Algorithm bugged? Activity suddenly dropped to 0

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Hi, I'll try my best to properly explain what is happening. 

I opened my store a month ago and since I've had hundreds of visitors.

I turned on the over $35 free shipping on the 17th so take advantage of the priority placement in search, but since then both my views and visits have dropped from dozens a day to 0 two days in a row now. 

Additionally my ads have gone from several hundreds of views to 0 also. 

The previous week I had 3125 views and 100 clicks. which has now dropped to 0 multiple days in a row. 

ALSO when I try to find my own products when searching for them incognito they do not appear ANYWHERE anymore, as in, I literally cannot find my products using any of their tags and using filters. its as if my products do not exist in search.

I genuinely believe this is some kind of bug, rather than just a lack of interest in my shop. Or maybe have I been shadow banned or something?

How do I go about fixing this?

[NanaLetha]

Your shop is not indexed.

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Hi thanks for the info, is the only way to fix this to email the support team?

[anythinggoeshere]

@DungeonCandlesShop   There is a lot of outmoded information on Etsy.  

[moonbeamgifts · Accepted solution]

You'll need to contact Etsy and ask that your shop be indexed.    To check, when you view it through the website, search for an item currently listed.    If it does not show that item, you aren't indexed so listings aren't viewable to buyers.

However - keep in mind that new shops also get a boost/bonus in the search so there will come a time when that wears off and then you'll be a shop who depends on good titles, keywords, photos and descriptions to catch buyers' attention.  :  )    

Hope it's an easy fix for you!

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Thanks for that! I will email them now. but yes, I definitely cannot find my items when searching for them in the search using the exact title. 

[moonbeamgifts]

I should have clarified:
To find out whether you're indexed, you search within your own shop on the site - like I used "druid" after seeing what you sell because that's what I normally play.  LOL

However, if you're searching through the Etsy search bar for your own products, it can be time consuming, frustrating and worthless because the AI customizes to each person so no two search results will be the same.   (in the "olden days", ranking was a big thing and depended on where you fell on the pages).

Hope that helps and doesn't make it muddier....it's been a Monday around here. LOL

[DungeonCandlesShop]

I see! yep I went to my own store and typed "druid" and it said "no items were found" definitely seems to be an indexing problem. Thanks for the advice!

[AAANativeArts]

What does shadow banned mean?

[BagmakerSupply]

In this context and in simplest terms, shadow banning is where your content exists but the search *hides* the user or the listing from someone looking for it. The current example on Etsy is that if you search for "svg" and you will get no results in suggestions even though there are numerous listings with svg in the title, tags, etc.

[nineteen27]

nevermind.

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Just saw your message and replied, thanks : )

[BagmakerSupply]

@DungeonCandlesShop  :  A quick way to check if your shop is indexed is to search for items within your own shop. Have you checked using the Listings Page in Shop Manager (preferably via a browser)? The Listings page should be the definitive source of truth about the status of all your listings (in case Etsy deactivated something).

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Thanks for the tip, yep It says no results found in my own store so I guess an index problem then perhaps.

[anythinggoeshere]

@DungeonCandlesShop Free shipping does not give you priority placement in search.  It did at one point, but that is no longer true.

Joan@anythinggoeshere

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Oh, that's a shame, however that is incredibly misleading on etsy's end because it did say that it does give priority on the banner when I turned it on. How disappointing 

[BriarMoonBeads]

They have an article dated 2019 in the seller handbook which states items shipping free or using the $35+ program will get priority placement in search.

Just now I did a search and of the first 9 listings (not counting the ads) only 1 didn't have free shipping. I did 3 searches on random, different things and of the first 12 non-ad listings, 1 had shipping.

It might just be a coincidence that those shops are all converting well anyway as conversion is what's Etsy's looking for. It used to be an automatic top rank but I think they figured out that free shipping doesn't necessarily mean it's the best product.

[AAANativeArts]

You'll have to contact Etsy and ask them to index your shop.

Your titles are too short. The ones I looked at are 26 to 29 characters long. Search engines prefer titles that are around 80 characters long, give or take a couple characters. Too short or too long and they won't rank as well. On the second half, you could add more features of that specific product, such as size, color, scent,etc.

They tell you that free shipping will improve your rank in search, but I haven't found that to be true. I outrank lots of my competition who offer it and I don't. If it makes any difference, it's a very small factor. I tried it both ways and I didn't get any more sales with free shipping. If you get a return for any reason, you will also have to refund the original shipping, because it was "free" so you can't charge for it later.

If you ship to the UK or EU countries, you must give 14 days to notify / 30 days to return.

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Thanks! I'll start changing all that right now in fact. 

[ChillwolfArt]

Good advice from others re: your Shop not being indexed.

I searched your Shop Name in the Search Bar and it doesn't come up.  (I didn't think it would; just wanted to check)

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Thanks for checking! : ) appreciate it a lot. 

[SugarTaffySoap]

While your revising your listings you may want to replace the first couple sentences of your listings with some keywords. There's an Announcement on this. Best of luck.

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Thank you for the tip, I hadn't seen the announcement.    

[BriarMoonBeads]

Looks like you're fixed now - very cool shop! I wonder if there was some kind of de-indexing bug that was triggered when you clicked on the free ship. Seems to coincidental that your traffic and ads would both flatline at the same time.

Now that you're back, you might want to ask for a critique - your tags and titles need a lil tweaking to be visible among the competition you have.

[DungeonCandlesShop]

Thank you! I'll work on that ASAP