Search is broken

[SerendipityPatternCo]

I went to search on incognito mode to see how my items are showing up in search in the UK, and when i type "vintage sewing pattern" I get results for knitting patterns. Of the first 2 rows of results, 4/8 listings were knitting patterns. 

No wonder sales are dropping.

I'm really curious if this is happening for others too when they search sewing pattern. It's definitely new, I check in on search like this every few months and I've never had knitting patterns show before. It's a completely different craft, with a completely different customer!

Please reply with your location/country if you're seeing this too so I can check it's not just me (even though, as I said, I was searching via incognito).

If you don't sell patterns, have you tried searching your most basic keywords? There is a chance something similar could be happening. 

[AllSlavic]

I don't sell patterns, but generally I was in first rows for what I sell and now I am further with some low quality/random crap/ads in the first rows. Sometimes it says 1000 results for some obscure niche book author that actually there are 2 books on Etsy...

[SerendipityPatternCo]

It's really terrible, isn't it? And off-putting to customers. If the thing I'm actually looking for is buried beneath a load of irrelevant results, I'd probably give up and search another marketplace.

[FallenAngelBrass]

When I type in "vintage sewing patterns," I get pages and pages of vintage sewing patterns. 

I'm in New York. 

[SerendipityPatternCo]

Thanks, maybe it is a UK specific problem! There are patterns showing too but they’re mixed in with knitting patterns, and knitting patterns are dominating the first page.

I think knitting is a more popular hobby that sewing, here. Perhaps that is why Etsy is showing knitting patterns if they tend to perform better here. It must just see pattern and group them all as one thing, instead of differentiating? 

Still totally inaccurate

[StudioLunaMare]

I’ve noticed something similar too. I used to appear on the first few pages when I searched my main keywords, but recently my listings have dropped way back.I tried searching “texture roller” in incognito mode and couldn’t find my items anywhere near the top, even though they used to show up easily before. Something definitely seems off with search lately.

[SerendipityPatternCo]

It's very frustrating, and it would be one thing if it was legitimate competition for your search term, but when it shows totally random listings then it feels like you don't have a hope of getting back to the top of search. 

[FruteJuce]

The first 6 rows for me are vintage sewing patterns, then moves onto knitting patterns. I am in the UK.

[SerendipityPatternCo]

Thanks for checking! That's better than what I'm seeing but still crazy. There are tens of thousands of vintage sewing patterns on this website, I don't understand why knitting patterns should show at all nevermind on the first page

[FruteJuce]

Yes, it seems crazy when the list of sewing patterns hasn't been exhausted. 

[TrinketDrawersUK]

I've given up searching for anything on Etsy and tend to look elsewhere as the personalised search is hopeless. 

[SerendipityPatternCo]

It has been bad for a while. But for me it used to be that if you searched for a very specific sewing pattern, it would sort of ignore the specifics and just show you loads of sewing patterns. That alone was annoying as a shopper, but now it's showing a totally different type of item as well. It's somehow getting worse.

I looked at the new tool they have where it lets you see the volume of searches for a specific search term. Vintage sewing pattern gets searched something like 27,000 times a month on etsy. But if those people searching that basic term aren't even being shown sewing patterns (of which this site has tens of thousands, if not more) then they'll just stop shopping here.

[FruteJuce]

I did an incognito search for some of my items. For "leather scissor case " 4 of my items were on the first page. For "tattoo cross body bag" one of my bags was in first spot and a few more of mine further down the first page. 

[SerendipityPatternCo]

That's good, glad it's working for you at least!

[BagmakerSupply]

@SerendipityPatternCo : Incognito / privacy mode really only hides what you were doing from other users of your device not your identity from the sites you are visiting.

Because of "personalized searches" you can NOT rely on anyone's search results - particularly your own - to define how your listing is ranked. There are many many factors that affect listing placement and the relative weight of each factor probably changes constantly. Even exact word matches to your title no longer ensure that you will appear in search.

Don't know how often you search for your own items, but when the algorithm keeps seeing that you are not purchasing the items it shows you it will eventually stop showing them to you.

[SerendipityPatternCo]

Thanks for the tip! If I search from my own account, I do see my own items flooding the first page, but if I search incognito/logged out, it seems to be more generic and realistic to what others might be seeing, hence why I have been doing that.

My issue today isn't with where I am ranked, it's more that whenever I search sewing patterns, I'm seeing knitting patterns, which are totally different. Even though there are loads of sewing patterns on this site, from other stores nevermind my own.

This has never happened to me before and someone else who replied here said that they were seeing lots of knitting patterns on the first page of results too. It's like Etsy has stopped differentiating between two totally different items and just thinks a pattern is a pattern.

[AllSlavic]

OMG I just checked (Polish poet) Julian Tuwim. There are 46 search results, mine and couple of others's books are first 5, so, fair. Then it is: an arabic coin and then some male undergarnments, clothes, coins, a guitar even A brancelet that says "Israel" ? 

search for another poet, Adam Mickiewicz. A coin, a medal, a coin, coin, coin and monument, then my two books, an unrelated paperweight, my book, two other books, and then guitars, actor Adam Driver t-shirts, Adam and Eve AI pdfs... 600+ results.

Very informative because there seem to be a  tendency towards guitars and coins in whatever I search, so I guess the algorythm thinks of me as a guitar person. so the mystery of knitting patterns might be this kind of (idiotic) assumption. I don't know by the way if I had ever searched for a guitar in my life but the reason might be so far fetched we will never guess.

Now I'm not saying I expect hundreds of items on every obscure poet. No! But If people would see just the 4 darn books and then maybe 4 coins with the poet on the reverse and nothing else, they might have treated it seriously and just buy the book while now they're like what is that?!

[cindylouwho2]

You could be seeing a test. 

When I do that search incognito from Canada, I am also seeing more knitting than I should be for such a broad search but it doesn't start showing up until 4-5 rows down. 

I am also seeing Creativity Standards labels under the items - "handpicked by [shop name]" - which is very interesting. Are you seeing that?