Will false hearts make Etsy search break up with you?

The question, “if an item gets a lot of views and hearts and doesn’t sell it will lose relevancy in Etsy search?” has been asked many times in many ways.

The answer? It depends.


There’s a lot of noise in the how does Etsy search work space. Maybe you’ve heard of click parties aka clickathons. In case you haven’t, they’re based on the false belief that random views and favorites on your listings will increase your search ranking. Clickathons are a waste of time for so many reasons they deserve their own post.

On the other hand we have the shops that are very worried about getting non-buyer clicks and favorites for fear that it will sink their search ranking.

This topic is entirely about how Etsy’s search handles listings.

Search and Non-Search Traffic

Etsy distinguishes between views that come from search and ones that don’t. They get really granular, but for our purposes they either come from search or they don’t.

Views that don’t come from search are just whatever. We all get random visitors to our sites so it’s expected that the quality of view will differ.

Search results however are prime real estate. We’ve all seen it and Etsy has stated they incorporate performance (sometimes called listing quality) in search ranking. They take the listings that do a great job of being relevant (Etsy SEO), and they give them a shot at great rankings. If the listings perform well, they stay up there. If they don’t, they give other listings a chance. Etsy wants to present shoppers with listings they’re likely to purchase. The best way to predict that is whether others searched for this and ended up purchasing.

When does it matter?

So back to the original question. Does it hurt listings to favorite them and not buy?

It doesn’t matter when the view comes from outside of Etsy’s search.

It does matter when the view comes from within Etsy’s search.

If many people find your listing in search, view it, favorite it, and NOT buy it. Eventually, yeah it will hurt the listing. It establishes a track record of shoppers passing up that listing despite finding it in a relevant search. Etsy wants to display listings with the greatest chance of selling. The key there is that the traffic is coming from search.


I certainly wouldn’t ask a group of people to search “xyz keyword”, find your listings, and favorite them just for fun. The result would be totally not fun.

I wouldn’t worry about casually liking something. I would continue to promote your shop everywhere that gets you in front of shoppers. Business cards, packaging inserts customers can give to friends, and online communities where your customers want to hear from you to name a few.

The best thing that can happen to your shop is to consistently get found in search and close the sale. You make money, Etsy makes money, shopper is happy, win win win.

7 Key Takeaways from the 2017 Etsy Search Updates

Etsy has just released an article which details plans for the 2017 Etsy search updates. Last year they acquired Blackbird Technologies – a machine learning company. The purchase caused a bit of a stir in the Etsy community and spawned countless questions and even more conjecture. But now we finally have some details about Etsy’s plans. Here are 7 key takeaways from the announcement:

1. Etsy and its sellers are a team

Right off the bat, Etsy makes a point of reminding sellers that when they are successful, Etsy is successful. Etsy knows that search updates and algorithm updates can cause stress for sellers and they want to help minimize that by reminding sellers that Etsy’s success depends on seller success. Etsy says:

"When you're successful, we're successful."

2. Watch for search bar updates

Etsy breaks their 2017 search focus areas into two groups: helping buyers find the right items and building better tools for sellers.  The first way they plan to help shoppers is by “getting them started with the right search terms.”  This is almost certainly a reference to their search bar suggestions which they’ve been providing shoppers for quite a while. As shoppers type in the search bar, Etsy provides suggestions from a pool of other recent search terms. In order to help shoppers get started, they will undoubtedly be providing more personalized search term suggestions right within the search bar to help each shopper begin with the best possible search term for them. Etsy says:

"getting them started with the right search terms"

3. Changes to the search results page

The next thing Etsy plans to do for buyers is to help them “navigate their results in meaningful ways.” This could partially be referring to new filter options for shoppers which Etsy covers later in the article. But this likely includes other changes as well. There are vast possibilities but this could include things like quick product views on the search results page to pull key listing information further forward. This could also include features like “suggested listings” based on the search term and personalized browsing history. Etsy says:

"navigate their results in meaningful ways"

4. More specific ways to describe listings

As part of their list of updates for sellers, Etsy announced that they will be providing new ways for sellers to “convey specific information” about listings. This will likely be tied to some of the upcoming search filter updates. This will allow sellers to fill in information which helps to differentiate their listings from others. Etsy says:

"convey specific information about your items"

5. New search filters

Etsy announces new search filters in 2017. Currently, shoppers can filter by category, location, handmade/vintage, price, color, and ordering options. New ways to filter results could include things like seller rating, downloadable/handmade/vintage, size, and item quantity. Some sellers are even hoping for the ability to filter by items with coupon codes or those which are on sale. Etsy says:

"new ways for buyers to filter and explore their search results"

6. Don’t freak out

Again, Etsy is sensitive to the apprehension that surrounds any updates to the flow that helps customers find products. They remind sellers that they’ll keep them up to date as changes are made and will be sure to provide actions that sellers can take to make sure their shops are in the best possible standing. Etsy says:

"We'll continue to update you when we make any permanent changes to search"

7. Did I mention Etsy and sellers are a team?

Just as they opened the article, Etsy closes it with a reminder how important their relationship with sellers is. The last thing they want to do is completely turn the system upside down that is working for so many sellers. Changes will be slow and careful and deliberate. Keep an eye out for updates, make the necessary changes to your shops and everything will be fine. Etsy says:

 So what does this mean for the future of Etsy Search and Etsy SEO?

