Account Limited / Listings De-Indexed

[VulpineVinyls]

My account appears to have been limited in some way, as almost all of my bestsellers have been de-indexed. I have had no communication from Etsy, so I don't know if this is a technical issue or if I'm being penalized for orders shipping late around the holidays. I contacted Etsy about this on 1/1/2023 so it's now been 15 days, 9 business days since 1/2 was a holiday. I also checked in with them again to clarify some things on 1/2/2023 and she marked it as "urgent" but could not give me a timeframe for a response.

I design with adhesive and iron on vinyl and had issues with my suppliers of blanks around the holidays. I had some late deliveries, so I notified buyers that their orders would be shipping late and pushed out their ship dates (if they were OK with it) or cancelled their order for them if requested. Ultimately, I ended up having some orders ship late due to this, but communicated very well with my customers, had no complaints, and no cases opened. I also still qualified for star seller. I had put my shop on vacation mode to catch up on orders and spend time with family for the holiday season on December 8th. I re-opened my shop on the 30th.

My shop usually has 350-700 views per day and an average of 14 orders per day during this period. Right now I have an average of 150 views per day and an average of 3.5 orders per day. Etsy is my main source of income and I'm starting to get a bit frustrated and worried about the future of my business if I can't get this fixed soon. I have gone on vacation mode before without any issues, and it's not an issue of my listings being further back in search results - some of them just aren't searchable. You can't find them in search, or within my own shop.

A lot of my listings are adult and are therefore blocked from the India markets, so customer service thought maybe this was creating some kind of technical issue with my listings not showing in other markets appropriately.

Has this happened to anyone recently? How long did Etsy take to get back to you? I don't know how to get this addressed any faster since the only options are to chat or call customer service and all they can do is "escalate it" with absolutely no timeframe in which they'll get back to you. I'm at a total loss here and feeling a bit defeated.

[Amaradorn]

Your shop is indexed.

I searched for 'F*ck Off, I Mean Good Morning Glass Can - F*ck Off Coffee Mug - Funny Beer Can - Sarcastic Cup - Iced Coffee Cup -Glass Soda Can Lid & Straw' and saw it on page 6 - perhaps it's low ranked because it's a new listing? But it IS appearing in search (for UK buyer).

Be careful using dashes, they can be read as a minus. I would use commas to separate phrases in titles.

Sales this last week have been dire. According to some other threads, there seems to be problems checking out.

[VulpineVinyls]

Yes, my shop is indexed, but many of my listings are not. That listing is a new one I created to try to get one of my bestsellers out there for folks to see. I haven't had any issues in the past with dashes, but I'll consider commas.

If you go to my shop and attempt to search in the search bar there, you'll see that listings like "you may now bang the bride", "matching couples underwear - caution slippery when wet", and "Personalized boxer briefs" listings are not showing up. Like I said, all my bestsellers aren't searchable, but many of my other listings are. That's why I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone before where just a few of their listings aren't indexed. Sometimes when I create a new listing it is indexed, and other times it is not. 

[Amaradorn]

@VulpineVinyls have you tried deactivating one of the problem listings, wait a little while (maybe half an hour) and then reactivate it again. See if that helps. This is just an experiment but I think it's worth a try.

Otherwise you may have to contact Etsy support and tell them your shop is partially deindexed.

[VulpineVinyls]

I have not played with de-activating and re-activating. It's worth a shot I suppose.

I have reached out to Etsy support and advised them my listings appear to be de-indexed. It's been about 9 business days and I'm still waiting to hear back.

[PlatypusDream]

Etsy will throttle your shop if you violate policies, have too many open cases or overdue orders.  It is automatically triggered by bots.

Also, using full swear words in titles and first photos is against Etsy’s rules - all listings must be appropriate for general audiences, from your 3 year old just learning to read to your 86 year old grandma.  This may have been why you “fvck” listings are de-indexed.

Contact Etsy for help.  Go through the LAST message they sent you, saying “I still need help!”  Keep messaging until you get help.

[VulpineVinyls]

My listings do not violate their mature policy. My first images are censored, marked as "mature", and the full swear is not in the listing title. I haven't had issues with this in the past, and if I am violating their policy I just need to know how I am violating so that I may fix it. I do believe it may be because of the few orders that shipped late around the holidays, but again I had no notice, it's not all my listings, and I don't know for sure if that's the issue.

Etsy only has the option to chat or call, and has not e-mailed me or sent any other kind of communication. I've been told via the chat option and via phone that I have a ticket in and they will reach out to me. I have no message I can respond to to say I still need help, though I am wondering if calling or chatting again will help at all.

[PlatypusDream]

@VulpineVinyls 

Talking with "Chat" will most likely not solve your problem, as they have limited knowledge, or power, to solve your issue.  They will most likely just forward your issue to "Specialists" who will reply via email within 2 weeks.

If your throttling is your issue (due to overdue orders) you will have to wait the 3 months or so for it to "wear off".

[VulpineVinyls]

Yeah I figured they wouldn't be able to do anything, I just wasn't sure what the time-frame was usually for getting a response from the specialists. 

If my shop was "throttled" due to the late shipped orders, how do you know it wears off in 3 months? I couldn't find anything in their policies or help section that mentioned this.

