Question about Items Specific
I vaguely remember one time, someone on here saying that the bots do not pick up Items Specific that are entered as an "add more" (where a seller can add IS that are not on the existing list).
I've always been curious about this because many times I used to add other IS items but after I read that, I thought "why bother" if the bots aren't going to pick up on it.
Maybe I misunderstood or am not remembering correctly. Does anyone know about this?
8 comments
pickapaper
OP8 months ago@mr_lincoln
@simply-the-best-for-you
@jonathanbrightlight
Thank you, thank you, to all of you. This has been very, very helpful!
mr_lincoln
·8 months ago@pickapaper
You are more than welcome ...
simply-the-best-for-you
·8 months ago@pickapaper @mr_lincoln @jonathanbrightlight
Hey guys & gals,
I just tested it & guess what? It HAS changed & they ARE found. At least for color. I can't speak for all the others, nor can I test every IS in existence LOL. Keep in mind initially some of the IS's were not set up to function under search & IDK if that's still the case or not.
I was heavily involved in testing IS's when they first came out & for many, many years, anything you put in was not found, hence eBay's suggestion to always choose from their dropdowns. But I figured enough time has gone by I should double check & sure enough, I copied a listing of mine & changed the color from purple to a write-in of puce b/c I knew no one else would have used that color name LOL. I waited a bit & then did a search on the brand name & puce & sure enough my listing came up & sure enought, it was the only one 😀
So Mr Lincoln & Johnathan are absolutely correct at least for one. But I am also 100% certain that it did not used to work, so I would suggest Pick that you test it first using the IS that is the one you want to change, so that you're confident it works before relying on it.
simply-the-best-for-you
·8 months agoFor SEARCH purposes, @pickapaper is correct that they will NOT be picked up. However, they are still visually seen by a potential buyer. Best Practices have always been to never type in your own b/c they won't get picked up for search. But on occasion, you may want to document a special one for the buyer to see. I occasionally use it when it's a color that doesn't appear in the dropdown & there is no 'close' color to choose, for example. It's still there, the buyer can still read it & it's a bit of a CYA in certain cases, but unless something has recently changed, it has never been used in SEARCH.
ETA: Easy enough to test Pick, just put in a weird term & then search for it 10 minutes later. But unless there was an unannouced change, they have never been used in search. I'm happy to test later to see if something has changed, on my way out the door right now.
@mr_lincoln @jonathanbrightlight
pickapaper
OP8 months ago@mr_lincoln
@jonathanbrightlight
Thank you for your replies. I agree; I always thought more information is better than no information so that is why I always used to enter a lot of extra IS on my own. But I do not understand how a lot of technology works so when that person said that the bots wouldn't pick up any manually entered info, I thought it didn't make much sense.
As far as categories, there are some that have way too many IS and there are some that only have one or two. Those that only have one or two definitely need more.
I guess I will go back to adding a lot of my own again. Don't know if it will help, but it can't hurt.
mr_lincoln
·8 months ago@pickapaper
In my view, any potential customer seeing how detail oriented a Seller is on the IS portion of a listing is a good thing. You just never know when that one bit of seemingly unimportant info is picked up by someone's Search filter and BANG - YOUR ITEM IS THE #1 ITEM ON THE RETURNED SEARCH! And then you are the one with the phone going ....wait for it ...
CHA-CHING!!!!!!!!!!
jonathanbrightlight
·8 months agoI believe that the eBay filters in search won't ever show things you enter manually, but I would expect scrapers for things like search engines should be able to. Sometimes I use them primarily as a way of showing certain information to potential customers, even if the bots might not pick them up. I don't know if we can know for sure which bots will or won't get those details.
mr_lincoln
·8 months agoHi @pickapaper
In general terms more information is better and yes, the Added Item Specifics are used and found in Search. In my categories and comparing listings with other Sellers I typically have more IS filled in.
Added IS will of course benefit a Buyer as they consider an item for purchase once they find it and actually read the details on the listing ...
However, having said that the other thing I have found is if I list in the correct categories I don't need to add more IS, they are all provided for me.