Potential cause behind lost views--but all is not lost (insight from webmaster)

[atomicgirl2024]

So, in 2022 I was thinking of going back to eBay to start selling again after microstock dried up completely for me. This is why I came to the forums, to get a feel for how things were going. Then I read about how so many people had lost views suddenly in May.

I know what some of you are going to say. Yes, the pandemic and struggling economy definitely has something to do with this. However, I believe people's suspicions that there's also a technical factor at hand here. Given my history with affiliate marketing, I think I know what happened.

In reading multiple forum posts, I came across comments about eBay having gotten rid of bots. At some point, someone mentioned Google potentially playing a part, and that's when the alarm bells went off. 

The reason why is that once upon a time during the Jurassic Period, I was a full-fledged affiliate marketer. Part of being an affiliate marketer was always being aware of what the search engines were up to all the time, especially Google. In case you don't know, since 2011, Google has been rolling out these infamous updates called "Panda," which will knock back or even wipe out the views of popular websites overnight.

It doesn't matter how big the sites are or whether they've always been in good standing, either. For example, About.com disappeared not after Google rolled out one of the first Pandas, and huge sites like WiseGeek and others had their views cut by half.

When the first of a wave of Panda updates first started rolling out, I was at Squidoo. The site had been red-flagged by Google but was warned in advance to fix some of its problems or risk being penalized. Squidoo complied but was slammed eventually and died a year later.

My gut instinct is that this is what happened with eBay recently. Bots were getting out of control and Google warned eBay about them. It said, "Get rid of them or we will severely wipe you out." eBay complied, but lost traffic anyway--not because it was dinged in visibility but because it lost the benefit of those bots boosting views in Google. 

I wanted to make sure if my theories weren't just me speculating out of my tookus, so I started looking at SEO forums reacting to the latest Google updates in 2022. Everyone is pointing to the week of May 18th when everything went south. Webmasters are reporting that their sites have lost tons of visitors, and that junk sites like Pinterest and Quora are now dominating Google's searches (read reactions here: Google May 2022 Core Update Is Live - Here Is What We Are Seeing Early On (seroundtable.com)

Besides the recent Google update potentially throwing the monkey wrench in the gear words, I also realized the unfortunate fact that newer generation of shoppers are no longer looking to Google to search for stuff to buy or even do comparison shopping. They are going to Pinterest, Tik Tok, etc. or directly to places like Etsy.

Now, I know this all sounds very bleak, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I'm hopeful because of where I live. I'm from NYC and even in a place as big as this, people are still marketing their services the old-fashioned way--fliers, postcards and business cards. Remember that you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to print something up and that maybe you can toss a few in a package for a customer to freely hand over to friends and family. Just because we are living in the digital age doesn't mean we still can't do things old school. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I do not have to look to Google for an explanation about my view count decline. It's right there in ebay's announcement, and that , for me at least, fully explains what I've been seeing: The bots are still present on ebay, but they are not being shown as part of our count. That explains a percentage of my decline, and I suspect particularly the fact that I no longer have instant views when I list...most of those were most likely bots. The remainder of the decline is because ebay is no longer showing me a lifetime total, but a ROLLING 30 day total. I sell long tail, single quantity items, and some have been listed for well over a year, so some had accumulated a fairly large number of views, but ebay has now cut out all the older views (both bots and real people).

That said, most of my view counts will never get that high again because the 30 day count is a rolling count....anything over 30 days rolls off, meaning today I could be at "9", and tomorrow, because 2 rolled off and one new one was added, at 8. 

So, my numbers are easily explained by the announced changes. Initially, seeing the low numbers (and even zero) is disconcerting, but it doesn't require any explanation beyond the stated explanation. And I just have to adjust my expectations to this new reality. 

Which is fine by me. This is a much more useful and accurate way of looking at views, and serves to remind me that my items are long tail (many are very long tail) and , because I sell single-quantity, I need only one buyer  for each listing....so a low view count doesn't mean my item won't sell. 

