Etsy published two new posts on its Seller Handbook, one offering guidance on search, the other on Promoted Listing ads.
In March 18th’s “Your Search Questions, Answered,” Etsy published answers to search questions from Sam Litt, who works on Etsy’s search team, and Jenny Benevento, a taxonomist at Etsy responsible for the navigation, categories, and attributes on Etsy.
Litt advises sellers to take advantage of the tag field to enter keywords rather than trying to cram all of them into the title. Etsy search uses titles, tags, categories, and attributes when trying to match listings to search queries.
Note that Etsy Chief Technology Officer Mike Fisher recently discussed search in more depth and said the marketplace is working on ways to use product images in search, as well as “dozens” of other factors such as seller rating, shipping times, and price.
In last week’s Seller Handbook post, Litt also advised sellers use the Etsy shop stats tool or Search Analytics to review exact phrases that shoppers have used to find their listings, “and make sure that those superstar keywords are included in both your titles and your tags.”
She explained how Etsy search handles misspellings and singular/plural queries (diary vs diaries).
And she had this to say about the Etsy “listing quality score”:
“When we’re determining a quality score, we look at things like past shopper behavior to predict how likely shoppers are to purchase listings from your shop in the future.
“So if you’re a seller who sells one-of-a-kind items or vintage items and you’re frequently creating new listings, Etsy search looks at how popular listings from both your shop and similar shops have been in the past to predict how popular they might be with buyers in the future.
“Similarly, don’t worry if your shop is new to Etsy. New shops on Etsy get a neutral listing score until we have time to learn more about how those listings perform.”
Also important to sellers are category structure and attributes. Benevento explained, “If we look at categories as the noun a thing is – a dress, attributes are usually the adjective – a blue, sleeveless, size 20 dress. So sellers can add attributes on the specific categories for items that they’re listing.”
“Right now, 20% of the categories on Etsy have at least one search filter that’s powered by attributes, Benevento said. “The more accurate attributes sellers add, the more category-specific filters we can show to buyers about the things that they think are most important. We need sellers’ help to make those experiences great.”
In Etsy’s March 25th Seller Handbook post, “Paid Advertising Tips From Two Top Sellers,” Etsy interviewed sellers to share their tips for attracting new buyers and boosting sales using Google Shopping Ads and Promoted Listings.
Etsy seller Julia Heatherwick of Shred My Couch (feline-inspired clothing and accessories) explains how she uses Etsy’s Promoted Listing ads to boost traffic to her shop. Rather than advertising all of her listings simultaneously, she finds it more effective to highlight her strongest performers and the products with a broader appeal.
Those are just some of the highlights from the two most recent posts. Sellers on and off Etsy may find Seller Handbook posts helpful in understanding how marketplace tools and features work and some of the approaches fellow sellers take in becoming more effective.
The promoted ads system clearly explains whats wrong with the search system. Gotta make search completely useless or why would anyone need promoted ads?
Investigate this anti trust!