Has Ebay Limited Search Characters in Some Titles?

[teenytrinkets]

I'm not sure if this is just an issue with the App (there's lots of strange issues unique to the App) but I've discovered that SOME of my items are not being found AT ALL in searches if keywords are not in the first 30-35 characters of the title (not including those same keywords also found somewhere in the item details ).

Some may say this is not new, but it's definitely a new issue to me, especially since it's just a handful. I've had to reformat a lot of my listings, and I'm thinking still more to go, in order to put more important search terms near the beginning of the title. I'm wondering if it's in certain categories, or items I listed on a particular day, with the App, etc. A bit of a mystery.

Anyone know if this is a bug, or if in fact the entire title isn't searchable on some listings?

[recped]

Do you have an specific example that shows this happening?

Over the years there has been some speculation that the placement of keywords within the Title affects search results but I've never seen it and nobody ever provides any examples that demonstrate this affect.

I'm not saying it isn't possible but without examples that show it..........well it's just one more unsubstantiated conspiracy theory.

[teenytrinkets]

Only ones I've updated. They stuck out like a sore thumb, with only a handful of views (likely by buyers looking at all my items for sale).

I did notice that when i updated the listings that "product line" was auto-added - not sure if it was limited to that. I'm wondering if certain "Item Specifics" missing somehow disables searches?! That seems to be the most plausible reason for this. I'm still going through my listings to see if I have another example.

[femmefan1946]

The rumour is that the first four words of the title are the important ones.

So, rather than:

New COLOURPOP Animal Crossing Set of 4 Eyeshadow - Hoot, Nook Inc, Star, Labelle

COLOURPOP 4 Eyeshadow new Animal Crossing Hook Nook Inc Star Labelle colorpop

Putting brand, number of items, and product type first.

The idea being that on a phone the first four words are relatively easy to see, although Search may pick up the other words.

I don't know the brand but I added an American spelling for it.

And removed unnecessay punctuation which does not get Searched.

[teenytrinkets]

@recped

184826860226

"Farsali Mini" doesn't return that item. UNLESS I filter by Canada. In the App and on ebay. ca

[kawartha-ephemera]

It is my opinion the search problem you're describing has very little to do with whether key words are at the beginning of titles or not. My own testing has shown the entire title is definitely searchable, there may be less emphasis attached to key words placed at the tail-end of titles but certainly the beginning and middle portions seem to receive equal treatment. The real problem is that search has for the most part become incapable of sorting out 3 or 4 search terms, we pretty much have to use 2 or less, and then hopefully use IS filters to narrow down the list. 

[femmefan1946]

@kawartha-ephemera  

I don't disagree.

Search will find all those items where the Search is applicable.

But on a phone, the list may be showing only the first four words rather than the extended 82 character title.

So putting Brand and product early encourages the customer to investigate further, while less important words like "new animal crossing" may not. 

And of course the old betes noirs  L@@k Vintage WOW etc.

[teenytrinkets]

I definitely think there are bugs in the search where results are being filtered, even without a filter showing. I've been playing around with this for over two hours (uggghhhh) and get inconsistent results.

I've "massaged" some of my listings with different keywords, title keyword positioning, and categories that ebay defaults to for particular brands.

My God - this is ridiculous! If I can't find my own listings, how is a buyer expected to find them!?

[recped]

I searched - farsali mini - on .com using my US user id.

There are 25 results and yours is near the bottom of the list in Best Match.

If I search for only - farsali - there are 222 results and yours is around number 125 in Best Match.

I'm not using any filters on these searches!

[recped]

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@teenytrinkets wrote:
I definitely think there are bugs in the search where results are being filtered, even without a filter showing. I've been playing around with this for over two hours (uggghhhh) and get inconsistent results.

I've "massaged" some of my listings with different keywords, title keyword positioning, and categories that ebay defaults to for particular brands.

My God - this is ridiculous! If I can't find my own listings, how is a buyer expected to find them!?

---

Are you doing these searches using your selling id? If so eBay will often rank these at the very bottom of Best Match or exclude them entirely since it is assumed that you have no interest in seeing or buying your own listings.

[femmefan1946]

It's my opinion, that if we do multiple searches for the same items, we will see different items each time.

Which would be logical, since most Searches are repeated because the first one was unsuccessful.

[ricarmic]

I've always believed that the first 5 words are all that are used. Note that I said believed, I have no hard evidence.

I have noticed however that when I'm creating a new item, the process suggests or even fills in required specifics from the title when the item specific words required are in the title, BUT only if it is in the first few words, if an item specific is exactly in the title but later on it is NOT picked up. This leads some credence to my theory of the first 5 words being very important.

[kawartha-ephemera]

@ricarmic wrote:

I've always believed that the first 5 words are all that are used. Note that I said believed, I have no hard evidence.

I have noticed however that when I'm creating a new item, the process suggests or even fills in required specifics from the title when the item specific words required are in the title, BUT only if it is in the first few words, if an item specific is exactly in the title but later on it is NOT picked up. This leads some credence to my theory of the first 5 words being very important.

---

The eBay system is a strange one. My experience listing in categories outside the world of stamps is somewhat different from what you describe. 

Whenever I start a DOTca listing using a template that already has most or all of the IS pre-filled, the AI ignores everything I enter in the title, it makes no suggestions whatsoever. This is the case even if there are valid IS values included in the title that do not match the pre-filled values, I always have to change those manually.

However, there is one template I regularly use that 9 times out of 10 requires a sub category change to get it listed in the correct category. This particular category has 50 + subs, 1 for each U.S. state. For that reason I have created just 1 template with the sub category set to New York state. When creating a new listing with that template what I usually do is enter the complete title first, after that's been done, I then change the category.  As soon as I select browse, the correct category is "suggested".

For example I might compose someting like ... 

Methodist Church Detroit Michigan Grand Circus Real Photo Postcard Posted 1950 RPPC

Typically the AI will correctly suggest Michigan for sub category, Detroit for city, Real Photo RPPC for type, and Posted for postal condition. Works every time except for some strange reason the new State value is appended below the original value in a drop-down menu which requires me too manually select Michigan instead of New York.  Whether words are positioned first or last it makes no difference to the AI.

The new DOTcom unified listing tool seems to fill IS rather than suggest them, but otherewise it behaves in the same way.