Best Match Tips

Boost your position in Best Match search results

The goal of Best Match, eBay's default sort order is to help shoppers find just what they're looking for from sellers they trust. For you as a seller, this means getting your listings in front of the buyers that are most interested in your products. Delivering great value and service to your buyers is key in determining your position in Best Match.

How Best Match works

To show buyers the most relevant and popular items for their search criteria, Best Match considers a number of factors to sort results:

• Recent sales for Fixed Price
• Time ending soonest for Auction-style
• Seller track record, including detailed seller ratings (DSRs) and buyer satisfaction rating
• Item title relevance
• Item cost, including shipping cost

As always, Auction-style listings get a boost when they're about to end ("time ending soonest"). Multi-quantity Fixed Price listings get a boost based on recent sales – the more items that sell in a listing, the better position it can get in search results.

Auction-style and Fixed Price listings are sorted separately according to the most relevant criteria for each format and then intermingled to show buyers a good mix of both types of listings on the first page of search results.

6 ways to make Best Match work for you

As with any good search technology, Best Match algorithms and the exact weight given to the various factors is continually being fine-tuned and improved – and may even vary by category. But the underlying goal – delivering the most relevant results from great sellers – is always the same. Follow these best practices to keep your listings on top:

1. Focus on customer satisfaction

   Now more than ever, providing great service is key to your selling success. Good DSRs can get your listings promoted. Getting promoted means more visibility. More visibility means more sales. And now, for your Fixed Price listings, more sales means even more visibility.

   • Create your own "cycle of success." Follow all the best practices for getting great DSRs
   • Keep close tabs on where you stand on your Seller Dashboard
2. Price competitively – including shipping charges

   Your item price – including your shipping cost – count. Excessive shipping cost will cause your listing to be lowered in search results in search and pull down your DSRs. Plus, many shoppers sort by total cost (price plus shipping). For Fixed Price items, go lower than the competition. For Auction-style listings, start pricing low to encourage bidding.

3. Offer FREE SHIPPING

   You get an automatic boost, icons to draw attention to your listing – and free shipping is a great way to improve your shipping cost DSR.

PowerSellers: double your discounts on any items with free shipping sold by June 30, 2009.

Also until June 30, 2009, all listings with free shipping get a free Subtitle.

4. Make your listings relevant
   • Use all 55 characters to make your title as descriptive as possible to maximize relevance to a buyer's search. Include top keywords and relevant details like color, size, and item condition.
   • When listing many unique items, don't depend just on the pictures to set your items apart. Include distinguishing features in the title.
   • List in all relevant categories
   • Choose as many item aspects as possible, especially item condition.
5. Build "recent sales" for Fixed Price listings
   • List your multi-quantity inventory in Fixed Price with 30-day duration so there's time to build up recent sales.
   • Use the new "Good 'Til Cancelled" (GTC) option so your listing will automatically renew for the new low fee every 30 days. Recent sales will be carried over.
   • If your multi-quantity listing sells out or expires, don't create a new listing – just add inventory and "relist." Recent sales will be carried over.
   • When you relist or revise a listing, don't change the title, item condition, or category, or increase the price. Any of these actions will "reset" the item’s recent sales.
   • For new listings, consider the new Featured First listing upgrade to jumpstart sales. Featured First gives your listing a chance to appear in the featured spot at the top of search results. Note this upgrade is only available to sellers not being lowered in search results for low DSRs. See your standing on your Seller Dashboard.
6. Use Auction-style for single-quantity and unique items Single items can’t build up the sales record needed to get a good position in search results. Be sure to list them Auction-style for an advantage when the listing is about to end. In fact, if you have single items listed in Fixed Price now that aren’t selling consider switching them to Auction-style.
   • Auction-style is generally best for single-quantity or unique items, hard-to-find items, and items of uncertain value.
   • Fixed Price is best for multi-quantity inventory and commodity items where the value is known. Experiment with Fixed Price and Auction-style listings to find the optimal selling mix for your business.

For more information on this topic, listen to the recent Titanium PowerSeller webinar.