Yes, my latest news update is finally out - at least the first part of it. So much has gone on that breaking it into 2 parts seems like the best option for ease of reading. 

So the following contains the top news stories, all of the Etsy news, and general SEO information. The next update (coming in the next few days) will cover everything else that happened between the end of November and now. 

Since I am still a bit worried that Twitter will become unusable, I’ve begun posting more timely updates on LinkedIn, so please follow or connect with me there!  

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

As you may know, Royal Mail was hit by a ransomware attack that has restricted their incoming and outgoing international mail. Most international mail can now be sent, but things are still slow. Note that items entering the UK may also have taken longer than usual in the past month.

Etsy is continuing to refund buyers out of seller funds when cases are opened on orders $250 and up, even when tracking says the packages were delivered and some even signed for. I posted several of the Etsy forum threads and screenshots of deleted threads on Twitter. While many shop owners have received full refunds from Etsy after complaining, some of the recent examples are only getting 50% of the order value back. Let Etsy know what you think in this survey. Even orders below $250 are coming under additional scrutiny, with this news investigation [video and text] regarding a vintage shop that Etsy issued automatic refunds for without allowing the seller to comment on the cases. I am writing a blog post on the topic, so if you or anyone you know has been affected, please email me with the details - I promise to keep your details confidential if you wish. 

Americans who made at least $600 on a marketplace or through a payment processor/app in 2022 will not be receiving 1099-Ks for that income after all - the IRS has delayed that change for one year. The main reason seems to be the huge amount of new paperwork required for the platforms.

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy has had a bizarre checkout bug that only affects a tiny percentage of shops for a few weeks now with no sign of a solution for most of them. Shockingly, Support told one affected buyer “to go to another Etsy seller"! 

Hidden as a post in the Technical Issues section of the forum, Etsy announced that some non-US sellers would need to verify their bank accounts in 2023. They state that shops which opened after November 2020 do not need further verification, so I assume that means all of us non-US sellers who had to re-verify last year are ok as well. 

If you use the private listing option (even after Etsy removed most of the functionality), beware that those listings do not have a way to add estimated delivery times or return policies before publishing, so you need to rush to add them afterwards before the listing is purchased, or you lose seller protection. 

Etsy is testing (or doing a very slow rollout of) letting buyers make an offer on listings, but very few people have it. I did posts with a screenshot on LinkedIn, my Twitter account, and the Etsy Sellers subReddit. Here’s the Etsy forum thread started by someone who spotted this option. 

The “Updates to Etsy Search” article that came out mid-January is mostly coverage of things they did a few months ago, including an Add to Cart button in search, displaying the time remaining on expiring sales, video autoplay, and the Star Seller filter [don’t worry, the last one is hidden under the main filter button, so most visitors will never even see it]. They also mentioned the estimated delivery dates being displayed in search, but I haven’t seen that for at least a few weeks; right now I only see the filter they have had for a few years. [It’s pretty embarrassing when they make an announcement like this and it isn’t accurate - and they don’t even bother to correct it.] Remember, none of these things directly affect the ranking algorithm, and the elements of Star Seller - reviews, shipping on time and answering Messages promptly - are all part of the algorithm already, the latter 2 because they are part of the seller service level standards. If you are worried about the Star Seller filter, also remember that breaking any Etsy policy/rule can negatively affect your Customer & Marketplace Score. “to determine a shop’s Customer & Market Experience Score, Etsy considers a variety of factors that make up overall shop quality, including user reviews of products, whether or not a shop has completed an about section or its shop policies (e.g. returns), whether or not the shop may be able to fulfill orders in a timely fashion, and whether or not the shop may have violated any Etsy policies.” [my emphasis] 

January’s category updates includes 2 types of bags, plus changing “unisex” kids and baby clothing categories to “gender neutral”. 

The workaround to keep old written shop policies is now being removed, with many of us losing those old policies recently. You may be able to find caches on Google or Bing if you look quickly. Forum discussion thread. If you need to link to your new stripped down policies or your FAQs, here is how. 

Etsy is being sued for allegedly allowing counterfeit cashmere items on the site; expect the bots to start taking down anything with the word “cashmere” next. 

