eBay’s Best Match Made Simple
Filed Under Best Match, How-To's
Update: Download the FREE eBook Best Match Made Simple
In our last post, we introduced eBay’s Best Match algorithm. I have to admit it was a rather detailed and complex summary of the technical aspects of the new method in which eBay sorts it search results. It left many requesting a less technical explanation of the process.
The Best Match algorithm considers many things when calculating the sort order in the search results. Some things are beyond the seller’s control. Other factors, the seller can influence – and exert significant influence at that. These include shipping prices & methods, and keywords included in the listing’s title.
This post will focus on the aspects that sellers can control.
Score The Most Points
Think of your listing as a competitor in a sporting league. The team with the most points rises to the top of the league standings. In Best Match, the listings with the most points rise to the top of the search results for a particular query.
Your objective is to score the most points without cheating.
Points are awarded or deducted for various aspects of the listing:
- Your listing accrues points automatically as it gets closer to the time the auction ends.
- Your listing loses points if you have a 3.9 or lower rating for “Shipping & Handing Charges” in your Detailed Seller Ratings.
- Your listing gains or loses points depending on your shipping methods and shipping and handing fees
- Your listing gains points if you can identify and include certain keywords in your title.
Shipping Prices & Methods
Quoted in the New York Times Technology Blog, John Donahoe, who will be replacing Meg Whitman as eBay’s CEO, made it clear that shipping and handling fees and shipping methods influence a listing’s ranking in the Best Match search results. He said:
“Sellers that provide reasonable and fast shipping, even free shipping, will rise to the top.”
Therefore, in order to score all of your points for shipping and handling, you must:
- Identify a shipping cost in the eBay “Sell Your Item” (SYI) form when listing your item (vice choosing “See item description”).
- Charge reasonable shipping and handling fees. I cannot indentify how eBay defines a “reasonable” shipping fee, however I would suggest that you use the average charge for that product catagory as your guide.
- Consider offering free shipping. Include the shipping and handling price into the opening bid or BIN (Buy It Now) price. In the quote above, John Donahoe hints that free shipping might score extra Best Match points.
- Offer expedited shipping methods such as Priority Mail or overnight methods (again – see the quote above). Ensure these methods are identified in the SYI form (so that eBay knows you’re doing it and give you credit for it).
Include Best Match Keywords
One of the main ways you can score Best Match points for your listing is to identify and include keywords in your auction title. For any particular search query, there are keywords that are worth more than others. A search query is simply the text that a vistor to eBay types into the search box. In the example below, the search query is “Star Wars Comic.”
eBay Search Query: “Star Wars Comic”
Often, the keywords that are worth points to your listing’s Best Match score are pretty easy to identify. For the query “Star Wars Comic,” I’ve pegged the following words and phrases and being worth extra Best Match points:
- Marvel (identifies the publisher of the original Star Wars comic series)
- Dark Horse (identifies the publisher of the most recent Star Wars comic series)
- Lot (signifies more than one comic for sale)
- nm (near mint condition)
- 1 (often identifies the first issue in the series)
- Jedi (identifies a popular mini-series)
- 1977 (identifies the year the original series was first published)
- etc…
eBay tracks the words in the particular titles of auctions that: (1) get clicked, (2) get added to watch lists, (3) get bids, and (4) ultimately get sold. For the search query “Star Wars Auction,” eBay has determined that these words appear more often in the titles of listings that get that desired bidder activity (click, add, bid, buy) that those that don’t.
Identify the Valuable Keywords
Of course eBay has their algorithm and databases to track those keywords. They don’t provide the public access to them, so how is a user to identify them?
I used my eyeballs and a little bit of judgment. In the examples below, I show a screenshot from the first page of the Best Match search results for the query “Star Wars Comic” and the third page of those search results. All of these auctions close at approximately the same time (within about 12 hours), so I have controlled for the time factor (all of these listings should have earned the same amount of points for being close to end of their listing period).
So, the next step is to look for what’s different about them. What words are prevalent among the listing titles that made it to page one, that aren’t so prevalent in the in titles stuck back on page three.
