SVG phrases not auto-populating in the search bar

[JustAddJewelry]

It appears as though SVG has been shadowbanned. Any ideas why?

[BagmakerSupply]

We just did a search for SVG and it worked. You cannot rely on the search bar or search for any meaningful information. If everyone on this forum searched for the exact same phrase they would all get different results. Because of personalized searches you can NOT rely on anyone's search results to define anything about any listing. The old way of estimating ranking by searching for your item is dead. The only way to know your listing's ranking would be for Etsy to share its algorithm but even that changes constantly as they tweak it. The listings page in shop manager (preferably using a browser) should be the definitive word on the status of all of your listings.

[JustAddJewelry]

I could run a search for anything and have it return something. That's irrelevant to the question I asked. I, in no way, even suggested that I was trying to "estimate my ranking by looking in search".

I  successfully rely on the search bar every single day to find auto-populating search phrases. 


Do you have an answer to the question I actually asked?

[JustAddJewelry]

the market links on Google are broken too. I clicked on a bunch of them and every time, it came back with
"

Uh oh!

Sorry, the page you were looking for was not found."

[BagmakerSupply]

I do not know if SVG has been shadowbanned but since our search returned SVG image listings I would think not. But I did presume that you were using the search bar for keywords. If I was wrong and misunderstood your intent I apologize.

[cindylouwho2]

Without an example, it's hard for the average seller to verify such a vague statement, so you might want to have a bit more patience with them. 

I just searched "birthday svg" and see over 1.4 million results: https://www.etsy.com/search?q=birthday%20svg but no suggestions. The Keywords Everywhere generator is also returning zero results. 
The Market pages (which are not search pages) on Google coming back with errors: https://www.google.com/search?q=birthday+svg+etsy&newwindow=1&pws=0&gl=us&ei=NX30YpakONaD0PEP3rm1wAY...

and probably most significantly, I am not seeing "svg" tags on the listings that show up for the birthday search. Tags are how Market pages are generated, so this would appear to be the root of the problem. Impossible to say if this is intentional or not. 

[cindylouwho2]

A few people here had svgs removed today: https://community.etsy.com/t5/Managing-Your-Shop/Listing-Deactivated-Any-help-as-to-why/m-p/13934326... - could be related. 

[EtchedinTimeLLC]

I see what you are seeing, if you put anything with svg in it in the search bar, and wait for the auto suggestions to populate, NOTHING shows up.  That's weird.  I usually get the weirdest stuff there, but i've never seen NOTHING show up.

[TastefulArtisan]

@EtchedinTimeLLC

"I usually get the weirdest stuff there"

Right?! For months every time I searched something, anything, one of the auto suggestions was...no joke...

Farts in a Can

I guess you really can sell anything!

---

[BagmakerSupply]

When we tried just a little ago, "SVG" gave us auto suggestions. Trying again just now "SVG" in any location of the search phrase blanks out to no auto suggestion. Oddly, "scalable vector graphics", "jpeg", and "bmp" still generate auto suggestions.  Possibly an (over) reaction to all the intellectual property infringement in that segment?

[Amaradorn]

The auto populated suggestions that appear when you type something in the search box are just recent searches. If no suggestions appear it doesn't mean that you can't search for that keyword. It might just mean that no one has searched for it recently.

[SunnytyDE]

When I type in svg, nothing comes up with the auto populated suggestions. It’s still searchable though. Is that what shadowbanned means? 

[BriarMoonBeads]

Yes, shadowbanning is when a site blocks, suppresses or removes content in a way that isn't obvious and the creator might not even know. On instagram for example if you're shadowbanned, you can use a hashtag but you won't be included in the results for it.

[SunnytyDE]

@BriarMoonBeads  Thank you…I learn something new every day here. 

[cindylouwho2]

@SunnytyDE @JustAddJewelry @BriarMoonBeads  shadow banning means blocking visibility in a way that isn't necessarily obvious to the banned. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_banning

Since svg listings are searchable for everyone if the acronym is in the title, and viewable from shops and other sources, this isn't really shadow banning. On Etsy, all that is being removed are suggested searches and tag links; you can still easily see the content.

Even the Market pages not working isn't shadow banning, since the shop owners get the same result, and the entire page is gone, not just individual listings. If they block the search entirely, and block listings from being seen in shops, then it would be more like a shadow ban. 

[BriarMoonBeads]

I tried it, the auto-populate didn't suggest anything, which is really only a problem for those customers who rely exclusively on auto suggest - if they keep typing and search anyway they still get results. I've noticed this a few times but mostly for IP infringement; for example if you type 'harry' then start typing 'potter' nothing shows up for it.

