Google Shopping.

[theElench]

The majority are made up from pay for rankings

It doesn't surprise me at all that you say that, all the "search" corporations have become immensely rich by selling visibility. But surely if placement is just down to money the three biggest sites would completely dominate every search? With ebid relegated to pages so low in the results that no-one would ever find items listed on the site.

Yet ebid sellers can find some of their items and in my case, I can regularly find them on the first 10 pages of results.

I don't doubt that you're right that "money talks", have you got any insights into why those with the biggest purses don't entirely drown out those with less?

The 3 big sites also have the majority of listings but ebid does get some of its listings noticed and so do even smaller, standalone, websites.

[madelaine]

I suspect that Google shopping has to supply something more than just paid for ads - otherwise the public will just treat it like any other ad site - we are all used to ignoring the ads around what we are actually looking for.

Like Elench, I find that my items continue to appear - especially if I make the search precise. This has resulted, for example, in a new customer who only wanted to buy one particular knitting pattern - it needed to be an exact copy of the one that had just been wrecked by a tea spill. Once such a person has found eBid, they may return for other items.

[yellerbelly]

I suspect that Google shopping has to supply something more than just paid for ads - otherwise the public will just treat it like any other ad site - we are all used to ignoring the ads around what we are actually looking for.

Like Elench, I find that my items continue to appear - especially if I make the search precise. This has resulted, for example, in a new customer who only wanted to buy one particular knitting pattern - it needed to be an exact copy of the one that had just been wrecked by a tea spill. Once such a person has found eBid, they may return for other items.

I looked on Google last week and could not find any of my patterns although I did see yours.

I have lots of items I could list but have just lost heart in doing so because I feel it is a waste of time photographing and listing when I can spend my time doing other mundane tasks.😐😐

[theElench]

@Madelaine
@yellerbelly

I searched for "knitting patterns UK" as GS suggested this when I searched for just "knitting patterns".
Ebid wasn't shown in the Seller List and in the first 9 pages of results there wasn't a single result from ebid! There was a mixture of results from etsy, obay, amazon and plenty of other sellers without those site names attached.

I then tried searching for "ebid knitting patterns UK". Still no "Ebid" on the Seller List but it changed the results and I found 2, 5, 3 and 2 results from ebid on the first 4 pages of results. Almost all the other results were from etsy.

On ebid there are 5804 results for "knitting patterns", far more than 2 - 300 results for "Art Deco Glass" on ebid. As always, today I can find my items in that category scattered through the first few pages of results. So why are the ebid knitting pattern ads. so poorly represented?

My first thought is, are either of you listing your patterns on etsy as well as on ebid??

The tip I acted on from a previous thread about GS was Make your titles different on the two sites because GS will show the larger site's ad. and reject the ebid ad. as a duplicate if they are identical.

Could it be that your patterns are shown as results from etsy and the ebid version ignored? If so perhaps change a few of the titles and see if they then appear as Ebid ads., instead of etsy ads.

This did seem to make a difference for me. I would prefer to sell items on ebid as they charge me less in fees, so my "better" title is used on ebid. The re-arranged version, which might not read so well, is used on obay and whereas I can always find at least some of my ebid ads. on GS, I've yet to find any of my obay ads.

[tony41]

I have a memory of a post which I can't find that items were not listed in Google Shopping if they were priced under £2.50. In the past eBid did not upload listings into Google Shopping if they were priced under £1.00. Whether this new higher limit (if my memory is correct) is a decision by eBid or Google I don't know but it might be a reason why the Art Deco Glass appears in google shopping and Knitting Patterns do not.

[yellerbelly]

Hi Elench, don't no about Madelaine but I do not list anywhere else so no chance of duplicate listings, as for pricing I spotted some patterns less than £2.00 listed on google shopping, don't know if any of my other items are visible on Google shopping, but I couldn't find anything.

[tony41]

Hi Elench, don't no about Madelaine but I do not list anywhere else so no chance of duplicate listings, as for pricing I spotted some patterns less than £2.00 listed on google shopping, don't know if any of my other items are visible on Google shopping, but I couldn't find anything.

The comments about pricing were mine.
Checking eBid FAQs I have found a statement that eBid will only upload items with a BuyNow price of £2.50 and over. It is therefore obvious that any items on Google shopping which are priced at under £2.50 have not been uploaded by eBid. I had a quick look at your items and saw that most were priced under £2.50 so you cannot expect to find them on Google Shopping

[BordersBargains]

The comments about pricing were mine.
Checking eBid FAQs I have found a statement that eBid will only upload items with a BuyNow price of £2.50 and over. It is therefore obvious that any items on Google shopping which are priced at under £2.50 have not been uploaded by eBid. I had a quick look at your items and saw that most were priced under £2.50 so you cannot expect to find them on Google Shopping

It could be higher now since they rarely update their FAQ

[tony41]

It could be higher now since they rarely update their FAQ

I think that the relevant section has been revised recently. Apart from the change in the lower limit for uploading to Google Shopping, the section uses the new names of membership categories.

[theElench]

The comments about pricing were mine.
Checking eBid FAQs I have found a statement that eBid will only upload items with a BuyNow price of £2.50 and over. It is therefore obvious that any items on Google shopping which are priced at under £2.50 have not been uploaded by eBid. I had a quick look at your items and saw that most were priced under £2.50 so you cannot expect to find them on Google Shopping

Now that you mention it, I do have a vague memory of seeing an increased price for items to qualify for uploading a while back. I too sometimes check something I'm not sure about by looking at the FAQs, but doesn't this show a need for either a pinned thread or a GS section in the Forum? Not everyone will think to look at the FAQs, more will look on the Forums first? Whatever I vaguely remember, I didn't look it up in the FAQs, I saw it mentioned somewhere here. Where is that useful bit of info. now to be seen on the Forum? Probably like all the other earlier discussions, lost along with any other useful insights they had.