That’s how I identified the keywords that I listed above. You can see the important keywords circled in the screen shots below. The difference in the number of words circled is between the two pages is quite stunning. In fact, you’ll notice that the listings on page three that do happen to have the high-point value keywords are actually auctions that close much later in time than the majority of the listings on that page. These are the high-scoring auctions that close later and have moved sufficiently ahead in the ranking algorithm (Best Match score) as to appear amongst the listings that close much sooner.
Above: eBay Best Match Search Results Page 1
(Query: “Star Wars Comic”)
Above: eBay Best Match Search Results Page 3
(Query: “Star Wars Comic”)
The screen shots above provide a very graphic depiction of the value of identifying and using the keywords that give you additional Best Match points.
Analyze Your Niche
I’ve used Star Wars Comics because it’s a niche with which I’m familiar. I’d have a harder time identifying the important keywords in your niche, because I’m less familiar with the adjectives that make items in that niche significant to potential buyers. But, most of the things I identified above are adjectives, so that’s a clue to start your analysis for your niche.
Conduct Your Analysis:
- Use a search query that you think your bidders would use. If the search results return more than a couple thousand of auction listings, narrow the search query some (example: “New York postcards” vice just “postcards”). Too many listings will make your analysis overwhelming.
- Look at the first page, then click back a few pages to see the auctions that close at approximately the same time as those on the first page.
- Look at the adjectives in titles of the first page of the search results. Compare those to auctions that close at about the same time but appear later in the search results.
- The adjectives (or other keywords) that are more prevalent in the first page of the search results are the ones that are worth more points. If they apply to your listing, include them in your auction title.
Some things to consider:
- There’s a difference between optimization and manipulation. You optimize when you find and use the keywords that apply to your auction listing. You manipulate when you use keywords in your title that don’t pertain to the auction you are listing. You can expect that eBay is already anticipating some less than ethical sellers are going to manipulate their rankings in the search results. You can anticipate that they are working on perfecting automated methods to identify this manipulation and squash it when they find it. You can also anticipate that other sellers will be quick to turn in competitors that are actively manipulating Best Match search results. You can expect some sort of punishment for manipulation - such as cancelled listings, negative points awarded to your your Best Match score, and termination of your user account. Optimize – don’t manipulate.
- You have 55 characters to use in the listing title. Each word you include can potentially score points towards your Best Match ranking. Don’t waste precious space in your listing title and don’t short yourself by not using the titles to their fullest. There are several rather short titles languishing on the screen shot above of the third page of the search results.
Final Thoughts on eBay’s Best Match
Most sellers haven’t even realized that the eBay search results are changing.
Of those that do, most don’t really the significance of the change.
Most of those who understand the significance of Best Match are too busy lamenting the change and hoping that it won’t be permanent.
The rest of us see this as an opportunity. If we can react faster than our competitors, Best Match could be the Best Thing that happened to us in a long time.
Where do you fit in? Hopefully, I’ve given you enough information to conclude that this is an opportunity.
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10 Responses to “eBay’s Best Match Made Simple”
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You missed the importance of real location zip code.
Also there are -Negative keywords. Ebay also had a demo title building tool at labs.ebay.com which was removed earlier in the week. It was pretty cool
It appeared to be plugged into live data from the comparitive searches I did on the platform. It would calculate scores for top searches and even let you pick and pluck keywords by the point to build your 55 character title.
We observed that on a particular title that was about baseball cards “Lot” brought +17 points while “pack” was -30 points.
We did notice that the point score did not change if you re-ordered the words in the title.
Finally, I suggest refering to it as “MRS” Most Relevant Search, as Best Match is for eE and is totally a different algorythm.
I see it as an oppourtunity and the most relevant thing that has has happened in awhile on eBay.
I’d suggest that this book, which seems WAAAY ahead of it’s time now, makes more sense than ever.
Turn Ebay Data Into Dollars
Tools and Techniques to Make More Money on Every Transaction
(Paperback)
by Ina Steiner
ISBN: 0072262362
Do a search for keyword phrase on eBay. Then use a Keyword Density Analyzer to figure what the repeating keywords are. Ideally, its best to analyze only the listing text, but you can still get usable results analyzing the entire page.
Harley,
I heartily concur with your comments. This post was intended to provide a simplistic perspective of the algorithm. Readers who are interested in a more in-depth explaination should read the Decoding eBay’s Best Matchpost. Thanks for your comments.
Great writing Doug!
