{"id":8750,"date":"2026-03-23T17:44:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westernbid.com\/%d0%b1%d0%b5%d0%b7-%d0%ba%d0%b0%d1%82%d0%b5%d0%b3%d0%be%d1%80%d1%96%d1%97\/etsy-seo-how-unique-tags-and-the-new-marmalead-algorithm-are-changing-listing-promotion\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T13:14:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:14:37","slug":"unique-tags-and-the-new-marmalead-algorithm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernbid.com\/en\/blog\/unique-tags-and-the-new-marmalead-algorithm\/","title":{"rendered":"Etsy SEO: how unique tags and the new Marmalead algorithm are changing listing promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Good day, everyone! This is Masha Kaganyovich speaking. I am a marketer at Western Bid, and today’s article is a kind of small experiment. It will be quite different from all other materials because usually I conduct analysis or share something from my own experience or our company’s experience \u2014 talking about services, niche, trends, and tendencies.<\/p>

Today, I will discuss a new SEO algorithm. According to this announced new algorithm, we know that Marmalead has changed its rules and assessment criteria. And, by the way, I have already made a piece of content on this topic. The content is still correct and relevant \u2014 it’s truly about how you can improve the ranking of your listings in SEO. Please, check out this material.<\/p>

But if you have already seen it or just don’t want to watch it, I will briefly tell you about the biggest change. For example, I will take listings that previously had an A rating and now have dropped to C-. One of the most important changes is that now Marmalead, and Etsy explicitly tells us this, wants to see unique tags.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Old approach to creating headlines<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPreviously, we used to create titles approximately like this. All trainers, all coaches always taught to create a title based on the search query. That is, how does the buyer search? Pink heart pillow. Colour black pillow. Good vibes pillow. Look at how many times the word pillow is repeated here. One, two, three, four, five, six. Pillow-pillow-pillow-pillow.\n\nNow, because these words are repeated so often, the ranking has significantly dropped \u2014 it has become C-. The same is visible in the tags. Look, we also tried to create such \u201ccorrect\u201d phrases that would match search queries. Colourful pillow, throw pillow \u2014 meaning each of these two- or three-word combinations for tags, around 20 characters, had meaningful content.\n

New Approach<\/h2>\nNow let\u2019s look at a listing that, say, I improved to A+. These words no longer need to be repeated, and they don\u2019t even necessarily have to carry semantic meaning. Of course, for a title \u2014 yes, but for tags, I mean, it\u2019s no longer critical.\n\nSee: Butterfly purple throw pillow. We only repeat the word pillow once. Bright and colourful cushion. Cushion \u2014 that\u2019s also a pillow. So, we took two synonyms, and these are now our keywords. By the way, keywords also serve as attributes and categories. Essentially, all this is already a repetition because we already have a category pillow. So even repeating the word pillow in the title the second time is unnecessary \u2014 it\u2019s already included in the category. Look how many new possibilities now open up for new words!\n\nNow we have tags \u2014 all of them are unique. Thanks to this, Marmalead, of course, gives a very high and good ranking for this listing \u2014 A+. Actually, that\u2019s exactly what this material was about \u2014 explaining how this new system and algorithm work.\n

Examples of Tags Without Semantic Load<\/h2>\nLook: Decor Butterflies. Does this phrase make sense? No. Or, for example, Couch Living Room. So, that\u2019s a cushion for the sofa. But we don\u2019t write \u201ccushion for the sofa\u201d \u2014 we just write \u201csofa, living room.\u201d Or Modern Minimalist. What does that mean? On one hand, our pillow fits the style of modern, on the other \u2014 minimalist. These words can be used by the buyer in their search query, but by themselves, the tags should no longer have such a direct meaning. Look at how many new words have been added here. If earlier it was all repeated, now at least, probably, 30 new words have been added to the tags \u2014 because now they shouldn\u2019t repeat. Therefore, our reach to the target audience has become much broader.\n

KeywordNet in Marmalade<\/h2>\nNow I\u2019ll explain a bit more in detail. Look, Marmalade has a feature \u2014 KeywordNet, this network. I added a bunch of different words, and the AI itself put together wonderful phrases from them. For example: Nature, Lavender, Decor Butterflies. That is, individual words make sense, but their combination \u2014 isn\u2019t entirely logical.\n\nThey themselves created all these phrases and generated 500 different variations of search queries based on my words. So, theoretically, it looks very impressive.\n

