eBay CEO Devin Wenig said there was no material change resulting from Google algorithm updates in the May – June timeframe. He was responding to Wall Street analyst Mark May of Citi who asked about data that indicated eBay’s traffic might have been negatively impacted by Google’s “algo” changes.
May had referenced the concern in a pre-earnings report, which we wrote about on the EcommerceBytes Blog. He also raised the issue during eBay’s post-earnings conference call on Wednesday afternoon.
Wenig responded, “On the algo change, we haven’t seen a material change in search in the May – June timeframe. From Google.”
A seller raised a related issue on the EcommerceBytes post, questioning whether eBay’s move to make all listings “Good Til Cancelled” (GTC) was helping eBay with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). eBay had cited SEO as a major reason for mandating GTC listings, a change that has been extremely unpopular with sellers.
Unfortunately the topic of GTC’s impact on search traffic didn’t come up during eBay’s conference call, nor did eBay volunteer any information about it.
You can read more about eBay’s second-quarter 2019 financial performance in this article.
Ina Steiner
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She’s a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of “Turn eBay Data Into Dollars” (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, “Blogging Heroes” (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to [email protected].