[diecastorbust]

I don’t even pretend to know what all this means what I do know is I started selling on eBay full time April 28th and my first Day o made over $300 in sales and I went on a tear I made well over 4k in the next two weeks then all of a sudden sales tanked almost put me under. During my run I never promoted just had good stuff ok pics and descriptions. One in peticular was a certain Hot Wheel I made one listing and I was literally the only one that had a supply of it. My listing had well over 700 views in just a matter of days and this thing sold like crazy then the crash my views went to zero and I couldn’t sell this car that just the day previously I could barely keep up. And then the ad of promotion hit now if I don’t pay to promote I might as well not even list it will not sell. I opened a store still have to pay to promote and it keeps going up if I stay at 2% Zero views go to four here the views come because I paid more. I can search and see the exact same product I’m selling sell left and right but mine won’t see a view and here comes eBay here raise your promotion and you will sell. My sellers exspenses on eBay went from like 18% to over 30% of my sales. I had two sales yesterday and I asked the buyer where they found my listing she said the card you put in the last thing I bout put me in your eBay store and I bought them now to me that sounds like I made that sale but eBay always takes their promotion fee saying they did. I guess to me it’s just eBay trying to reach further In my pocket for their gain.  Also I weigh my items after they are packed ready to ship before I put my shipping on eBay calculates and 7 times out of 10 I see a underpayment  shipping fee charge on my account like how I weighed it and measured box I then always mark it over the actual weight so if it weighd one pound I put 1.6 pounds and sure enough three dollars comes out for underpayment . I have also seen an huge increase in people buying stuff on Thursday night and then ghosting me for payment until I cancel the sale on Monday or Tuesday and how convienant my item was off the market the entire weekend. This whole last two weeks I have seen sellers bottom out prices on items just to make a sale like come on. Stay at the price we are all at and eventually people buy because that’s the only choice but when they know a seller will drop prices dramatically a day or two after the initial surge something that went for $75 yesterday now goes for $25 and my once $50 profit went to absolute zero after all the fees. We as sellers need to be competitive not cut throat we are all struggling and by bottoming out prices as fast as you can to make a sale your hurting yourself too you could have made $50 but instead you made 5. I’m sorry it’s been two weeks of racking my brain of how am I screwing up so bad and now I know it’s not me it’s corporate greed and the greed of a few that hurts every one

[chapeau-noir]

I never got used to high views to begin with because I never let anything run more than 60-80 days, before I delist it and tinker with it and relist it. Some things need to find their buyer, but I still don't think having tons of views with no buy is good for the listing - duration for that, of course, varies by seller and market. 

[vintagecraze50]

I think most people do an internal search for products anyway.  Yes you can compare prices on google from what comes up but most I think is done inside the websites.

[vintagecraze50]

Google searches have lost their relevance because there is too much stuff on there to begin with.

[vintagecraze50]

Early on in the internet age it was a good plan now that there a billions of websites not so much anymore. Each site is limited to the number of items that can be seen anyway, and when there are billions of ads etc all competing with each other it will become irrelevant.

[coolections]

People who shop Ebay go directly to Ebay . Your google theory means nothing to Ebay buyers. If they want it they will come for it.

[vintagecraze50]

Google search top results are always going to be the top retailers who spend a fortune on there to be in those spots. Therefore unless you pay as a small business as much as they do, unlikely you would be seen anyway there for a particular product.

[vintagecraze50]

People may look at google first, get a price from there on what they like, then go to Ebay and do internal search where they may find it cheaper.

[glasser]

@coolections  actually it would be great if eBay found away to better use search engines to drive new buyers to eBay, Once they are buyers they will know to search eBay directly.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I don't quite get this.  Not the tech talk, I get that.  The so-called "drop" that has occurred.   Ebay  explained the drop in views, quite well.  Why would it be anything other?   The 30 day rolling counts (without the bot views) ARE a little shocking, but my sales have gone up, so I guess I can't complain much.  Somehow even with the seemingly "low" views, items are still selling.   That's b/c the views haven't changed, the only thing that's changed is how they're being presented to us.  

As for google, some buyers search there, some search on Ebay.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@simply-the-best-for-you  I agree 100%.  ebay is not always very transparent, but in this case, ebay's explanation is spot on. No need to look elsewhere.

[johnson_junk_company]

People are using Pinterest as a marketing tool. The “pinned” item should link you to where the item is for sale or where it sold.