Store search engine keywords prefilled & blocking sales

[etrusca]

I may be the last store owner to discover this but I was horrified today to find that

in my " Manage My Store" > Search Engine Keywords

were all prefilled by Ebay with 6 listing titles repeated across 20 categories

 not germaine to most categories at all & probably blocking sales

These are set as default & the reset button wont remove them. I can manually clear but they still show as

the default

They are current listings & this could have populated anytime in the last month as some were just relisted

Honestly I never looked at this before so I dont know what it looked like before - have had my store for a number

of years

When I called Ebay to ask for help & report this I discovered 

1. There is no dedicated dept for Store owners

2. There is no effective guide about this either on the store page or under policies

3. Customer service knew little about this function

4 Had to get a supervisor who in fact has to email the tech dept for help

   She knew little about it also and thought that it should be blank and that I start from scratch

and didn't think this was deliberate on Ebay's part, despite our rereading the descriptive paragraph over

& over again in English

5 Now I have to wait for 24-48 hours for her to get an answer back from the tech department with no

guarantee of being called, being fixed or improved sales. I told her I dont want to have to keep doing

damage control for Ebay - Ebay should clear those out and the system should prefill some from the active listings within those catagories. Yet again some poor web/ code design by someone getting paid more than I make on Ebay...

Then I went back into the community boards and found an old thread from last May 2015 where one of the members

showed the exact same repeated pre-fill by Ebay on her page

WHY WOULD EBAY PREFILL MISLEADING INFO that goes directly against the goal of the search engine keywords

listing inappropriate words in certain categories that infact would redirected buyers AWAY from my site

I AM HOPPING MAD. If the RSS Feed option is gone then this tool is really important. It might explain why sales are

random and few. I continue to be shocked by Ebay's lack of continuity and Integrity for that matter

When we are asked to add item specifics (which would mirror search engine keywords duh) and then to do this to Sellers

and shoot both of us in the foot it's ridiculous - its called Sabotaging sales...

I had just switched back earlier in the week to the original listing tool which I didnt even know you could do. I had been laboring with new tool's serious shortcomings when I suddenly realized the watermark had vanished (& not planning to include in future) which was as big as an ant anyway, far less than 5% cap on site size seems reduced, more like 2% which could easily be trimmed from a photo if someone wanted to steal on vintage photos.

I would like to know if other store owners have the same default problem or if its just a select few

I am SO frustrated at Ebay's lack of management of their site & poor communication I am biting my tongue from what I really want to say.  Normally I am a very positive person but this really is unacceptable. 

[akoz3857]

Great observation, thanks!  My opinion for low sales is greater emphasis on selling foreign items here in America.

[rockz1101]

[  by etrusca 

I may be the last store owner to discover this but I was horrified today to find that

in my " Manage My Store" > Search Engine Keywords

were all prefilled by Ebay with 6 listing titles repeated across 20 categories

 not germaine to most categories at all & probably blocking sales

These are set as default & the reset button wont remove them. I can manually clear but they still show as the default.

 They are current listings & this could have populated anytime in the last month as some were just relisted. Honestly I never looked at this before so I dont know what it looked like before - have had my store for a number of years....]

While I've read comments back from 2015 on this topic, the above post excerpt from 2016, is the most recent and speaks to my concerns.

As of Oct. 13, 2017,  eBay is still populating store category's secondary keywords, with other different listing's titles. 

I've explored discussion boards attempting to find as much information as possible as to why eBay supports/allows this "default"? mechanism to continue. 

I enlist all of eBay's recommendations to use for best match searches for listings,

except I don't understand why eBay continues to auto default other category's listings titles, as keywords. 

My questions:

1. Why are titles of other non related listings prefilled (by eBay?) into the secondary keyword blanks?

2. When leaving secondary keyword boxes blank, hitting save, eBay auto fills the blank ones, again, with the non related listing titles, why?  

3.  Is it appropriate to claim the listing's keyword feature is STILL broken? or is it not broken? 

4.  Is this keyword managment critical? some say yes some say no. 

Rather confusing and seems the store category keyword management section is not a helpful feature, as it is, and should be fixed or removed. 

Appreciate suggestions! Thanks

[rockz1101]

I may be the last store owner to discover this but I was horrified today to find that

in my " Manage My Store" > Search Engine Keywords

were all prefilled by Ebay with 6 listing titles repeated across 20 categories

 not germaine to most categories at all & probably blocking sales

These are set as default & the reset button wont remove them. I can manually clear but they still show as the default.

 They are current listings & this could have populated anytime in the last month as some were just relisted. Honestly I never looked at this before so I dont know what it looked like before - have had my store for a number of years....]

While I've read comments back from 2015 on this topic, the above post excerpt from 2016, is the most recent and speaks to my concerns.

As of Oct. 13, 2017,  eBay is still populating store category's secondary keywords, with other different listing's titles. 

I've explored discussion boards attempting to find as much information as possible as to why eBay supports/allows this "default"? mechanism to continue. 

I enlist all of eBay's recommendations to use for best match searches for listings,

except I don't understand why eBay continues to auto default other category's listings titles, as keywords. 

My questions:

1. Why are titles of other non related listings prefilled (by eBay?) into the secondary keyword blanks?

2. When leaving secondary keyword boxes blank, hitting save, eBay auto fills the blank ones, again, with the non related listing titles, why?  

3.  Is it appropriate to claim the listing's keyword feature is STILL broken? or is it not broken? 

4.  Is this keyword managment critical? some say yes some say no. 

Rather confusing and seems the store category keyword management section is not a helpful feature, as it is, and should be fixed or removed. 

Appreciate suggestions! Thanks