Best Match: New Ways DSR’s Can Affect Your Search Rankings

Even though you maintain a 4.8 or better average DSR rating, Best Match will disadvantage your listings in the search results if you have too many individual DSR ratings of 1 or 2 in the past 30 days.

Randy Smythe blogged about the experience one of his readers had recently with eBay’s Best Match. This power seller maintains a 98% positive feedback rating and has a 4.8’s or higher in all of the average Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR’s). Therefore, according to the published information on Best Match, the seller qualifies for higher rankings in the eBay search results under the Best Match algorithm.

However, the seller noticed a 30% decrease in sales an contacted their TSAM (Top Seller Account Management team). This is what was related to the seller:

They called their TSAM and were told that they had a few buyers give them 1 or 2s on their DSRs so eBay lowered their items in the search. She said there were 14 ratings showing 1s or 2s for the past 30 days. Well, as you can imagine, the seller was a little miffed since their DSRs were at the required level for search advantage.

Here’s what we can conclude from this:

Listings will be disadvantaged in eBay’s search results under the Best Match if the seller has received a certain number (or percentage) of low scoring DSRs (1’s or 2’s) in the past 30 days.
This factor is weighted higher than the positive effects of maintaining a high average DSR score (4.8) in the algorithm.

This new insight will be included in the next version of my free download Best Match Made Simple.

eBay Live Best Match Round Up

Free eBook: Best Match Made Simple

Is Best Match Working for the Silent Majority?

eBay Disables Best Match Search Due to Keyword Spamming

Best Match Changes for Fixed Priced eBay Listings