Huge drop in sales following the new Search Engine...

[benjamin Qissentell]

    I read quite a number of posts regarding this issue, at first I thought its just one of those times where in we see around 10 to 15% drop every once in a while; but I can see its having a significant effect on my overall sales now. 

    I understand the need to post new products and all, but I noticed only my loyal customers or those who really  know my products are my usual purchases.  

    I really don't have much against it though, I just hope it wont continue affecting other merchants. 

Also I'm aware that some are not that affected with this, I guess I just want to see the opinions of other merchants here.

 

Good Day to all...

 

 

 

 

[mac Keystrel]

to be honest my sales dropped big time, i'm not sure what SL Marktplace have in mind changing the search the way it is today. It might not affect some but from what i've read in the forum and heard from other merchant friends, this new search affects most merchants. 

[Dakota Linden]

Greetings!

Please make sure that you work to optimize your listings now that the new Search Engine is out.

 

1. Item Name - Make sure the name of your item is clear and concise. If the name doesn't mean anything, or have any search value, then it will be harder for people to find your items on the Marketplace. If your item name is BD-110-85-Red that means absolutely nothing to the search engine.

Use something that means something to everyone: Store name - Item - Descriptor.  If you are selling hair, then your Item Name should be something like:

My Store! Alexa Long Hair - Blonde

Your store name will be shown, the product line (Alexa in example above), what the item is (Long Hair) and the color).

2. Features.  If you are not using the Features list, you are losing out on a huge function that can help get your products viewed.

The features list is a bullet point of what your item is, not isn't.  Using the same example above for the hair, the features list should include the following:

- Alexa 

- Long Hair

- Blonde

- Permissions

- Other features: is it mesh? sculpt? flexi?

3. Keywords - keywords again should be only about the item itself. Try to avoid phrases and stick with single word descriptors.  Again using the example above for the hair, the keywords should be something like this:

Alexa, Long, Hair, Blonde, Copy, Mesh

4. Resist the urge to include negatives in your product.  If you say No Transfer in the keywords, and someone is looking for a Transfer item, your item may show up in the search returnes.  

Many people may think this is a good thing, your item is being seen!  But under the new Search Engine, conversions are being calculated as well.

This means that if your item is viewed 1000 times, but only purchased once, the Marketplace will rank your item lower than other items that are purchased more often.

Conversions are a learned process.  The more searches and purchases on the Marketplace, the more relevant the searches will get, over time.

In these early stages of the learning process for the system, it is very important to ensure that your items are not being dinged by having information that is not relevant to the item being sold.

If you are selling something in Black, do not put orange, green, blue, pink, etc. in your listing.  If someone searches for Pink, and your black item shows up and it is not purchased, your item will suffer because of the keyword spam.

You can, and should, say that you have the same item in Pink, or Blue, or Green, etc. and then use the Related Items option to link those alternate colors to the listing.

 

[benjamin Qissentell]

Yeah I guess I'm missing out by not adapting on the new engine. But like I said I got not much against it, will definitely work on my listings now.

 

Thanks

[Pamela Galli]

 Thank you Dakota. However, I have followed your advice on many of my items and optimized their titles, but the titles keep reverting. I have made a JIRA.

[Ela Talaj]

Dakota, would you clarify one point for me?

Keeping your example of product name  "Alexa Long Hair - Blonde", are you saying that if the keywords are:

Alexa, Long, Hair, Blonde, Copy, Mesh

it would show in search more often than if the keywords are:

Alexa Long Hair Blonde Copy, Mesh

(one comma only)

[Dakota Linden]

---

Ela Talaj wrote:

Dakota, would you clarify one point for me?

Keeping your example of product name  "Alexa Long Hair - Blonde", are you saying that if the keywords are:

Alexa, Long, Hair, Blonde, Copy, Mesh

it would show in search more often than if the keywords are:

Alexa Long Hair Blonde Copy, Mesh

(one comma only)

---

Hello Ela!

Honestly, I do not have access to that information.  Based on the tooltips for the Keywords, it does say to separate each one by a comma. 

