Seller Handbook

Etsy search is a powerful tool designed to match buyers with the items they’re looking for, making it easy for them to make a purchase.

When searching on Etsy, it’s important that shoppers can find high quality listings from shops that have a track record of good customer service. Making these listings easier to find helps build trust with shoppers so they come back to shops like yours again and again.

There are two phases of how search works: query matching and ranking. We’ll explore each one in detail below, but here’s a quick overview:

Query matching: A buyer enters a query and we look at the inventory of listings that match that query.

Ranking: Behind the scenes, we rank the matching listings based on a variety of factors, which we’ll talk about in more detail below.

We also rank listings using our Context Specific Ranking (CSR) technology. CSR helps us show shoppers relevant listings we believe they’re more likely to purchase based on what we’ve learned from shoppers’ habits across Etsy.

Before we get into the details, a few important details to note:

• Subscribing to Etsy Plus does not influence where listings appear in Etsy search.
• Star Seller does not directly impact the ordering of search results, however it does serve as a further trust signal to buyers and can drive increased conversion for your shop.
• Running an Etsy Ads campaign does not influence where your listings appear in Etsy search outside of the designated advertising spaces in search results. Learn more about Etsy’s advertising policy here.

Query matching

When a customer enters a search query on Etsy, our search system takes a holistic view of your listing—including title, tags, attributes, descriptions, first photo, reviews, and more—to help connect your items with the right buyers.Using all 13 tags, adding variety to your tags, adding all the relevant attribute options, and categorizing your items as specifically as you can may all help increase the chance that your listings will match with a query.

Diversifying your inventory and trying lots of different relevant tags on your listings gives you the opportunity to match with more searches.

Learn more about using tags, categories, and attributes to match with searches in Keywords 101: Everything You Need To Know.

Ranking

Once we’ve gathered all the listings that match a buyer’s query, we use the information we have about each listing and shop to rank the listings so people browsing Etsy see the items that they are most likely to purchase earlier in the results. Connecting shoppers with quality listings more often helps build trust so that they come back to shops like yours again and again. That's why Etsy search currently takes into account your shop, customer service, and listing quality.

Here are some of the factors that go into Etsy search ranking:

Relevancy

When your tags, titles, listing descriptions, categories, and attributes match a shopper’s query, your listings have the potential to appear in their search results. If those keywords are an exact match for the query, your listing may be ranked higher in results because it’s seen as more relevant to the search.

Remember, while you want to be descriptive and appeal to buyers, make sure you’re using accurate descriptors that follow our policies in your titles, descriptions, and tags. Learn more about Etsy’s House Rules here.

Shop quality

Buyers want to know who they’re purchasing from, which is important when building trust in your shop and building your brand. For example, your shop should have a shop icon, which helps to represent your business. Check out Customizing the Look of Your Shop Home for inspiration on showcasing your business through branded graphics.

Listing quality

When shopping from the millions of unique items on Etsy, we want to make sure high quality listings with clear information stand out so that buyers feel confident in making a purchase.

Each of your listings should include multiple high-quality photos and a return policy, which are critical for buyers when deciding when to make a purchase. Learn more about photography best practices in the Ultimate Guide to Product Photography.

When determining how listings show up in search, we also consider shipping price as an overall factor for US sellers. Soon we’ll be updating how shipping price is factored into search ranking for US domestic listings to help make sure that high shipping prices don’t discourage buyers from making a purchase. Visit our Shipping Checklist to learn more about different approaches. Read all about how shipping price is being factored into search here.

For more listing optimization tips, read Creating Listings That Convert.

Customer service quality

We know that as an Etsy seller, you do everything you can to ensure a smooth and trusted shopping experience for your buyers. That's why shops that consistently follow our customer service standards are prioritized in search. We include factors like a shop’s average review rating, message response rate, and case rate from the past three months in our search ranking. Check out How Great Customer Service Can Improve Your Search Ranking to learn more.

Translations and language

When you set up your shop on Etsy, you choose a shop language. The title, tags, and listing description you add to your listings should be in the language you choose during setup. We’ll translate your keywords and show shoppers results that match their query and language settings.

If you speak multiple languages, you can add your own translations to your listings. Translations you add yourself tend to be higher quality and sound more natural so they often outperform machine translations. Get step by step instructions for adding your own translation in this Help article.

Listing engagement rate

When a buyer searches on Etsy, our goal is to help them find items they want to purchase. To do this, Etsy search looks at clues from shoppers to determine whether a listing is appealing and meets their expectations once they click. We look at how well a listing converts—how many people view it and then make a purchase—to determine whether buyers are interested in it, which boosts that listing’s engagement rate and placement in search results.

Sometimes you need to take a much-needed break, but when you return from vacation mode, you might not see the same traffic to your shop from search as before you went away. That’s because we’re gathering information about how buyers interact with other listings, while your listing engagement rates stay the same. Once you return from vacation mode and your listings are appearing in search results again, we’ll start to gather up-to-date information about how shoppers are interacting with your listings. Learn more about how conversion rate influences search ranking in Create Listings That Convert.

Recency

When a new listing is created, it gets a small, temporary boost in search results so that Etsy search can learn more about how buyers interact with it to determine the listing’s engagement rate. Renewed listings get a similar, though smaller, boost. This temporary boost can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on how often people are searching for a particular item. Regularly renewing your items or creating new listings just to get this small boost isn’t an effective search optimization strategy. Instead, we recommend focusing your time and efforts on improving your tags or working to help increase your conversion rate.

Shoppers' habits

In addition to looking at the above factors, including relevancy, listing engagement, and customer experience, we also customize search results to shoppers. Our Context Specific Ranking technology learns what buyers are interested in to show them the items they’re most likely to purchase.

When you search on Etsy, what you see isn’t always what another buyer might be seeing. Searching for your own listings and comparing the results over time or across devices isn’t an effective way to determine where your listings are appearing in search, since the results you see are just a small slice of a much bigger picture.

Instead, dig into your shop stats to see which listings are bringing you the most traffic from Etsy search. On the traffic details page, you can see your most-visited listings and the search terms that are bringing buyers to your shop. Look at the listings that are getting the least views and compare the tags to your top-performing listings. Could you give your tags a refresh or add some keywords from your popular listings? Also think about how you can optimize your underperforming listings for conversion. Read Create Listings That Convert for more tips on improving your conversion rate.

Continue reading > Keywords 101: Everything You Need to Know

Go back > The Ultimate Guide to Etsy Search

Note: Etsy search is always changing. These are some of the current best practices we recommend and we’ll regularly update this content to keep you informed*.

*As of August 2025