Thoughts on Impressions Budget<\/h2>\nLet\u2019s now explore how this looks in practice. I\u2019ll make a few assumptions, and I\u2019m curious about your thoughts. Not just your opinion, but based on your experience \u2014 if you\u2019ve already tried this new system, how does it work for you?\n\nI have this assumption \u2014 again, just an assumption, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s true \u2014 that Etsy might provide each seller with a certain free impressions budget. Like when you purchase advertising \u2014 you have a certain budget, and that budget purchases a certain number of impressions for your keywords, your niches. Even before launching paid ads \u2014 meaning, not paying anything \u2014 simply listing your products, your new listings, gives you a certain free impressions budget. And let\u2019s suppose, this budget is for a thousand impressions.\n

How Are Impressions Distributed?<\/h2>\nThen, naturally, the question on Etsy arises: where and how to distribute these thousand impressions? Who should see them? Suppose you don\u2019t use any keywords at all. That is, you have a short title of two or three words, only attributes and categories are open \u2014 no tags, nothing at all, only categories and attributes. Then, the assumption is that these thousand impressions will be distributed only within these attributes and categories.\n\nAnd this, of course, isn\u2019t very good, because usually these attributes and categories belong to highly competitive niches. All sellers in your niche select similar categories and attributes. These are very similar words. And since you\u2019re a new seller and don\u2019t have reviews or sales history, you\u2019ll be shown on those niches somewhere on pages 5 or 10.\n\nThat\u2019s the purpose of tags \u2014 to distinguish you from competitors, to make sure you\u2019re shown for other queries. And from this perspective, it seems that the more unique, individual words you use in your tags, the better.\n

But Is It Really True?<\/h2>\nA question arises: is this really the case? I know, a few people already told me \u2014 repeating words, although now it\u2019s not recommended, still helps. That is, if we have these thousand impressions per day provided in the free budget, and we use, for example, 6 words, then these thousand impressions for those 6 words \u2014 exactly for those 6 words \u2014 will be shown about 170 times a day, right? 170 multiplied by 6.\n\nAnd if you use 40 words, then for these 40 words, you\u2019ll get only about 25 impressions per word. Do you understand? The number of impressions will be divided by the number of words because Etsy thinks: \u201cWho should I show this listing to? They use these, these, these words in the tags. So many words! Therefore, we\u2019ll display a certain number here and there.\u201d\n

Problem of Audience Expansion<\/h2>\nIf there is some limited budget for these free impressions, your listing, in this case, will be shown equally for the query daughter present and splash trendy cute, and also for pillow. But people who are genuinely interested in this pillow \u2014 those searching for throw pillow or butterfly pillow \u2014 are the ones who are really likely to buy this pillow. And those searching for general colour rich bedroom are just browsing whether they like this pillow \u2014 perhaps they meant a completely different idea. So, it\u2019s not a narrow target audience anymore. By increasing the number of tags, we significantly broaden the target audience who may not be interested in our product at all.\n

Example with a Green Painting<\/h2>\nLet me give you an example. Suppose a buyer searches for green painting. He wants a green painting \u2014 maybe with a green wall, green sofa. And here he gets a certain painting. Why does it appear at the top? Because one of the words used is \u201cgreen painting,\u201d or because the word green is used multiple times: green golf, green Canada \u2014 used twice. How many times is \u201cgolf\u201d used? Once, twice, thrice \u2014 in the title. I\u2019m not even considering tags right now. We can assume that there are no tags at all \u2014 people are just using these words.\n\nThink: who would really want to buy such a painting? Someone interested in golf. On the other hand, someone who likes the green because it fits into their interior. And another user \u2014 looking for something modern, a modern painting.\n\n3D, textured, green, modern, contemporary, painting, art \u2014 all of this. All other viewers who see this painting will most likely not buy it. Those searching for a red painting \u2014 won\u2019t buy. Those looking for yellow \u2014 probably won\u2019t buy, unless there\u2019s a yellowish detail. Only those seeking a specific green painting or interested in golf will buy.\n