From a compliance issue, if a listing is reported for keyword spam because it has something like "Bad Dog" in the keywords, if the seller wrapped Bad Dog between comma's, the listing would not be actioned for keyword spam if Bad Dog is the product line for the item, or name of the store, etc.

If, however, they put the name in as Bad, Dog, (comma separated), the listing might be actioned for keyword spam since the seller is indicating, by the use of the comma's, that the words are separate.

 

[Dakota Linden]

---

Pamela Galli wrote:

 Thank you Dakota. However, I have followed your advice on many of my items and optimized their titles, but the titles keep reverting. I have made a JIRA.

---

Hi Pamela, 

Thank you for the heads up on the issue.  

The only suggestion I have is to make sure that the Marketplace Listings UI window in world matches the name on the Marketplace web site. 

You can also check to ensure that each of the various language options have been updated as well, but there is a smaller chance that those fields would cause the main name to revert.

[Pamela Galli]

Thanks, will do!

[Chic Aeon]

Very helpful. Made some changes. Noted that my current best sellers did seem to conform (not the one word in the Features tab but other things) to your suggestions.

 

Thanks for the help.

[Chic Aeon]

I made my changes from the web and not the viewer going from the store view and then revising each product that needed it. So far mine are sticking.

[Pamela Galli]

 I made changes from the web, but they have reverted twice now. Evidently I am supposed to do something like: change it in the viewer and on the web and  for each language individually as well. And then hope it sticks. 

[Iren Tinkel]

I did changes described in this post some time ago to part of my products, other part stays without changes. And I didnt notice any difference in sells. And working with featutes and so on also has no effect to my sells. There are even days when I have 2 or 3 sells during the day. I didnt feel like that since my story with marketplace Even remembering xstreet. Activity for the european night is almost zero for me. Sometimes I have more sells inworld than on marketplace.

So what about me - I am very pessimistic about SL and Marketplace. Linden dollar is behaving weird (I follow LindeX during the day and wondering how "some power" doesnt let it roll back adding millions and millions) and my store on Marketplace suddenly (!!!) lost customers.

[Dakota Linden]

Hello Iren,

Just as with the stock markets, value is determined by the users.  The LindeX is the same way.  The value of the lindens is based on what the users of the LindeX are willling to accept when they buy and sell the currency.

Overall sales, or the lack thereof, can be caused by many factors outside of the control of Linden Lab. 

Ensuring that your products are optimized for the Marketplace search can only go so far in helping, or boosting, any individuals sales. 

But optimizing your products for the new search function will ensure that your items are positioned in the best possible way to take advantage of the search ability so that they can be seen appropriately by as many people as possible.

[THEHERO Snowfall]

Hello,

 

Would you please check in to my last two cases from when I contacted the SL marketplace team . I did everything possible and still the new search engine is not helpful for me . Please help us merchants as we spend lots of time and money .I am in big loss

[Dakota Linden]

Hello TheHero Snowfall,

Please post the Support Case numbers and I will be happy to see if there is any additional assistance that I can provide.

 

[Chic Aeon]

As far as I know I only have ENGLISH listing (that is I didn't make any other versions) so the language thing may be the problem. I have edited from the viewer AND from the web (separate occassions at about the same time) with both working fine.

 

Just some input.

[Iren Tinkel]

Cool I just found great thing...

I have threesome products. If there is word Threesome in title - it appears in search on first pages. If i remove word Threesome from title - it disappears completely from search THOUGH this word is in features many times and in keywords too. So what to wonder about drop in sales? Only god knows how many keywords are burried and how many items are lost from my store. I cant check ALL keywords from my 100+ items.

Upd...

Oh myyyyyy, I checked other keywords from some items. Same.  For example Lovescene. This word in keywords. Not in title. And it is not shown in search by Lovescene. Just I add this word in title I get myself on first page of search. It is awful. Do I really need to add keywords in titles? Looks like tab Keywords and Features doesnt work properly. Shame.

 

[Nutria2016]

So the Features list is now just another search engine keywords list?