If you sell on eBay, your listings are competing in a search engine with its own rules. That search engine is called Cassini, and understanding how it ranks results is the core of eBay SEO. Cassini is not trying to show every matching listing. It tries to predict which listings a buyer is most likely to buy from, and to reward sellers who give buyers a good experience. This guide explains what Cassini looks at, from titles and item specifics to postage and seller performance, and how to improve each area.

How Cassini decides what to show

When a buyer searches, Cassini weighs how relevant a listing is to that search against how likely it is to convert. Relevance comes from the words and structured data in your listing. Conversion signals come from your price, postage, images and track record as a seller. Two listings can match the same search term, yet the one with clearer information, fairer postage and a stronger sales history will usually appear first. Good eBay SEO therefore means helping Cassini understand your item and giving buyers reasons to choose it.

Titles that match buyer searches

You have 80 characters, so every word has to earn its place. Put the terms buyers actually search for at the front: the item type, brand, model, size, colour and key feature, in roughly that order. Skip filler words, avoid repeating the same keyword in different forms, and never write titles in all capitals, which look untrustworthy and are hard to read. If a word does not help a buyer find or understand the item, it is taking the place of one that would.

Item specifics: the fields Cassini reads

Item specifics are the structured fields eBay asks for on every listing, such as brand, size, colour, material and condition. Cassini reads these fields directly, and buyers filter search results by them, so a listing with missing specifics is invisible to filtered searches even if its title is strong. Complete every specific eBay suggests for your category, add the ones that describe your item accurately, and never guess a value: wrong specifics lead to returns and item not as described cases.

Categories, images and listing format

List in the category a buyer would browse for the item, because the wrong category buries a listing no matter how good the title is. Photographs should be clear, well lit and on a plain background, showing the item from several angles and including any marks or flaws on used items. Where your item suits it, a fixed price listing with a complete set of item specifics and honest condition notes gives Cassini clean, consistent information to work with.

Pricing, postage and returns signals

Cassini favours listings buyers are likely to complete a purchase on, and value is a big part of that judgement. Price competitively for your item and condition, offer a postage option that is fast and fairly priced, and consider including postage in the price where the numbers work. A clear, generous returns policy also helps: buyers buy more readily when returning an item looks painless, and that willingness to buy feeds back into how your listings perform.

Seller performance and account health

Your behaviour as a seller is a ranking input, not just an admin matter. eBay tracks seller standards using measures such as defect rates, late dispatch and cases closed without resolution, and listings from sellers in good standing get better visibility. Keep dispatch times honest, answer messages promptly, describe items accurately and resolve problems before they become cases. Full details of the current standards are in the eBay Seller Centre, and they are worth reviewing regularly because the thresholds can change.

Keep testing and improving

eBay SEO is not a one-off task. Use the reports in Seller Hub to see which listings get views but few sales, and which search terms bring your traffic. Refresh weak listings by improving titles, completing specifics and replacing poor photographs rather than ending and relisting everything at once. Small, steady improvements to the listings that already attract views usually deliver more than chasing new stock, and your best performers show you the pattern to copy.

To sum up: Cassini rewards listings that are relevant, complete and easy to buy from, sold by accounts in good health. Work through your titles, item specifics, categories, images and postage with that in mind, and your eBay SEO will improve steadily. If you would rather have specialists manage your listings and account day to day, our eBay account management service covers optimisation, stock, orders and account health. Book a free consultation and we will review your current listings and highlight the changes that would make the biggest difference.