Still Another Search Problem

[whatnots2like]

I have many Frankoma items for sale. When I search for "frankoma xxx" (xxx = the number/letter) some show up. I cannot get these 4 to show up in the search results: 4n, 553, 87, 835. 

Any ideas why?  I have been fooling around with 835, so it may be a 'cycled in' problem at the moment, but the others were listed days ago and not revised by me. 

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

@whatnots2like 

A search for frankoma 835 is automatically steered into the following category:

Pottery & Glass > Pottery & China > Art Pottery > Frankoma, Gracetone

Your item is listed here:

Pottery & Glass > Pottery & China > China & Dinnerware > Frankoma, Gracetone

Your item's category may be a perfectly logical place to list it, but if you want your item to appear in that particular search, you need to list it in the former category rather than the latter. Or try listing in multiple categories, if possible.

[whatnots2like]

AH HA! Thank you so much. I'll work on this. Guess I was in the forest and not seeing the trees. Or something. Thanks again!

[eburtonlab]

You are most welcome -- good luck with your listings!

[oldedale]

Really poor search results. This is why sales have decreased so much. Listing categories changed, eBay no longer searches multiple categories. It should. This recent change occurred around 4/20/20. Our sales are down over 60% for that date. TRS 10 yr seller on eBay.

[eburtonlab]

@oldedale 

Really poor search results. This is why sales have decreased so much. Listing categories changed, eBay no longer searches multiple categories. It should. This recent change occurred around 4/20/20.

eBay has been using Implicit Category Navigation at least since 2015.

[siamjane8]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

@whatnots2like 

A search for frankoma 835 is automatically steered into the following category:

Pottery & Glass > Pottery & China > Art Pottery > Frankoma, Gracetone

Your item is listed here:

Pottery & Glass > Pottery & China > China & Dinnerware > Frankoma, Gracetone

Your item's category may be a perfectly logical place to list it, but if you want your item to appear in that particular search, you need to list it in the former category rather than the latter. Or try listing in multiple categories, if possible.

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Wow that is great research- thanks for that. We have been battling the Cassini AI search engine for the last couple years. It shows the limitations of trying to pre-select what the buyer wants  to see.  Site visibility has been severely limited since 2018- as shown by buyer search relevancy complaints and across the board decline in sales.   The original "Keyword" search engine may have provided too many results but at least they were actually what the person was looking for........ Not a fan of AI as a seller OR a buyer.   

By putting the same exact keywords from your search in a different order - you will get a completely different set of ebay results.  That means that all the options were not shown the first time so that limits potential sales because buyer cannot find your items.

Unfortunately buyers do not waste time altering their search time and time again, they just go to google and that directs them to another site..... our loss

[oldedale]

My sales decreased over 55% from 04/20/20 timeframe.