Selling Limits: Poor Listings
Whether you’re hit with a listing policy violation or duplicate listings notice, understand that eBay has become more aggressive with low quality listings. Not only does eBay use this to link accounts together (duplicate listings) but eBay is attempting to clean up their marketplace after a massive Google slap in 2014 (lowered search engine rankings). Simply put, you’ll want to utilize original images and descriptions with all your listings.
Can eBay link similar auctions together? Yes, very easily.. filters can detect duplicate listings without fail.. welcome to the new eBay. You must vary your listings including descriptions and images to remain link-free.
Along with completely different listings (unique descriptions, titles, pricing, layout/template, etc), you MUST have unique images. Using stock images is one of the FASTEST ways to lose an account.
If you want to use the same images you must wipe EXIF data at the very least. EXIF data can be used to link accounts extremely easily because properties of images are unique. If you use the same image for multiple accounts without wiping EXIF data, this will link your accounts.
What is EXIF data? Almost all new digital cameras use the EXIF annotation, storing information on the image such as shutter speed, exposure compensation, F number, what metering system was used, if a flash was used, ISO number, date and time the image was taken, whitebalance, auxiliary lenses that were used and resolution. Some images may even store GPS information so you can easily see where the images were taken!
The best thing you can do is to take unique images for each of your listings. If that’s not possible you’ll want to clean up your image EXIF data. Luckily there are free tools out there that can do that very easily and quickly.
- BatchPurifier: It’s a Windows based software that enables you to clean hundreds of images in just seconds. It cleans all EXIF data (phone tags, geotag, etc).
- ImageOptim: ImageOptim instantaneously strips EXIF data and saves your photos. It’s Mac based.
Otherwise you can use a 3rd party image hosting website as well such as imgur.com which removes EXIF data for you.
Next we’ll discuss VeRO!
