What is going on with my views? -Bot attack?

[SimplyCharmed21]

I'm utterly confused.  My shop has been dying a rapid death the last month and a half or so.  It was steadily declining in views and sales, but it's like it fell off of a cliff.  I can't even get my items to show up appropriately in Etsy ads.  When they do show up, the ad budget is eaten rapidly with no results.  What in the world is going on?  I've been a high seller for years.  This year, it is like everything is crashing for no discernable reason.

The last few days, I've had a huge influx of views all in one hour but Stats show no results on where it is from or what is being looked at.  For example, yesterday, I had only about 10 people an hour come into my shop, except at 7 am when I suddenly had 342 visits.  The daily view is way low, and the 342 is out of control off.  Today, I had 160 views all at once at 3am then less than 10 views an hour until 4pm when I had 276.  I'm getting around 40 views to some of my first page items in my shop (when viewed in custom form.)  None of this makes any sense at all.  There is no information at all where it is coming from and it isn't resulting in favorites or sales.

Does anyone have any idea what is happening?  Thank you!

[sharonjenkins1]

Yes, it does sound like a bot attack….I have never understood why that happens.

i would love to have “only” 10 views an hour.  Your sales are excellent.

[SimplyCharmed21]

Thank you for your reply.  My sales were going well for a long time.  But I'm down 46% every  month for the past few months and I can't figure out what suddenly changed.  I have no idea what is happening!  Also, my dashboard is not updating.  It is consistently 3 to 5 hours behind.  Is that happening for others as well?

[VintageLisboa506070]

Hello I have found this in my shop :

Show detailed statistics : Last 30 days
It changes a lot .
Etsy app &other Etsy pages  Minus 48%
Etsy search minus 51%
Etsy marketing plus 6%
---------------------------------------------------
Direct & other Traffic  Plus 13%
Social Media  Plus 88%
Etsy Ads 0

What is happening here ? Has Etsy changed anything ?
Are these also the effects of the badly cropped images etc. ?

does anyone know anything about this ?

Kind regards VintageLisboa506070 

Peter

[sharonjenkins1]

So many of us have similar stories-I think everyone’s dashboard is intentionally behind.  I can sometimes see 12-15 hours with nothing happening.  There might be a lot of reasons that sales are tanking for so many; dealing with inflation and out of control costs 

[sharonjenkins1]

Sorry, my iPad doesn’t let me edit.  So much money spent on  necessities means little for extras.

[SimplyCharmed21]

I'm sure inflation does account for some of the issue...but this was like someone turned off the faucet suddenly.  I have always heard other people say they are afraid that they are in some kind of algorithm test and I feel like that may be happening.  I go around 7 to 10 days with abysmal sales, then suddenly, I get a normal day.  Then boom!  It stops again after that one day.  I feel like I'm roller-coastering along with all of this!  Etsy is my main income.  I'm in trouble here, unfortunately...

[FeeFeesSplendor]

@SimplyCharmed21  I am experiencing the same thing. Have been most of the year. 2023-2024 Year over Year, I declined 30% --- 2024-2025 I have declined another 32%. I have the lights on, lights off effect constantly even when I have spent HOURS AND DAYS updating photos, working on SEO, adding videos, having sales and finally adding a few new listings a day and it is my main source of income too. Very very troubling. 

[ButtercreamDollsCafe]

I’m still fairly new, but I have been monitoring my similar situation relative to the on and off effect (as it does seem that way).  While inflation plays a part, you might notice (snoop) some shops in your category are still getting sales. It’s as if the flood gates are opened for some shops when more buyers are actually shopping on Etsy. Then when it’s your turn, or “rotation”, that’s the week Etsy shopping is slow or something. I dunno.   Edit: I just noticed the original post is couple years old,  but it still rings true for today. Interesting. 

[sharonjenkins1]

But it sounds like you are getting sales every day, multiple sales many days.  I understand that it is frustrating, but probably to be expected with so many new sellers and so many things in turmoil at Etsy.  I never was concerned about item take downs or reserves or any of those things, but it sounds like any of us could be liable to crazy changes here.  I am just very happy when I get a sale, it arrives ok, and the customer loves it!  Best to you-

[SimplyCharmed21]

Thanks for your encouragement!  Just still wondering why the crazy influx of views at odd times and what it means?

[sharonjenkins1]

Lots of things I wonder about here!

[rtistmary]

My sales over the last few month have declined.  I will have a really good day then nothing for a few days and the visits are very sporadic.  There was one day I had no visits at all.  I thought that was kinda strange but I have had sales pretty much everyday.  Just not what I have had in the past.  I have been on Etsy for 12 years and this is the worst sales I have had in a while.

[badkittyvintagefinds]

Im sorry to hear this happened to you as well. At midnight i got 988 views that cant be traced either. I think it must be bots. Other than that eerily quiet today

[SimplyCharmed21]

Thanks for the replies.  I feel like there is an algorithm change as things have changed so dramatically.  I'm in the process of updating tags in hopes that will help although I hear that doesn't show up for 3 to 4 weeks.  I also heard that etsy has bots looking for non-handmade items etc so maybe my shop is getting scanned...but why only the front page and only in custom view?    Also, my recent activity on the computer is not updating at all.  It seems like there are issues between the app and the computer? 

[addictedtomermaids]

what a nice shop and beautiful photos. 

[Elligan1]

It does sound like Bots (most likely).

When my shop was suspended temporarily earlier this year, I noticed that the stats (other than Etsy Search) continued to increase each day.

My highest count of stats is from "Etsy marketing & SEO" (mostly bots).

Unless I see evidence in the form of search terms, a favorite(s), a sale(s), or a message(s) from someone then I dismiss the majority of my stats as they are obviously bot activity.

[BerrysNails]

Late to the party but I literally had the same today. I usually have 1-2 visits per hour, had 20 at one point today only during one hour, then that's it, back to 1-2 per hour. I wonder why

[TheVintagePineapple]

@BerrysNails Your spike doesn't sound like it's a bot attack.  When the visit/view number spike is in the hundreds over a short amount of time, that's typically a bot. 

Was it 20 visits, views or a combo of them that you received?  Your spike could've been one or two buyers looking at several pages and listings of yours.   Posting in the forums also gives your shop and listings a small spike if it's right around the time you replied in one.

[BerrysNails]

@TheVintagePineapple  It was 20 visits and about 80 views all together. Very bizzarre, as I also received 2 visits from Facebook but I don't post there at all. Maybe a sweet buyer posted my link somewhere or maybe it was an ad, I am not sure. It's good to know that it wasn't a bot attack then, i got puzzled as that never happened to me (not with my usual numbers!) Thank you so much for answering Appreciate the time. 

[GlassyFields]

I look at my Dashboard way too much and have noticed all kinds of anomalies. (I still look at it way too much).

The only data that I think is meaningful is over a month or more. And I find views to be the most unreliable metric of all. In order of importance, I look at: Orders & Revenue, visits, conversion rate and views. I do like seeing lots of views but I think sometimes it means someone looking at every last bead or button in my shop and maybe buying one.

[BeachPleaseCreations]

The original post is from June of 2023 and unfortunately nothing has changed. My shop is seeing a terrible slump in views and visits, let alone sales. I was on vacation this past week and changed my shipping time, but even before that it was bleak.

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