- Why are some products showing up on the first page
of the Etsy search results,
while others are stuck on page like seven?
How does the Etsy search algorithm work?
And perhaps most importantly,
what can you do to start ranking higher
in search results on Etsy?
That's exactly what we're about to cover in today's video.
Let's dive in.
(upbeat music)
I know that for most of the Etsy sellers I work with,
they come to me after having worked
on their own for a little while and not seeing results.
And when I ask, "Okay, so do you know
how the algorithm works?
Would you be able to briefly explain it to me
like in a few minutes?"
95% of the time they can't
because they don't really understand how it works.
They have some kind of idea,
but it's a bit blurry and they're still confused about it.
And I'm not shaming them or you if you don't know either.
That's totally fine to not know things,
and that's why I'm here to teach you.
But what I'm saying is that if you are selling on Etsy
and wanting to optimise for search results,
you need to first understand what the rules
of the game you're playing are.
Not just understand them a little bit,
but really understand them.
Well enough that you could explain them to someone else
if you wanted to.
This way, when you come across advice online on the topic,
you can very quickly see if it makes sense
or if it's like a tonne of rubbish, how it works,
and perhaps most importantly,
when Etsy updates its algorithm
you understand what it means and how to stay on top.
So that's what this video is aiming at,
getting you to become crystal clear
on how the Etsy algorithm works,
so you understand the rules of the game you're playing.
So let's do it.
Starting with this lovely "Ultimate Etsy SEO Guide"
I created for you.
Go download it.
The link is below.
There's so much good stuff in there.
It's completely free
and it's really going to help you expand
on what we're talking about today.
So you can get your shop in tiptop SEO shape.
The link is below, go get it.
Okay, so there's two main phases to any Etsy search,
query matching and ranking.
Let's take a good look at each of these phases work.
The first is query matching.
This starts when someone types a few keywords
in the search bar on Etsy, looking for a product to buy.
Let's say this person is looking for baby socks,
and so that's what they typed in.
This is called a search query,
which is really just a fancy way of saying keyword.
Etsy then uses this information to go looking for items
that match this search query, hence the name query matching.
And so Etsy will search for any listing in its database.
So any listing currently for sale on Etsy
that has baby socks in some way or another
in the product titles, the product tags,
the product categories, the product attributes,
and the product descriptions.
So far so good.
Someone type baby socks on the platform
and Etsy found a list of items that might be relevant.
At this stage though, there are still thousands
and thousands and thousands of listings
that Etsy could show to this shopper.
This is when phase two, ranking, comes into play.
So how does Etsy decide which listing to show first,
and second, and third from that list of thousands
and thousands of potential candidates?
In other words, how does Etsy rank works?
Etsy's number one goal is to show shoppers listing
or products that they are likely to buy,
and to do that they look at a few things
relevancy, listing quality score, recency,
customer and market experience score,
shipping price, translation and languages,
and shoppers' habits.
These are the seven Etsy ranking criteria.
Let's look at each of them
and what it means for you as a seller.
Starting with relevancy.
The more closely your title, tags, attributes, categories,
and product description match the search query
the more likely your item is to show up higher
in the search results because it is more relevant.
What does it mean for you?
Make sure to use all the opportunities that you have
to signal to Etsy that your product might be relevant
by using all your tags, the 13 tags,
adding relevant attributes,
picking specific categories for your products,
and crafting strategic titles
that includes your main keywords.
Now, that's easier said than done,
and there is certainly a bit of a technique behind it
when it comes to picking tags and writing titles.
And I have another video called "How to Do Title and Tags
for Etsy Search Plus Five Mistakes to Avoid,"
that walks you through how to do this.
The link will be done below for you to watch after this one.
The next ranking criteria we need to look at
is the listing quality score.
Etsy wants people to buy,
so they want to show potential shoppers 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.
They factor in a combination of data
such as clicks, views, favourites,
and the most important, purchases,
which is really just answering how many people who click
on your product listing end up purchasing it.
