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Users consistently misusing keywords, clogging up results
Hello, I like to look for collectibles for my favorite TV show on eBay, and I keep running into the same problem: I search for my favorite TV show and the results are clogged with listings for completely unrelated luxury clothing items. The keywords inserted by the seller are full of character names and brands that are not in any way related to, say, Ralph Lauren hundred-dollar Polo shirts. They'll load up the "character" or "character family" section with Disney characters and superheroes and popular movies, none of which have anything at all to do with the luxury clothing brand. This is very annoying because it's FREQUENT, and sometimes they will list more than 50 items at once so I have to scroll and scroll to find anything relevant. It was my understanding that they are abusing the system by putting misleading character names and TV shows in those sections when their product has nothing to do with those franchises, but then when I spend a bunch of time reporting them, I receive e-mails saying no action was taken because no violation was found. Is this really not a violation? They are allowed to hijack searches like this and it's not against the rules? Please help me understand either why this is allowed or how I can report them effectively if it's not allowed.
eburtonlab
Mentor2 years agoUntil eBay acts, there will always be a some sellers that try to take advantage of any search rules so that their items appear in many searches, whether they should or not.
The sort of keyword spammers that include a laundry list of unrelated keywords in their listings are the easiest to eliminate from your results; just exclude any of the other unrelated keywords from that keyword list, and any listing that contains that keyword anywhere in the item-specifics will be ignored by your search.
Since keyword spammers are lazy, they quite often reuse the same list and even copy from other keyword spammers. If you exclude one of those keywords, any listing with that excluded keyword in the item specifics will also be excluded from your results, quite often including any other listing by that item-specific spamming seller.
swankivy
OP2 years agoThanks! Yes, the latest issue I had with these folks was one user posting Ralph Lauren polo shirts with the same keyword list over and over. But the solution you're giving me here has to be used on a case-by-case basis, right? As in, each time this happens, I will have to manually change the search anytime someone decides to abuse the system this way? I have occasionally reported a seller and received a message saying action WAS taken and the listing WAS removed (even though my report style is identical for the ones that get taken down and the ones that don't). Usually I report it as a "listing practices" category, under "search and browse manipulation," with the detailed reason being "Keyword spamming." It really seems like the categories existing for EXACTLY what these people are doing should indicate that they know it's a problem and would take action if reported, but more often than not they just tell me they didn't find a violation. Also, could it help to just block particularly egregious sellers so I don't have to look at their misleading irrelevant listings every time I look for my wanted items?
eburtonlab
Mentor2 years agoBut the solution you're giving me here has to be used on a case-by-case basis, right?
Not necessarily. If your search is specific enough or if you choose the right keywords to exclude in your saved search you can exclude -- and continue to exclude -- many keyword spammers in one shot.
If another keyword spammer with a different set of spam keywords shows up in your results, then you can find another exclusion that eliminates that keyword spammer.
If you have a particular search in mind that you are willing to share, post a link to your search results and someone may be able to offer some actual examples of keywords to exclude.