Recurring Keyword Spam

[MitchNightshade]

Hi all,

I'm selling aviator sunglasses on Marketplace, and once in a while, I use the phrase 'aviator sunglasses', to check how my products are ranked in Marketplace Search. Time and again, a vast list of unrelated products (from a single store) keep appearing in the results list. Since the corresponding products have absolutely nothing to do with 'aviator sunglasses', it'sa blatant example of keyword spam which results in skewing the search sesults.

As of this writing, there are 675 keyword spam-related hits from just this store (try for yourself in Search on the MP main page).

You might suggest 'just flag the relevant products. However, this poses several problems:

1. There are so many MP ToS-violating products listed in that store, it's discouraging for both the customer and the admin to flag and respond, respectively.
2. I have done so. I flagegd hundreds of them (it helps a bit to let off steam). I saw some disappear from the listing, only to be replaced by by other, yet unflagged items.
3. Lately, I see flagged and once removed products reappear in the search results list again, indicating that the store owner is simply re-listing them with the invalid keywords.
4. Once flagged, removed and reappearing, I can't re-flag the items anymore, since the page will show 'Already Flagged'.

It's hurting my and other people's businesses here. Anyone have an idea how to deal with these malpractices? Clearly, flagging is not sufficient.

[Theresa Tennyson]

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MitchNightshade wrote:

Hi all,

I'm selling aviator sunglasses on Marketplace, and once in a while, I use the phrase 'aviator sunglasses', to check how my products are ranked in Marketplace Search. Time and again, a vast list of unrelated products (from a single store) keep appearing in the results list. Since the corresponding products have absolutely nothing to do with 'aviator sunglasses', it'sa blatant example of keyword spam which results in skewing the search sesults.

As of this writing, there are 675 keyword spam-related hits from just this store (try for yourself in Search on the MP main page).

You might suggest 'just flag the relevant products. However, this poses several problems:

1. There are so many MP ToS-violating products listed in that store, it's discouraging for both the customer and the admin to flag and respond, respectively.
2. I have done so. I flagegd hundreds of them (it helps a bit to let off steam). I saw some disappear from the listing, only to be replaced by by other, yet unflagged items.
3. Lately, I see flagged and once removed products reappear in the search results list again, indicating that the store owner is simply re-listing them with the invalid keywords.
4. Once flagged, removed and reappearing, I can't re-flag the items anymore, since the page will show 'Already Flagged'.

It's hurting my and other people's businesses here. Anyone have an idea how to deal with these malpractices? Clearly, flagging is not sufficient.

---

Okay, I just did that search. An unfiltered search gave quite a few outfits that looked unrelated, but they all included aviator glasses as part of the outfit. Filtering it to "avatar accessories" - "glasses" gave a remarkably clean listing. I can't tell where your products appear in search because, well, you didn't post this using the account you used to sell the glasses.

[MitchNightshade]

> I can't tell where your products appear in search because, well, you didn't post this using the account you used to sell the glasses.

And you and no one else needs to know either. I don't want to be harrassed.

> Filtering it to "avatar accessories" - "glasses" gave a remarkably clean listing.

Yes, but this is not about filtering. This is about using Search and skewed Search results. This is within the first 96 search results. About 1/3rd of them is 'polluted'!

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

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MitchNightshade wrote:

Hi all,

I'm selling aviator sunglasses on Marketplace, and once in a while, I use the phrase 'aviator sunglasses', to check how my products are ranked in Marketplace Search. Time and again, a vast list of unrelated products (from a single store) keep appearing in the results list. Since the corresponding products have absolutely nothing to do with 'aviator sunglasses', it'sa blatant example of keyword spam which results in skewing the search sesults.

As of this writing, there are 675 keyword spam-related hits from just this store (try for yourself in Search on the MP main page).

You might suggest 'just flag the relevant products. However, this poses several problems:

1. There are so many MP ToS-violating products listed in that store, it's discouraging for both the customer and the admin to flag and respond, respectively.
2. I have done so. I flagegd hundreds of them (it helps a bit to let off steam). I saw some disappear from the listing, only to be replaced by by other, yet unflagged items.
3. Lately, I see flagged and once removed products reappear in the search results list again, indicating that the store owner is simply re-listing them with the invalid keywords.
4. Once flagged, removed and reappearing, I can't re-flag the items anymore, since the page will show 'Already Flagged'.

It's hurting my and other people's businesses here. Anyone have an idea how to deal with these malpractices? Clearly, flagging is not sufficient.

---

Are you actually checking the source code of the listings for invalid keywords, or are you just assuming they're there because the listings appear? I looked at the source code of some of those listings and there are no keywords that would cause them to appear in a search for "aviator sunglasses" if it were based on keywords. They also don't turn up like that under a search for just "sunglasses" or "aviator," only "aviator sunglasses."

However, there are certainly other factors that determine listings - for example, if a listing is clicked during a search for a term, that would logically create the assumption that the listing is relevant to that search term. The merchant in question does make aviator sunglasses, and it's possible that at some point they used the common, sloppy practice of copying a listing for a different item without changing keywords, so there were some listings with invalid keywords and you may have seen them. However, if you search for "aviator sunglasses" and then go to this merchant's listings - "hundreds of them" - and open them (to flag them) you could actually be telling the search engine this merchant's listings are very relevant to someone searching for "aviator sunglasses" - so, logically enough, the search engine will keep displaying them whether or not there are any keywords.

