The last 6 items that I have renewed in the past 24 hours don't appear on their primary search page. Those primary search words are in the listing twice, at the head of the title page wording and also as #1 in my tags. I renewed another one yet again a few minutes ago, and it hasn't shown up on that search page. Anyone else noticing anything like this? I have already checked for a recent post of this subject and there doesn't appear to be one. Thought I would check in here before contacting the help desk. Thank you for your time ...
search is on relevancy
you have to change it to "most recent", if you want to see newly listed items
Everything is fluid. If Etsy has changed the algorithms (which they do frequently) then your items might appear in a different position in the search results. Other things that can affect search placement include shop or listing quality, account standing, policy violations, recent vacation, competitors.
You are not guaranteed a certain spot. It would only be considered a 'technical issue' if your listing was not appearing in search results at all.
@FishBayElements: If everyone on this forum searched for the exact same phrase they would all get different results. Because of "personalized searches" and constant search algorithm tweaking you can NOT rely on anyone's search results to define how your listing is ranked or where it will be displayed.