual results with only my specific keywords. It makes researching out in the field a real pita and sometimes I forget to sort it and think the ratio of listed to sold is too lopsided so pass on the item only to realize later there's fewer listed than sold. Also, if this is a pain for us sellers I can't imagine the headache buyers are experiencing not to mention it would explain my (at times) poor sales/views to some degree.

[dbfolks166mt]

     You didn't give a specific example of what search you ran but search results often vary depending on the parameters of the search. 

[eburtonlab]

What keywords are you using to search?

When you search using keywords, eBay considers any listing with the same keywords anywhere in the title or item-specifics to be a potential match.

In addition, eBay may also match similar keywords, or even autocorrect your keyword spelling, or substitute similar keywords.

If you do not want any keyword substitutions or corrections, you can try putting one of your search keywords in quotes to force eBay to return only exact, literal matches, but eBay will still provide results that contain your keywords in the item-specifics even if the words do not appear in the title itself.

Grouping keywords together using dashes will ensure that eBay only considers results where those words are in that order with no intervening words.

Using exclusion terms by putting a minus sign in front of keywords you want to avoid may also be useful for narrowing down your search, though using an exclusion term may also have other effects such as avoiding any keyword substitutions preventing automatic category navigation, so you may have to manually specify a category after searching with an exclusion, or when using quoted keywords.

Which sort order you choose can also affect how many results you see. "Price plus shipping: lowest first" can often show filtered results; and "Best Match" may include more results matching alternative keywords compared to other sort orders.

If you have been using the same saved searches for a while, it might be worth creating a new search from scratch; sometimes eBay changes categories around or alters keyword substitutions, and old searches that were previously effective may no longer work as well as a result.

[wrm827]

this is something that has been going on now for what feels like months and im just so aggravated with it i decided to post about it. it never did this before. this is a recent thing. it's literally ALL of my searches. why woud I give a specific example if when i go out sourcing im researching often hundreds of items and it does this every time. I use both specific keywords and specific model numbers together and get literally hundreds of listings often. when i click sort lowest first often it will then show the actual listings as for example 15 or even zero actual listings. how is no one else experiencing this? you two are acting like this is something im doing or im confused. ive been selling at a high level since 2015 and casually many years before. this isn't something I am doing. its an ebay thing. or my ebay account is messed up but it does this on both the desktop and mobile app.

[eburtonlab]

why woud I give a specific example

Most likely there are some simple things you can do to get results that are more to your liking. An example of a search that is not working for you may allow someone to provide some actual search links that work better for you.

this isn't something I am doing. its an ebay thing.

eBay does lots of different things, and makes frequent changes. More than likely some eBay change has made a particular search -- or a particular search technique -- less effective for your purposes. Perhaps eBay will fix it eventually; but perhaps eBay does not think it is broken.

In the short term there is probably not much you can do to actually convince eBay to change the way search works, though you are certainly welcome to try.

Changing the way you search, on the other hand, is entirely in your control and does not require you to convince anyone of anything. And that is much more likely to produce immediate dividends for you in terms of results you can use.

[fashunu4eeuh]

“….you two are acting like this is something im doing or im confused. ive been selling at a high level since 2015 and casually many years before. this isn't something I am doing. its an ebay thing. or my ebay account is messed up but it does this on both the desktop and mobile app.”

Hi @wrm827 — sorry for the difficulty you are experiencing. Yes, it is something eBay is doing.

There may be ways around the problem. Setting the frustration on the back burner temporarily, the advice you are receiving and the questions being asked of you may give some insight to find what might work to get you cleaner search results.

This isn’t about you, it is about eBay. The more info we have the better the advice can be offered. No one is trying to be insulting or anything but helpful. The first two posters who responded are highly respected, knowledgable volunteers with many years of selling under their belts. If anyone can assist with the problem they can. (But if you just needed to vent, that’s ok too.)

Good luck and hope this gets resolved to your benefit.

[wrm827]

i just tried some searches and it doesn't seem to be happening now of all times. i tried canon ae-1 camera and a few other items and i got exact results but when it's acting weird it will show tons of other listings of other canon cameras even ones without ae-1 in the title..crazy

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@wrm827 wrote:

i just tried some searches and it doesn't seem to be happening now of all times. i tried canon ae-1 camera and a few other items and i got exact results but when it's acting weird it will show tons of other listings of other canon cameras even ones without ae-1 in the title..crazy

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It is crazy and i’m concerned about buyer frustrations over it.