If you make it one word - 'harrypotter' - then it comes up, so does 'harry poter'. If I just type 'harry potter shirt' and hit enter, the search results still come up, however... there's only 7,435 results which is waaaay lower than I would expect. When I investigated the top listings they didn't have 'harry potter' specifically in their titles/tags but they did have things like magical shirt, wizard tee as well as lesser names like leaky cauldron and herbology so they're getting around it like that.I tried google searching 'harry potter shirt' and the market results did come up, I clicked it and it loaded fine, but again only shirts that don't specifically have 'harry potter' as a keyword.

I conclude from that not only are Etsy shadowbanning some auto-completes, they're also strangling the results - but mostly through keyword bots. They clearly still want the money so they're not withholding traffic exactly, just shadowing the easy listings. The shirts coming up for harry potter that have other 'sneaky' words are probably still just riding on their conversion in context with other words like herbology and marauders.

What's weird/frustrating to me is POD agents are supposed to catch IP as well. If I set up a POD shop and list Harry Potter tshirts, the printing lab is supposed to refuse the order. Don't know how they're getting away with it.

Anyway the 'idea why' is clear - Etsy are trying to clean up the site by reducing exposure to stuff they don't want. SVG is a tricky one though - people searching for SVGs intending to make Etsy stock would have to be making the product it goes onto themselves, but there's plenty who'll be doing that or just using it personally. A lot of the shops who sell it don't design it themselves but if they list it in supplies they should be fine; the top row in the search results for 'boho SVG' are indeed in supplies so maybe they're just excluding anything that's listed as handmade there.

[cindylouwho2]

@BriarMoonBeads the Market pages not working is a big loss of search engine traffic for Etsy. Since svgs aren't an automatic violation (that I know of), this almost certainly is an error, at least in part.

(We know Etsy removes certain terms from being searchable; that's been going on for a few years at least. That's not at all what they've done here, which indicates that shadow banning all svgs is not the full goal. Cutting back on infringing svgs should be a goal, given how bad the problem is, though. They removed a lot last year that weren't in Etsy Payments countries but it was a drop in the ocean)

[cindylouwho2]

Checking from Canada, it appears all Etsy svgs have been removed from Google Shopping as well: https://google.com/search?q=birthday+svg+etsy&newwindow=1&pws=0&gl=us&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=...

Can someone in the US check for me?

If you get a lot of svg sales from Offsite Ads, you will likely lose those yesterday & today.

[Former_Member]

Hi

I just checked from the UK and you're right, I see nothing for SVG and Etsy anywhere. I searched 10 pages of google shopping and nothing. Google shopping do list PNG and Etsy but no SVG.

[cindylouwho2]

@Former_Member  thanks for checking! I now see a few items from Etsy if I search https://www.google.com/search?q=svg+etsy&newwindow=1&sa=X&pws=0&gl=us&biw=1487&bih=920&tbm=shop&ei=vYX1YuuIFNu90PEPvaemgAg&ved=0ahUKEwir29D_7b_5AhXbHjQIHb2TCYAQ4dUDCAY&uact=5&oq=svg+etsy&gs_lcp=Cgtwcm9kdWN0cy1jYxADMgUIABCABDIECAAQGDIGCAAQHhAIMgYIABAeEAgyBggAEB4QCDIGCAAQHhAIMgYIABAeEAgyBggAEB4QCDIGCAAQHhAIMggIABAeEAUQGDoJCAAQHhCwAxAYOgsIABAeELADEAgQGEoECEEYAVCmB1imB2CNCWgCcAB4AIABS4gBS5IBATGYAQCgAQHIAQrAAQE&sclient=products-cc but only a few. Something is going on. 

[BagmakerSupply]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that any images used on handmade or print on demand items were supposed to be creation of the seller, not an SVG or jpeg which they purchased somewhere.

[JustAddJewelry]

you shouldn't be purchasing a design and putting that directly on a mug or a shirt, etc. However, you can buy elements and arrange them, put text on backgrounds, etc ~ that makes it your design and therefore is Etsy legal.
For example, I have a mug where I bought the blood spatter as a PNG file on Etsy, and added it to a horoscope based true crime mug that I researched the info for & designed. So the blood spatter is part of the design, but not the whole design. As far as I know, that makes it the same as buying beads and turning them into a necklace. 

[PricklyPrint]

Often files can be used commercially on physical items only, the digital file should not be resold or shared. 

[BagmakerSupply]

Thank you @JustAddJewelry   I was just asking because I wasn't sure on Etsy's interpretation and we had an acquaintance who purchased an image to be used on something they were selling and he was massively sued by the copyright holder (and lost) even though he used a heavily modified version of the image as only part of a different design. Plus he got nailed for the font he used - turns out it was copyrighted and did not contain a license for commercial use even though the site he downloaded it from claimed it was free for personal and commercial use.

[VibeEnvy]

If you type "pdf sv" it will finish and populate searches with "pdf svg...." so it "is" able to pull up and fill in searches with it but I tried a lot of other ways and it seemed to mostly prevent results, "cute s" will pull up choices but as soon as I add the V it shows none and surely "cute svg" should pop up.