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Friday, August 19, 2011

Staying relevant...

I'm guessing by now you have (hopefully) heard about Etsy's change in its default search mode.  Check it out here.  To sum it up, search results are now sorted by relevancy to search terms rather than recency.

So, I'm curious, what do you think?  As a newbie shop, I was slightly optimistic that this would boost my views.  I had been relisting a handful of items about once a week, but let's face it, in the over-saturated Etsy jewelry market, I'm not sure if that was very useful.  It seems like search results based on relevancy would even the playing field somewhat.  However, I've been reading all sorts of negative comments and assorted freakage in the forums, which got me worried. 

I've been taking a lot of time to re-do all my titles and all my tags to try to make everything as concise and relevant as possible.  The hardest thing is just getting into the mind of the buyer.  Today I actually tried using search terms that I'd use to find my items, but that's the thing, they're terms *I* would use.  A lot of my earrings fall into the categories of "old hollywood" or "old glamour" style to me.  I see other people use "estate sale style" or "glam" or even "retro glam" instead.  Do buyers use these sort of terms?  I've no clue.  I guess it's really just a question of trial and error and using Etsy shop stats to see what keywords are really being used. 

I was at least pleasantly surprised to see that a few of my items do show up on the first few pages of a common phrased search.  For example, these little cuties show up on page 1 of a search for "bird nest earrings" (let's hope I don't jinx myself here).


What are you doing to make sure your items show up under the new search results?

8 comments:

Tricia @ SweeterThanSweets said...

I'm not doing anything different really... maybe I should be but I feel like my items are already listed and tagged appropriately for relevancy. I never relisted (until the item expired) since a lot of my items are inexpensive and it wasn't worth the money to me, so I'm really excited about these changes.

I've checked my Google Analytics and I don't see a big difference in views though they have increased lately. Time will tell if it's just a coincidence!

Tiffany at Beyond Magical Bath and Body said...

I'm hoping having the search now listed by relevancy will finally kick this renewing thing to the curb. I feel like my item views and sales should be rewarded by how best my item matches what a buyer is looking for, now how much time and money I invest in renewing items.

Crossing my fingers that this change is a good one!

Christine and Company said...

So far, so good...my traffic has been really good and I've been making sales. Could just be coincidence (back to school and all) but I'll take it. A few of my items show up on the first page when I search...so when things slow down a bit, I'll put my nose to the grindstone and adjust some listings. I agree with Tiffany, I don't enjoy relisting and relisting...

Kanelstrand said...

Well, I am glad etsy finally switched to relevancy. I couldn't find a reason why they would have recency in the first place! What is important, after all, is not when the listing was uploaded or relisted. I mean, the whole relisting thing smelled rotten to me. I could see beautiful artworks beaten by arguably better but more recent ones. It was tough from a buyer's point of view and it was unfair to sellers. I really hope the changes will bring more sales to artists and crafters who genuinely deserve it.

Janet said...

Thanks for all the comments yall! I agree with everyone, search results by recency and playing the relisting game were not very sensible or fair for buyers or sellers. I'm definitely enjoying the change so far!

Arizona Girls said...

Love the earrings! They are so cute! =) Been selling since Oct. on Etsy, I make sales not a lot mind you but most of mine come from posting on facebook....I've only had 2 that I'm not sure where they came from haha

I hope the changes do help because I'm not big on relisting either, I've tried it here and there but I don't have the funds to keep on top =/ So I hope for word of mouth basically =) Although I don't do the tagging and descriptions easily either they are a struggle for me specially naming the pieces =/ I've made changes and hopefully I'll keep improving thats all I can do =)

Thanks for stopping by my blog by the way! =) And for the tips I've read about light boxes here and there but not sure =/ If it wasn't so hot I'd take my stuff outside to photograph but I need to wait another month or so when it cools down some here =)

Arizona Girls blog

Janet said...

Hi Arizona! I avoided making a light box for a while. I didn't really think I needed one and I'm really lazy haha. I had been taking most of my pics outside in natural light. But it got to the point where it is just WAY too hot here to take pictures when the sun is out, and sometimes I'd finish something in the evening and want to post it right away...so I finally decided to just make a light box. I think I will write a full post about my light box experience soon...

Rita said...

Have you used craftopolis.com? It works with your google analytics account to tell you what users search terms are to find your items. I have found it incredibly helpful!

I love that they switched to sort by relevancy, I never liked wasting money with daily/weekly renewing. I already have seen a significant increase in my item/page views and hearts!
~Rita

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