Selling: items not showing up in customer searches? Store vs auction vs fixed price and algorithm?

[kaos99]

I'm having problems with the search field not showing results when looking for specific items.  

If I copy and paste an item title, and remove most of the words, ebay's algorithm (?) culls the search results down to a bunch of items and I usually can't find the item from which I copied the title. If I add more words, which should thin the results, I get more (DOH!).  But I still don't get the original item that I copied  the title from.  Why are items not being shown in results?  (And please know I thin results myself by country, used or new etc. so there is some restrictions on the results).

I'm interested in listing a bunch of items but if it's hard to find them, I can expect to lose a percentage of my profit.  I'm only going to sell for a couple of months but seriously, this could add up.

Has anyone checked their listings in the search field?

Does anyone understand how the algorithm works so my items will show up in search results?  How does it differ if it is an auction vs fixed price and is there a difference if you pay for an ebay store?

I've noticed a lot of other issues with ebay's software but mostly, these are annoying (my saved searches (emailed results every day) showing some old items (recently) and actual searches saying "0 results" but I can see results right below with the exact right words.  

Thank you!

[luckythewinner]

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@kaos99 wrote:

I'm having problems with the search field not showing results when looking for specific items.  

If I copy and paste an item title, and remove most of the words, ebay's algorithm (?) culls the search results down to a bunch of items and I usually can't find the item from which I copied the title. If I add more words, which should thin the results, I get more (DOH!).  But I still don't get the original item that I copied  the title from.  Why are items not being shown in results?  (And please know I thin results myself by country, used or new etc. so there is some restrictions on the results).

I'm interested in listing a bunch of items but if it's hard to find them, I can expect to lose a percentage of my profit.  I'm only going to sell for a couple of months but seriously, this could add up.

Has anyone checked their listings in the search field?

Does anyone understand how the algorithm works so my items will show up in search results?  How does it differ if it is an auction vs fixed price and is there a difference if you pay for an ebay store?

I've noticed a lot of other issues with ebay's software but mostly, these are annoying (my saved searches (emailed results every day) showing some old items (recently) and actual searches saying "0 results" but I can see results right below with the exact right words.  

Thank you!

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You would have to give us an example. 

When you do searches, pay attention to the category filter on the search. 

For some keywords, will automatically switch the search results from "All Categories" to a specific category. 

[eburtonlab · Accepted solution]

eBay may be steering the search with fewer words into one particular category, resulting in fewer results. That might also cause your item not to appear if it is not located in the category those keywords point to.

If you could provide an example of your search someone may be able to make some practical suggestions.

Sellers should try searching using the general keywords that they expect their potential buyers might use to see what categories those searches wind up in.

[kaos99]

I tried to recreate the situation over the last week or so and couldn't so apparently, either ebay fixed a situation or I was negligent in my categories!  Either way, it looks like this is moot.

Thank you for the replies and great advice!

[eburtonlab]

You are welcome -- glad to hear the search is working better now. It is certainly possible that eBay changed something regarding which keywords point to which categories.