eBay Partner Network Blog

Google Announces the Knowledge Graph – A Major Change to Search

Scott Parent — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:12:38 +0000

Google today announced a major shift in the way it looks at search. Instead of focusing on keywords and phrases, the search engine will try to “think” more like a human.

The example they offer on their blog is the search phrase “Taj Mahal.” Instead of the search engine using those two words, they are trying to find a deeper … Read more…

Please Take the ePN Publisher Survey

Scott Parent — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:16:46 +0000

Feedback is so important to any business. It helps that organization understand what their customers and partners want and need in a successful relationship. And while we constantly read email, forum posts, Tweets and blog comments from our partners, they don’t always tell us the complete story the way a targeted survey can.

Today we’re announcing the release of our … Read more…

Understanding Google’s Penguin Update and How it Affects Your Business

Scott Parent — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:27:13 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk online, and even in our forums, about Google’s latest update called “Penguin,” and how it is affecting small businesses. Many of you have seen your search rankings radically altered overnight and have been scrambling for a solution. I read an article last week and wanted to share the key takeaways with you in the … Read more…

Tips for Effective Search Strategies with RSS Generator

eBay Partner Network Team — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:51:11 +0000

Since ePN first rolled out RSS 2.0 in May 2011, we have been reviewing the characteristics of your RSS requests and the returned results. Our analysis suggests a few areas where small adjustments to your queries may result in better result sets.

Limit keyword phrases to less than 100 characters

In cases of extremely long keyword phrase(s), although the query … Read more…

ePN TV: Jordan Koene on the Importance of External Linking

Scott Parent — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:19:31 +0000

This week on ePN TV, eBay’s SEO Samurai, Jordan Koene, continues our SEO series talking about the importance of external linking strategies. In particular Jordan focuses on three areas: authority linking, content development and foundational linking.

“External links come from other sites – other media sites, forums, blogs – and ultimately these are the links that really drive our rankings … Read more…

Do People Under 35 Prefer Chrome and Safari?

Scott Parent — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:10:37 +0000

There’s a really interesting article out by Internet Retailer that shows that people under the age of 35 seem to prefer browsing the web with either Google’s Chrome or Apple’s Safari browsers. While the article notes that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is making a bit of a comeback as the world’s most widely used browser, the author points out that may … Read more…

eBay for iPad 2.0 Available Now!

Scott Parent — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:06:46 +0000

Our friend, Richard Brewer-Hay, made an exciting announcement today over the eBay Ink Blog about the release of the new eBay for iPad 2.0 app. He sat down with Steve Yankovich, VP of Mobile, to chat about the history and evolution of the eBay for iPad app.

After getting the background out the way, RBH got a demo of … Read more…

ePN TV: Julia and Adam Answer Publisher Questions

Scott Parent — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:35:06 +0000

This week, Julia Barrett and Adam Anderson are back to answer your questions on ePN TV. Markozd has a question about Campaign IDs and the RSS feed, while weezee920 needs some clarification about using both AppID and Campaign IDs.

Are these Q & A videos helpful to you? Do you have your own questions you’d like to see answered on … Read more…

Reminder: Category Changes Coming May 1st!

Scott Parent — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:34:18 +0000

As Spring continues to roll along and April comes to a close, we wanted to take a minute to remind our partners that category changes will go into effect on Tuesday, May 1st. We put together a blog post outlining this change back in March with all the relevant info, but wanted to make sure that everyone was prepared.

Questions? … Read more…

Optimizing Your RSS Feed

Scott Parent — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:15:38 +0000

For most users, generating a new RSS 2.0 feed link for your application is easy with the RSS Feed Generator on the ePN publisher portal. Using your ePN Access credentials login to ePN portal, select Tools > Widgets > RSS Feed Generator. The RSS Feed Generator will walk you through the steps required to generate your link.

In the