[PlatypusDream]

@VulpineVinyls 

The information is buried deep in the policies, and it is an approximate (Etsy is rarely clear with their information).

I will see if I can dig it out for you.

Also, you can ask for more specifics from @cindylouwho2 as this is her area of expertise.

[AAANativeArts]

Etsy Help says they will respond to email within 10 days, but sometimes they don't answer at all or send you a form letter that doesn't address your problem. Don't expect much from Etsy Help.

[PlatypusDream]

https://www.etsy.com/legal/policy/search-advertisement-ranking-disclosures/899478564529

"Customer & Market Experience Score: to determine a shop’s Customer & Market Experience Score, Etsy considers a variety of factors that make up overall shop quality, including user reviews of products, whether or not a shop has completed an about section or its shop policies (e.g. returns), whether or not the shop may be able to fulfil orders in a timely fashion, and whether or not the shop may have violated any Etsy policies."

https://www.etsy.com/legal/sellers/#success

"In order to keep Etsy safe and improve our Services, we may take actions that limit the visibility of your shop, listings or ads, or that impact your payment account. In the event a shop sees unusual order activity, or we otherwise believe that your actions or shop may result in buyer disputes, chargebacks, increased risk of fraud, counterfeiting, or other claims, Etsy may take actions such as limiting visibility of your account, or placing restrictions or reserves on your payments account, in accordance with our Terms of Use, including this Policy and our Etsy Payments Policy."

"In addition, we may limit the visibility of listings or ads in the interest of keeping Etsy safe, and improving our Services. For example, listings or ads may have decreased visibility because they include terms that represent a prohibited item or based on third party policies. These listings or ads may also be restricted from appearing in one or more features of the Services. While these listings or ads may have limited visibility, they are still discoverable in search."

"If Etsy has reason to believe you, Your Content, or your use of the Services violate our Terms, including this Seller Policy, we may deactivate Your Content to some or all users, or suspend or terminate your account (and any accounts Etsy determines is related to your account) and your access to the Services. Sellers in the European Union can see more information here. Generally, Etsy will notify you that Your Content or account has been suspended or terminated, unless you’ve repeatedly violated our Terms or we have legal or regulatory reasons preventing us from notifying you."

I can't find the exact verbage, so I can't guarantee the accuracy of the 3 month quote.  I will continue to dig.

[VulpineVinyls]

I appreciate you looking. I had seen the bottom portion of that, and I thought it was interesting that they say they will "generally" notify you. I'm the most frustrated at the lack of transparency and communication. I can accept action taken against me if I have broken any policies or terms as long as it's explained to me what I did wrong and what action they're taking against me.

[hopeandjoystudios]

"Generally," is a favorite word of Etsy along with Usually and Sometimes. It leaves a loophole to do whatever you want.

[AAANativeArts]

That is one of the pitfalls of putting your shop in vacation mode. It can often take a month or more to regain your previous search engine ranking. Rankings are based in part on the number of sales you have, so if you normally get 14 sales per day, then had an extended period with no sales,  they probably fell behind your competitors during that time, which will also affect ranking in the search engine a great deal, as that is a major ranking factor.

The difference in traffic between page 6 and pages 1-3 is huge, since most people will repeat their search with another keyword phrase if they haven't found what they wanted by page 3.

I don't think Etsy is punishing  you for anything, I think it is just due to have been on vacation mode for an extended time. That's why I just push my ship by dates ahead a week or whatever I need instead of going on vacation. Their usual reaction for shipping late is to put you on a reserve.

[VulpineVinyls]

This isn't an issue with search ranking though, some of my listings simply are not searchable. They will not show up in search results at all, and you cannot search them within my own shop.

Other listings have been unaffected, but it's most of my best sellers that cannot be searched at all. They can still be seen in my shop or if you follow a link to them directly though.

[cindylouwho2]

"A lot of my listings are adult and are therefore blocked from the India markets, so customer service thought maybe this was creating some kind of technical issue with my listings not showing in other markets appropriately." - if you got that level of detail from customer service, it is likely to be correct, and not an easy issue to fix. 

I haven't heard of other mature shops experiencing this, though, which is odd. 

[VulpineVinyls]

Yeah I would think I or other mature shops would have had this issue sooner since the restriction on India markets has been since 2021.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

After reading through this thread, your best option is to send an email to Etsy, not chat, and ask for complete information on this.

It could be that with growing issues over certain topics that your shop is being limited in search for some areas.  Doesn't seem likely but it is an avenue to explore.

Etsy may even consider them pornographic language which is one area that is hard to deal wtih.  

[VulpineVinyls]

The problem is I have no option to email Etsy. The only options shown to me are chat and call.

As for the mature content, under their policy my stuff falls under the "sexually suggestive" category mostly, which is allowed. They even describe what I sell when they state "2. Sexually Suggestive This includes items with text or imagery intended to be sexually provocative.

Examples include:

Items, such as clothing, with language describing explicit or euphemistic sexual activity".

So I should be good on that sense.

[cindylouwho2]

@VulpineVinyls if chat or phone support opened a ticket, you should be able to find it here: https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-gb/requests?segment=selling

and add something to it via email. 

Do not open additional tickets unless the previous ones on this topic are all closed. 

[VulpineVinyls]

I actually checked there earlier and it does not show up.