Online auction giant eBay appears to have lost a lot of its traffic from the Google search engine, according to the latest results available from German search engine optimisation software developer Search metrics.
This follows the release, on May 20 2014, of version 4.0 of Google’s Panda algorithm, which is designed to ensure that only high quality websites appear near the top of Google search results.
According to initial data, released by Search metrics on May 21, eBay’s traffic fell by between 33% and 50%. It is unclear of course exactly how much of this fall can be attributed to the release of the Google Panda 4.0 update.
Sites showing a fall of more than 75% included showbiz news site aceshowbiz.com, relationships website yourtango.com and crafts and recipes site spoonful.com.
Those whose traffic fell by between 50% and 75% include online encyclopaedia ask.com, special offers site dealcatcher.com, and electronic products site digitaltrends.com.
When the actual numbers of hits are considered, ask.com fared worst, followed by eBay in second place. Celebrity profile site biography.com came third, followed by discount site retailmenot.com and entertainment news site starpulse.com.
Perhaps the biggest winners were two medical sites. Medical dictionaries medterms.com and emedicinehealth.com both saw a 500% increase in traffic, as did showbiz forum zimbio.com.
Fashion retailer shopstyle.com, cookery site myrecipes.com, discount site couponcabin.com, quotations encyclopaedia thinkexist.com, celebrity gossip site whosdatedwho.com and another health site in onhealth.com all experienced an increase of between 250% and 500%.
Based on the raw numbers of hits, those showing the highest increases were, in descending order: recruitment site glassdoor.com, emedicinehealth.com, medterms.com, yourdictionary.com and shopstyle.com.
The sites that are considered to be the winners and losers as a result of this update are very different from those who benefitted or suffered when version 3.5 of Panda was launched in April 2012. On that occasion, the sites with the largest falls in traffic were similarsites.com, which suggests other websites users might like based on their browsing habits; document searcher doc.txt-com; and website value calculator cubestat.com. Those with the biggest rises included music streaming site spotify.com, business directory yellowbook.com and menshealth.com.
