Understanding Etsy SEO: Complete Guide to Etsy Search Algorithm - Tizzit.co

Understanding Etsy SEO: Complete Guide to Etsy Search Algorithm

June 25, 2019

How does Etsy search and its algorithm work? How does Etsy decide which products are being shown and which aren’t? Are newer items prioritized? What does Etsy use to rank the search results? If you don’t know the answers and are trying to sell your products, you MUST watch this video. It’s time to get away from opinion pieces about Etsy SEO and forums threads based on one seller’s experience only. Let’s get to the facts: how does Etsy Search really work?
 
Too many sellers don’t take the time to understand this and you can’t be successful with your Etsy SEO without understanding the basics of it. Whether you are looking for tips to get started with Etsy SEO or an experienced seller needing a refresher – this is the video (and FREE Etsy SEO 101 guide) for you. Let’s dive in.
 
You can watch the video or read the written version below.
DOWNLOAD THE FREE ETSY SEO 101 GUIDE

KNOW THE FACTS

 
There is A LOT of info out there about Etsy SEO, some great… some ill-informed and downright dangerous for your shop’s success. My biggest piece of advice is to always, always check the facts. What I am about to share isn’t an opinion piece based on one seller’s experience, it’s factual information from the horse’s mouth. I am not making any of this up, and you can find this information on Etsy’s website. In fact, I highly recommend you take the time to read the Etsy Seller Handbook and its section on SEO, but because I love summing up stuff and because you’re probably too busy to go read the whole thing anyway, here’s what you need to know about Etsy search, and how it really works. I also created a Etsy SEO 101 Guide that you can get for FREE here.
 
They are two main phases to any Etsy search: query matching and ranking. Let’s take a good look at how each of these phases work.
 
 

QUERY MATCHING

 
Someone types a few keywords in the search field of Etsy, looking for a product to buy. Let’s say that person is looking for “baby socks” and that’s what they typed in. This is called a “search query”. It’s just a fancy, kind of nerdy sounding word for saying “keyword”.
 
Etsy will use this information and look in their database for items that match this search query, hence the name “query matching”. All this means is that Etsy scans all the products listed on their platform looking for a keyword match for “baby socks” in:
 
Then comes phase two which is ranking.
 
 

RANKING

 
So far so good. Someone typed “baby socks” on the platform and Etsy found a list of items that might be relevant.
 
At this stage, there are still thousands and thousands of listings that Etsy could show to this shopper.
 
So how does Etsy decide which listing to show first? In other words, how does Etsy rank works?
 
Etsy’s #1 goal is to show shoppers listings or products that they are likely to buy. To do that they look at a few things:
  • Relevancy;
  • Listing quality score;
  • Recency;
  • Customer and market experience score;
  • Shipping price;
  • Translations and languages;
  • Shoppers habits.
 
Let’s look at each of them and what they mean for you as a seller.

Grab this free ETSY SEO GUIDE!

a complete guide to Understanding how etsy search (and ranking) actually works so you can make the most of it and get more views on your products.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Relevancy

 
The more closely your title, tags, attributes, and categories match the search query, the more likely it is that your item will show up higher in the search results because it is more “relevant”.
 
What does it mean for you:
  • Use ALL 13 tags;
  • Add relevant attributes options;
  • Pick specific categories for your products.
 
 

Listing Quality Score

 
Etsy wants people to buy, so they want to show potential shopper product listings that they know sell well. As soon as you list a product in your shop, Etsy keeps track of how well it is performing.
 
How many people who click on your product listing end up purchasing it? That’s called your listing conversion rate, and the higher it is, the more Etsy will want to show your product to potential shoppers. On the other hand, if a lot of people click but no one ever purchases, Etsy will start showing your listing less. That’s why it’s important to keep your conversion rate up.
 
What does it mean for you?
Spend some time making sure your listings are optimized for sales: your product photography should be of a professional standard, your product descriptions should highlight benefits and not just features, and focus on the quality of your traffic rather than on the volume. 
 
 

Recency

 
Etsy likes new products. When you list a new item, it gets a temporary little boost lasting from a few hours to a few days. During that period Etsy will rank this particular product a bit higher in search results. By momentarily giving more visibility to this product, Etsy can see how shoppers interact with it and gather data for that “listing quality score” we’ve just mentioned.
 
What does that mean for you?
Yes, newer items do get a boost but NO, this is not a viable Etsy SEO strategy. In fact, Etsy has said black on white: “Regularly renewing your items or creating new listings just to get this small boost isn’t an effective search optimization strategy.”
 
It is much more important to pick the right tags and to focus on your listing quality score or conversion rate.

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Customer and market experience score 

 
Another score! Etsy want people to have the best possible experience on the platform to maintain their brand standards and encourage repeat buyers. For this reason they look at your reputation. If you have a lot of great reviews, you’re more likely to rank higher than if you have a few open cases against your shop.
 
What does it mean for you?
  • Provide excellent customer service to encourage 5 star product reviews (reply to convo quickly, ship quickly, represent items accurately so there’s no surprise when they receive item, etc.).
  • Make sure you have complete shop policies.
 
 

Shipping price

 
People don’t like paying for shipping and are more likely to buy if the shipping is cheap or even better, free. Etsy knows that from studying shoppers’ behavior, and because just like you – they want sales, they use shipping in their algorithm. Items with lower shipping fees rank higher in search.
 
UPDATE: From July 30th, 2019 priority placement will be given in US search results to items that ship free and to shops that guarantee free shipping to US buyers on orders of $35 or more.” To learn more about this policy and decide if you should offer free shipping or not on Etsy, click here. 
 
What does it mean for you?
When and if possible, try to lower your shipping fees. I know this isn’t always possible, but again, I am just giving you the facts – and this is a part of the algorithm.
 
 

Translations and languages

 
This one is pretty straightforward and most useful for those of you who want to sell to more than one country/language: 
  • If you set up your shop’s language as “Spanish”, don’t write your tags in English. And vice versa. Etsy will translate them for you. 
  • If you can, add manual translations – they will often be better than the automatically generated one from Etsy and help you get found (rank higher).
 
 

Shopper’s habits

 
This is the last one and it’s a BIGGIE, so pay close attention.
 
All the ranking factors we just covered help Etsy decide in which order to display search results, but there is NO SUCH THING as a unified “rank” anymore – meaning that if I type in “baby socks” and you type in “baby socks”, we will not see the same results and not in the same order. This is called Context Specific Results or CSR and was added to the Etsy search algorithm in September 2018. Etsy uses past behaviour data on the platform to show each shopper results that they are more likely to buy.
 
What does it mean for you?
You simply can’t aim at being #1 – there is no such thing anymore. Don’t “check your rank” by typing your keywords to see where your products show up because every shopper sees different results – that’s not helpful. Instead, use your shop’s stats to discover which keywords are driving the most traffic.
 
That’s it my friend – your factual summary on how the Etsy search actually works. As promised, I have a free Etsy SEO 101 guide + checklist that I created and that you can download here. Let me know: did anything surprise you?

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  1. Deb says:
    June 26, 2019 at 11:57 am

    Thank you for this easy to understand explanation of a rather complex Etsy SEO environment 🙂

    Reply
  2. The Unexpected Value of Organic Search Traffic says:
    June 6, 2020 at 1:57 am

    […] Understanding Etsy SEO: Complete Guide (Tizzit) […]

    Reply

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