The Etsy Algorithm is about to get WORSE!

Josh Silverman, the Etsy SEO was involved in a few webinars in the past fet weeks
and there were some really interesting results
One is a change we may be seeing really soon to the Etsy Algorithm
The webinars are here
event.webcasts...
jpmorgan.metam...
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[@spottedbearknits3824]

As both the seller and a buyer, I am very suspect of Etsy’s abilities with their search algorithm. When I get emails, suggesting items hand picked for me they are sometimes the most bizarre things that I would absolutely never have any interest in and I wonder where did they get the idea I might like this!!!

[@PamDuthie]

I agree, as a buyer I dont even look at those emails any more, there is never anything interesting for me in there

[@handeb1971]

I am a star seller ever since they started it. Yet, what I see at the very top of searches are people who have lots of negative feedbacks with buyers accusing them of being scammers. Because those sellers pay way more for ads than I can afford. So I have to spend more for ads, constantly try to optimize my listings. To no avail. Why are my efforts of being a good seller not being awarded accordingly? To me Etsy only cares about who pays more.

[@PamDuthie]

Yes quite often the worst is at the top

[@lee_banks]

I was wondering why one of my listings (with all the proper title and tags and photos) never got any interest and did not sell for almost a year. Checking stats I saw that the only keyword it was shown to buyers for was "outdoor pillow". The thing is, my listing is not an outdoor pillow and there is no mention of outdoor pillow nowhere. No wonder if someone clicked, it newer resulted in sale and then Etsy stopped showing this listing all together. Many new (very nice) listings die this way.

[@PamDuthie]

I know that is a worry but that should not hurt you. Etsy showing you in the wrong search should not help your ranking in other searches - they just look at your conversion for that one search term and see it is bad and stop showing you for that one search term

[@lee_banks]

@@PamDuthie Makes sense

[@juliamascardo638]

Because I primarily sell lower-priced digital products (around the $3-10 range), I tend not to get a lot of people coming back for reviews. They just want to download their files and be on their way. More than once recently I've gotten a 4* review with a comment along the lines of "I loved it, this was the best thing ever". As a result, enough 4* reviews -- even if they have glowing comments -- means that Star Seller can sometimes drift out of range for a month or two. When I've provided this to feedback for Etsy, they've talked about how good a 4* review is. And yet, it feels like I'm being penalized for "good reviews". I really wish CEOs had to use their own products. I think a lot of the challenges we face as sellers would be solved if the CEO had to spend a month trying to build/maintain a shop on Etsy.

[@PamDuthie]

Very true that different types of items get very different review rates

[@PamDuthie]

Yeah sadly investors are in charge too much, and they dont have the long term interests of sellers at heart

[@louiseperkins386]

Instead of changing the search engine I would look at adding more categories. Refine them so the buyer who know what they are looking for has a better chance at see it. Also, I don't like being shown stuff in my local area, because the shipping is cheaper, ONG really (poverty thinking again)?? I want to see all the cool stuff everyone makes in my chosen search. I hate they rely on machines thinking for me. There is no category for what I make so I have to put it in large categories hoping to be found. They are looking under the wrong rock!

[@PamDuthie]

Yeah I hear you about categories

[@sandyjacksonadams7771]

@lightarmy.888 Time will tell. Like all things new, the growing pains emerge. I'm hoping all the bugs are worked out before the Christmas rush holiday's otherwise Etsy WILL have a mess on their hands, unhappy investors, sellers & buyers. The money Etsy will cost them the future if they don't get it right...

[@louiseperkins386]

@@lightarmy.888 Sorry but it puts you in a closed box. I look for something I don't want and I get pages of the same crap. Not better

[@Bekind95]

Regarding localization, does this mean that Canadian shop listings will show predominantly to Canadian customers, and almost nonexistent to US customers?

[@PamDuthie]

I hope not, but that might be the case

[@jennykay780]

It seems that Etsy pushes digital products first since they are instant.