You could be causing the problem you're complaining about.

[MitchNightshade]

   > "You could be causing the problem you're complaining about."

Let me rephrase that for you:

   "A flawed search system could be causing the problem I'm complaining about."

But let's not blame it on LL right away, shall we?

1. These furniture items showed up en masse the very first time I did a search, already.
2. As already stated in the original post, I flagged them and they disappeared from the search results. Only to reappear a few months later, which does not corroborate with your explanation.
3. I flagged about a 100 of these products. How come that of the ±1300 search results for 'aviator sunglasses' about 675 are non-related furniture items from this one store?

Also, let me refrase the core problem:

   "How do we prevent these irrelevant items from appearing?"

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I just searched as you suggested and got listings for aviator sunglasses as well as outfits that include them. 

The listings you show did appear, but pages later.  If you flagged them for keyword spam then of course they could be relisted (actually they never should have been removed), because they are NOT using keyword spam.  Theresa's explanation was accurate as to why the appear.

If they are appearing before your product,then they are selling better as that is how MP displays products.  The problem lies in the search engine itself, and not any merchant's fault who follows the rules.0 There is nothing you can do to fix this.

People have complained that the MP search engine performs poorly for years.

[Lexia Moonstone]

I all so don't see the keyword  "aviator sunglasses" in any of the listing I"ve checked, including looking at the page source code.   Did you originally flag these because of your search results, or did you actually find the keywords in the listing or source code?  It's pointless to keep flaging some thing for keyword spam if you can't find the keyword, LL will just ignore your flags. With out findings the keywords it looks more like a marketplace issue, I would instead put in a support ticket, or bug report.

[Tamara Artis]

Facts:

1. you create aviator sunglasses
2. many other merchants are selling the same product therefore they are your competition
3. there are 1256 matching items found when searching for aviator sunglasses
4. there are 326 matching items found when searching for "aviator sunglasses"
5. you repeatedly check this certain store for at least a few months, and probably many others
6. every product that contains any of the named keywords and appears in the search before your product is earning more money for LL. 
7. You want to eliminate at least some of the products so that yours would rank higher in search and earn you more money

Conclusion: stop wasting time on checking how others are ranked and go find everything you can about optimising websites and product descriptions so that they rank higher. 

[ChinRey]

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Tamara Artis wrote:

Conclusion: stop wasting time on checking how others are ranked and go find everything you can about optimising websites and product descriptions so that they rank higher. 

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Oh, that's easy at least. But the ranking algorithm MP uses is very different from what most search engines use, so the good old website search optimization techniques won't work:

• You gain ranking points through sales. Recent sales count more than old sales.
• You also gain a few ranking points from positive reviews.
• If several items have the same points, they are ranked by date with the oldest listing first and the most recent last..

 

[Tamara Artis]

It is easy because the person that has good sales will not bother checking how the competition is ranked. The OP might have superawesome aviators burried deep down inbetween 1234th and 1256th product and I bet only OP would manage to see how the listing actually looks on the Marketplace, which IS a website that we can reach from other websites. 

But I don't know if aviators are a top quality product or maybe they need some work. Today its not that much about the quality as it is about the marketing, I bet you know that. But I don't know that either, maybe the person advertises like crazy under some other name and still not happy wih the sales, so only helpful advice I could offer was to work on the search optimisation, which is something we all miss to do. 

Btw things you named are nothing specific to sl, its common sense lol

 

 

[Lasher Oh]

The reason for many keyword problems  and inumerable false flaggings is because of the Spanish version pages. For some inexplicable reason when a new listing is created the MP often duplicates the English listing and places it in the Spanish section. As most merchants don't translate their listing they have no idea that there is a Spanish page containing their English product details.

So when you as a merchant choose to use the quick fill tool and then edit your listing for a new product the orginal poduct is still there under the Spanish tab. It is possible to have  100s of different products all carefully crafted in English to avoid keyword spam only to be serially flagged because 'sunglasses' is still lurking in the title and keywords in the Spanish translation section.

When I read your post I suspected this was the problem I sourced the furniture chappies goods found no keyword spam. So while still on one of the pages I switched my MP browser page to Spanish and voila .... "A brown coffee cup" turned into ....  "Style SunGlasses # 1 Unisex, scripted"

I'm 99% certain the merchant hasn't a clue this is happening to his product listing, and it must also be harming his / her sales. Chances are it's also happening to some of your products as well if you  happen to use the quick fill tool and don't translate your listings into the other 5 lanquages.

You could say it's sloppy of the merchant not to check  all the lanquage sections each time a listing is created, do you do that?.

I say the real problem lays at the feet of the Market Place and the merchant you flagged hundreds of times has been royaly shafted for something he had no idea was happening. 

[Pamela Galli]

This is enlightening, tho it is not the first time it has been reported here.  I guess we should all shrug and accept that this is yet another way LL is indifferent to the marketplace bring horribly broken.

 

I dont have to imagine what I would do if I discovered one of my products was broken in any of the myriad ways the MP is.  Because sometimes I do discover some problem, and what I do is drop everything and fix it. Because my number one job is to make sure my things WORK. 

But then I am old school, I don't do Agile or whatever, and knowingly trundle out broken products in the first place, much less let them stay that way.