Have you ever had a listing that just won’t show up? There’s nothing more frustrating than creating a product and then having it not be seen.
Well, I’m here to tell you why this might happen for your listings.
In this article, we are going to go over some reasons as to why your listings may not be showing up on the site. We’ll help break down what needs adjusting in order for it to show up on Etsy so that people can see it and buy it!
How long can it take for new listings to show?
New listings appear almost instantly, however, it is recommended to wait up to 3 hours before you start seeing your listing. If your listing still isn’t showing, check the admin as listings can be hidden ready for moderation. This can happen if you use certain “red flag” keywords. Moderation can take a couple of days to complete.
Listings are available to view and purchase instantly. However, it can take anywhere from a few hours to a week for new listings to show up in search on Etsy. I recommend if it’s been more than 48 hours since your listing went live and you are still not showing up, there may be an issue with the title, tags, or description of your item.
You can also message support if after trying these suggestions you continue to have issues getting your items to appear in search results
TIP: If you think tags and descriptions are the main reason for your listings not being found, then try Etsy Hunt. Use their product database to find what tags and keywords you need to be found on Etsy! Try Etsy Hunt for FREE today
How to check if your Etsy listing is showing up in search results
Many sellers wonder the question “Why is my item not showing up in Etsy search?” from customers. They might have just added new items or edited their existing listings and they are confused as to why shoppers aren’t able to find what they are looking for.
To check if your item is appearing in search results, follow these steps:
1) Navigate to your Shop homepage ( http://www.etsy.com/your/shops ) and hover over the menu icon at the top-right of the page and select the shop icon.
2) Click the link that says “Listings”. This will bring you to a page with all of your active listings (with a filter to remove inactive or archived items). You can use this page in place of filtering through your shop homepage to find active listings.
3) All items that would be eligible for Etsy search will have a status of “active”
Moderated listings on Etsy
Etsy has a code of conduct. If it suspects your products don’t follow them, they will flag it and remove it from your store. Etsy can remove listings for the following reasons:
- Etsy doesn’t allow items that are made in a factory and mass produced. They do allow handmade items, but they have regulations on what constitutes handmade.
- Etsy doesn’t allow copyright works or trademarked items to be sold through its site.
- All shop owners must follow all laws related to their products and surrounding areas (i.e. shipping, personal information collection, etc). If you don’t follow these laws you will get suspended from Etsy until you follow the laws and/or fix your listing(s).
Which Etsy listings will be moderated?
The initial moderation is done automatically when you list and is usually done by checking the wording of the listing. For example, if your listing includes “Cuban” it may get flagged as this might be a cigar.
Checking the following:
- Whether you have used copyrighted works (i.e. band name, song titles, etc).
- If you are selling a product that can be considered comparable to another products or trademarks and the images on your listing is very similar, it may get flagged.
- You have references to prohibitted items (e.g. guns, tobaccoo or alcohol)
How long does it take for a listing to be moderated on Etsy?
It can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. It depends on how busy the Etsy moderators are at that moment in time.
If you didn’t get approved after 3-4 days, then it is very likely they will not approve your listing. You can always resubmit a new revised version of it if you think the problem was an honest mistake on your part.
Why your listing is not showing in search results
There could be several reasons, let’s look at a few likely ones.
- The title or description contains something that is not allowed on Etsy and doesn’t follow the rules . Read them carefully before you submit your listing so it doesn’t get rejected right away. http://www.etsy.com/help/article/3595
- You have too many keywords in the title or description, which are keywords we don’t want to show up for searches with misspellings on them because they usually result in irrelevant search results . This can cause a keyword density problem (too much of an important keyword) when some of those misspelled words appear somewhere else on the page. Example: if you list vintage as one of your tags and someone searches “vintege”
Check your competition in Etsy search results
If your main keyword returns thousands of results you will have a hard time being found. Check your competition by also checking if the listing has better photos, a better title and is not out of stock.
Your tags are too specific or too general. These result in mostly irrelevant search results because Etsy users might get frustrated with so many irrelevant search results. Example: If you sell vintage cameras from 1900-1998 use a tag that says vintage instead of just saying “1900s camera”
This is one clear example but there are other ways to make it more specific than general. For example, instead of saying “vintage” for the category which will bring up thousands of results that have nothing to do with what you have listed, use something like “antique, vintage, old, retro, old-school” instead.
Check your listing
Finally check your listing in case it is inactive, or is being moderated by the Etsy team.
Activating your listing will make it searchable on Etsy.
Inactive means that you haven’t added anything to it for a while. Your products need at least one photo, and some kind of content (even if it’s just a description of what it is and how it works).
It can be hard for people to find your listing on Etsy. To improve this, try to be careful about how you set up your listing and what you include in it. You might then see a big change in how many people can see your listing.
