Etsy Tracking Sources Updated

I have published the table showing Etsy's tracking sources that can be used to show you how people find your Etsy page from within Etsy into Google Docs:

Etsy tracking sources

You can watch a video walk-through on how to use these codes here:

Video Instructions

Video Instructions: Etsy Tracking

I've put together a short video showing how you can use Google Analytics and Etsy's internal ref codes to track your internal traffic on Etsy:

Link to the Video

you'll want the newest list of ref codes, too:

Roll Your Own Etsy Tracking Code

Yesterday I explained how to interpret Etsy's internal reference codes on your google analytics reports to see where your internal etsy traffic is coming from (you can see if one of your items was on the front page, for example, or how much traffic you get from Etsy searches or category browsing.)

Now here's the cool thing: You can create your own custom ref-codes and use them to track visits to your pages from anywhere you can enter a URL. Just replace the Etsy ref code with your own:

etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=MYOWNCODE&listing_id=XXXXX

(the ID number being the number of your item listing)

Where would you use this? A few ideas:

Maybe you use the promos topic and you want to see how many visits a link there generates. Insert something like ref=promo into the URL and you'll be able to see exactly how many clicks it gets in your google report.

Or maybe you have more than one shop and you post links to them in your shop announcements. You can insert ref codes there, too, to see how many people are finding your shop through your other shops.

Or maybe you put links to related items in your item descriptions. Put a little ref code in the link to tell you if people are following them.

But how do you keep all those codes straight? Google will do it for you. I'll show you how later.

Internal Tracking with Etsy Stats

Readers of this blog may recall a post back in December about the extra code that Etsy places in links to your shop and your items that indicates where the link was found on the site. It seems this is in place for Etsy to track their internal traffic, but with the new integration of Google Analytics, you can use it to track internal Etsy traffic to your site. Here's how:

Each URL link to an item on Etsy has a little extra piece of referral code inserted that indicates where within Etsy the link appears. For instance, links that appear on search result pages have an sr in the URL, as in:

etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_1&listing_id=XXXXX

The term "list" in this URL means that the link was viewed in list mode (it might also say "gallery" if the link appears in gallery mode.) The number is the position on the page where the link appears. In this case, it's a "1" for the first, or top position.

These referral links show up in your Google Analytics reports in the "content" section. If you saw the link above, for instance, you would know that someone had found your item #XXXXX while searching in list mode, and that your item had appeared at the top of the page. Other codes indicate whether your visitor found your item from the front page, a showcase, a gift guide, the Storque, or through browsing categories. I have compiled a list of the various codes I have discovered in a Google doc for reference. These may change from time to time, and there may be other tracking referral codes I haven't found yet, so please let me know if it needs to be updated!

Updated 11/22/2009! Etsy Traffic Sources

Etsy Stats? Etsy Stats!

Etsy is now allowing sellers to integrate google analytics to track traffic to their sites. This has been in beta for a couple weeks with a small group of users, and has now been extended to all users.

This is something that the previous Etsy leaders had been talking about doing repeatedly, but had never made any real progress on. The new CEO and Tech leader have promised several much-needed improvements in the works, including an overhaul of the search function. The addition of stats are a real step in the right direction and here's hoping it's just the first step of many more.

What I think is siginificant is that Etsy has allowed users to integrate an existing outside service that is both familiar and reliable. In the area of search improvements, they recently announced they will begin using Solr, a powerful open source search server. This looks like a real shift in thinking at Etsy. The founders were somewhat notorious for being insular in their approach to the site, preferring to build from scratch even when reliable alternatives were available.

Introducing Plaincraft

Plaincraft is a new site with a simple concept - artists list their handmade items with links to their online shops and let others browse and rate the items. The ten top-rated items are listed in real time on the front page and featured in a rotating gallery that is updated regularly.