Burning question...do item specifics help you place in search?

[vintage-goods-4-you]

I've talked to a couple different eBay reps lately and have been getting different answers...one rep will say that item specifics help a buyer find you, and someone else will say that only the keywords of my title show up in search. So I'm left wondering...which one is it? I thought that once upon a time, item specifics did show up in search, but I have my doubts if that's true anymore. Does anyone know? Thank you in advance! 

[gracieallen01]

Maybe.

However, I highly doubt if you will ever find anyone - in authority - at ebay that will commit to a  yea or nay.  That would defeat the purpose of being able to have the best seller for 'blank' item spotlighted and possibly 'give some others hints on how to game the system'.  Besides, 'it is just part of the process'.

[clee1325]

im not 100% sure... but while searching for clothing some came up with just size small dress or black dress as the title soooo i clicked read listing item specifics were all filled in! found what i was looking for even though the sellers titles were lacking....

[iamonourside]

clee1325  Good example.  It is my hypothesis based on experimenting with search that if there are no "Boolean" operators in your search (like exclude, AND, OR), ebay will add listings to search results based on listing content not just title. 

Note, that additional listings were added based on both item specifics and words in the description.

OP, are you really asking about search "placement" or about being in the search results? I religiously complete the item specifics, but think they have NO effect on placement, but do sometimes affect being among the search results.

[city*satins]

Yes somewhat. For example if you misspell the brand name in the title  e.g. PUCGI but spell it correctly in the Item Specifics under Brand as PUCCI.  Anyone searching by the keyword PUCCI  - your listing will (or should) show up in the results.

[luckythewinner]

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wrote:

I've talked to a couple different eBay reps lately and have been getting different answers...one rep will say that item specifics help a buyer find you, and someone else will say that only the keywords of my title show up in search. So I'm left wondering...which one is it?

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You are mixing up two very different things. 

(1) Whether items specifics are matched to search terms when a buyer searches

(2) Whether the presence of item specifics helps search placement (or conversely, whether the lack of them hurts placement). 

eBay has consistently indicated that all things equal, having items specifics filled in on a listing will improve your Best Match score over not having filled them in. 

[dhbookds]

Just to throw an additional question in .......what about item specifics you add to the programmed ones?

It's fairly easy to check, leave something out of title and put in Item specifics, and search...... I did it long ago and the item specific term did put the item in search results.....  the IS I added did not.  Could have changed........

[yuzuha]

I fill them out when I can and don't when I can't.  Doesn't seem to make a difference either way as both types of listings still sell.

EDIT: I should also add, the vast majority of things I sold in December didn't have more than one or two item specifics filled out at all.

[swenson8781]

The answer is both, as it really depends solely on how an individual buyer searches for items.  You want to use the keywords in the title that best describe your item, AND you want to fill in as many item specifics as possible.  That way, you will draw the most buyers to your items. 

If buyers search by using keywords only, they will find it, and if they search by choosing categories and filtering down by item specifics they will find it also.   And you will also catch the buyers like me, that use both.  I type in a few keywords, and if I get too many non-specific items, I filter down using the item specifics.

[gymbo_limbo]

Probably better safe than sorry.  Filling out the item specific fields really slow me down but I do my best to complete every possible one just in case it places me above one of my competitors and in case it answers one of my buyers questions. 

[slippinjimmy]

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wrote:

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wrote:

I've talked to a couple different eBay reps lately and have been getting different answers...one rep will say that item specifics help a buyer find you, and someone else will say that only the keywords of my title show up in search. So I'm left wondering...which one is it?

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You are mixing up two very different things. 

(1) Whether items specifics are matched to search terms when a buyer searches

(2) Whether the presence of item specifics helps search placement (or conversely, whether the lack of them hurts placement). 

eBay has consistently indicated that all things equal, having items specifics filled in on a listing will improve your Best Match score over not having filled them in. 

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I'll throw in a third consideration.....Mobile users, they see the IS on the Item landing page, they often need to click through to see a full decription.

I'm pretty confident that adding Item Specifics can only help and not including them can only "not help" be it in related to Best Match ranking, being found in Search or presenting buyers with easy to find and read key information.

It seems for sure IS may be used by eBay for "related items" search results when the original search returns few if any results. It's possible they may also use them for the related items from other sellers sections that appear on listing pages and sidebars and in marketing emails.

[castlemagicmemories]

Supposedly item specifics do help in search.

[shipscript · Accepted solution]

I've been to a number of meetings where eBay staff has discussed the increasing importance of item specifics.  Here are some take-aways:

eBay is tending to become more inventory-centric — that means it wants to identify items by standard quantifiable inventory terms that are easier to catalog, rather than relying on a single title or wordy item descriptions.

1) New items should use UPC codes in order to correctly autofill the item specifics. That is why UPCs are now mandatory.

2) eBay is developing its own "catalog" of items and encourages sellers to list against the catalog whenever possible. A catalog item is defined by either UPC or item specifics.

3) When a seller has an older product, eBay encourages sellers to use as many item specifics as necessary to describe the product. When another similar product is listed with similar item specifics, a virtual catalog item will be created based on those item specifics.

4) As more unknown items add more item specifics, similar items become "known" by those item specifics, and a virtual catalog item can be created or can be cut away from less similar items.

5) When a google keyword search queries eBay, eBay will match those keywords against its own catalog of real or virtual items (matching against item specifics) and will return those search results that match item specifics. This is particularly important exposure for items that have no persistence, like auctions or short term BINs. 

6) Item Specifics that become well defined in a particular product group will tend to appear in the left column of search for fine-tuning the search.

In short, Item Specifics are extremely important if you do not have a UPC or if the UPC covers multiple attributes of a single item (like different versions).

[ted_200]

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wrote:

Just to throw an additional question in .......what about item specifics you add to the programmed ones?

It's fairly easy to check, leave something out of title and put in Item specifics, and search...... I did it long ago and the item specific term did put the item in search results.....  the IS I added did not.  Could have changed........

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That was my conclusion as well, although like you it was not recent.  At that time eBay was insisting all Item Specifics were search-able, which clearly was not true.  Subsequent tests I conducted showed sometimes (some days) none of the I.S. were search-able (in my category at least).  They change things all the time, and don't tell users what they're doing. 

You are mixing up two very different things. 

(1) Whether items specifics are matched to search terms when a buyer searches

(2) Whether the presence of item specifics helps search placement (or conversely, whether the lack of them hurts placement). 

eBay has consistently indicated that all things equal, having items specifics filled in on a listing will improve your Best Match score over not having filled them in. 

Unrelated to either of these, but also important... Item Specifics are sometimes used as the basis for search refinement.  If the buyer searches "it" and then refines for Color: Red, your listing will be dropped if you did not fill in the "Color: Red" I.S. - even if you put "red" in the title. 

[ted_200]

1) New items should use UPC codes in order to correctly autofill the item specifics. That is why UPCs are now mandatory.

Regarding the UPCs, items listed with the Product Catalog will have some Item Specifics automatially attached to them already - it may not be necessary for the seller to even add them. 

Your entire post is a nice summary of the thinking behind what they're trying to do.  If they stuck to UPC items, it might be better, the whole Product Catalog / pre-filled Item Specifics concept is not working so well with older collectibles, used items, and such.