Relevancy is clearly a stronger experience for Etsy buyers
11. Aug, 2011 
18 Comments
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Hair Clip Set- Autumn Flowers
A few weeks back Etsy announced that they were making sort by relevancy the default for searching for items on Etsy. Chad Dickerson , Etsy’s new CEO announced today that the new search has been working and is a stronger experience for buyers.
Chad says:
We have been watching the site while listening to your reactions and suggestions in the Forums and on the Blog. As I write this, search sorted by relevancy has been the default for less than 48 hours, but we’re pleased to share some early data that supports what we learned in testing.
- The total number of shops with a sale was higher in the past two days than any other days this year.
- The past two days saw more favoriting activity than any other other days this year. More individual sellers had an item favorited and more individual items were favorited than any other days in 2011.
- Two of the four biggest overall sales days on Etsy in 2011 were the past two days.
- Two of the four days with most individual items sold in 2011 were the past two days
Read the rest of Chads letter HERE.
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Recency still matters according to Natalie: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/putting-your-shop-on-top-etsy%E2%80%99s-most-relevant-search/, especially in my saturated department (jewelry), so I am not sure how that weighs in?
Seems like I’m getting more views…which I hope translates into sales. I’ve been tweaking my titles…..
I have just looked at my stats for today they are down but it’s early days yet. I’m off to look at my tags and titles again see if I can improve them. I still think this is a better way to search.I do like to call a spade a spade. That is if it’s a spade. :+)
actually the past two days i sold nothing. it doesn’t work for my shop. but i adjusted title and tags yesterday and got back to almost same n° of wiew.
I don’t know what to do. Suddenly no activity on myshop and prior to these changes i was going strong. I am very disappointed, to say the least.
I remember the furor this idea caused when Etsy first broached the subject back in early 2010, and at the time I was opposed to the change to relevancy. But since then, considering the changes to Google’s algorithm and my decreasing ROI for each 20 cents, I’m now happy to see this happening.
As with everything else, our success lies in our own hands – in our ability to adapt to and embrace inevitable change and make it work for us.
For me, now’s the time for some serious SEO work.
Well we will see. Seems there’s always something.
I haven’t noticed a major change in views over the past few days, but I know so many are discouraged because of low views or no activity in their shops. It could be due to the changes in relevancy but also keep in mind that August is traditionally the slowest month for EVERYONE on Etsy.
I was wondering what was going on….My views/sales are almost non-existent. I listed a set of magnets 4 days ago and they currently sit at 3 views.
It seems like the right direction, but I think 48 hour is not enough time for a meaningful evaluation.
I’m happy to read this feedback; helps to calm my nerves! You’re right Quentin, 48 hours isn’t long enough to know for sure how these changes will effect us all. Can’t wait to see what I gotta do next week! (Sorta…) ;0)
Not sure if it’s due to the change, or the fact that I caught up on a bunch of things I should have listed previously, but my views have nearly doubled. Sales are still nonexistent… working on this.
I am trying to be patient with the changes, but my views have come to a screeching hault. I rarely go two days without sales, and I’ve had one sale in 5 days. Usually well over 1,000 views a day, and I’m at 117 so far today. I’ve been retagging but no change. Hoping to chalk it up to the typically slow August!!
I think the “idea” of a relevant search is great.
However – the current search has NO ROTATION. Meaning simply, that the same listings that were page one results for a search on Tuesday, will STILL be the same results for the same search done on Friday. I have personally had the same 3 necklaces on page 1 and 2 of a search for “turquoise necklace” for *4 days* in a row. ALL of the other items on those first two pages are the same ones that were there the day the switch happened. Etsy admin has not addressed this lack of rotation although it has been brought up numerous times by several people.
Relevant = Stagnant.
i was selling soooo good before this change, still wiew are one third less, and just one sale in 5 days, i already re tagged every item and change all the titles following etsy instructions. sigh!
My sales have been about the same, but I am glad to hear that overall Etsy sales are up. With search results being more relevant, it may be easier for new shops to get discovered
I think it sucks. In July my sales quadrupled from June because of other changes I implemented in listing etc and now sales are at a trickle. Same with circling and favoriting.
After reading and researching about the Etsy change and SEO, I changed my titles and have gotten on with daily life. I still see lots of people asking about the change in the forums, so I wrote an article that explains it in easy to understand terms: http://brittanysbest.com/2011/08/etsy-relevancy-search-explained/. I hope that the change will be good in the long haul. It just might take a lot of work to get there.