Are page view counts fake?

[#1]

Hello, first post here.

I have two listings open which were both scheduled to begin at the same time. One is for a PSU and the other for a graphics card, so they are somewhat related but different enough that not all buyers viewing one are likely to be actively searching for both items.

I have noticed that since they opened, they have consistently had the exact same number of page views. This seems suspicious as I would exect them to get rather different levels of views.

I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience, or whether anyone knows why this would have occurred?

Thanks in advance,

Sam

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the boards!

Understand that no one "knows" the answer to your question........We all have opinions, thoughts, experiences.....which will undoubtedly be expressed......lol.

Right now Ebay is changing the "traffic info supplier".   Whether that effects the counters no one knows....  In the past all of us have noticed 2-4 immediate hits (counts).....which many attribute to "bots" checking the listing for various things.  Name brand stuff, for instance, seemed to get more of those than a collectible.....  I once sold a collectible within 30 sec of listing it with a count of 1.  The better half got over 900 hits in 2-3 hr space of time which he tracked down to a link in a blog somewhere.... Never sold the item.......

Hits can be informative...if you don't get many.......shop your item to see how others are listing, prices, etc.  You could find a reason......and if you have a lot, you may be able to research it and find out why.......

In my opinion...dwelling or trying to figure out the "why" is a waste of time.......unless the count is low......

Certainly the duplication is curious.......but again........even knowing "why" if you could find out, doesn't really help anything that I can see.........

just an opinion.......

[#3]

Fake? I doubt it.

Incorrect and totally screwy?  You betcha.

I put zero faith in the view counter. I have sold items with zero views....you would think they would have at least one.  I tend to pay no real attention to views anymore.

[#4]

Unreliable is probably the best depiction.

Have had items run an entire 30 days still showing zero, and had a friend click on the item to see what would happen. Still said zero.

This morning I listed something and it immediately showed 8 hits.  HELLO! It probably wasn't even live yet!

[#5]

---

@samuelhort wrote:

Hello, first post here.

I have two listings open which were both scheduled to begin at the same time. One is for a PSU and the other for a graphics card, so they are somewhat related but different enough that not all buyers viewing one are likely to be actively searching for both items.

I have noticed that since they opened, they have consistently had the exact same number of page views. This seems suspicious as I would exect them to get rather different levels of views.

I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience, or whether anyone knows why this would have occurred?

Thanks in advance,

Sam

---

If you put a third-party hit counter on your page, it will rarely match the hits which eBay says there are.

There are a LOT of reasons why this could be the case.  One is how eBay counts "unique" page views versus a third party hit counter...

[#6]

I don't know if they are reliable considering the number of glitches on the site. I usually don't pay much attention to them unless they are very high or very low which means something in the listing probably needs to be tweaked. For EBay to actually "fake" them would imply there is something in it for them and I can't think of anything they would have to gain by intentionally faking the number of views. 

[#7]

Thanks for all the responses. I suppose I meant 'fake' as in not a reliable indicator of the true traffic to the page, and therefore your descriptions as inaccurate are as I expected. Good to know and I will stop paying attention to them.

Thanks again!