Interesting SERP trend I'm observing

[UnderRugSwept]

I know Google has been favoring brands a big names lately, but I'm seeing something a bit more alarming

Our company offers custom embroidered patches, and through keyword and search research I have discovered that almost all searches for "embroidered patches" are by people who need embroidered patches and are looking to purchase them, or learn more about the process of purchasing them. The SERPs for this term used to be all embroidered patch companies such as ours.

In the past month:

We've been outranked by a page on Amazon that's fairly irrelevant.

An equally irrelevant ebay page has emerged

The Wikipedia page for "embroidered patch" is now number seven.

This has pushed three other embroidered patch companies off the first page (not that I'm complaining because it wasn't our company . . . yet).

My question is, has anyone else noticed something similar happening, where large sites are gaining ground, in spite of the fact that they have low relevance to the search term?

[Bryan_Loconto]

I feel like the latest hidden update behind the EMD update has hurt sites with lots of low quality links. This means that a site like Amazon just needs to internally link to a page with a specified term and they can rank for it. I am sure this will not last too long, when searchers don't find what they are looking for the searchers are going to return to SERPs more often for different result.

[danatanseo]

Yes Marisa. I have seen both Amazon and eBay creeping into the top results for a niche product we sell that only churches buy. I am wondering if this is less Google and more a concerted effort by Amazon, eBay and Wikipedia to dominate. Let's face it, they have resources for research that we little guys don't have.

[UnderRugSwept]

Could be. I don't see why they'd waste any effort trying to dominate a result they're irrelevant for and no one will click on, or if they do, will bounce.

[conversiontactics]

Our Client are UK base and we are seeing same kind of results

Keyword like Radiator cabinets big brand are now appearing and taking over the serps.  Ebay and Amazon about a year ago they were not even on top 3 pages. The page that you land on  from there SERPs is also not relevant at times. This is just one example but similar scenarios on other industries e.g. baby, children's furniture etc. Seems like Google like big boys and it feels its no longer fair game especially for small businesses.

We have started to work on other avenues like facebook, niche directories, amazon, E bay, Direct email marketing,  monthly newsletters etc.

all these are geared towards getting sales.

.

[CMC-SD]

Does Wikipedia actively do SEO?

[UnderRugSwept]

I have absolutely no idea. I don't think they really need to at this point.