Feb
21
Update: Download the FREE eBook Best Match Made Simple
A reader of AuctionInsights (Thanks Mario!) wrote to tell me that eBay Research Labs has a public web page where you can optimize your eBay listing title for the Best Match search algorithm.
The address is: http://labs.ebay.com/raghavgupta/demoto/to
This is a directory under the home page of Raghav Gupta, the creator of the Best Match algorithm.
Here’s how it works…
After the page loads, you will be presented with a form in which you can enter the your proposed auction listing title. In the screen shot below, I’ve entered “Box of Star Wars Comics.”
Once you click “Submit Query” you are presented with a much more complicated screen. The next step you want to take is inspect the “Chosen Search Query” box to ensure that what the utility has suggested as a search term is what you want to evaluate your title against.
In this particular case, the BayEstimator is suggesting that “Box” is my search term. I want to evaluate my title against what I think visitors to eBay’s site are going to type into the search field at the top of each eBay page. For this particular item, I think “Star Wars Comics” is a more appropriate search query.
Within the table labeled “Searches Matching Your Item” on the bottom left hand side of the screen, the BayEstimator suggests several other queries that might be appropriate to evaluate my auction title against. I will click “Comics Star Wars” because it’s the closest to my chosen search query.
I can see that my proposed title, “Box of Star Wars Comics” is worth 20% for the search term “Comics Star Wars.”
My task now is to improve that score in order to improve my Best Match rankings in the search results. Fortunately, the BayEstimator provides a table of terms that rank well for the Best Match algorithm.
I can see that including the words “lot,” “Marvel,” and “books” should have an immediate and positive impact on my Best Match score.
I change my proposed auction title to “Lot of Marvel Star Wars Comic Books,” click submit and note that my Best Match score has increased to 50%!
The BayEstimator tells me that I still have 20 characters left, so I go back to the Keyword Suggestion Table and look for more words that will be appropriate for my title and increase my score.
Changing my title one more time to “Lot of 15 Marvel Star Wars Comic Books Original Edition” uses up all of my available title characters and increases my score to 60%.
I could play around with this some more, in order to increase my score further - but I think you’ve got the idea.
The tool also gives you an idea of the item’s popularity and its availability which factor into the score. Remember that in Best Match, if something’s in demand, yet hard to find, the Best Match score goes up significantly.
The page has a disclaimer that states, “Excessive hits against this courtesy experimental tool will cause it to automatically go down for an indeterminate amount of time.” So once word gets out, this tool might be unavailable when you visit it.
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