eBay UK - Business Centre - Improve your sales - Increase traffic to your listings

Changes to Search Results

What is it?

The aim of the new search is to return a more complete set of results to buyers, so that they find what they want more quickly. This will result in more purchases, and therefore more sales for sellers. There are also some additional features to help buyers with their searches.

Why are we doing it?

The way the system currently works means that buyers can either miss out on your relevant listings in their search results or are seeing too many irrelevant results which slow them getting to your listings.

How does it work?

By using more information from your listing than just the title. The information used now includes:

Keywords in listing titles
Category
Item specifics

Benefits

Your items will appear more often in search results
Buyers will find it easier to locate your items, since we match all the information from the criteria above more accurately to the buyer's search

What to do

Ensure your item is as accurately described as possible. It is more important than ever to list in the appropriate category, use a detailed title, and fill in item specifics.

Best Match

What is it?

The aim of Best Match is to present the most relevant items to buyers first, which we calculate based on what buyers have bought when they have searched for similar items in the past. Best Match doesn't change the actual items returned in a search, but orders them.

Why are we doing it?

The end time of the listing (referred to as 'time ending soonest') is not always the most useful way of sorting search results. For example a buyer who is looking for an immediate replacement part for their vehicle is not interested in when the listing ends, but which part fits his or her car.

How does it work?

We look at what searches buyers have made in the past, and what they have gone on to buy. We then analyse the different parts of those successful listings, including:
1. Keywords in listing titles
2. Price
3. Listing format
4. Appropriateness of category listing
5. End time of listing
The way we use these criteria is different by category, since buyer behaviour varies by category.

Benefits

By presenting the most relevant items first, it becomes easier for buyers to find what they're looking for.
You appear higher up in search results when your item is more relevant to buyers

What to do

Experiment with variations of listings e.g. time of day, keywords in your title, and format. Also ensure your item is as accurately described as possible, for example by filling in all item specifics.

Rewarding Good Service with Visibility

What is it?

We actively return good quality listings to buyers by demoting the listings of sellers with excessively low 30-day Detailed Seller Ratings.

Why are we doing it?

Good service from sellers mean more buyers come back to eBay more often. Similarly when buyers purchase items from sellers who offer poor service as measured by their DSRs, they spend less on eBay.

How does it work?

Listings of sellers whose 30-day DSRs fall below the minimum threshold are demoted to the end of search results.

Benefits

If you are a seller with good DSRs, your items will continue to be prominent in search results.

What to do

Continue to monitor your 30-days DSRs using the seller dashboard, and improve your service by following the advice in our guide to improving your DSRs

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