As Etsy begins to take advantage of the specialties of Blackbird Technologies, they’re looking to deliver a more personalized and intuitive search experience for shoppers. So what does this mean for SEO strategies? The core components that affect rank aren’t likely to change anytime soon. Etsy will still draw from listings’ tiles, tags, and recency. The majority of the changes are around HOW shoppers will get to those results pages and how they will navigate them. There will be other factors that Etsy introduces which will affect rank but the core algorithm is unlikely to drastically change. What does this mean for you as a seller? Sit tight and keep doing what you know works until Etsy announces changes. There is no need to jump the gun and start guessing how to update your listings for changes that may or may not happen.

What does this mean for Marmalead?

Marmalead’s algorithms measure engagement with search terms. Etsy is changing how they help shoppers find the right search term. So measuring which keywords they arrive at and which keywords enjoy the best engagement is still just as important as it used to be. In fact, with the crippling of Google’s Keyword Planner and Etsy’s planned changes to the search bar suggestions, Marmalead is becoming even more valuable to sellers as the best Etsy SEO solution available.

For the latest interpretations of Etsy SEO and search updates, subscribe to the Marmalead Blog.

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Busting Popular Etsy SEO Myths

The Etsy search bar. The number of times you should use your keyword. The eternal battle between commas and forward slashes. Even the order of your keywords in your title. We’ve probably all seen these topics at least once in our span as an Etsy seller (I know I do).

Which of these SEO myths hold truth? Let’s find out.

This is a written version of a Blab we recently made with Melissa Kaiserman of MakerySpace.com and Dan Safkow from MakingItOnEtsy. You can watch (or listen to) it here: Making It On Etsy – SEO Myth Busting by Marmalead

Myth 1: The order of Tags matters.

No. You can totally move your tags to any spot that you want. It doesn’t have any bearing on the search results. Etsy looks whether or not something exists in your tag and it doesn’t really care whether it’s the first tag or the last tag.

Myth 2: The order in which I put keywords in my Title matters.

Yes, but not for Etsy SEO. Shoppers like to see the keyword they searched in a title as confirmation they’re in the right place and Google for SEO cares about this. Etsy SEO however no longer cares about this. 

If you put a word closer up in your title, then Etsy – just like people – the earlier these words are in your title, the more important they must be. Think of it kind of like a subject line for an email, if you want someone to open your email, you’re gonna say the most important stuff first.
Here’s an article straight from Etsy help: How Etsy Search Works
“The beginnings of titles have an especially strong pull. Keep words that buyers are most likely to search for close to the front.”

Myth 3: My descriptions are part of Etsy SEO.

Nope. Etsy doesn’t look at descriptions. Where your descriptions really do matter is in closing the deal. So inside of your descriptions you should be completing the picture for people. Describe things in ways your photos can’t.

Related: How to Write a Great Product Description

Bonus question: When sellers take their title and put it in the first paragraph of their product descriptions, does it hurt them at all?

No, it wouldn’t hurt them necessarily at all. The only thing that it might do is confuse the buyer. The thing we’re trying to avoid is sellers worrying about how often they should be using keywords in their descriptions.

Example: If I’m selling ‘jewelry’, maybe I want to use the word ‘jewelry’ a certain number of times in my description so that I’ll increase my relevancy. You don’t have to worry about that as a seller.

Myth 4: Repeating keywords will hurt me.

“If I have a listing titled ‘Starfish necklace, beach necklace’ and I used it both as tags, the fact that I used ‘necklace’ twice; will it hurt my listing?”
Etsy doesn’t mind that. Etsy looks at things in context. They’re looking at ‘beach necklace’ as one kind of thing or ‘starfish necklace’ as one kind of thing. The only downside of doing this is that you’re using part of your title twice. You’re using that space in your title to say ‘necklace’ twice where you could have used a different keyword in there. But if you really want to target those keywords, don’t be afraid to put them both.

Myth 5: The number of pages somebody go through when they do a search.

“Are people only looking at the 1st page? 2 pages? 5 pages etc?”
We’ve done some shoppers’ study, and in our experience, everybody is very impatient. If they don’t find what they’re looking for pretty quickly, they leave that search and move on to the next one. Some people do browse past 5 pages but they’re mostly in ‘browsing’ mode, not in ‘buying’ mode. The reason for this is as people flip through pages and pages of search, their interest in buying dwindles because they can’t find what they’re looking for. If they’re serious about buying, they would have left the search and began typing similar search terms.

Myth 6: Etsy doesn’t care if my shop policies are filled out. True or False?

False. With one of the recent updates in search, Etsy started looking if you have your Shop Policies filled up. The more comfortable shoppers are shopping on Etsy from any sellers, the more comfortable they are with all the good sellers like you. Have your Shop Policies filled out.

Myth 7: The Etsy search bar shows most popular search keywords. True or False?

