As we enter Q4 and holiday season shopping, Etsy is rolling out a couple of new tools to add to our SEO toolkit. If you have logged into your shop dashboard lately, you have likely noticed some shiny new buttons appearing here and there.
Like every new release on Etsy, they are testing things out and there is a catch. Let’s unpack what’s new, how it works, and what we can actually do with it.
The new Fall 2025 Etsy SEO tools
The new Etsy AI-generated title suggestions and the refreshed Marketplace Insights dashboard are both important additions to the Etsy SEO landscape which, however, point in different directions. While Etsy AI titles come with the promise of "quick and dirty" optimization, the insights tool gives us Etsy volume data for the first time which can be a treasure trove for deliberate growth SEO and seasonal Etsy traffic.
1. The new AI-generated Etsy title suggestions
If you have edited a listing recently, you’ve probably seen the new “AI title suggestions” button hovering right above your title box, or you can find a similar message in your search visibility page in your shop manager.
What happened is that Etsy jumped on the AI hype machine and now their machine learning system scans your existing title, tags, attributes, descriptions, even your first photo, and then in in combination with one of the large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT generates a suggested title, supposedly optimized for visibility.
Sounds great and easy, right?
Well, yes and no, and it could be very dangerous if you rely on it completely.
The advantage
For new sellers, this tool can help describe their listing. There are upwards of 100,000 new stores opening up every month and a big majority start out with titles like "Blue mug" which is guaranteed to provide very little visibility in the algorithm. A slightly longer title, even if AI-generated and not entirely relevant or optimized, can be much better than carrying literally one phrase.
In this case, the AI titles check the box for "quick and dirty" SEO.
The pitfall
However, for top 1-2-3% Etsy sellers, who already have traffic and look for growth, these generic Etsy AI titles can literally tank your Etsy sales.
It’s been a month since Etsy rolled out this new AI tool, and we chose not to rush into using it right away. Instead, we ran several tests to evaluate whether it was truly worth implementing.
The way Etsy communicates this in the dashboard creates the false impression that using it is mandatory. However, that’s not the case. The results from our tests are far from satisfying, and even Etsy warns you in the "fine print" to back-up your original titles before making any updates:
But the fine print is at the end of a new SEO article that very few people have actually seen. In this regard, Etsy's marketing team has been very misleading which has likely damaged many stores in the past few weeks.
Let me share a quick example of how AI-generated titles can actually hurt your Etsy sales and performance.
Here is before-and-after data of a well-performing listing updated to a new AI title at the end of August. After changing the title, sales literally stopped - like cut with a knife.
The prompts in the Etsy interface urged a lot of sellers to make hasty mistakes like this. We restored the original title after a week, but it took time to for orders to start coming in again and results are still not at the pre-AI title level.
In a nutshell - Etsy’s new AI titles aren’t suitable for growing your store. They’re generic, ignore real-time trends and performance data, and completely miss the nuance of seasonality. There’s no true strategy behind them - and for strong, established shops, they can actually do more harm than good.
This is also a useful reminder that a listing that’s been thriving can drop to zero faster than we are used to think. For those of you who’ve been in our programs a while, steady traffic and revenue might feel entirely normal and expected - but that’s exactly why we stay sharp. Stability and growth aren't guaranteed. They are earned month after month by aligning with the algorithm and the market, not blindly trusting any kind of "quick and dirty" shortcut.
2. Marketplace Insights - the Real-time SEO treasure map
Etsy also released something that can be actually useful and make a real dent for someone obsessed with data - like your Etsy SEO team here at Artery.
Just below your shop stats, we now have a powerful new feature called Etsy Marketplace Insights. For now Etsy are still rolling it out so if it's missing in your dashboard, no worries, it will most likely arrive in the coming weeks.
This is a very useful addition to our data-driven SEO toolkit. Etsy now shows real-time search volumes and the total number of results for a given keyword over the last 30 days.
The advantage
This is great news, because for the first time, Etsy has opened a real window into its internal search data. This tool is similar to Google's keyword planner and it can definitely help for keyword research. And while there are many other tools for general keyword research, what's unique about these insights is that tye give us a real-time glimpse into the impact of seasonal keywords and those coming from the latest landing pages.
These trending phrases are very time-sensitive and can last as short as 1-2 weeks while the traffic boosts can be 10-20x of their average serch volume. Capturing this traffic has been the bread-and-butter of Real-time SEO and seasonal optimization over the last years. Now we finally have insider search data from Etsy that not only enables us to spot them as they arise but also to see when the seasonal traffic has died down and we can transition to the next trend.
eRank vs Marketplace Insights
The new insights provide us with a more detailed and precise view of search trends for any given keyword. Unlike the broad, generalized data that eRank typically offers over longer periods - even when they do actually catch a time-sensitive trend - the new Etsy insights allow us to track keyword performance over shorter, more specific time frames. This means we can identify emerging trends, seasonal fluctuations, and shifts in buyer interest much earlier and adapt quickly.
The pitfall
As with any shiny new tool, there’s a temptation to go treasure hunting - and that’s where things can go off-track.
Marketplace Insights gives us real data, yes, but it’s still just a tool - not a golden ticket. One common trap, especially for newer sellers, is chasing what we call “unicorn keywords” - those mythical high-search, low-competition terms that supposedly guarantee instant visibility and sales.
Spoiler: they rarely exist, and even when they do, they’re usually short-lived or saturated within days.
The truth is, Etsy search performance depends on much more than hitting a few "right" keywords. The overall strength of your shop depends on the larger pool of keywords in your store and broader context across your listings - and the more intelligent the search engine becomes, the more important big-picture strategy is.
So instead of chasing unicorns, we are starting to incorporate Marketplace Insights as one piece of a bigger puzzle - combining it with real performance data, listing analytics, and buyer behavior. That’s where the real magic (and growth) happens.
The insights tool is here to be used as a compass, not a map.
Etsy has finally released new SEO tools that have been long overdue. But don't mistake AI-generated title suggestions for putting your SEO on autopilot.
Actually, autopilot and set-it-and-forget-it mentality have been the biggest bottlenecks for Etsy growth for years. While the AI titles offer a fast fix for beginners, they lack strategy and can seriously hurt established shops.
On the flip side, Marketplace Insights gives us real-time keyword data straight from Etsy - a big win for strategic, seasonal SEO. And just in time for the whole line-up of Q4 opportunities in front of us.
Over the next few months, we’ll likely see Etsy fine-tuning these features as they collect feedback and performance data. The key for getting an edge is adapting intelligently by testing, tracking, and learning what works.
On a side note - our Creative Team has a few open Q4 slots for Etsy Visual Marketing and Etsy Email Marketing.
If you want to give your shop a fresh seasonal look for Black Friday or tap your existing client-base with Holiday Season campaigns, you can follow the links and apply for a slot.
