While working on the second edition to my free eBook, Best Match Made Simple (available now BTW), I noticed that the data returned by eBay’s BayEstimator for one of my examples (query: Star Wars Comics) was exactly the same as an image I pulled almost a year ago for a post explaining how to use the tool.
Exactly the same? Uh oh… That could mean one of two things. Things haven’t changed much in the Star Wars comics niche on eBay (entirely plausible) or eBay has stopped feeding data to the tool.
This second scenario is not good news for eBay sellers – especially those who sell items that have recently become popular. Using the BayEstimator to identify title keywords that score well is (was?) the quickest and easiest route to improving your listings rankings in eBay’s Best Match search results. If the BayEstimator tool is no longer using current data, it may provide suggestions that are no longer relevant to the actual Best Match algorithm that is in production on the site.
Or, in the case of listings that were not popular prior to whatever point eBay cut off the data feed to the tool, the BayEstimator may not provide any suggestions at all.
A quick test for the term “Palin” strongly indicates that the data in the BayEstimator is old – real old. The tool does not even recognize the search string “Sarah Palin.” Most of the suggested keywords are associated with Micheal Palin, the British actor from Monty Python. Based on a search conducted on eBay using the query “Palin,” I would expect the BayEstimator to suggest words like “campaign,” “McCain,” “glasses,” “bobblehead,” and “button.”
What does this mean to you?
If you’re selling something that became trendy only recently, the BayEstimator is not going to be particularly useful to you. If you are selling something for which there was an established niche some time ago (spring 2008 or earlier by my best guess), the BayEstimator is still useful, but there may be keywords that have recently come into prominence that the tool might be omitting due to the old data feeding it. Conversely, the tool might be suggesting a keyword that has fallen out of favor on the live version of Best Match which might hurt your listing’s rankings if you include it in your tile.
Before you blindly accept the suggested keywords, it’s important that you do a little old-fashioned sleuthing. Type in a couple of search queries that you think your potential customers would use to find the product you intend to list. Look at the titles that are listed at the top of the search results on page one. (Ignore the featured listings – they pay to be at the top. Look at the items below the phrase “Optimize your selling success! Find out how to promote your items” injected at the bottom of the featured area.)
Pick out the adjectives that are common amongst the high ranking listings – especially in the auction style listings that aren’t closing for a while relative to the others on that same page. If they pertain to your listing, try including those keywords in your listing’s title.
The BayEstimator is still a good tool, but it no longer is as relevant as it used to be. A little investigation and experimentation on your own might lead you to discover keywords that sellers who rely solely on the BayEstimator might miss. This lead to higher rankings in the Best Match search results and a competitive advantage for you.
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