Optimize Your eBay Listing Title's BayEstimate

Notes

1. Your target should be to maximize your title's BayEstimate for the right buyer search query(ies), without mis-representing the item.
   
   
2. Remember, excessive use of any keyword by a large number of sellers will automatically act to reduce its desirability/distinguishability on eBay.
   
   
3. This tool does not incorporate eBay Motors data. Attempting to optimize eBay Motors related titles through this tool will be counter-productive for you.
   
   
4. This tool should work in both IE and Firefox, although it currently gives a better overall experience in IE7.
   
   
5. Your feedback is very important for the continued evolution of this tool. Please visit the Comments page, or drop us a line at researchlabs@ebay.com.
   
   

FAQ

1. How is punctuation handled?
   
   At this point, the tool strips out all punctuation like apostrophes, quotes, commas etc. You will need to put them back in at the appropriate places if you choose to use the suggested title.
   Update 04/25/08: The tool now attempts to retain as much punctuation as possible for as long as possible while you modify your titles.
   
   
2. How old is the data being used to generate suggestions?
   
   The current data set being used is from late April-early May 2008.
   
   
3. How does one interpret the Popularity column for search queries?
   
   The popularity number can be used to determine relative popularity of search queries done within a specific time frame, i.e how many times buyers searched for each query within that same time frame. The time frame and duration of aggregation itself will vary every time the data is refreshed. Hence the numbers are good for relative comparisons only.
   As a seller, it is your job to know what search queries buyers might do to find the kind of item you are selling. Some queries are very popular, but they might match thousands of items on site, including yours. Some queries are less popular, but they might match very few items, where yours may or may not be included.
   
   
4. How does one interpret the Availability column for search queries?
   
   The Availability number is simply a typical average item count that may be returned upon doing that search on eBay. The number shown here is highly averaged across different scenarios, such as category constraints having been applied etc.
   
   
5. In the table where my title's keywords are broken up and the score is displayed for each, why are some words "grayed-out"?
   
   The optimizer needs to know which buyer search query you want to optimize your title for. Remember, when a buyer performs that search on eBay, ALL items in the result will contain the words present in the search query. It is the OTHER words in the titles which differentiate them from each other. Therefore, in this tool, when you select a working search query, the keywords present in that query do not count toward the title's score, only the remaining keywords are scored.
   As a seller, it is your job to figure out what kind of search queries buyers might be doing to find the kind of item you are selling. Given your existing title and the search query you think is right, the tool will attempt to suggest on OTHER keywords, as they are what differentiate your item from others in search results.
   
   
6. How does the tool handle plurals, synonyms etc?
   
   At this point, the tool does not handle plurals, synonyms etc because it would make the tool and the UI even more complex. Every keyword is treated as unique. Please keep this in mind as it may be detrimental to your specific scenario.
   
   
7. Why does the tool score repeated words without de-duping?
   
   There are legitimate cases on site where something cannot be described without repeating words, for example "To Be Or Not To Be", or the book "The New New Thing". This tool does not make any attempt to detect malicious intent, and was not designed to do so.
   
   
8. Why "BayEstimator"?
   
   (eBay, Bayes Theorem, Estimate) ==> BayEstimator.