Hello, friends! My name is Victoria Zhidoк. I represent Western Bid in Chernihiv and am growing my small business on Etsy. Our company opens up the world of international sales for you, accepts payments from your own websites, delivers your goods anywhere in the world, and offers price-center and fulfillment-center services in the USA.
Today we will talk about a situation that almost every seller on Etsy has faced. I am sure everyone has listings that they have posted, but they are not selling and are just sitting idle. No visits, no likes, no sales — they simply haven’t gained any traction. I call these listings “for supporting the assortment in the store.” Next, I will share my personal experience regarding this: what I do with such listings and whether these dead listings can be fixed.
I want to start by saying that it is perfectly normal to have listings for products that are not selling. This does not harm your store’s ranking or reputation in any way. Most sellers only have a few products that do the heavy work and act as the locomotive pulling the entire store forward. Of course, everyone has a different number of products. But overall, locomotive products make up about 20% of the total products in your store.
Why does this happen?
Etsy’s algorithm favors listings with good quality scores. Therefore, it is natural that they will appear more often in search results than listings with lower scores. This again confirms that the quality score is crucial in ranking products in Etsy search. Looking ahead, I want to say that these listings can indeed be revived in most cases.
When I realize I have tried everything but still see no results, I simply delete such a product and relist it as a new listing. But this is an extreme measure. Before that, I have my own algorithm to try to revive the listing nonetheless.
Step 1: Check demand
First, to start, you need to ask yourself very honestly: Is anyone even searching for what I sell? Is there a demand for this product? Sometimes we think that our product is so cool, cute, and aesthetic. But Etsy works differently. The platform’s algorithms do not evaluate your personal tastes and preferences. They simply display products in response to users’ search queries. No matter how good your product is, if no one is searching for it, no one will buy it.
Example 1: Silver Rings
You offer custom silver rings. There is demand for them, but to find this specific product, buyers may use various search queries.
Example search query: Custom Silver Ring
According to this query, we see that over the past 30 days, it was not searched very often, and the competition for it is very high. It will be very, very difficult to rank for this search query. But if we use a synonym for Custom Silver Ring and describe this ring in more detail, it will be “silver signet ring,” and the search query accordingly — Custom Signet Ring.
Here:
- There are many more search queries
- The competition is very low
Conclusion: At the beginning of the listing title, it is better to use the search query Custom Signet Ring, as it has higher demand.
Example 2: Knitted Mug Covers
A friend and colleague of mine sells knitted mug covers. Very beautiful, very stylish, and cute. But the direct tag Crochet Mug Sleeve has very few searches. We decided to reorient her product toward the query Eco-Friendly Gift for Coffee Lovers. And then the views and sales started to increase. Before making any changes, make sure that this product is actually being searched for.
Step 2: Check the main photo
The next step is to answer the question: How does your product look among competitors in search results? If the first listing photo doesn’t catch the buyer’s eye, they simply won’t notice or see it.
Why are photos so important?
Etsy is a visual platform where photos and videos play a key role. Here, images equal first impressions. Our goal is to make sure the photo immediately evokes an emotion. So that the buyer thinks: “Oh, what’s this? I want to take a closer look at it” — and clicks on your listing.
It is specifically photos that need to convert into sales.
What should photos show?
Photos and videos of the product should help better understand the product, because an online buyer cannot feel your product by touch, try it on, smell it, and so on. Therefore, ensure your photos answer all possible questions a potential buyer might have about your product.
I personally make several identical listings, but change the main photo in each one. This is a good opportunity to test different photos and see which one resonates best with buyers.
When changing the main product photo, you need to be very careful. I had a somewhat unpleasant experience when I decided to change the main photo of a product because I received new photos from a photoshoot. I thought they looked better. However, I was very mistaken, and the listing gradually declined, and I still cannot achieve increased traffic to it. So, don’t tamper with a listing if it’s already working well!
Step 3: Correct pricing strategy
If you set the price incorrectly, it can cause the listing to rank poorly. In reality, buyers on Etsy are very sensitive to the price of a product. The price of your product subconsciously communicates a lot of information to the buyer. If your product is perceived as cheap — it will signal to the buyer that it might be of poor quality. Conversely, if your product is perceived as expensive — this customer will simply ignore it and move on to searching for other products within their budget.
How to determine the right price?
To correctly set the price for your product, you should consider:
- Cost of the product
- Indirect expenses
- Time you personally spend on manufacturing (if it’s handmade)
- Average price in your niche
Don’t forget about shipping!
Also, when setting the price, don’t forget about the shipping cost. Sometimes it’s better to set a fixed shipping fee, and sometimes free shipping works well. But again, this depends on the average prices in your category niche.
Step 4: SEO
The last step to try to revive dead listings is, of course, SEO. Many of you might say that you should have started with SEO — changing tags, rewriting the title, and everything will start working. All of this is correct, but in fact, it is the final step. You should only do it after testing demand, improving photos, checking or adjusting the price.
How long to wait for results?
It takes time — at least 60-90 days to see results. And only if none of this helps, you can update the SEO:
- Change keywords in the title
- Change tags
- Change description
Do not change the SEO for products that are already selling well. This is a golden rule.
Conclusions
Success on Etsy is not magic. It’s not about uploading products and hoping for a miracle. It’s like a scientific experiment:
- You form a hypothesis
- Test it
- Observe
- Draw a conclusion
- And again, and again, and again
The correct sequence of actions:
- First, test the demand
- Then photos
- Next, the price
- And only after that — SEO
Algorithm of actions in the form of a checklist
Step 1: Demand (1-2 days)
- Check search queries using Marmalead or eRank
- Find synonyms for your keywords
- Make sure the product is actually searched for
Step 2: Photos (1 week)
- Compare your photo with competitors
- Does it evoke emotion?
- Does it answer the customer’s question?
- Test different options for the main photo
Step 3: Price (a few days)
- Calculate cost + time
- Analyze the average price in the niche
- Check the delivery strategy
Step 4: SEO (after 60-90 days of waiting)
- Change the title
- Update tags
- Rewrite the description
- Wait another 60-90 days for results
Last resort
If nothing has worked — delete the listing and repost it as new.