So far i haven’t noticed an effect on my sales, but admit i have quit a few searches when shopping on the platform. Sometimes the search results seem to include everything but the kitchen sink.

[eburtonlab]

when it's acting weird it will show tons of other listings of other canon cameras even ones without ae-1 in the title

Typically one of the following things is happening when you see "tons of other listings" without your keyword(s) in the title.

1) Your keywords may be located in the item-specifics of those listings rather than in the title.

2) eBay may be autocorrecting or substituting a keyword, or matching an alternative keyword.

3) If there are few or no results, eBay may be showing "Results matching fewer words". If you are scrolling quickly, you may miss the disclaimer that divides the actual results from the additional results.

The second case can be exacerbated by using the "Best Match" sort order; lately that sort returns many more results than other sorts, indicating that the substitutions are being treated differently or eBay is casting a wider net when users sort that way. You can avoid any keyword substitutions by putting one of your search keywords in quotes when searching. That should force eBay to provide only exact, literal matches to your search terms.

[a_c_green]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

Which sort order you choose can also affect how many results you see. "Price plus shipping: lowest first" can often show filtered results; and "Best Match" may include more results matching alternative keywords compared to other sort orders.

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That is where the problem is coming in. Sort order should have nothing to do with the size of the result set. Perhaps the easiest way to see this is to simply do a search.

I routinely search in my selling area with the term "schwinn speedometer". As of this moment, a search across all categories will return 370 matches for most sort order preferences, including "Time: ending soonest," "Time: newly listed," "Price + Shipping: highest first" and "Distance: nearest first." (NOTE: The first search will return results only within the Bicycles subcategory, even if you're starting at the top. Select the "All" category to see the full 370 result set. This is another annoyance of theirs.)

The "Best Match" setting goes off on its own and finds 454 matches, God knows how, but let's ignore that one for now. All the others except for "Price + Shipping: lowest first" will return 370 results. "Price + Shipping: lowest first" will return only 170 results and dump all the rest, even though they are valid search results.

The choice of sort order should not affect the number of results shown, but in one specific choice it does, and there is no reason for it to do so. My theory, based on my IT experience, is that the sort order preference of "Price + Shipping: lowest first" has accidentally been encoded with a de-duplication flag or similar filter that was not applied to any other sort order choices. I have seen on some platforms that the lowest-first choice will also bring up a popup claiming that those are "streamlined" results, and that the user should do the search again for non-streamlined (i.e. full) results. This strikes me as a kind of Band-Aid patch on top of code that no one either understands or wants to touch (or both). 😉

[eburtonlab]

The choice of sort order should not affect the number of results shown

eBay apparently disagrees, which is why some "Lowest first" results show an explicit "show more results" or "streamlining" message. You can make a case that there are good reasons for dropping some results from that sort. Users searching for an iPhone model and using the "Lowest First" sort order probably don't want to wade through all of the low-priced parts and accessories or broken phones before they get to actual working iPhones. Whether eBay can actually effectively filter the results so that does not happen is another story, though.

The "Best Match" issues are much more recent, and show no overt signs of being an intentional design.

[a_c_green]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

The choice of sort order should not affect the number of results shown

eBay apparently disagrees, which is why some "Lowest first" results show an explicit "show more results" or "streamlining" message.

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That's the software patch I was referring to; yes. It pops up after the user has performed the Lowest Price search. This suggests that they know how the original search should have been performed, but rather than correct the original code, they're hanging this second-go-round option on the end instead.

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@eburtonlab wrote:

You can make a case that there are good reasons for dropping some results from that sort. Users searching for an iPhone model and using the "Lowest First" sort order probably don't want to wade through all of the low-priced parts and accessories or broken phones before they get to actual working iPhones.

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But that's a category-specific preference, not a sort order preference. "Price + Shipping: Lowest First" is simply a sort-by-price option of the search results, nothing more. It should not be dropping valid search results that are not dropped in any other ordering choice.