Ebay search results in Google - How to change the Google results description

[med_imaging_phone_267_666_0633]

HI all, 

When I search for one of our E bay listed products on Google, our E bay ad shows up quite high in the results list, which is great.  However, the resulting Google descriptive text provided is not what we want to show the potential customer.  What is shown is a sentence ~ 190 characters into our items description.  This is the case for a few of our products I searched.  This sentence is a product detail that is not helpful/compelling (i.e. is describes the the dimensions of the product) so no one will be compelled to click on the ad.  We want to change what shows up on the Google search result (and I would think E bay wants that as well - more click thrus from Google searches = more E bay sales).  Does anyone know where/how to place text in the E bay ad so it shows up in the Google search result?  I have attached an example.

thanks in advance!

[eburtonlab]

@med_imaging_phone_267_666_0633 

It appears that the google search is highlighting the portion of the item description that contains one of your search terms -- the word "part" appears in your google search terms but not in the title of your item or elsewhere in the item description above your disclaimer.

If you were to put the word "part" earlier in your item description or else reword your disclaimer (or change your google search terms), google will likely highlight a different sentence.

[med_imaging_phone_267_666_0633]

Hi and thanks for the quick response.  I have attached another image without the "part" in the search (only searching the part number) and I get the same results...I appreciate any additional thoughts. ty!

[gracieallen01]

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@med_imaging_phone_267_666_0633 wrote:

Hi and thanks for the quick response.  I have attached another image without the "part" in the search (only searching the part number) and I get the same results...I appreciate any additional thoughts. ty!

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Were you still logged in and had you cleared your cache, if you were, when you did the second search?  Or, does google 'remember' your searches?  If you didn't clear history in your browser, it can still show up.

[eburtonlab]

@gracieallen01 

Or, does google 'remember' your searches?

I thought that might be the case, but when doing that search for the first time, google highlights the same phrase even though I had not done any previous searches for that item.

It appears that google is picking out that particular phrase -- something in google's algorithm apparently thinks that phrase is relevant/important for that part number.

@med_imaging_phone_267_666_0633 

It appears that the google link points to a catalog page rather than your individual listing, so it is not clear how much control you have over what text google uses. I do not see that disclaimer in your current listing.

[gracieallen01]

@eburtonlab 

I agree that the first time, it is google's choice and preference which section to highlight, and being a search term.  I was referring, though I may not have been clear about it, to the second search, without the work 'part' and just the number and getting the same result.

I have gmail and google webmaster and if I don't clear history when I logout, I often got some unexpected results when I go to do some other things on google (I clear history frequently).

[eburtonlab]

@gracieallen01 

I was referring, though I may not have been clear about it, to the second search, without the work 'part' and just the number and getting the same result.

I understood that you were indicating that google might recall the OP's first search when the OP was doing the second search.

I only did one search, however -- for the number alone -- and got the same result as the OP, so clearly google is associating the phrase in the catalog description with the part number.

It appears that the use of the word "part" in the first search was not the determining factor in the phrase appearing in the google search after all.

Google is apparently referencing a cached version of the catalog page from November 25th where the phrase appears.

[gracieallen01]

Ah yes.  Aren't computers, catalogs searches and vested interest just great? 

[gracieallen01]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

I understood that you were indicating that google might recall the OP's first search when the OP was doing the second search.

I only did one search, however -- for the number alone -- and got the same result as the OP, so clearly google is associating the phrase in the catalog description with the part number.

It appears that the use of the word "part" in the first search was not the determining factor in the phrase appearing in the google search after all.

Google is apparently referencing a cached version of the catalog page from November 25th where the phrase appears.

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Interesting.  They crawl my site daily.  Must be the Holidays. 

[eburtonlab]

@gracieallen01 

Aren't computers, catalogs searches and vested interest just great?

They can certainly be frustrating to diagnose when things go wrong, that is for sure.

Then again, I can remember trying to find obscure parts by digging through paper catalogs, classified ads and later, trawling through usenet feeds.

Like the invention of the index when books were a new thing, it is hard to imagine how difficult things were before.

[med_imaging_phone_267_666_0633]

Thanks all, we are going to put a call into ebay support to see what they might be able to add to this. Will let you know if they end up assisting. thanks again!

[vegasclassicparts]

This was a "feature" that ebay added in 2016 to optimize mobile listings, but we found it affects the summaries on desktop also.   You have to add html code to your listings to indicate where your description is.  We added it in early 2017 and have the code in all of our listings.  For some reason, if you don't have the html code in your listings, Ebay's AI actually chooses the description to place in summaries and that gets propagated out to google, bing, etc.  For us, we noticed in google search and ebay summary listings, the AI was always choosing other information like what NOS, NORS, etc means instead of the part information in our descriptions.  Once we added the code to all our listings, the section that described the parts we sell was then always displayed in ebay summaries and google, etc.  The reference for the code is in the ebay link below in the section "How do I create a custom item description?" 

https://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/sprupd16/view-item.html#tab=faqs&faq=faq-vi-q09 

[med_imaging_phone_267_666_0633]

Wow this is great, we will give it a try now...ty so much! Will let you know how it goes.

[vegasclassicparts]

Your welcome - just keep in mind it can take about a month or so for the changes to propagate out to the search engines.