That's actually your listing conversion rate,
and the higher it is,
the more Etsy will want to show your product
to potential shoppers.
On the other end, if many people click on your listing
and visit it, but no one ever purchases it,
Etsy will start showing your listing less and less.
So what does it mean for you?
You wanna spend some time making sure
that your listings are optimised for sales.
I have a full video about the listing quality score,
which I also recommend you watch to dive deeper into this
and learn how to increase it with your listing.
Next up is recency.
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's going to rank this particular product
a little bit higher in search results,
and by doing that and giving it momentarily
a bit more visibility,
they start seeing our shoppers interact
with this listing and gather data
for that listing quality score we've just talked about.
So what does this mean for you?
It means that yes, a newer item is gonna get a boost,
but no, this is not a viable Etsy SEO strategy.
In fact, Etsy has said black on white
that "Regularly renewing your items
or creating new listing just to get the small boost
is not an effective search strategy."
It is much more important to pick the right tags
and to focus instead on your listing quality score.
Now let's look at the customer and markets experience score.
Etsy wants people to have the best possible experience
on the platform to maintain their brand standards
and encourage people to come and buy again, right?
So 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 five star product reviews,
I'm sure you already do that.
Reply to conversation quickly, ship as quickly as you can,
represent your item accurately
so there's no surprise when people receive them,
make sure that you have complete shop policies,
and that you craft a great about section for your shop.
Next up is shipping price.
Generally speaking, people don't like paying for shipping
and they're just more likely to buy
if the shipping is cheap or even better free.
It's annoying for you as a seller,
but it's just something that we have to deal with.
Etsy knows that from studying shoppers' behaviour.
And because just like you, they want sales,
they use shipping in their algorithm
to favour items with lower shipping fees
and rank them higher in search results.
So 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'm just giving you the facts
and this is a part of the algorithm.
Let's talk about translations and languages now.
This one is pretty straightforward and most useful
for those of you who want to sell
to more than one country or 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 are bilingual though, add manual translations.
They'll be better than the automatically generated ones
from Etsy, and they're gonna help you get found
by people who speak that other language.
Last but certainly not least, shoppers' habits.
This is the last criteria on our list 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.
Ranking is fluid, meaning that if I type in baby socks
and you type in baby socks,
we're not gonna see the same results
and not in the same order.
This is called contact specific results or CSR
and was added to the Etsy search algorithm in 2018.
Etsy uses past behaviour data on the platform
to show each shopper results
that they are more likely to buy.
And in 2021, with the introduction
of what's called their X-Walk search technology,
they have doubled down on those personalization efforts.
So if you, the person watching this video, and me, Deb,
type the exact same search term on Etsy,
we're not gonna see the same results
because the Etsy SEO search algorithm
will take into consideration our past searches,
our past purchases, and past things
that we've each favorited on the platform.
So Etsy starts essentially building
a profile about you and I filled with the information
about what we like and don't like,
and what we click on and don't click on.
Then Etsy uses this profile to start showing you more
of what you like and showing me more of what I like.
Not only that, but with X-Walk,
Etsy also looks at what everyone types into the search bar
in relation to what others have typed
and interacted with on Etsy.
So what does it mean for you?
In short, you simply can't aim at being number one.
There is no such thing.
Don't check your rank by typing your keywords
to see where your products actually show up
because every shopper sees different results.
That's not helpful.
Instead, use your shop stats to discover
which keywords are driving the most traffic.
So where do you start with all of that?
Well, my recommendation for you right now
is to one, go download the free Etsy SEO guide.
The link is just below this video.
It's a very complete guide
that will expand on what we've just covered,
so that you can actually take practical steps
to rank higher in search results.
And two, click on the video that's showing
on your screen right now.
That's the video I mentioned earlier
that will teach you how to pick your SEO tags
and how to write effective listing titles,
so you can rank higher in search.
Thanks for watching.
Make sure to subscribe.
And until next time, au revoir.