The visibility of product listings depended on various factors ranging from a merchant’s sales history to their Seller Performance rating since the early days of eBay’s Cassini algorithm.
That’s why simply stuffing a product listing with keywords has never been a viable SEO strategy that guaranteed a good performance on a traditional search engine.
Unlike traditional search engines that focus on keywords, eBay’s AI-powered search engine prioritizes search intent and data quality, forcing sellers to revise their SEO approach.
That’s why early adopters of Generative Engine Optimization, a practice of optimizing product listings for AI-based answers, are already gaining a competitive advantage over sellers who were slow to adopt this new approach to product listing creation and optimization.
Read on to learn more about what GEO on eBay is, how it works, and its core principles that you can integrate into your SEO strategy.
Key takeaways
- According to a recent study, eBay sellers using AI-optimized data saw their impressions increase by 184% and their views increased by 300%.
- eBay’s LLMs and search engine algorithm use different sets of parameters to suggest products to users.
- GEO focuses on the reasons shoppers search for products by interpreting the broader context of the query.
- Credibility and authority are among the key parameters LLMs consider when recommending products.
- AI-driven personalization increases the quality of buyer engagement by 40%.
- According to recent studies, 86% of shopping results in the AI mode come from eBay due to the platform’s vast database being labelled as a trusted entity for LLMs.
What is (GEO) Generative Engine Optimization?
GEO is a practice of making product listings easily discoverable and quotable by AI search engines that recommend products to users.
The process focuses on the factors sellers can control, such as placing keywords at the beginning of the listing title or populating all relevant Item Specifics fields for a specific product.
It aims to increase the listing’s overall authority and improve the listing’s chances of being featured in AI-generated replies to user queries.
In other words, whenever a user asks eBay’s AI shopping agent a question like ‘What are the best AirPods under $100’, the underlying framework named Krylov that sits upon eBay’s search algorithm, Cassini, searches for products based on their discoverability, authoritativeness, and other parameters.
Hence, the purpose of Generative Engine Optimization is to create easily scannable, quotable product listings that the underlying framework is confident it can feature in search engine results pages.
It’s also paramount to understand that, although GEO can be viewed as an extension of marketplace SEO, these two terms differ in key areas.
Key differences between conventional marketplace SEO and GEO
The goal of traditional SEO on online marketplaces is to send enough signals to the search engine that a product listing and a seller are a match for a specific query.
So, when a user types a query into a search bar, the algorithm searches for product listings with matching keywords and considers several other factors, such as the seller’s sales history and Seller Ranking.
The purpose of marketplace SEO is to attract clicks by ranking and indexing content and placing product listings near the top of search results for specific keywords.
On the other hand, GEO doesn’t rely extensively on keywords. Its primary goal isn’t to attract clicks through the listing’s high placement in the search results but to improve the quality of product listing visits.
Even though 40% to 60% of all AI searches on eBay are likely to result in zero clicks, the shoppers who click on product listings featured in the results are 4 times more likely to convert than the shoppers who discover a product listing through a traditional organic search.
The essential principles of marketplace GEO
AI engines and the marketplace GEO are still in their infancy, making it difficult to predict how they will evolve.
Currently, the practice is based on the following underlying principles:
- User intent
- Structured data and metadata
- Content readability and quality
- Diversification of content formats
- Continuous learning
Implementing these principles in a comprehensive GEO strategy involves understanding how large language models work, why shoppers search for specific products, ensuring that all product information is accurate, and providing extensive product information.
Using bullet points in product descriptions to structure the text and make it more readable for Agentic AI increases the likelihood that a listing will appear frequently in the recommendations users see after entering a natural language query.
Moreover, diversifying content formats, adding visual and interactive elements, and ensuring that the text, image, and video sellers feature in their product listings are of the highest quality plays a vital role in the GEO process because it ensures that the information eBay’s Agentic AI receives is multimodal and verifiable.
For instance, if an image depicts a red t-shirt and the description says the t-shirt is blue, the Agentic AI will have difficulty ‘seeing’ the product’s value, which will reduce the listing’s Trust Score.
Hence, it’s paramount for sellers to take steps to improve their listings’ Trust Scores and keep learning from their experiences to continue iterating their GEO strategies.
The E-E-A-T principle in Generative Engine Optimization
Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness are the cornerstones of search engine optimization for Google.
However, the EEAT principle also applies to the marketplace GEO because Agentic AI favours the listings that clearly demonstrate knowledge, understanding, good standing on the platform, and establish trust.
