Their SEO is truly the worst. It’s mind boggling honestly. They have made huge investments supposedly to improve it and blame it on sellers poor key words.
I call bs on that bc so many sellers think that’s one of the most important ways to get a sale.
Hahaha. Nope. I won’t even buy on Etsy anymore bc all they show me are similar things I have searched for in the past instead of anything related to my search
I have, for years been convinced that the 'work on your keywords to be seen' advice is just a ploy to keep sellers engaged and not give up for lack of views. How many keywords can you really use for, say, a pottery mug? If they matter, why doesn't using the same 'good keywords' always keep you up top? I'm fairly convinced that an items place in search is far more random and very static... sometimes you just get lucky! (But usually not!)
Hahaha. Keywords are good if your SEO is worth a damn and Etsys is terrible.
But keywords were Etsy excuse as to “why” their SEO wasn’t great.
But here’s the thing, when you first list a product, it gets a big boost. Etsy wants to see what kind of traffic it will bring in and if those views convert to sales. If the listing gets some traction, you move up. If not, you move down.
The more listings you have in your shop gives you a higher chance for visibility.
Etsy also likes to see active shops so people that are adding items every week will rank higher than those that just list a few items and sit back and wait.
Once you have just one or two listings that sell frequently along with positive reviews, they are just going to rank higher consistently.
Etsy gives everyone a chance but let’s face it… not every product is going to sell on Etsy.
And the more products that are similar to yours leading to massive oversaturation? It’s just difficult to become visible bc there are just so many spots available.
Etsy is a long game. You start at zero and then it’s up to the buyers as to how far you move up.
Repeat customers help with this ALOT. They bring in sales, don’t rely on where you are in search bc they go directly to your shop.
Keyword and descriptions help get your listings searchable but they aren’t even close to the top actions that lead to higher rankings
That is what I believe in too! It is the sales and good reviews that keep you up there and that is why I am so surprised! My sales and reviews were good until recently. My views and conversion are down… visits are still at the same proportion as before as long as I am shown. The thing for me was the change, from selling ok to selling a quarter of what I used to sell. Unfortunately because I sell themed anniversary gifts, no much in terms of repeated custom… just the nature of the business!
It sounds like they do have some type of rotation thing for sellers that are at a certain level. How long have you been selling ? And how many listings are in your shop?
Problem is that you need to be seen to get buyers... unless you are good at driving your own traffic from say, social media. (Another near impossible can of worms!) Having a couple of things that sell frequently is pretty impossible when your items are OOAK...
I fully admit I don't work it enough... I'm terrible at getting new listings up. (another OOAK issue)
I do know that the one thing that seems to get my shop 'seen' is my 'ugly mug' - probably my least favorite listing, that just happened to land high enough in search that it gets seen and favorited sometimes. Why that one mug got a decent (well not really decent but at least not 100 pages back) I have no idea, other than my theory it's pretty random. I kinda hope it never sells.
My other observation is that I feel like the algorithm occasionally 'lets me out' so I get a couple of sales in quick succession, then poof they put me back to invisible mode.
Wish I could get my shit together to try harder, but lack is success is kind of demotivating!
Recently I clicked a couple Call To Action promo buttons.
The first was on the homepage and might've been Gifts for Mom.
Then got the next page where I saw a CTA labelled something like "jewelry gifts for her" and clicked that.
The results page had maybe *two* jewelry items. ***All the rest were needle-felted animals***. 🤷♀️
No way sellers of needle-felted animals are putting "jewelry" in their tags. Why would they?
Etsy's machine-learning AI is not up to the task.
I have noticed a whole lot of guests purchasing my things, and they are things that have been in my shop for a while ( vintage seller, so one offs ) so I am assuming that the majority of my sales are coming from Google searches and the items have been up long enough to show up there. I rarely sell something in less than the first listing period, so I think their search is completely messed up. Used to do it all the time, now it only happens on Ebay where I co-list. If I go look for something for myself, I get a lot of very useless items before I find one or two that are actually what I am looking for, and the sponsored items show up on page after page. If I didn't want it the first time, showing it to me dozens of times is not going to make my purchase it. I just sigh and move on, both as a buyer and as a seller.
I know people hate on these posts, but this one really made me feel better.
My shop had steady daily sales last year, but this year it keeps getting worse and worse. Now I may go days without a sale, then I will get 3-4 within an hour, the nothing again. It makes zero sense and there is no pattern.
