Mastering the Cassani Search Engine

[lethalbacon]

I think we all know that the eBay search engine sucks. Really badly. I've watched sales drop on big account by almost 60% since April, with no good reason. It used to be that I was consistently in the first two or three search results on best match. Now I'm lucky if I show up at all. I do all the right research on keywords, pricing, etc. Hell, I can type in my exact listing title and still not see my own listings.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions to improve search rankings? I don't get it. This account is 10+ years old, with well over 1000 feedback at 100% positive. Top rated powerseller. Most listings are for free shipping, with free returns and one day handling. Seems like shoving me into the very bottom of the search isn't how it's supposed to work.

[Sunspot144]

What's your traffic like? CTR? Maybe you items aren't in high demand. Maybe it's the summer slump before the fall liftoff. Do you link to to your other items if they are related? Are they GTC listings with valuable sales history? If no, toss them in the trash and start anew for the new listing bump. Use promoted listings. Use variation listings with a garbage 0.99 related item no one will buy. Be lowest price. Offer guaranteed delivery.

[casper555]

Originally Posted by lethalbacon

I think we all know that the eBay search engine sucks. Really badly. I've watched sales drop on big account by almost 60% since April, with no good reason. It used to be that I was consistently in the first two or three search results on best match. Now I'm lucky if I show up at all. I do all the right research on keywords, pricing, etc. Hell, I can type in my exact listing title and still not see my own listings.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions to improve search rankings? I don't get it. This account is 10+ years old, with well over 1000 feedback at 100% positive. Top rated powerseller. Most listings are for free shipping, with free returns and one day handling. Seems like shoving me into the very bottom of the search isn't how it's supposed to work.

If you find such tip please share

[yankee]

list an item on a new account and see if it shows. Maybe ebay decided that your account currently is a dud and has a strong throttle.

[yankee]

also you said it was 10 years old. Ebay most likely is throttling your account, especially if you are only using GTC listings.

[saintrocco]

One day I can have a few sales from one item and in 3 days I can sell about 15+, I don't change anything at all. Ebay updating their search engine as I understood

[13obby]

I’ve had sales drop dramatically on various accounts not sure what’s going on and yes Ebay have updated their search engine in April this may be the cause or it may just be slow.

[Sunspot144]

Originally Posted by saintrocco

One day I can have a few sales from one item and in 3 days I can sell about 15+, I don't change anything at all. Ebay updating their search engine as I understood

Purely chance.

It's like putting 10 mice in a maze and expecting at least half to take the first route on the right each time. There's no freaking way to know why the mouse takes one route vs the other. And you can't blame marketing or the cheese, because the listing and the maze are the same every day.

You might see some observable patterns like 'at least 3 mice went right every time' (or you get at least 3 sales every day), but we're applying deterministic criteria to probabilistic here.

Is your traffic roughly the same compared to the days pre and prior? eBay really takes the time to fudge your traffic numbers for the day on limited accounts?

Course we all want to sell 30+ items a day, every day, but it's just finger pointing when things don't go how we want them.

[walkingupwards]

There is no mystery at all here. eBay search engine is as retarded as it gets. However, I see big sellers who move weight having the supremacy of search results. I watch a seller who has +1 million in feedbacks colonising the top positions even though his listings don't sell worse than other small sellers in that category, if eBay is to deploy login, the listings from small sellers have proven more favorable to customers over time and they should be placed first, but no way eBay is allowing that to happen.


There is still a good side to this though. eBay shifts the ranking of listings dramatically from time to time and thus give new sellers the opportunities they're looking for.

[Atom]

Originally Posted by yankee

also you said it was 10 years old. Ebay most likely is throttling your account, especially if you are only using GTC listings.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this, I am suffering too but never knew only using GTC will harm your account?

[Atom]

Would any of you think the level of shop you have in eBay help with sales? Like if you have two exactly the same listing, same seller performance etc etc... The anchor shop will sell more or at least have a better standing in best match than a feature or basic shop? Because I feel this is the case, I'm even thinking the level of shop you have is more important than your seller performance and everything else but I asked eBay, they say no.....
I have a competitor whos listings got removed for personal reasons then put back on after a few days and BOOM it is at the top few places of best match already without using lowering price tactics....It really frustrates me....

[lethalbacon]

I completely forgot that I posted this.

Sales are back up a little bit, not anything great. Most of my listings are on the 30 day clock and have the prices dropped with the sell similar feature when they don't sell. I've noticed that sales are better when I'm listing constantly, rather than once a week like I usually do. For other people's information based on the questions here, I have a basic store. Traffic dropped by almost 40 percent almost overnight and has been in a downtrend.

Only thing I can think of is that my return rate is around 4 percent. Selling used car parts is tough, most people know little to nothing about what they're buying and seem to be illiterate. I recently shipped a Cadillac motor to California, the buyer tried returning it as not described because it doesn't fit their Nissan. I've been told numerous times by eBay staff that this doesn't affect my search placement, but I don't believe it. It sucks, because they determined that my return rate is high by comparing me to other sellers in the eBay Motors category, but that includes new parts as well. I'd be willing to bet that the return rate for a set of Chinese headlights is much lower than used parts, especially given how many bogus returns I have. But nothing I can do about that.

Right now I'm just looking into other venues to support my eBay sales. I'd love to eventually move away from eBay entirely, as the support for sellers just isn't there.