eBay Sellers Feel the Wrath of Google’s Latest SEO Attack

It’s become apparent over recent weeks that a rather unlikely victim of Google’s recent assault on SEO addicts is none other than eBay. The world’s biggest online marketplace has experienced a huge drop in traffic ever since Google decided to roll out yet another update to its search algorithm, which has in turn had a severe impact on the site as a whole and perhaps more crucially those that use eBay to sell their stuff.The trouble is that in order for eBay sellers to make sure they appear prominently in the site’s internal search system, them have to optimise their listings…SEO in every sense of the term. By doing so however, they’re apparently rubbing Google up the wrong way and causing eBay as a whole to be penalized – something of a vicious circle with no apparent way out.       Interestingly, at least one source has come forward to suggest that this isn’t just a case of collateral damage coming out of an otherwise essential update, but a deliberate and wholly manual move on the part of Google to try and limit and/or punish the use of spam content.Of course, putting any specific numbers to the whole matter is rather difficult as it’s only ever going to be eBay and to some extent Google that know how much traffic the former is attracting. Pulling together the stats and facts that are available though, analysts estimate that overall traffic for eBay could be down by as much as 33%. Those taking the side of Google argue that eBay is still implementing SEO practices as if it was the year 2003 – tons of artificial pages that serve no purpose and clear keyword stuffing all over the place.Critics on the other hand are more interested in the ways in which the punishing of eBay will directly impact the selling activities of those that depend on the site to get by. It’s not as if most of the sellers on eBay play much of a role in the overall SEO strategy of eBay, so is it really fair that they should suffer as a result?Perhaps not, but there is an option on the cards for at least partially bridging the gaps…so say those with interests to look out for. As it’s inevitable that organic traffic will decline in a big way for many sellers and sales will suffer, one of the options on the table is to branch out into Google Shopping as a means by which to plug the holes. This would in theory ensure that even if their listings on eBay don’t make an appearance due to the SEO quarrel, they may instead pop up in Google’s own Shopping listing and direct the shopper to the appropriate page.There’s still the rumour going round that Google went out of its way to punish the hell out of eBay just because the retail site decided to stop spending quite so much on Adwords…an Accusation Google never issued a response to.Still, if nothing else it’s all compelling proof that it isn’t just the little guy that Google doesn’t feel bad about bashing…anyone’s fair game by the looks of things!