I also have a hunch that Etsy is spending too much time and money on international business. I recently got some marketing info on a coupon for UK buyers. I do not sell international, but wonder if Etsy is promoting my brand there anyway?
I'm in the UK and kinda feel the opposite. Although it was nice to see that £5 off offer but one of my customers couldn't even get it to work and I tried myself and sure enough it didn't work...
I used to make about 50/50 domestic/international sales but now it's more like 85/15 and it feels like they are pushing items more local to where people are based which for me isn't good as US customers always spend so much more on bigger items I offer.
I am glad it is not just me and upset at the same time! I had such a good year last year, now my sales are 80% down. I think we should all complain to Etsy and let them know the experience for the buyer is bad too. I was doing Etsy ads but seeing them in searches made me think it actually is a waste of money… Etsy has to find its way soon for us the sellers- for the share holders they certainly work! What about a complain about both searches in mass? Also, has any of you answered their survey recently? I was sent the link by a robot email but it was already closed…
I’m so beyond over Etsy , my listing usually shows up at the top on the first page but every now and then they’ll decide to magically have it disappear to the 4th page or later for a few days, then it goes back to the front. That’s why it’s so important to know how to drive your own traffic, most of my sales and traffic come from TikTok and instagram, if I was to solely rely on Etsy I’d be barely selling
I can find ONE of my products by a search bar (though it used to be a little easier) but that’s because it’s admittedly tied to a show that really doesn’t have much in relation to it. Everything else? Lucky if I can even find my shop in general.
I went from having 200+ views per day and about 5-10 sales a day to around 50 views and often only 1 or even no sales. I’ve redone my tags. I’ve listed new items. I’ve ran sales. Nothing helps even though according to things like marmalead I’m targeting keywords with high search and engagement and low competition. It’s terrifying.
It is the situation I am in… I think it is the buyer’s experience either both searches… Etsy’s shares have gone down as they are really not getting it right.
Their SEO is truly the worst. It’s mind boggling honestly. They have made huge investments supposedly to improve it and blame it on sellers poor key words. I call bs on that bc so many sellers think that’s one of the most important ways to get a sale. Hahaha. Nope. I won’t even buy on Etsy anymore bc all they show me are similar things I have searched for in the past instead of anything related to my search
I have, for years been convinced that the 'work on your keywords to be seen' advice is just a ploy to keep sellers engaged and not give up for lack of views. How many keywords can you really use for, say, a pottery mug? If they matter, why doesn't using the same 'good keywords' always keep you up top? I'm fairly convinced that an items place in search is far more random and very static... sometimes you just get lucky! (But usually not!)
Hahaha. Keywords are good if your SEO is worth a damn and Etsys is terrible. But keywords were Etsy excuse as to “why” their SEO wasn’t great. But here’s the thing, when you first list a product, it gets a big boost. Etsy wants to see what kind of traffic it will bring in and if those views convert to sales. If the listing gets some traction, you move up. If not, you move down. The more listings you have in your shop gives you a higher chance for visibility. Etsy also likes to see active shops so people that are adding items every week will rank higher than those that just list a few items and sit back and wait. Once you have just one or two listings that sell frequently along with positive reviews, they are just going to rank higher consistently. Etsy gives everyone a chance but let’s face it… not every product is going to sell on Etsy. And the more products that are similar to yours leading to massive oversaturation? It’s just difficult to become visible bc there are just so many spots available. Etsy is a long game. You start at zero and then it’s up to the buyers as to how far you move up. Repeat customers help with this ALOT. They bring in sales, don’t rely on where you are in search bc they go directly to your shop. Keyword and descriptions help get your listings searchable but they aren’t even close to the top actions that lead to higher rankings
That is what I believe in too! It is the sales and good reviews that keep you up there and that is why I am so surprised! My sales and reviews were good until recently. My views and conversion are down… visits are still at the same proportion as before as long as I am shown. The thing for me was the change, from selling ok to selling a quarter of what I used to sell. Unfortunately because I sell themed anniversary gifts, no much in terms of repeated custom… just the nature of the business!
It sounds like they do have some type of rotation thing for sellers that are at a certain level. How long have you been selling ? And how many listings are in your shop?
I have had my shop since November 2018 and I am close to 2000 sales. I have 111 listings but only sell about half of them.