Consequently, implementing the EEAT principle into a GEO strategy can help eBay sellers to:
- Improve customer experience and satisfaction
- Gain an advantage over the competition
- Increase the algorithmic confidence in their product listings
- Prepare their business for the future
In addition to creating authoritative content for their listings, maximizing the potential of structured data, and understanding user intent, sellers should also take steps to encourage user-generated content, such as positive reviews.
Additionally, sellers should provide excellent customer service when integrating the EEAT principle into their GEO strategy.
It’s also paramount to understand that fostering trustworthiness and demonstrating expertise to Agentic AI is a slow process that takes a long time to yield the desired results.
eBay Marketplace GEO best practices for generative AI
The process of developing a GEO strategy for eBay starts with understanding how sellers can adjust their workflows to incorporate best practices for optimizing content for Agentic AI.
The way sellers create their listings, the quality of the content they produce, their use of item attributes, and their overall performance on eBay are the foundation for their GEO strategy.
Let’s take a quick look at the best eBay GEO practices sellers should implement in their workflows in 2026 to ensure that their products are included in the responses generated by Agentic AI.
Listing creation
Presenting accurate, detailed information about a product is key to establishing authority.
That’s why sellers must anticipate which product information potential buyers may need to reach the purchasing decision and include it in the listing.
Moreover, primary keywords should appear at the beginning of the listing title, and sellers should use all 80 characters available to include as much information as possible and increase the chances of their product listings getting featured in AI-generated responses.
The product description should highlight the product’s key features in bullet points so shoppers and Agentic AI can easily scan them, as well as information on responsible sourcing, compliance, safety, and other data that help build authority and trustworthiness.
Content quality
The quality of textual and visual content is vital for developing a sound, results-oriented GEO strategy.
Aside from writing effective, informative product descriptions, sellers must ensure their product images meet the platform’s quality standards. As a result, product pictures shouldn’t be cluttered and should clearly depict an item, its current state, and its features.
Additionally, including videos in their GEO strategies can help sellers improve their algorithmic confidence scores, strengthen semantic embeddings, and boost the Time on Page metric.
Structured data
The shift from keyword-based optimization to search intent has made it more important than ever to populate the Item Specifics section of product listings.
These attributes serve as additional sources of information for eBay’s Agentic AI, making it easier for it to fit product listings into specific contexts.
However, sellers shouldn’t populate all available Item Specific fields, since not all fields are applicable to all product types. Instead, they should focus on filling in the fields that make sense for a particular item.
Seller performance metrics
Seller performance metrics are among the parameters eBay’s algorithm considers when determining the order of product listings in the search results.
The importance of these metrics hasn’t diminished with the arrival of Agentic AI.
The seller’s overall performance, as well as their Top Seller status, late shipment, and transaction defect rate, serve as signals to the generative AI engine that help it assess reliability and trust.
Hence, sellers with below-average ratings and high late shipment rates are highly unlikely to be featured in AI-generated product recommendations.
Incorporating planning into your Generative Engine Optimization strategy
A seller’s success on eBay’s marketplaces and the effectiveness of their GEO strategy depend on planning for the periods of high traffic on the platform.
Women’s Day, Halloween, or Black Friday are among the essential online sales events that present enormous opportunities for sellers to generate profit and establish themselves as leaders in their niche.
Webinterpret’s 2026 ecommerce calendar provides a comprehensive overview of the most significant international and local online sales events, helping sellers identify key dates and prepare their GEO strategies.
The ecommerce calendar also features monthly GEO and advertising tips for sellers to enhance their GEO and AIO strategies and secure their long-term success on eBay marketplaces.
Using GEO to dominate eBay marketplaces in 2026 and beyond
In the era of Agentic AI, hesitation to develop and implement GEO strategies into their workflows can be costly for eBay sellers.
The platform’s shift toward search intent, content quality, and an excellent customer experience has made it paramount for sellers to revise and fine-tune their product listing and content creation approaches.
Moreover, maintaining a high Seller Performance score has become even more important, as Agentic AI considers it when determining a listing’s and a seller’s trustworthiness in product recommendations.
Do you need assistance with Generative Engine Optimization on eBay? Webinterpret can help. Schedule a call to learn more about our GEO services.
About Webinterpret
Webinterpret supports merchants selling on eBay.
Our AI-based solutions enable more effective selling through automated listing localization, advertising, and returns, and ensure all products placed on EU markets are GPSR-compliant.
By giving your international customers a full, end-to-end local shopping experience, Webinterpret improves your conversion and helps establish your business globally.
