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Is Etsy just about to change SEO?
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>> Here is time for my tinfoil hat. So, if
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you're wanting a video that tells you
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how to do things, this is not it. I'm
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going to do a little bit of speculation,
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based on something a couple of
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somethings real. So, I'll explain.
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Earlier on today, someone posted in a
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Facebook group "What is this?"
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basically with picture. And what that
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picture showed was the tag section on
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Etsy saying 30 tags, 30 30 characters.
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Now, currently, if you're in an
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English-speaking place, you're only
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allowed 20 characters. This was from a
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UK seller, so I thought, "That's very
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strange." I went and looked in my
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listings, and I couldn't see that
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option, but then I realized from their
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screenshot they were looking in the
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seller app. So, I jumped on my seller
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app, and sure enough, there it was, the
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well, it said the ability to add up to
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30 characters. When you're filling in
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your tags, the ability to add up to 30
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you can't. When you try and go over 20,
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you get a warning saying that you can't
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have more than 20, even though it's
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But this had me thinking. Now, it seems
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like Etsy's doing a lot of updating. I
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believe it's the 6th of August that the
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Q2 financial report is coming out.
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And this is the time of the year when
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Etsy test stuff, and they really really
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drop stuff. Now, they have, and I will
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talk about it later, they have been
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doing a little bit to offsite ads in the
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past couple of days. Have you spotted
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that yet? Um which Yeah, I might do a
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little speculation video on that as well
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cuz I'm speculate I'm in a mood for
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But anyway, so Etsy's doing some changes
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behind the scenes. And with the offsite
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ads when actually what happened, people
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were seeing a little blue dot in the
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marketing area that they couldn't get
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rid of. That was just sort of warning
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that there was something new, but they
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hadn't got as far as to add the new
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thing yet. And then when you turn on
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some people were seeing a little
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little thing saying new. Um
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>> And other people weren't. And then when
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I went and looked, I saw the new thing.
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And when you look at the new thing, then
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all those dots go away. So Etsy were
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putting out the warnings for the new
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thing without having put the new thing
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up yet. So it seems they're making
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They're not completing the changes.
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They're just putting changes up. So when
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I saw this, I thought, Now, why would
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that be changed to say you can have 30
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if they weren't about to give us the
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ability to have 30 characters. I could
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be very wrong here, but
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it kind of makes sense to me. So if
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they're updating things,
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why would they want to give us more than
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20 characters? I think there's a really
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good reason for that because in the
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latest SEO update that Etsy did, not
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updates, updates to their guidelines,
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updates what they were telling us to do.
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In the past, they've talked about if a
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keyword too long for a tag, you can
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split it up, but they've been very
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put into a tag what you would expect a
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buyer to type. So they were moving away
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in their advice from the mix and match
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tags that were clearly a jumble, just a
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So, that was interesting. Now, it wasn't
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a big change in SEO because I know
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plenty of people that just do mix and
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match tags. They just put random words
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in and let Etsy sort out. But, in the
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developers blog, they have been talking
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about semantic search, which is using
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all the information that you're giving
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Etsy in the listing to feed to the large
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for them to [clears throat] understand
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the meaning of your listing. And that
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did make me think. It's made me think a
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lot about the SEO, what changes could be
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And actually, yeah, I'll get into this
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cuz I saw a change last week, and I was
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going to I was going to do some work on
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it, some research on it, but the change
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But, it was an interesting one. I
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noticed someone in the Etsy forums had
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that they had a very specific term in
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their title of their listing, and when
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they searched, they absolutely weren't
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anywhere in search. And when I went and
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checked, you could see it in places like
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So, it was showing up on the back end,
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but they were quite right. There was
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like one page of search results, and
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their item wasn't it. So, that was
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saying that it was matched in the first
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um in in their algorithms, but then it
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was completely removed.
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And I checked with a few of my items.
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Now, I have I done a test a while ago,
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changed a lot of my tags to a nonsense
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tag. So, I searched for that, and
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rightly enough, none of my listings were
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showing up. So, that was strange. And
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then I searched for some other things. I
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searched for my name, and some of my
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listings were showing up. I searched for
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my shop name, some of my listings were
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showing up. So, I was like, "Okay." This
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is in a cleaning incognito browser, by
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So, then I searched for my name and my
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shop name and keychain cuz I've made a
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few keychains, but they've never sold at
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all. So, what happened there?
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None. None of my items were showing up,
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which was very, very strange. I searched
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for my shop name and felt dog, and yes,
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my items were showing up.
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So, it almost felt like the large
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language model or some stage in the
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algorithm, let's not get too speculative
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latory there, but some stage in the
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algorithm was saying, "Okay, you've
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searched for this shop name and
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keychains, but that shop, she's not
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really known for keychains. I'm going to
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show you something a little more
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relevant, something more important for
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keychains." So, that was very strange.
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And I was going to do a bit of research
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on it, and then the next day I went to
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go in and just look at that search
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again, and then suddenly everything was
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back to normal. I was showing up for
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But it did make me think the large
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language model was having a bit of a
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So, then add to this where Etsy are
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saying, "Use tags that a buyer would
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type into search." So, basically, use
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tags that are keywords, not broken bits
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What is the thing that's holding many
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people back from being able to use full
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keywords, full phrases in their tags is
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that the tags are too short. You're
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Now, if they're looking to have the
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large language model understand
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what your listing is from your title and
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tags and what's in your photograph.
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If you have mix and match tags that
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don't really make much sense, that would
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be confusing for a large language model.
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It'd be confusing for anyone to know
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what it's exactly relevant for.
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So, this could be a change.
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I might be completely wrong. It might be
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a a glitch. I've no idea how that would
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happen that someone typed 30 into
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into that area so people see 30. It
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could be a mistake, but if it's not kind
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of weird typo, that suggests that Etsy
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might be moving towards wanting us to
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have very understandable tags. And that
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would absolutely make sense because
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that's what tags are like everywhere
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else on the internet. This mix and match
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thing's not been a thing for years. Um
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if you're building a website or a
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YouTube video or whatever else, you're
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not limited by the number of characters
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in an individual tag. You put in the
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keyword. So, interesting. Now, that's
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just my speculation. I could very much
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be wrong. I saw something. Does it mean
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we need to change anything? Absolutely
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not. Does it mean though that we need to
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be aware? Firstly, be aware of the
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change the the things that Etsy's
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mentioning. They're not changes they've
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made yet, but the things that they're
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mentioning like changing the large
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language model and semantic search.
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Putting using keywords in your tags
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rather than mixing and matching them.
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Definitely worth being aware of and it's
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something to be testing if we're testing
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different things in our listing. It's
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not a change. Plenty of shops don't do
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that and they're not being penalized for
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it. They're still getting good traffic
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But, I would definitely have my spidey
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senses tingling if we're allowed 30
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So, let me know what you think. Do you
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think that this is a possible
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deliberate change that Heat C is having,
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or am I just in speculation city as as
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the sun cooked my brains and I'm just
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speculating nonsense?
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Let me know in the comments.
