03-07-2021 08:41 AM
Hello, I have several saved searches set up that search for different items. Within the last month some, but not all, of the saved searches are returning the items I am looking for but also contain the same items I am not looking for. For example I have a search for a car part, a town, a pair of shoes and a bird house. When I get the individual results back they have the items listed I am looking for but some of the searches like the car part, the pair of shoes and the bird house search will also have the exact same ancient foreign coins listed, sold out of different countries, with different sellers. The only connection that I see is a match of numbers in my username. For example my username is ihateebay123 and the seller of the coins is rippingyouoff123 or hacker123 or extendedautowarranty123. And again the coins are exactly same for each returned search. Is anybody else having this issue or seeing similar results.
03-07-2021 08:58 AM - edited 03-07-2021 09:01 AM
Some sellers include long lists of keywords buried in their descriptions or item specifics -- it is possible that those items contain enough keywords to match your search terms.
This is considered keyword spamming, and it violates eBay's search and browse manipulation policy. If you spot a seller using that technique you can report the listing or the seller, though it may be easier to block the particular seller from your searches using the Advanced Search page Seller section and the "exclude" option.
A recent example: