What is served in the Wedding Dresses section

[BeverlyBride]

Hello.
I have long wanted to ask someone a question regarding the Etsy search results in the “Wedding Dresses” category.
How is it that in this category Etsy shows less than half of actual wedding dresses?
I did the research and here is the result.

In the TOP 500 (the first 10-11 pages of search results) Etsy shows the following listings:

With wedding dresses (for people) - 43%
Hangers - 27%
Other (Label, Frames, Shopping Guide, Storage Boxes, Doll Gowns, Dress for Dog ets) - 14.8%
Accessories - 7.4%
Fabrics - 2%
Decorations - 2%
Postcards and other printed materials - 1.6%
Pattern - 1.6%
Shoes - 0.6%
Present - 0.4%

Now let's look at the TOP 100 results. There are even fewer wedding dresses here:

Wedding dresses (for people) - 41%
Hangers - 34%
Other - 9%
Accessories - 9%
Fabrics - 3%
Postcards - 3%
Pattern - 1%

I'm trying to understand Etsy's logic on this, but it doesn't seem to be there?

[PillowDetails]

In terms of categories, I'm seeing "Wedding & Party" at the top - then "Wedding Clothing" - then "Bridal Gowns & Separates" - all I am seeing is wedding gowns.  Not sure what categories you are using to see all that other related stuff.

There are many ways to search for items, and many ways to list / describe / categorize your items.  Just make sure everything is accurate and   pertinent to your items, and they will get found.

* It sounds like you typed in Wedding Dresses instead of using the categories.

[BeverlyBride]

Thank you, but I sew wedding dresses. And of course, I describe them in full accordance with the item.

But the fact is that in the search results “wedding dresses” are overshadowed by a huge mass of cheap things - boxes, hangers, cards - everything, anything, but not dresses.
And the section “Wedding dresses and separates” has actually become a section for “separates”, which hardly anyone dares to call “dresses”. A hanger or, for example, a box is NOT a dress. And due to the fact that they were called “wedding” and they received the formal right to be placed in this category, there is now a dump of everything here.

A $500 or $1000 wedding dress can't compete with $1 hangers that sell by the dozen! Essentially, the point is that hundreds of wonderful wedding dress designers cannot break through behind the huge mass of cheap products and their work remains on the margins.

Since this section is intended for wedding dresses, I believe that there should not be any other items here. And “separates” in this case are skirts, sleeves, veils, etc. , - if they are used specifically as part of wedding dresses.

[MaggieandRose]

It depends entirely on the tags sellers use, if you search wedding dress in the search bar you will get everything that sellers have used that tag for. Some of the postcards you are seeing are probably mine as I do use that tag if the postcard has an image of a wedding dress, lots of people search for old images of wedding dresses that is not unusual. If you filter your search under the category of weddings and go down the list, you will only get dresses. 

[BeverlyBride]

Thanks for your reply. But I’m wondering, from the point of view of promotion strategy, whether it would be more logical to place such a postcard in the appropriate section?

[MaggieandRose]

I place my postcards in the appropriate section, as do all postcard sellers, but we have 12 tags to use, the picture is a wedding dress, so I’m using wedding dress as a tag. What else would I use? People want postcards, ephemera, photographs and cards with wedding dresses on to use in card making or as gifts for couples. I’m hardly going to leave the main feature of the postcard off. 

[SmallthingsbyAmanda]

But if for example you sell personalised coat Hangers for wedding dresses then that will be in the title for tags you will have to split it so probably into personalised, coat Hangers for, wedding dresses. wedding dresses. Is in tags and titles and probably description so yes if someone searches wedding dress the item will show up. Frustrating when your searching for a wedding dress but makes sense to see why it happens when you know how search works. We think like humans so think that's not a wedding dress why am I shown it but as a computer it only sees buyer is looking for wedding dress this seller as wedding dress lots of times in there listing and also in other listings in there shop they sold lots of items with wedding dress in the listing we will show this to the buyer.  

[FallenAngelBrass]

You are using a very broad term for searching, so of course, you will have broad results.  Every seller using the "wedding dress" key words will appear in your results and those results are accurate.  Many categories of sellers use "wedding dress" to describe all manner of items that pertain to, depict or are actual wedding dresses.  When I search "silk wedding dress," I get a solid few pages of silk wedding dresses as my results - nothing else.  Your issue isn't about competition from lower priced items, your issue is just a factor of using a very broad search term.  Etsy has always recommended that sellers use as many detailed and descriptive phrases as are appropriate for our items.  Most buyers enter in much more specific search terms and that is why sellers are encouraged to use specific keyword phrases and not rely on broad search terms like "wedding dress."

[BeverlyBride]

I totally agree with you about general vague queries (like “wedding dresses”) and more specific, targeted queries (like “Western wedding dress” or “Glittery wedding dress”). Basically, of course, I use targeted queries for promotion.

The problem is the amount of traffic they generate. The narrower and more specific the search query (“off-the-shoulder crepe wedding dress”), the less traffic we receive for it. For this particular request, I received as many as 3 visits in 15 months!
According to my measurements, it turns out that the store receives 97% of its traffic from low-frequency tags. That's all very well, but these tags don't generate sales, and that's the problem.
Therefore, the desire to use more general queries is understandable, since they are traffic generators.

[FancyTogs]

"regarding the Etsy search results in the “Wedding Dresses” category.
How is it that in this category Etsy shows less than half of actual wedding dresses?"

Listing Categories are a taxonamy structure.

Search results are a word matching system. Search results will include listings from all categories unless you filter the search by listing category.

Lawrence (Clare's other half)

[PiecesofMeCardsnMore]

If you’re typing “wedding dresses” into the search bar you’re going to get results showing listings with the words wedding and/or dress in their titles or tags. 

If you find unrelated listings in the wedding dress category, I would blame that on sellers selecting the wrong category when setting up their listing. 

[SmallthingsbyAmanda]

Or sometimes just selecting the nearest when there is not one that exactly matches there item. 

[FancyTogs]

Useful info:

https://www.etsy.com/legal/policy/search-advertisement-ranking-disclosures/899478564529

https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/how-etsy-search-works/375461474487

https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/the-ultimate-guide-to-etsy-search/366469415790

There are actually 2 different but related category structures. What users see in the search filters and on the category page is slightly different from what the seller enters for the listing category.  The seller's listing categories often map to multiple user visible categories.

User visible categories: https://www.etsy.com/categories?segment=selling

Seller listing categories: https://www.etsy.com/help/categories/seller

also useful is the category updates page: https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/362857340643?ref=handbook

Lawrence