Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
I know it's Sunday & you won't see this right away. I just wanted to have you take a look & send to the tech team, as this is odd.
My search criteria is
chico's purple red shirts (intentionally plural)
I get 28 results, 27 of which seem at a glance to fit the criteria (I know eBay search equates the plural & singular "shirt"). However, the problem is the #1 result does not meet ANY of my search criteria, neither in title, nor in IS's. It's not Chico's, it's not purple, it's not red & it's not a shirt. It is however Sponsored. It also sticks out like a sore thumb, as not meeting any of the criteria. Why would that result be #1?
@dhbookds wrote:Because they reserve the lst 1 or 2 spots in Best Match search for PL...........been that way since it started.
Sure, but I would expect the item to match at least one of my KW's.
Well, 27 of 28 DO match my KW's. Wouldn't be so bad if #1, was the last result, but not the first one. Also, if you're just going to throw a sponsored listing up there, it s/b one that matches at least some of the KW's & I guarantee you that THOUSANDS of SPONSORED items match Chico's & red (or purple) shirt. Frankly, I use PL's & I probably have items sponsored that match 3 out of 4 of these KW's. Why not choose 1 of those, rather than something that matches ZERO KW's. Show me a red Chico's shirt or a purple Chico's shirt. But not a black no name tank.
You are not searching correctly.
You can either choose the 'category' of "clothing- women" and then input CHICOS in the search. Size and color are off to the left and you then choose that per the item specifics (see attached pictures)
Searches have ALWAYS picked up 'partial' keywords- as they do on all search engines.
Do put in 'purple' or 'red' as it hurts that search as most sellers will not put the 'color' in the title as the picture is obvious what the color is.
Also- a tank top IS A SHIRT.
So, this is NOT abnormal (yes, promoted listings will still be up front, but in this search, there were none) not unusual and the 'search keywords' you are using are too specific and you are going to miss many other sellers shirts.
With all due respect, @stainlessenginecovers I am absolutely searching correctly. I spent 20+ years in Software Development & a decade at third largest software company in the world. I KNOW search & I know how to search. I rarely use categories & I hate drill down searches. I search exactly for what I want b/c I know exactly what I want. Also, eBay search picks up colors from IS's, even when they're not in the title, so it doesn't matter if seller don't have it in the title (at least in CSA, IDK if that's true in other categories). Others IS's, but not all, work similarly. I did extensive testing on that when Cassini first came out.
Also, that tank top does NOT have shirt in the title, so that's what I meant when I said it's not a shirt. It's also, not really a "shirt". In women's clothing, shirts generally refer to button downs.
But more important than ANY of that is that a search engine should not require buyers to search in a certain way. The average buyer has no clue how search works & frankly, as you pointed out, buyers search in different ways. They don't know, shouldn't be expected to know & will never know. It should handle KW searches, Boolean searches, Drill down searches, etc. B/C buyers don't know about any of that!
My search criteria was perfectly valid & although this was a test case, it IS representative of how I search & how I want to search.
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
I believe the top slot these days is reserved for Promoted Listings Advanced. (The pay per click model)
My guess is , a lot fewer sellers are using PLA than PLS. So it actually IS possible that this is the closest ebay's PLA search could come to your search string....because they are ONLY choosing from PLA listings, NOT PLA and PLS listings.
If I am correct, and this is a PLA listing thrown in there because they have nothing better to put there, then it is a clear instance where PLA should leave the #1 spot either to a more relevant PLS listing or , Heaven forbid!, an organic listing.
I think you may be 100% correct. I hadn't thought about PLA vs PLS. I only use PLS. I'll bet that's exactly what's happening & in a nice, tight specific search (which is the ONLY kind I do), the results are really BLATANTLY not what should be there. But I can see how with such a specific search, the criteria may not match any PLS. You get the Gold Star @my-cottage-books-and-antiques
I am looking fwd to seeing what Velvet says, though the last time I had a blatant search problem & posted screen shots, it was gone by the time Tech looked at it.
@chapeau-noir wrote:I replicated your search, @simply-the-best-for-you and that rogue black tank did not come up either on ending first or best match. I took a quick scan over the SERP and they all seemed to match.
Did you click into that oddball item and see if there was anything that might cause it to come up in an unrelated search? Or maybe it just lapsed. I tend to agree with @my-cottage-books-and-antiques though.
Poshmark has been having trouble with this - ever since management changed the algorithm sales have dumped for pretty much everyone due to wonky search returns (far worse than eBay), items in abandoned closets coming up, certain items coming up no matter if they match search terms or not, etc., but none of us so far have been able to pinpoint what is going on, and that includes some incredibly savvy sellers over there. Posh went from my best selling site to nearly the worst.
You KNOW I did Chap LOL. Here's the screenshot & link, since you can't see the IS's in the screenshot, but no, nothing in the IS's that should have made it appear. I used Best Match in this case, though I don't always personally. How weird that you're not seeing it when you do my same search.
