How do we determine listing quality?

New shops and listings start with a neutral quality score. When a new listing is created, it gets a small, temporary boost in search results so Etsy search can quickly learn more about how shoppers interact with it. To determine a listing’s quality score, we look at things like clicks, favorites, and purchases. Etsy search looks at things like past shopper behavior to predict how likely shoppers are to purchase listings from your shop in the future. So if you sell vintage or one-of-a-kind items and are frequently creating new listings, Etsy search looks at how popular listings from your shop have been in the past to predict how popular they might be with buyers in the future.

Optimizing your listings with conversion in mind is one step you can take to improve your search ranking and your shop’s visibility

Listing quality score

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 quality score and placement in search results.

Customer and market experience score

In addition to helping people find items they want to purchase, we want buyers to have a great experience when they shop on Etsy. To do this, we give each shop a customer and market experience score and factor it into search placement.

image ranking| May 22, 2022
The ranking of individual images is now determined as follows.The following values have been converted to approximate percentages. The following descriptions are simplified reformulations.

+ 0.02% views in approx. 1 week period.
+- 0.20% views and downloads in relation.
+- 2.00% Marked as "outstanding" during selection.
+ 3.00% Keywords contain current topics, e.g.: climate change, Ukraine, Christmas, new year, ...
+ 5.00% new image and "outstanding".
+ 5.00% People photography.
- 10.00% Image was marked as "for adults only".
- 5.00% Image was marked as "editorial only".
- 5.00% Image was marked as "free".
+ 2.00% Marked as "outstanding" during selection and contains current topics.
- 20.00% Image is free but contains no keyword on current topics.
+- 2.00% Image is free and contains keywords on current topics.
+ 3.00% Image is free and keywords contain important long-term topics, e.g.: Bitcoin.
+ 2.00% keywords contain current topics, multiple match.
+ 2.00% Title contains current topics.
+ 2.00% Title contains current topics, multiple match.
+ 3.00% Artist bonus in general as well as keywords and titles of images predominantly without "spam" keywording, also title.
+ 2.00% Artist bonus in general as well as portfolio mostly popular.
+ 2.00% Artist bonus in general as well as portfolio mostly "outstanding".
+ 2.00% Keywords contain current topics, multiple matches in combination e.g.: "price" + "gas".
+ 2.00% keywords contain current topics, multiple matches in a combination e.g.: "price" + "gas" and marked as "outstanding".
+ 1.00% Keywords contain important long-term topics e.g.: Technology.
- 20.00% Image was marked as "editorial only" and older than current month.
- 10.00% Image was marked as "editorial only" and older than current and last year.
- 10.00% Image was marked as "editorial only" and older than current year.
+ 1.00% keywords contain current topics and image is not free but "outstanding".
+ 1.00% Image was recently purchased and is not "editorial only".
+ 2.00% Image has been bought several times and is not "only editorial".
- 40.00% Keyword older than current year. e.g.: 2021 in 2022.
+ 7.00% first 500 from top ranking of previous cycles, current year.
+ 3.00% first 500 from top ranking of previous cycles, older than current year.
- 100.00% compensation with massive increase in views due to Google, in proportion.
- 100.00% compensation, with massive increase in views but no download, in proportion, without Google.
+ 10.00% Image has just been downloaded and is not free.
+ 2.00% Image has just been downloaded and is free.
- 3.00% unnecessary keywords, number of keywords greater than necessary.
- 5.00% Title and keywords do not match.
- 1.00% keywords contradict each other e.g.: "background" and "isolated".
- 5.00% keywords contradict each other very strongly e.g.: photo of a woman but keyword "men".

Keywording and findability. Titles and keywords are removed individually, removed completely or replaced by the title. In the majority of cases, this also has an influence on the ranking. Short excerpt.
Spam like multiple commas in the description or repetitions.
If editorial but no creation date.
Mutually exclusive descriptions, e.g: Winter and summer.
Unclear description of what applies, spring and summer and autumn.
Remove typical non-descriptive words like "high resolution, close up, seamless" if inappropriate.
Remove untrue words like "seamless" if not seamless.
If "young" but not applicable.
If "tourists" but not a person.
If "tourism" but not a typical tourist image.
If "clouds" but not relevant.
If "environment", "business", "concept" but not relevant.
If "isolated" then not "background".
If "artificial" for plants but not as title.
If plural, but 1.
If "garden" but only single plant.
If single plant without name.
Convert symbols such as paragraph, question mark to words.
Remove "'and, the, with, in, at, of, ...".
If "Europe" but not relevant.
If "photography" but not relevant.
If "architecture" but not thematic.
If "decoration, decorative, antique, painting" but not applicable.
If "amazing, aesthetic, ..." but not descriptive.
If "beauty, beautyful,.." but neither woman, women, man, men, person, etc.".
If "beauty, beautyful,..." but animal or plant".
If "Close up images of, ...".
If "Detailed, showing,...".
If "Vector" but not vector.
If "template" but not template.
If "during, seen, view from..." but not matching.
If "group" but not human or clearly "group".
If "nature" but spam.

Ah, I found it - this is what Roscoe sent me after the Indivstock thread was deleted:

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 25, 2022, 14:03

I liked this part:

- 3.00% unnecessary keywords, number of keywords greater than necessary.
- 5.00% Title and keywords do not match.
- 1.00% keywords contradict each other e.g.: "background" and "isolated".
- 5.00% keywords contradict each other very strongly e.g.: photo of a woman but keyword "men".

Yes.

Bad news for bad keywording.

Also bad news for editorials:

- 20.00% Image was marked as "editorial only" and older than current month.
- 10.00% Image was marked as "editorial only" and older than current and last year.
- 10.00% Image was marked as "editorial only" and older than current year.

bad news for lots of views but no sales:

- 100.00% compensation, with massive increase in views but no download, in proportion, without Google.


Good news for topical subjects:

+ 3.00% Keywords contain current topics, e.g.: climate change, Ukraine, Christmas, new year, ...
+ 2.00% keywords contain current topics, multiple match.
+ 2.00% Title contains current topics.
+ 2.00% Title contains current topics, multiple match.
+ 2.00% Keywords contain current topics, multiple matches in combination e.g.: "price" + "gas".
+ 1.00% Keywords contain important long-term topics e.g.: Technology.

and good news for artists with quality work:

+ 3.00% Artist bonus in general as well as keywords and titles of images predominantly without "spam" keywording, also title.
+ 2.00% Artist bonus in general as well as portfolio mostly popular.
+ 2.00% Artist bonus in general as well as portfolio mostly "outstanding".

...
Another issue I have with the downranking images of editorial images that are older than a month/a year. With some that makes sense, but many editorial images don't lose relevance after a month, or even a year. I have an image from a climate change protest that I submitted maybe 3 years ago that still keeps selling, though it keeps selling less and less over time. The topic isn't any less relavant now than it was 3 years ago and the image has not lost any of its usefulness. So it would gain 3% for "current topic", but lose 20% after just a month and another 10% after a year. Doesn't make sense to me.