Quotation marks and search results. Why?

[Sally Audebarn]

Please note that to my knowledge, this only impacts the Best Selling list.

I have realized that if you want to get a list that's not flooded with unrelated items, you must put your search word between quotation marks. So you would type "house" instead of house to search for houses. I have also found out that on some days there are far less unrelated items on the list than others. So during the weekends the list seems far more refined than during the week days and sales have acted in accordance with this periodic shift. What good do we extract from this kind of manipulation?

The problem is, not everyone knows about this quotation mark "feature," so why add it? Why not bring up a refined search list by default? If I want a house, why should I do more than simply type house into the search bar to see the items that matches said description? Can someone kindly explain this to me?

[Whirly Fizzle]

Putting a search term in quotations will remove the fuzzy matching from the results.

If you use any search filter apart from relevance, you are much more likely to see those fuzzy matches.

LL are still tweaking the fuzzy search algorithm & are considering removing the fuzzies altogether.

[Whirly Fizzle]

Also see this post.

---

Grumpity Linden wrote:

Hi! 

First, we understand and appreciate the frustration merchants have faced when changes to search impact their sales.   We had tried to offset some of these frustrations by having a long beta period that allowed merchants to test search results for their products before the changes became permanent, and we took a lot of feedback and bug reports during this time and made changes based on the feedback.  We carefully monitor the overal and daily marketplace sales volume and assure you that it has remained steady and upbeat since the Search changes deployed.  However, we also appreciate that it's cold comfort to those merchants whose sales have been negatively affected.  

Here are a few pointers for making sure that your items can be found by relevant searches:

* Make sure you pick a clear, concise item name. Using a number designation like BD-802 will not help find your item if the item is Boys Denim Jeans.

* One thing merchants forget to fill out is the Features List.  This can reinforce the keywords and item names in Marketplace Search.

* The most important change is the new conversions algorithm.  This new algorithm means that over time the Marketplace Search will better learn what items are being purchased based on search.

* Make sure that you use only appropriate keywords.

Using inappropriate keywords on your listing will cause your items to sink in relevance because your item will be shown in search returns, but never purchased, or purchased far less than other items that were searched, and purchased, using the same keywords.

With all that said, there are still a few open bugs with Marketplace Search - for example, the overly plentiful fuzzy search results.   We're working on getting those under control.  Thank you for your continued patience as we work through these. 

---