eBay’s Head of SEO Takes on New Role at Searchmetrics [INTERVIEW]

Searchmetrics, an enterprise SEO platform company based in the US and Germany, announced today that Jordan Koene has left his position as eBay’s head of SEO and Content Development to join Searchmetrics as their Evangelist.

From the press release:

Koene, who was responsible for developing and planning eBay’s strategic SEO programs in North America and Europe, will be reporting to Searchmetrics’ founder and CTO, Marcus Tober. His new role involves working with enterprise businesses, helping them understand and plan how to maximize the value of search in their marketing mix with the help of Searchmetrics’ technology. Koene will act as the interface between clients and the engineering team to help ensure Searchmetrics’ product strategy and delivery reflect clients’ needs. As the leader of the professional services teams, he will also work on special projects at the pre-product stage, which could eventually lead to new features and tools being added to Searchmetrics’ software.

“Jordan is an extremely well-respected figure in the world of search, a high profile industry speaker and an innovative thinker when it comes to SEO,” said Marcus Tober, Founder and CTO for Searchmetrics. “We are very excited to have Jordan join our team and I’m confident he will play an important role in our future success.”

We asked Jordan about his experiences with eBay and his new role at Searchmetrics.

SEJ: You were at eBay for 4 years as head of SEO and Content Development. Why are you moving on now?

Jordan: eBay was an amazing place to work, allowing me to develop into a leader within the organization and the SEO space. After four great years at eBay working with super-talented people, I was looking for a new opportunity to continue to grow as a leader and take on new challenges, and I’ve found that opportunity at Searchmetrics.

SEJ: In the spring of 2013, eBay came out with a widely publicized study which concluded Adwords is essentially a waste of money. This past spring, eBay was hit with a massive Google penalty that negatively affected eBay’s search rankings. Do you think there is any linkage or connection between the two events?

Jordan: That would probably be a better question for Google, but I personally did not see these two events as being connected.

SEJ: Recode and Search Engine Land both reported (via unnamed sources) that eBay was hit with a manual penalty by Google, NOT Panda 4.0 as others speculated. What can you tell us about this?

Editor’s Note: An excerpt from the Bloomberg interview above with eBay’s Devin Wenig, President of Global eBay Marketplaces:

Interviewer: There was another challenge you experienced earlier this year, which was that Google changed their algorithms so they were funneling less traffic to your websites. Did you anticipate that this was going to happen?

Devin Wenig: We don’t anticipate it because Google controls their search algorithm like eBay controls our own. It’s our job to adapt to the changes Google makes, and we’re doing that. The good news is that Google makes changes to the way their algorithm is calculated periodically, and our job is then to change the way we do our marketing to adapt to that, and we’re in the process of doing that now. We have a great relationship with Google, a collaborative relationship — and we’re working on bringing some of that traffic back.

Interviewer: So how would you do that? Could you give me an example of how you tried to offset that?

Devin Wenig: Google’s algorithm is their own and it works on a bunch of different factors, so we have teams deep in our product organization that work very closely with them to make changes to the types of things people see when they search for an item like ‘luxury watch’. We want them to come to eBay because we have the best selection of luxury watches in the world. How that page might look, how it might be linked, where it might be ranked is all sort of deep in the mystery and magic of the eBay and Google algorithm, so we’re working with them on that right now.

SEJ: Some think the main culprits for eBay’s stint in the penalty box are 1) use of many thin, so-called “doorway” pages and 2) an elaborate internal link structure. Thoughts?

Jordan: See eBay’s comment on this topic in [the] Bloomberg article.

SEJ: What can you tell us about the process or strategy that eBay is going through to recover its rankings?

Jordan: See eBay’s comment on this topic in [the] Bloomberg article.

SEJ: Tell us about your new role at Searchmetrics. Will it be anything like your role at eBay?

Jordan: The new role at Searchmetrics involves responsibilities that already suit me well, while also allowing me to expand in other areas. My goal will be to help the company identify ways to help enterprise SEOs use the company’s software to improve their user experience and search traffic. I have a lot to learn about the enterprise b2b environment, so I’m looking forward to working with other enterprise SEOs.

SEJ: What about Searchmetrics in particular drew you towards working for them and leaving eBay?

Jordan: Searchmetrics is at the forefront of making a positive impact on both businesses and costumers using the web. During my time at eBay, I was a customer of Searchmetrics and learned how to leverage the tools to help eBay. I look forward to sharing these learnings with others to improve the SEO industry. Ultimately, the leadership and vision of Searchmetrics is what drew me towards the company, and I look forward to helping Marcus and his team make Searchmetrics a success in the US market.

SEJ: What are some major goals that you want to accomplish in your new position?

Jordan: We want to establish better patterns of using Searchmetrics data within enterprise companies, while continuing to grow awareness around the power of Searchmetrics. We offer an amazing tool which helps customers grow their businesses.