REMOVE all YouTube videos from your eBay Listings NOW!

As we’re by now all aware – in just a few months’ time, June 2017 to be precise, eBay won’t show your listing description to buyers if it contains ACTIVE content.

Just to remind you what active content is according to eBay:

• JavaScript
• Plug-ins
• Flash Videos
• Form Actions

I have a very popular post on my blog that shows how to add a YouTube video to your eBay listing but unfortunately that method is based on Flash which means it’s active content and from June 2017 it can no longer be in your listing description.

If you have a listing with a YouTube video embedded in it, you can check if it contains any active content via the infamous I-Ways tool here.

And it will show an active content error like this:

This means that eBay won’t show your listing description from June 2017:

It’s actually not clear what this specifically means – as from what I understand, listings won’t be removed as such, eBay just won’t show your listing description, template etc. Still, I’m sure you agree that no one wants that and we have no choice but to remove such active content from your listings.

If your listings doesn’t contain any active content, the tool will show – NO Active content, like this:

It’s frustrating that once again eBay have made a change without providing any good alternative.

Everyone knows by now that product videos can greatly help with conversion rates and almost EVERY online retailer now use videos in one or another way, including eBay’s biggest rival – Amazon.

Once these new no active content rules are in place, people will no longer be able to easily insert YouTube videos in their listings. And while eBay promised a YouTube integration tool in last autumn’s seller update, we have not heard anything new about it since then.

Yes, there’s a way to embed videos using HTML5 but it’s not a straightforward process that most eBay sellers will be able to follow. I’m still planning to create a guide on how it can be achieved, IF eBay does not announce some kind of YouTube integration within their platform soon.

Also, another thing I want to point out – that I-Ways tool also checks whether your listing is mobile optimised (RESPONSIVE) but this is NOT a part of eBay’s new rules!!!

I will repeat it once again – Mobile Optimisation results have nothing to do with these new eBay active content rules! It’s just an additional tool provided by I-ways so you can check if your listing is responsive or not.

If it is, you’ll see this:

But if your listing isn’t responsive, you’ll see this:

But please don’t be scared off by this message as it DOES NOT mean your listings are breaching eBay’s new active content rules! Nor does it mean that your listings are not showing up on mobile devices!

For example our SAT templates are not currently responsive (not yet) and if you use one, you’ll see this mobile non-compatible message. BUT if you check your listing in eBay’s mobile app you’ll see that it shows up perfectly fine and it actually looks quite good as we use a one column layout as opposed to 2-3 column layouts which look really, really small on mobile devices.

Any listing that uses a non-responsive template will see this message. But it DOESN’T mean that they’ll be removed or punished in June..

It could be of course that we see such a requirement next year or the year after – that’s why we’ll be making all SAT templates responsive in the very near future but for now you don’t have to worry about eBay removing your listings or not showing descriptions or anything like that.

If there’s a lot of interest in learning how to embed videos in eBay listings using a HTML5 method, which is allowed after June this year, please leave your comments/requests below this post! If the interest is huge enough, I could prioritise it and get the tutorial done ASAP.

Hope this helps & have a great week everyone!

Thanks,
Andrew