Etsy’s legal policies now include a page explaining their prohibition on “unsafe or recalled products” and including links to rules and reporting procedures for many countries’ reporting procedures. Recent recalls affecting Etsy include children’s pyjamas from Selfie Craft Company, and a baby rattle sold in one Etsy shop only. 

In the “bad publicity” category, part 1: US federal prosecutors say that an Etsy shop was used as a front for smuggling weapons components to the Russians. While the shop didn’t sell anything like that, they did sell gift baskets with commercial components, so Etsy could have avoided this bad press by following their own rules and shutting this shop down far earlier. See a screenshot of the shop in the comments of my LinkedIn post. 

Bad publicity, part 2: A shop's atrocious customer service went viral on TikTok, which then garnered more media coverage. That shop better be careful, because Harry Styles was already suing ecommerce sellers over products with his name and likeness (including on Etsy).

Also on the infringement front: Disney is suing a couple who have sold infringing items on multiple ecommerce platforms for years, including Etsy and eBay. My Twitter thread has screenshots of some of the products sold on Etsy. 

Etsy’s new Chief Legal Officer used to hold a similar role at Facebook. 

Etsy Strike spinoff group Artisans Cooperative is hoping to launch a new marketplace this fall, and now has organizing support from the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, including funding from the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program. 

Etsy trend “predictions” for 2023 include 2 colours (indigo and honeycomb), marble decor, and “over-the-top” wedding looks. They provide some search trends from August to October on Etsy, so check out what people have been searching for! 

Note that that trends post is different than this one, which includes more detailed search trends and addresses shopping holidays. For example, “56% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “personalize gift mom”. You also need to know that there was “1420% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “hot pink decor”. 

Etsy loves running tests so much they give out trophies for starting the most.

This article [soft paywall; Modern Retail] says that holiday sales were down on Etsy, but Etsy hasn’t released any numbers yet. 

This is perhaps my favourite Etsy story ever: how an unusual custom order ended up seen by millions as it hangs on the International Space Station. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Everyone selling online loves December algorithm updates, so Google started rolling out a new Helpful Content Update around December 6. “Google said this update will "tackle content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines." Both the Helpful Content and Link Spam updates finished rolling out on January 12. 

Ahrefs has updated its link building chapter in the Beginner’s Guide to SEO. “Links are incredibly important for ranking well. And it is quite rare that you will outrank pages that have a lot of strong links—unless you get just as many.”

Understanding basic Google SEO is not enough to have a successful website; understanding how to structure your website is also crucial. For more on that, here’s another article on pillar pages and topic clusters [semi-advanced; you need some basic knowledge of website structure and SEO to fully grasp everything.]

There’s often confusion on long tail keywords and how to use them - this article should clear that up. 

EAT has become EEAT: Google search quality raters now evaluate “experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness” instead of just the last 3. “Google explained that there are “some situations where really what you value most is content produced by someone who has first-hand, life experience on the topic at hand.” 

Repeat after me and Google’s John Mueller: the number of times a word/phrase is used on a page (aka keyword density) is not a positive Google ranking factor. 

Also, readability ratings do not affect Google ranking either, and John Mueller confirmed that as well. Writing for your intended audience is important, however, and that can include some elements of “readability”. 

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to write articles for websites is not against Google rules, but using AI just for SEO purposes is. Not surprisingly, more than one media site is already using AI to write content with SEO in mind: CNET is no longer solely about tech news, for example, and the articles apparently have a lot of plagiarism. Should Google be doing more to stop this junk from ranking? Maybe not - they are already working on using it themselves. 

Speaking of AI writing, Search Engine Land did an overview of ChatGPT and how it may affect the SEO industry. 

Yandex (Russian search engine) had all of its source code leaked. This Twitter thread goes through the different ranking factors and compares them to Google in particular. 

Yahoo Search is making a comeback. No, really. They are even hiring! 

You were probably busy in December, so here’s a summary of what Google was up to; here’s January as well (both including some things already covered in this news update). If you were busy all throughout 2022, then read the full year summary too. 

On this day in 2015, the United Kingdom's Royal Mail released twelve Star Wars stamps by artist Malcolm Tween including this Boba Fett one, which was generously available online to all for over six years