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Why give the platform all that seo. In the long past era we used to have a bunch of random webshops. Now sellers can barely survive unless they are on Etsy eBay

Why give the platform all that seo. In the long past era we used to have a bunch of random webshops. Now sellers can barely survive unless they are on Etsy eBay or Amazon. We gave them all that free SEO and now we are wishing we didn't.

deleted 7y ago
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rchaud 7y ago
Yeah, and back in the day the random webshops you're referring to didn't do a fraction of the business that Ebay, Etsy and Shopify are doing now. If people thought they could not pay those platforms' fees and still do OK, don't you think they would have? They're going to those platforms because that's where the shoppers are. You can definitely attempt to control your own SEO, but most sellers are there to sell stuff now; they don't have time to learn SEO and implement it if it doesn't bring them more business or save them more time compared to using another merchant's platform.
cortesoft 7y ago
As a consumer, though, it sure is a lot nicer to not have so many random webshops.
askafriend 7y ago
> Why give the platform all that seo. Because the business-person gets something valuable in return. It's a fine tradeoff to make if you make it explicitly and have a strategy.
amelius 7y ago
> We gave them all that free SEO and now we are wishing we didn't. Isn't a search engine required by law to be non-biased? So if you move to a different (or your own) platform, search engines should still allow people to find you just as easily.
- quanticle 7y ago
  >Isn't a search engine required by law to be non-biased? No? Why would you think that? Google routinely puts its own properties at the top of search results. >So if you move to a different (or your own) platform, search engines should still allow people to find you just as easily. Even if search engines were required to be unbiased, that conclusion still wouldn't follow. The hidden assumption there is that you're the only one selling that particular good or service. In practice, though, you're not. If a user is searching for, say, shoes, what search result is better for them? A link to Amazon or eBay, where there are hundreds of types of shoes? Or a link to your shop, which has a much more limited selection? There's a reason that people shop at Walmart instead of small general stores.

deleted 7y ago

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rchaud 7y ago

Yeah, and back in the day the random webshops you're referring to didn't do a fraction of the business that Ebay, Etsy and Shopify are doing now. If people thought they could not pay those platforms' fees and still do OK, don't you think they would have? They're going to those platforms because that's where the shoppers are. You can definitely attempt to control your own SEO, but most sellers are there to sell stuff now; they don't have time to learn SEO and implement it if it doesn't bring them more business or save them more time compared to using another merchant's platform.

cortesoft 7y ago

As a consumer, though, it sure is a lot nicer to not have so many random webshops.

askafriend 7y ago

> Why give the platform all that seo. Because the business-person gets something valuable in return. It's a fine tradeoff to make if you make it explicitly and have a strategy.

amelius 7y ago

> We gave them all that free SEO and now we are wishing we didn't. Isn't a search engine required by law to be non-biased? So if you move to a different (or your own) platform, search engines should still allow people to find you just as easily.

quanticle 7y ago
>Isn't a search engine required by law to be non-biased? No? Why would you think that? Google routinely puts its own properties at the top of search results. >So if you move to a different (or your own) platform, search engines should still allow people to find you just as easily. Even if search engines were required to be unbiased, that conclusion still wouldn't follow. The hidden assumption there is that you're the only one selling that particular good or service. In practice, though, you're not. If a user is searching for, say, shoes, what search result is better for them? A link to Amazon or eBay, where there are hundreds of types of shoes? Or a link to your shop, which has a much more limited selection? There's a reason that people shop at Walmart instead of small general stores.