[@mattjones1919]

If they are having to rewrite their core algorithms, then I suspect they just bought an off the shelf one or the original developers have now long since left and nobody knows how it really works. Gift mode killed my shop. Sales down 85% YoY and it just won't change no matter what I try. No wonder their revenues are down. They only earn if I make sales. They have really broken things. I'm giving it till Xmas then I'm out if things don't improve.

[@vonfridasusann1397]

Same here. Been on Etsy for 10 years and shop died overnight after gift mode implementation.

[@PamDuthie]

Interesting thought that they may have fired the people who knew about the algorithm

[@wendy__lake]

I’m all of a sudden seeing glitches. Etsy won’t let me change prices on some items. It shows that I changed it in the back end but the front end, nothing happens. Then today, I went to change quantity and when I changed it, Etsy said I had to change weight (that it couldn’t be zero). It wasn’t zero, it was 6 ounces. No matter what I put in, it wouldn’t update. So I couldn’t change inventory quantity at all.

[@louiseperkins386]

oh I wish they would stop changing thing and let the dust settle!

[@PamDuthie]

It is a good point that if you make too many changes you dont get a chance to see if any of them work

[@cjdragonsplanet3509]

How does Etsy not know how to explain its own site? Change is always necessary and the growing pains that come with it are necessary, but why go backwards instead of trying to fix what is broken. Maybe it can't be fixed? For our sake, I hope they dont desroy their own platform.

[@PamDuthie]

Yeah its a worry

[@katswinton3809]

I worry it will be a return to the like-for-like days, as you say. Also, if they focus on localisation, why can't buyers filter by country when using gift mode? Surely, if they are looking to be the first thought for gifts (and they want buyers to get their item faster), being able to filter by country is kinda important!

[@TeresaWinter-s3m]

Well they meed to sort it out sharpo. All l see top of search is Etsy pick shops with low review rateings selling lots of items that are not vintage atall but advertised as they are. Being bought up in a antique background vintage and antique you know what is vintage Chinese ceramic and what was made yesterday. The same applies to pottery and glass wears. You can tell by their listings they dont put age etc. And changing search to localize well distater. Im in kent and most of my customers are up north all over uk and makes no difference on my postage costs . Never get customers from south east it is broke . Most the customers are up north ,midlands Lam

[@PamDuthie]

Yes I agree, they need to clean up vintage as well

[@kimhilbert254]

Localization has been a thing. It was bad in my shop last year, but lately it seems like the algorithm is taking into account how quickly the item arrives. Since March I've slowly started getting more and more sales from the US West Coast (I'm on the East Coast). I have a flat shipping rate so it costs the same for the customer in the same state or across the country. And, funny enough, it doesn't take much (if any longer) to travel across the US or down the eastern seaboard. Why localization? I don't know. But I do think they are getting better. I'm still hopeful for these changes. I'm cautiously optimistic that these changes will be good for sellers.

[@PamDuthie]

Yes they have been dipping in and out of localisations for a while now

[@leannfrobom847]

This makes me very, very nervous.

[@PamDuthie]

Yeah I understand

[@rachelmorrison-se3vk]

I've been selling on Etsy since February 2023 and was getting so excited about getting at least four sales a week after being in business about 6 months. All of June I've only had three sales so far and I add new listings every week. My sales better pick up soon or I'm just going to Shopify and finding some way to pay for advertising. I'm tired of them changing things and I saw they had some request a video for listings that don't have a video? A lot of my listings do have videos but I still think that should be the seller's choice who pays their money for Etsy's services. It feels like I barely have my own shop with all of this bs they keep doing!! I also am a star seller with all five star reviews as well and barely get views nowadays!!

[@jennykay780]

I find that when a complain about something, my sales completely drop off. Like they reset all my stuff and my listings start from the bottom.

