Etsy’s search function is designed to help buyers quickly find what they’re looking for, making it easy for them to complete a purchase. It’s essential that customers can easily discover your listings from your shop. When your listings are easy to find, it builds trust and encourages shoppers to keep coming back.
The search process on Etsy operates in two key stages: query matching and ranking. I’ll break each of these down shortly, but here’s a brief overview:
Query Matching: When a buyer enters a search term, Etsy scans its inventory to find listings that correspond to that term.
Ranking: Behind the scenes, Etsy orders the matched listings based on several factors, which I’ll detail further in a moment.
Additionally, Etsy employs a technology called Context Specific Ranking (CSR) to prioritise listings that are more likely to appeal to buyers, based on their shopping behaviour across the platform.
Before talking about the specifics, here are a few points to bear in mind:
- Upgrading to Etsy Plus won’t change the position of your listings in search results.
- Although Star Seller status doesn’t directly alter search rankings, it acts as a trust indicator and can potentially boost your shop’s conversion rate.
- Launching an Etsy Ads campaign only impacts your listing’s visibility in specific ad spots, not in the organic search results.
Search Query Matching
When someone searches on Etsy, the platform looks at the titles, tags, categories, and attributes you’ve included in your listings to match them with relevant queries.
Making full use of all 13 tags, varying your tags, adding comprehensive attributes, and categorising your items as precisely as possible can enhance the chances of your listings being found in searches.
Diversifying your inventory and experimenting with different tags allows your items to appear in more searches. By having a more varied inventory, you are less dependent on the success of a single product or category.
This strategy can help mitigate losses if one item or category performs poorly, as other items in the inventory may still perform well. It also allows you to attract different customer segments, meet varying needs, and adapt to changes in market demand.
Ranking the Listings
After identifying listings that match a buyer’s search, Etsy uses various criteria to rank these listings so that the most relevant and appealing items appear first.
Connecting buyers with top-notch listings frequently builds trust, encouraging them to revisit shops like yours. Here’s what Etsy takes into account when ranking listings:
Relevance
When your tags, titles, listing descriptions, categories, and attributes align with a buyer’s search query, your listings have a better chance of appearing in search results.
Exact keyword matches can give your listing a higher placement, as they’re seen as more relevant.
While it’s important to be descriptive and attractive to buyers, ensure your descriptions adhere to Etsy’s policies.
Shop Quality
Buyers want to know who they’re buying from, which is crucial for building trust in your shop and brand. For example, having a shop logo that represents your business, along with a real profile photo of yourself, is vital.
Listing Quality
With millions of unique items on Etsy, it’s important that your listings stand out by including multiple high-quality photos and a clear return policy. These factors are key in helping buyers make their purchase decisions.
Make sure your listing photos accurately represent the products you are selling if using mockups.
Postage price also influences search rankings, particularly for US sellers, as Etsy aims to prevent high postage costs from discouraging buyers.
You can enjoy priority placement in search results by offering free delivery on orders of $35 or more to US buyers.
Customer Service Quality
Etsy prioritises shops that consistently meet customer service standards in search rankings. Factors such as average review ratings, message response rates, and case resolution rates from the past three months play a role in this.
Translations and Language
When you set up your Etsy shop, you choose a primary language, and your listings should be written in that language. Etsy will translate your keywords to match buyer queries in different languages, but adding your own translations tends to result in higher quality and more natural listings.
Listing Engagement Score
Etsy’s goal is to help buyers find items they’ll purchase, so it looks at signals like how well a listing converts views into purchases to determine its engagement score and influence its placement in search results.
If you’ve been on a break and your shop has been in holiday mode, your listing engagement scores may remain static, affecting search traffic. Once you’re back, Etsy will start gathering fresh data on how shoppers interact with your listings.
Renewing Listings
New and renewed listings receive a temporary boost in search results, allowing Etsy to gauge how shoppers engage with them. This boost can last from a few hours to a few days, depending on search frequency.
However, regularly renewing listings just for this boost isn’t a sustainable strategy—focus instead on improving tags and conversion rates.
Buyers’ Habits
Etsy customises search results based on a buyer’s preferences and previous activity on the platform. As a result, your search results may look different from someone else’s.
Use your shop stats to see which items are drawing the most traffic from search and consider how to optimise your lower-performing listings for better conversion.
In summary, optimising your Etsy listings by focusing on relevance, quality, and customer service can significantly improve your search visibility. By understanding and leveraging Etsy’s search algorithms, you can ensure that your products are easily discoverable, encouraging repeat customers and boosting your shop’s success.