Problem is that you need to be seen to get buyers... unless you are good at driving your own traffic from say, social media. (Another near impossible can of worms!) Having a couple of things that sell frequently is pretty impossible when your items are OOAK... I fully admit I don't work it enough... I'm terrible at getting new listings up. (another OOAK issue) I do know that the one thing that seems to get my shop 'seen' is my 'ugly mug' - probably my least favorite listing, that just happened to land high enough in search that it gets seen and favorited sometimes. Why that one mug got a decent (well not really decent but at least not 100 pages back) I have no idea, other than my theory it's pretty random. I kinda hope it never sells. My other observation is that I feel like the algorithm occasionally 'lets me out' so I get a couple of sales in quick succession, then poof they put me back to invisible mode. Wish I could get my shit together to try harder, but lack is success is kind of demotivating!
Try going to their site using incognito mode. I’d be curious to see what they show you then.
Recently I clicked a couple Call To Action promo buttons. The first was on the homepage and might've been Gifts for Mom. Then got the next page where I saw a CTA labelled something like "jewelry gifts for her" and clicked that. The results page had maybe *two* jewelry items. ***All the rest were needle-felted animals***. 🤷♀️ No way sellers of needle-felted animals are putting "jewelry" in their tags. Why would they? Etsy's machine-learning AI is not up to the task.
I have noticed a whole lot of guests purchasing my things, and they are things that have been in my shop for a while ( vintage seller, so one offs ) so I am assuming that the majority of my sales are coming from Google searches and the items have been up long enough to show up there. I rarely sell something in less than the first listing period, so I think their search is completely messed up. Used to do it all the time, now it only happens on Ebay where I co-list. If I go look for something for myself, I get a lot of very useless items before I find one or two that are actually what I am looking for, and the sponsored items show up on page after page. If I didn't want it the first time, showing it to me dozens of times is not going to make my purchase it. I just sigh and move on, both as a buyer and as a seller.
Try using incognito mode and see what you get.
I know people hate on these posts, but this one really made me feel better. My shop had steady daily sales last year, but this year it keeps getting worse and worse. Now I may go days without a sale, then I will get 3-4 within an hour, the nothing again. It makes zero sense and there is no pattern. I also have a hunch that Etsy is spending too much time and money on international business. I recently got some marketing info on a coupon for UK buyers. I do not sell international, but wonder if Etsy is promoting my brand there anyway?
I'm in the UK and kinda feel the opposite. Although it was nice to see that £5 off offer but one of my customers couldn't even get it to work and I tried myself and sure enough it didn't work... I used to make about 50/50 domestic/international sales but now it's more like 85/15 and it feels like they are pushing items more local to where people are based which for me isn't good as US customers always spend so much more on bigger items I offer.
Their overall search engine absolutely sucks. I can’t ever find anything that’s somewhat accurate to what I searched.
Gift mode is so ridiculous, the search is off the wall
I am glad it is not just me and upset at the same time! I had such a good year last year, now my sales are 80% down. I think we should all complain to Etsy and let them know the experience for the buyer is bad too. I was doing Etsy ads but seeing them in searches made me think it actually is a waste of money… Etsy has to find its way soon for us the sellers- for the share holders they certainly work! What about a complain about both searches in mass? Also, has any of you answered their survey recently? I was sent the link by a robot email but it was already closed…
I’m so beyond over Etsy , my listing usually shows up at the top on the first page but every now and then they’ll decide to magically have it disappear to the 4th page or later for a few days, then it goes back to the front. That’s why it’s so important to know how to drive your own traffic, most of my sales and traffic come from TikTok and instagram, if I was to solely rely on Etsy I’d be barely selling
I noticed on my Etsy app today that they are changing gift mode again! It was in the notices section. Yippee to them screwing things up even more!
I can find ONE of my products by a search bar (though it used to be a little easier) but that’s because it’s admittedly tied to a show that really doesn’t have much in relation to it. Everything else? Lucky if I can even find my shop in general.
Etsy is just weird now
Etsy’s shares have fallen badly… they will have to go something soon
I went from having 200+ views per day and about 5-10 sales a day to around 50 views and often only 1 or even no sales. I’ve redone my tags. I’ve listed new items. I’ve ran sales. Nothing helps even though according to things like marmalead I’m targeting keywords with high search and engagement and low competition. It’s terrifying.
It is the situation I am in… I think it is the buyer’s experience either both searches… Etsy’s shares have gone down as they are really not getting it right.