Where is Etsy Heading?
Etsy has been doing some very strange things as of late that are making many Etsy sellers wonder where is Etsy heading. While Etsy sellers have access to some great tools to make selling on-line easy, the overall value of Etsy is coming under question by many shop owners.
Sellers Aggravated by Recent Changes
From recent changes to the selling tools, to the manipulation of inbound links to contain competitors similar items, sellers are getting angry. Some of the changes may be positive for the Etsy shareholders, they do not appear popular with Etsy sellers. Many sellers talk of significant drops in sales. Observers are unable to figure out the logic behind many of the changes. The only thing clear is that some Etsy sellers are actively talking about alternative platforms to sell goods online.
Range of Reactions – Annoying to Costly
The smaller changes on the Etsy platform have just rubbed sellers the wrong way. Recent changes are causing a virtual revolt in the Etsy forums. While everyone understands that online forums tend to be slightly negative, Etsy sellers are commenting venomously towards the current Etsy management team.
Whats really got Etsy Sellers Mad?
The most heated discussions in the forums seems to be about what might be called “poisoned link injections”. Some may speculate that Etsy software is “injecting” “Items you may also like” (from other sellers) into inbound links. So instead of just seeing a sellers product you will see more options from competing sites. To the seller that sent the original link, these are poison to his business.
We have taken a look and seen this first hand. We have also read and used the “work-arounds” suggested in the forums. There is definitely something happening that can only be described as infuriating and confusing to sellers.
“Poisoned Links” into Etsy?
So what are poisoned links? We may be using a technically incorrect description so here is a (reasonable) explanation about how poisoned links were used by cyber criminals SEO poisoning.
It appears that techniques once used for evil are now commonly used to alter search results to favor a different view or landing experience. What actually happens is the link that a seller provides to his or her shop or product is unfavorably altered.
The link appears to be modified somehow by the receiving site(s) systems. The delivered content is reconstructed to display something different than the original link intended. So instead of seeing the shop and the sellers product, the person clicking on the link sees different content.
While the link issues have been seen sporadic, folks from Etsy have stated that it is “only an experiment” in several forums. There are literally a half dozen threads and hundreds of posts talking about the poisoned link syndrome on Etsy forums.
What you see now
At the time this post was put together we could no longer “precisely” duplicate poisoned link type results. Now, instead of seeing competing shop item listings on the top of the linked contents they have been moved and placed at the bottom of the page.
So Etsy still is putting competitor listings into your links unless you use the workaround link method described below. So no longer can you simply share links from social media using tools like Pinterest or Facebook, You must manually edit your links to avoid poisoned links.
The work-around
The provided work-around provided in one of the forums was to insert your shop name in the link between Etsy.com and listing. Here are two examples using a random listing:
Original Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/271351622/rose-gold-druzy-earrings-faux-druzy-stud?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=earrings&ref=sr_gallery_2
Work-Around Link: https://www.etsy.com/sheilasattic/listing/271351622/
Other Reports of Strange Etsy actions
Some news from our friends at eCommerce Bytes Ecommerce Bytes