Here is the part of the patent that caught my eye. Simplisticly “My house USA” and “Ships fast 2u” are not going to work well in the future.
[0050]FIG. 9 is an example result of an output module 206 in the form of search results displayed on an electronic sign board 109. This sign board is an electric sign board that can display messages of various types. A search result 902 illustrates, with a description 903, a “brand new sealed Apple ipod nano black 4 GB MP3 player.” A field 904 describes the location of the seller of the item illustrated in field 903. A field 905 illustrates the number of bids (e.g., 30) on the item illustrated in field 903. In some example embodiments, the time left for an auction, which here is 1 day and 5 hours, is illustrated in field 910. This time left in auction field relates to the item illustrated in field 903. Field 904 shows “Denver, Colorado” as the location. A second location field 906 states “Vail, Colorado” as the location. A description field 907 describes a “brand new sealed ipod nano white 4 GB MP3 player.” A field 908 describes the number of bids, which is 10, whereas, a field 909 describes the time left in the auction, which is 2 days and 1 hour.
[0051]In some example embodiments, the physical location of the electronic sign board 109 may dictate that the desirability weight be weighted heavily in favor of obtaining search results with a seller location close to the physical location of the electronic sign board 109. Put another way, where the desirability weight uses physical location, the location of the seller and the electronic sign board 109 should be known, such that the search results with sellers in close geographical proximity can be retrieved and displayed. This geographical proximity may be determined using the IP address of the electronic sign board 109 compared to the physical address of the seller.
Getting it sooner, should outweigh getting it slightly cheaper making a better match for customer experience. I think I have seen this behaviour on the Amazon buy box. Then again eBay doesn’t really think that way. But I do think that having a valid zipcode in your listings will give an edge over those who don’t.
> “MRS” Most Relevant Search
Calling it Most Relevant Search (MRS) reduces the important of desirability (demand – supply = desirability). I realize Relevancy refers to keyword points, but Desirability is also very important when a category is spammed with products not in demand.
> Simplisticly “My house USA” and “Ships fast
> 2u” are not going to work well in the future.
How do we test if proximity is actually a factor in search? Do we need two different sellers accounts in two different locations to perform the same Best Match search? I tried changing the ship to Zip Code in the shipping calculator, but that resulted in the same ranking positions using Best Match.
Great article! Any tips at this point on how to improve your Best Match score are very useful.
However, I can see at least one potential gotcha in analyzing the order of actual listings as a clue to what keywords to use. There’s an eBay glitch that sometimes changes where core listings that have been revised appear in time-based searches. It happens to my listings fairly frequently, when I use Blackthorne to swap out a scrolling gallery in my listings or make other changes.
When the glitch is doing its thing, listings are given the revision date and time as a new start date, although the end date remains the same. They get the new listing symbol, and appear at the top of Newly Listed searches.
This is great exposure for your items when a buyer is searching under Newly Listed. But on Best Match, I can see it may be a problem since Best Match gives added weight to items ending soon. If the changed start date pushes my items down in Best Match, I’ll have to rethink revising my core listings while they’re running.
And, again, it can skew the analysis of what keywords to use for Best Match. If you see that some listings are displaying below other listings with the same end date, it may just mean that they were revised at some point.
Pat
Pat,
Good point about the glitch. However, I think the time portion of Best Match algorithm score is calculated using time remaining. So I don’t think this glitch will affect your rankings. I’d be interested in seeing if my opinion is correct or not.
Doug
What is the matter with these people?
When I enter that I want to see badges (plural–I will only buy a bunch of them in a lot) it brings me to 400 listings that use the word singularly.
I have to enter badges -badge to even see what I am searching for.
And when I say Edsel tail light, it shows me Toyota tail lights, and Chevrolet tail lights, and Edsel carpet.
Hello, you big, dumb adding machine, I am not so stupid that I think a Toyota and an Edsel share parts. And if I want to see tail lights, I will NOT be buying carpet.
Because it is done by computer, the “best match” is usually the worst match.
But what do I care?
Come May 20 2008, I will be gone.
They can only insult my intelligence, and offend me for so long. After that, I don’t take it any more.
Their brave new big box retail plan won’t have any matches for me, so why should I even bother to look at it after their plan goes into full effect?
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VERY GOOD!!
I used your advices and moved all my items form 3rd to top of first page!! THANK YOU!!