As Etsy mentioned during the Creativity Standards announcement, at the end of August they released new tools and guides related to search and discovery and today we will take a look at
The Etsy search visibility update
Similarly to the Creativity Standards announcement, this update is mostly bringing Etsy's communication around SEO up-to-date. Little is truly new but Etsy has updated their SEO guides and made them more interactive - we have a new page in the shop manager with specific actionable recommendations based on the guides.
The most interesting aspect of this update is that it finally states very clearly that SEO is about much more than keywords. A variety of success factors shapes the quality scores of Etsy listings and boosting your listing rankings requires both keyword enrichment, and dedicated efforts towards improving your success factors. You are already familiar with most of these topics from the success recommendations you receive from your team here and below are the most important takeaways to pay attention to.
What is new - the Etsy search visibility page
The Etsy search algorithm mostly stays the same with the exception of a free shipping variation that we will discuss below. The update is mostly in the Etsy Shop Manager, including a dedicated Etsy search visibility page. This page is the "main act" of this update and it features actionable tips about listing quality, customer service and shop info.
Whereas previously Etsy's communication about SEO was mostly about keywords, now they are clearly indicating that boosting customer experience factors and visual marketing can improve not only conversion rate but also traffic. Success factors are a very important layer of SEO and this page can give you some general tips.
These recommendations come from automated tools and often feel generic as they are tuned to detect the most basic problems in the average shop. Customer service recommendations in particular don't add a lot of value
Listing recommendations usually apply to main listing photos or corner-case listings that may use a generic category:
Particularly listing collages may be a good idea in certain cases and may be helping listing visibility and click-through-rates so each of these is up to you to decide.
And finally, if we are already working together, you probably have no issues with your About section and shop info
But while the automated tools cannot detect the specific needs of your store and niche, the importance of the update is that successful ranking clearly depends on factors like listing photos and engagement, conversion rates and open cases among others.
That's why it's really important to pay special attention to the SEO Success recommendations you receive from the team with your monthly strategies or in dedicated mails. They are based on personalized analysis for your store around the success factors that are embedded in the algorithm.
What is new - the Customer Service stats page
There is one more new, or rather, updated page - Etsy essentially reworked the Star Seller page and rating system into a new Customer Service Stats page.
They've even kept the link the same - https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/star-seller but there are a couple of notable differences:
- Etsy is introducing a new lower "Service Standard" level for each of the Star Seller metrics - this is basically the minimum for your Message Response Rate, Shipping and Reviews:
The Star Seller levels remain as they were and you get the glowy purple badge for meeting the higher targets. But if you fall below the Service Standard for any of the KPIs, your quality scores and search ranking will decline.
- As you can see above, Etsy is also adding a new key metric called Case rate. There are a lot of exceptions here and most cases actually don't count towards this metric:
Most importantly this doesn't include orders within the Etsy Purchase Protection program (which is automatic for any order under $250 that ship with tracking) plus it doesn't include orders over $250.
So if you are shipping your orders with tracking this should always stay at 0%. This is a failsafe mostly against sellers that ship without tracking or abandon their stores and it's targeting the more shady corners of the platform.
How Etsy search works - what's important?
Here is the big picture overview from the updated SEO guides. There are two main factors that affect your search performance and ranking:
- query matching - this is where you need keyword enrichment. More about what is Keyword Enrichment you can find in our blog article.
- ranking - this is where you need to work together with the team around your SEO Success objectives.
The SEO team here is taking care of all keyword aspects and the updated keyword guide goes in line with all the SEO activities.
What you need to pay attention to is that listing quality and listing engagement rate play important role for ranking. You can check out the full guide on creating well-converting listings where Etsy outlines 2 key steps:
- Getting clicks from search - just ranking your listings doesn't automatically mean you will get clicks, so Etsy is actually measuring the so-called Click-Through-Rate (CTR) in the background and the algorithm prioritizes listings with better CTRs which are more likely to be clicked by buyers.
Etsy is providing us with a nice infographic on CTR factors - you need a well-cropped main photo, nice start of the title, competitive price and preferably a discount.
Reviews can't be directly managed but everything else can be addressed and this is one of the reasons why running discounts can have a direct effect on traffic. Besides boosting your CTR (the likelihood for your listing to be clicked), discounts also enable your listing to show up in specific search filters during Etsy's promotional periods. Discount searches already play a key role during the Labor Day sale and as they will bring valuable traffic as we move into the Holiday Season.
- Boosting your conversion rate - once buyers open your listings, we are onto the next step and need to convince them this is where they ideally want to shop. The key here is that conversion rates are taken into account by the algorithm and affect ranking and traffic.
Etsy has provided us with an infographic here. In this case it's incomplete but you still can use it - having convincing "inner" photos in the listings (after the main one), descriptions (although buyers spend little time reading and this plays a lesser role) and good shipping times and prices are all important factors. On top of this - prices, discounts, variations and of course reviews of the respective listing play a very important role.
But besides listing-specific factors, there are also cases where external (non-Etsy) traffic of people who are not ready to buy just swamp a listing and lead to a drop in conversion rate and respectively in the listing's (and even the shop's) overall rating, aka quality score in the algorithm.
Conversion rate is one of the biggest topics on Etsy and that's why the Visual Marketing package is a key part of our Success Program. Visual Marketing is very helpful during Holiday Season. You can find more helpful information about our Etsy SEO Services on our home page.
For US based shops - shipping price prioritization in US search
We also have one actual update to the search algorithm which affects US stores and their ranking in domestic US search specifically.
From October 1. US listings that ship for $6 or less will receive higher ranking in the US search.
This is an extension of Etsy's Free Shipping and Free Shipping Guarantee prioritization which has been in place for years.
There are a lot of exceptions to this prioritization, aka ranking boost:
- this applies to you only if you are a US seller;
- if you are already offering Free shipping, you are already getting the boost;
- if you are using Etsy-calculated shipping prices in your shipping profiles - you are good as well.
For US-based shops that are shipping with USPS, your best approach might be switching to Etsy-calculated shipping.
And if you are offering Free shipping guarantee over $35, it's advisable to update your shipping for cheaper items to $6 - in most cases we are seeing $6.99 or $7.99.
If this applies to you, you will see a shipping recommendation on the Etsy Search visibility page:
The link will take you to a very convenient tool to calibrate the sale price and shipping price by $1-2 up and down respectively:
For stores with more expensive items - $100-500+, $6 shipping doesn't make much sense anyway but you have it as an alternative over Free Shipping. The best approach is to take a look at the what the stores in your niche are doing and adjust your strategy based on competitor analysis.
And once again - Etsy has clearly stated that the $6 shipping update applies only for US stores and only towards domestic shipping. Your international shipping prices are entirely up to you.
The Etsy search visibility update brings clarity and a more holistic approach to Etsy's SEO guidelines, emphasizing that success is about much more than just keywords. The update includes new tools, like the Search Visibility Page and Customer Service Stats Page, offering personalized and actionable recommendations. The algorithm now prioritizes a variety of factors such as listing quality, customer service, click-through rates, and conversion rates, in addition to keyword relevance. For U.S.-based sellers, shipping price prioritization has been updated to boost listings with low shipping costs. Ultimately, the update encourages sellers to focus on both visual and customer experience factors to improve their rankings, particularly ahead of the busy Holiday Season.