Adding Excess Words as a Problem<\/h2>\nThen, a person takes these new rules and says: \u201cBut there are only 8 words \u2014 that\u2019s so little! And I can add 13 tags, each up to 20 characters. I can add 40 words!\u201d And begins to add: wall art, adds sport decor, palette knife. The painting has yellow, so let\u2019s add yellow. Let\u2019s add artwork, in case someone searches for that. Add unique, lovers, gift. And also bedroom d\u00e9cor, living room d\u00e9cor. Perhaps you have such words in your tags \u2014 maybe, yes. And Etsy\u2019s algorithm starts \u201cthinking.\u201d It seems to consider: \u201cHow many impressions to give for green painting query? About ten. And ten more for unique lovers art.\u201d\n\nBut will a person searching for unique lovers art buy this painting? No. While increasing the number of words, we move further away from our target audience \u2014 those who are actually ready to buy this particular painting. Essentially, we\u2019re fishing where the fish don\u2019t bite our bait.\n\nImagine a pond. Different fish live in it: red, yellow, green. These are all our target audiences. And we cast a line primarily for a green golf contemporary painting. But we catch them where the red fish are, where the yellow ones are, even in modern art zones. Everywhere. And as a result, the chances of catching our green contemporary fish become much lower.\n\nIf my assumption is correct, and if there\u2019s really this limited \u201cfishing\u201d impressions budget, then you should fish precisely where your clients are. That means directing all thousand impressions to words like green, golf, 3D art, painting. That will give the best results.\n

Key Question About Repeats<\/h2>\nThis assumption, essentially, states that using a large number of words is very bad. But my main question: do repeats of words influence enhancement? That is, if we repeat green, green, green, golf, golf \u2014 does it affect Etsy\u2019s algorithm so that it shows us more often in these niches?\n\nMarmalead says no. But I have a suspicion that maybe yes. Now I\u2019ll give an example where this theory doesn\u2019t work at all, because it\u2019s about a situation when you shouldn\u2019t expand, not to add \u201cempty\u201d words in highly competitive niches. After all, you won\u2019t be on the first pages anyway. So what\u2019s the point of writing them and losing impressions on them?\n

Example: Window Pelmet<\/h2>\nLet\u2019s take an entirely non-saturated niche \u2014 Window Pelmet. Look at this listing. It\u2019s very low competition. Words used: Natural Rattan woven Window Pelmet. Main words \u2014 Window Pelmet. It repeats twice more \u2014 Window Pelmet Rattan Valance (a synonym for Pelmet). You can also call it Valance Made from Rattan. Once, twice, thrice \u2014 five times Rattan. Natural Rattan Decoration. Natural Rattan Window Cover. Window Cover.\n\nAccording to new rules, theoretically, the word Window, used three times, should be removed. The word Pelmet, used twice, should be removed. Rattan, used five times, should be removed. I\u2019m curious your opinion \u2014 should these be removed?\n\nLook, here\u2019s a similar example: Rustic Farmhouse, Wood Valance, Cornice \u2014 another word. Wood Window, Valance, Customizable \u2014 a great new word, another one. Decorative, Curtain Box. See how many synonyms there are for this word. In principle, people might search with all these words, so it\u2019s very important to use them. Cornice, Valance, Curtain Box, Farmhouse style, Rustic, Wood. All these words are very different, and we should appear in search results for all of them. Why? Because the competition for all these words \u2014 and for Curtain Box, Valance, Wood Valance, Cornice \u2014 is very low.\n\nSo, yes, let\u2019s get 25 impressions for each of these words. I\u2019ll still go ahead. Where the competition is low, and you hit directly at your target audience with all these synonyms \u2014 of course, such words should be used and kept.\n

Conclusions<\/h2>\nThis is my hypothesis \u2014 that an excessive number of unique words harms niches with high competition. And I really want to hear your honest opinion, based on your actual experience.\n\nFor example, we know that when someone invests money in advertising, they naturally expand their impressions budget. This can be harmful if the budget is too large. Then Etsy might start showing the item to the wrong audience \u2014 e.g., a green painting to those who love traditional classical art.\n\nCan it be possible to show this painting, but those people won\u2019t buy it \u2014 neither for framing nor just like that? It won\u2019t match their style or perception of art. If you give too much money and set a large ad budget, the impressions will be there, but conversions will be low \u2014 fewer visits, clicks, and sales. As a result, your shop\u2019s ranking will drop because Etsy sees: \u201cItem is shown, but no one is buying.\u201d This negatively impacts your shop.\n\nI hope I\u2019ve managed to convey this idea. My main goal is to share this concept, this theory. Thank you very much for your attention.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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