Buyers have been able to filter by IS values for quite a while now - but filtering is not the same as indexing.ĭescription is also used, but not the entire description (which is why you always see 'terms' moved to the end of the listing). Or at least using them withing general Search. Item Specifics are the new kids on the block - eBay's only recently begun using them, from what I gather from what they publish. Product name should be left, brand can generally slide right, unless it it commonly associated with the brand.

And the left-most keyword(s) have the greatest value, with those further to the right having lesser value. Title is the primary index - that's why everyone tells you to fill your titles full of good keywords, regardless of the resulting syntax and grammatical dysfunction. You have three primary source of indexed data: Title, Item Specifics, and Description. If you change nothing that is indexed, then there is no reason to remove/replace, and no benefit will be gained. Re-indexing, or 'refreshing', a listing requires making a change that will force eBay to remove your old index entries and create new ones.

Indexing has been around for decades within IT - all the best databases had it, and the ones that didn't were desperately trying to fill that void. A shortcut, of sorts, to make searching thru millions upon millions of records without having to read every last one of them. Indexing is a function of modern databases wherein you can tell the system what you are most commonly going to search the database for, and the database software will create a special index, just like the index of a book, for that data. There are a few things I've noted over the past dozen or so years, especially lately.įirst - a small definition. As others have said, with all the 'disruptive innovation' eBay's been using to disrupt the site, it's sometimes hard to tell what gains advantage and what is just a waste of time.

Create rss feed of all my ebay listings