Update! This is true now!

False. As per conversation that we had with Etsy Support, what they’re actually showing in the search bar are recent searches from people. It’s actual searches people are doing, but they’re not the most popular searches. It is also based on what things you’re gonna start typing out – like an autocomplete.
It’s also flawed since it is an autocomplete and it’s based on the first word that you type which may not be the most important keyword in the phrase, and there’s no way to do it backwards to see what they might put in front of the second word.

Myth 8: I’m doing everything right and it’s not working. Help!

A lot of times it feels like you’re doing everything right and all logic points that this is the right way to go but if you’re not getting the results, something’s not right. If you think you’re doing everything right and it’s not working, get out of your circle and bring someone else to help you out. Don’t give up. Reach out to us, reach to your teams, reach out and get help. If it’s keyword based, try and get other people to describe it to you. If it’s photos, get some feedback from other people, even on people you normally don’t get feedback from. Keep trying!

Myth 9: Only listings that have a momentum of sales perform better.

“I can’t break into the top 100 because I don’t have the momentum of sales and you need sales. All the other shops are successful and they’re the only ones that are gonna stay at the top because Etsy just wants to support them. They don’t care about the new shops.” 
Is there any ground to it?
It is plausible. They do take into consideration things like views, favorites, sales, momentum and bunch of other stuffs and why wouldn’t they? Etsy wants to keep promoting things that are selling. They get paid not just when you renew, they also get money when you sell your product. But here’s the good news, they do want new shops to break into the market. They have a vested interest to grow and to do that, they need more shoppers and more sellers. You can, even as a new seller, build that momentum and you can be up there just like everyone else. Get quality photos, use the right keywords and renew frequently. That’s how you’ll seize your chance to start gaining momentum.

Myth 10: Renewing my listings doesn’t matter. 

“Just going in and renewing that listing whether I make changes to it or not; does it matter?”

Sales matters more than recency. Focus more on getting your listings sold (and renewed if you have another to sell) and you’ll get more mileage than if you just renew frequently. Basically everyone likes a fresh listing and now the best way to signal your fresh listings is to

Yes. Recency does matter. Though it is not the only thing that we’d recommend you to do, of course we still recommend tweaking your keywords every now and then but as far as this myth goes, it is confirmed.
Renewing gets you seen, and the more you get seen, the more you get sales and the more you get sales, the more they come back.

Bonus question: What if you have one-of-a-kind type of listings?

How to gain traction with those, it’s not like an item that you can sell and renew in a continuous basis.”
Without per-listing momentum, it’s your shop in general. It has a factor as far as conversion rates and sales momentum go, not just on a specific listing. Etsy just wants to make sure they get more sales for everyone so they can make more profit too. So Etsy would be looking for conversion rates of the whole shop. Like how well does a shop do in general and not just on this one off listings.

So next time you find yourself in the midst of a clashing debate in the forums on common misconceptions about Etsy SEO; these bits of information might help you gain the upper hand.

Over to you:

Got any good SEO myths we didn’t cover? Follow up questions?
Well, let us know in the comments!
Maybe you have a friend that just can’t sleep because she did not put the word ‘necklace’ 5 times in her description? Share it to them!

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Get Found on Etsy with MarmaMeters

Get Found on Etsy with the new Marma-Meters

Introducing our latest addition, the MarmaMeters. It’s the next level in our quest to help you get found on Etsy. It’s a right-brain friendly green, yellow, and red system of measuring three important criteria of keywords.

Those criteria are Engagement and Competition.


Measures how much shoppers are interacting with listings. While search volume counts the number of times shoppers have searched for a keyword, engagement means they searched, and then went on to interact (view and/or favorite) the listings on the page. Higher engagement is always better.


Measures how many listings are trying to be found in this search. The more competition there is, the more challenging it is to keep your listings at the top. In the most competitive searches, listings are being added/updated by the second. Lower competition is usually better.


How it helps you get found on Etsy

Let’s take a moment to define “getting found”. It’s targeting keywords that have solid engagement. You’re not found until you’re seen.

Found = Views.

Our MarmaMeter ratings are data driven by Etsy data and scale to the size of the market. For example, when a keyword is rated with “High” Engagement, we’ve taken views per week and scaled it to fit the level of competition.

Whether you’re an analytical show-me-the-numbers-left-brain type or a creative just-tell-me-what-it-means-right-brain type, you’re going to love the Marma-Meter.

We’re doing the heavy lifting for you so you can quickly see what keywords are a good fit, and still showing the numbers you’re used to for when you want to drill down further.


Here we have a search for “silver jewelry”. You’ll notice that Engagement is actually “Low” even though it has 56 Views/Week. That’s because for the number of competing listings (Competition is “Very High”), it’s not really that impressive.


Here’s how the Marma-Meter looks in Keyword Comparison. Now you can sort out the good from the bad keywords even faster!

Don’t worry, the numbers you’re used to are just below. 

Not sure where to start?

Head over to our Shop Fitness Calculator and see how you’re doing for the keywords that your shoppers are using to find you. Then jump over to Marmalead and use the new Marma-Meters to find related keywords that work even better!