Frequently at Tamebay we get emails along the lines of “my sales are slow, what’s going on?”. And usually we can give no substantial answer.
It’s usually a feedback/DSR issue, a stock issue, a sunny weekend or sometimes an eBay glitch. But now it seems we might be able to add a different reason: Google’s dumped eBay.
This morning I’ve read several blog posts and commentaries that suggest that Google’s latest change, Panda 4.0, doesn’t love eBay.com and the marketpace has plummeted in terms of the profile it gets in organic search results. You’ll want to read this stuff yourself. So here are the choice cuts.
A most respected source of SEO and Google commentary is Moz (previously known as SEOmoz) and they make a keen case that the latest Google Dance (do they still all it that?) appears to have had a detrimental affect on eBay’s standing with the world’s pre-eminent search engine in this piece about eBay’s very bad day.
And this article from Refugeeks does an excellent job at deconstructing eBay.com’s organic placement with reference to ebay.co.uk too. It’s fairly dense reading for the non-expert but you’ll get the gist.
This information has only started surfacing in the last day or so and at first glance doesn’t look good. Indeed, and I speak as only an interested amateur when it comes to SEO, so I can’t really elucidate whether these results come part way through an update or are now here to stay. I also don’t know what criteria in their wizardry they have changed.
But however you cut it: it looks like eBay has work to do to get itself back up top on some of its key search terms. In the the meantime, I think it’s fair to assume that sales could well be affected.
We asked eBay for comment. We haven’t heard from them yet but we will be sure to add any comment they send us.
I would be very keen for any more knowledgeable SEO nerds than me to comment on this post and explore the issues further. Beacuse, as I say, I’m not an SEO expert and it is a specialist field.
9 Responses
I checked my omniture figures for the first time for a month or so a couple of days ago and this was the first thing I noticed. I used to have about 55% plus people landing on me direct from google – it was down to less than 1%. That would help explain the total crash in sales over the recent past………….
There is an immediately noticeable difference. Search terms I check frequently would always come up with ebay on page one. Now the same on page 2. I am quite sure eBay will be working on this asap because otherwise Amazon will dominate. Has anybody noticed if it has had an impact on Amazon?
It’s the first step in devaluing Ebay before they buy it.
I noticed my eBay shop had disappeared from Google months ago, my Amazon shop, Facebook Shop Twitter Page ; Website were all ok.
I did mention this on the power seller’s board at the time, not that anyone noticed of course.
It has now re- appeared thank goodness .
Ps I remember when Google used to crawl ebay shops and give them a page rank !
Activity is very slow. Often had the usual flurry of activity suggesting possible truth to rumours that eBay limit a sellers visibility but it is exceptionally quiet.
In the old days individual items used to rank in google but then they said Adwords was a waste of money and just the categories ranked
They should be working together but eBay insisted on building their own search engine which tries to force products upon buyers and often generates irrelevant results. Small businesses that remain feel completely demoralised. Don’t even mention defects.
Whoever hacked our details will have had plenty of time to make use of it, it’s disgraceful that it’s taken so long to announce it.
Sales have been so slow for months which is a kick in the teeth, this is the icing on the cake !!
There is no such thing as bad advertising.
This has been a cynical ploy to gain massive amounts of ‘TV NEWS’ and ‘FRONT PAGES’ worldwide.
All the members that have not logged on lately will now have done so. Keep watching (dropping like a stone)
https://www.powersellersunite.com/auctionsitewatch.php