Ebay Search Engine

[gal220joy]

The ebay search engine just doesn't seem to be acting right. Just a couple of examples...listed a King Trombonium instrument. Searched "King trombonium", and my instrument came up in search results. Searched just "trombonium", and my instrument did NOT show up even though I have that word in the title. I also tried searching another phrase to find a knife set I have for sale. Searched a phrase directly from my title (a phrase that I would think would be a commonly searched phrase), and knife set did NOT show up. Searched a different phrase from my title (one that possibly wouldn't be searched as much), and my knife set popped up in results.

Any ideas on this? It just seems like this would make it harder for people to see my listings. If it were me, I would probably in some cases just figure what I was looking for was not on ebay and not get creative in how I search.

Thanks!

[eburtonlab]

@gal220joy 

eBay often steers searches into a particular category based on the keywords used in a search.

A general search for trombonium is steered into the following category:

Musical Instruments & Gear > Brass > Trombones

That is the category where the users searching that keyword will see results. They will not see results in other categories unless they take further steps to modify their search by adding additional keywords or changing the category.

Your item, on the other hand, is listed in the following category:

Musical Instruments & Gear > Vintage Musical Instruments > Vintage Brass > Trombones

That may be the most logical category for your item; nonetheless, if you want users to be able to see your listing when searching for trombonium, you need to list in the former category rather than the latter.

If an item that is currently listed does not appear to be showing up in a search using keywords from the item title, often the problem is that the item is listed in a different category than the one that eBay is steering searches into. Sellers should take this into account when deciding which categories to use for their items.

More details about eBay's search can be found in this old help document found on eBay Ireland's site:

https://www.ebay.ie/pages/help/search/expanding.html

[luckythewinner]

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@gal220joy wrote:

The ebay search engine just doesn't seem to be acting right. Just a couple of examples...listed a King Trombonium instrument. Searched "King trombonium", and my instrument came up in search results. Searched just "trombonium", and my instrument did NOT show up even though I have that word in the title.

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When I search king trombonium, eBay switches the category to Musical Instruments & Gear which includes the category that your item is listed in (Musical Instruments & Gear > Vintage Musical Instruments > Vintage Brass > Trombones).

But when I search trombonium, eBay switches the category to Musical Instruments & Gear > Brass > Trombones which does not contain the category that your item is listed in.

So unfortunately, your listing is a victim of eBay's frustrating  dynamic  "category switching".

[dhbookds]

It's the category........

the three that show up are in:

• Musical Instruments & Gear>Brass>Trombones

yours is in:

• Musical Instruments & Gear>Vintage Musical Instruments>Vintage Brass>Trombones

late to the party as usual.......

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@eburtonlab wrote: ... That may be the most logical category for your item; nonetheless, if you want users to be able to see your listing when searching for trombonium, you need to list in the former category rather than the latter....

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This might be one of the rare situations where it's worthwhile to pay the extra basic insertion fee so you can list in two categories.

The final post in this thread includes an eBay staff member's description of the phenomenon that they call "implicit category navigation." Basically eBay thinks that potential buyers are very easily confused.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Weekly-Chat-with-eBay/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Mobile-Team-Oc...

[dhbookds]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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@eburtonlab wrote: ... That may be the most logical category for your item; nonetheless, if you want users to be able to see your listing when searching for trombonium, you need to list in the former category rather than the latter....

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This might be one of the rare situations where it's worthwhile to pay the extra basic insertion fee so you can list in two categories.

The final post in this thread includes an eBay staff member's description of the phenomenon that they call "implicit category navigation." Basically eBay thinks that potential buyers are very easily confused.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Weekly-Chat-with-eBay/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Mobile-Team-Oc...

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That's the ONLY place I've ever seen it discussed and just wonder, if it's now so far under the radar or on autopilot, whether ebay even knows it's still being done.........it's just a disservice (my opinion) to both buyers and sellers........and from what I've seen over the years only occurs in somewhat obscure tiny results.

[eburtonlab]

@nobody*s_perfect 

Basically eBay thinks that potential buyers are very easily confused.

It makes sense then, that this is part of eBay's plan to make sure that such confusion is much more widely distributed.

Needless to say, "Implicit Category Navigation" leads to all sorts of perverse incentives. One example I particularly like to cite: a certain type of doll or figurine, known as a cricut cutie, can only be found if it is listed under a "Die Cut & Embossing Machines" category.

[gal220joy]

Thank you guys so much! Very helpful.

I've just added a second category, and it's showing when searching "trombonium" now.