[@PamDuthie]

Oh dear, where are you complaining that you see this? It is not something I have noticed before

[@jennykay780]

@@PamDuthie I had some buyer want a refund two weeks after they received an item. I told her to return it and I would despite my one week policy. Then I sent over a return label. A week later she never returned it and filed a complaint. Etsy’s AI refunded her. I managed to get ahold of someone that dealt with the issue and asked them how it’s not straight up theft. How they should have taken the loss with that BS policy of theirs. All they could respond with was “their policy”. I asked him why you allow us to state a policy and not allow us to enforce it. I never got a response back. Just a case closed. My traffic tanked after that. I pay $25 a day in advertising. I was barely reaching $5. All because some lady doesn’t know how to use a drop down menu. I’m afraid to have big sales Incase this happens again. What’s to stop someone from doing this. Etsy needs to realize their sellers are also their buyers. I don’t shop on Etsy cause they treat me like crap and they don’t want my business. Unfortunately this is a large portion of my family’s income.

[@ninetiesperson7980]

Thank you foryourvideo. I like your top .

[@PamDuthie]

Thank you

[@awlthatwoodcrafts8911]

It seems to have been a bad PR move to say that the algorithm is "unexplainable". There are plenty of other ways to describe something that complex. It really doesn't matter what changes they make. Once people figure it out, i.e. how to exploit it, it becomes an unlevel playing field again. If there is someone smart enough to design something complex, there is someone else out there that is smart enough to figure it out. It's a never ending game. The problem isn't how to rank things fairly, the problem is eliminating the items that should never exist on the platform to begin with.

[@PamDuthie]

Yes very good point

[@sandyjacksonadams7771]

OK. He's not really saying anything that makes sense. Is he going to post our listing quality score for us to view? How? Where? Shipping time? It doesn't make sense? We, as sellers, can't control shipping once it leaves our hands. My business is in Virginia, but a customer asked me why their package was in Indiana, but they reside in Maryland? So now we're responsible for shipping? Sounds like he's trying to ease us into the Amazon mindset. Hummm, I may have to finish building my website outside of Etsy. I like Etsy & I want it to be successful. But if Etsy is attempting to acclimate to Amazon & Temu standards, making sellers place ads to get ranked higher. Sounds like they want sellers to use paid ads, which = less money to sellers, more money for Etsy 😢😢

[@barbi111]

I will never ever pay them for ads. I have spend like $100 minimum and had 1 sale, with a $5 profit. No thanks.

[@sandyjacksonadams7771]

@barbi111 I have never paid for ads. Although I am a business that has met the 10k threshold, I'm stuck with the off-site ads when Etsy advertises my hand-made items. Feeling frustrated & confused atm.

[@PamDuthie]

Yeah, I JUST got a bad review because my shipping took a week - to go around the world! So now my shop is tanked from a bad review that is totally not my fault

[@traceygurley1]

@@PamDuthiethat’s just crazy!!! People’s expectations of shipping is outrageous.

[@bonniepiehler693]

Unfortunately, we could learn this new circus act to rank higher only for etsy to change things again.

[@PamDuthie]

:D yes indeed

[@Lisa.DiPrete]

Every step they take makes me trust Etsy LESS - they don't know what they're doing, or they're serving their own pocket. As a person who cares about authenticity, why am I doing business with a shell game like this? Etsy, why not FIRST REMOVE the SCAMS and content factories in China and the Eastern Block that the top pages of my niche are crammed full of? Then figure out a way to cull the copyright infringing sellers. Then see what needs to be done to adjust for a reciprocal marketplace that offers true opportunity, not just games? You are too nice about all this, Pam - though I understand why.

[@Jessicaboylen]

Ugh.

[@PamDuthie]

Exactly

[@jocelynfarquhar2534]

What is this all about

[@PamDuthie]

Which bit?

[@sonic2blue]

1st comment 😋

[@hannahassan2574]

And ? Do you get brownie points ??