// FIELD NOTES

Marketplace SEO, from the people who build the rule engine.

No agency fluff, no "10x your sales overnight." Just what actually changes when a listing gets found versus when it doesn't — Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok Shop, Shopify, Pinterest and Instagram.

Etsy

Etsy SEO in 2026: What Actually Moves the Needle

Front-loading, long-tail tags, and why "handmade colourful bag" loses to a search phrase you'd never say out loud in a shop.

9 min read
Amazon

Amazon Cut Title Limits to 75 Characters — Here's What Changed

The July 2026 title-length cut caught a lot of sellers off guard. What it means for your existing listings and how to rewrite for it.

7 min read
Strategy

Stop Writing Descriptions Like a Person, Start Writing Like a Search Box

The gap between how you'd describe your product to a friend and how a buyer actually types it into search — and why that gap is costing you sales.

8 min read
Compliance

The Restricted Words List Every Handmade Seller Should Know

Velcro, Onesie, "FDA approved," "eco-friendly" — the genericized trademarks and regulated claims that get listings pulled, and why you probably didn't know.

10 min read
International

Selling on Amazon.de: Why Machine-Translated Listings Get Returned

Geldbörse is not a shoulder bag. What word-for-word translation actually does to a German buyer's trust — and what native phrasing looks like instead.

7 min read
Etsy

13 Etsy Tags: How to Actually Use All of Them

Most shops leave tag slots empty or fill them with duplicates of the title. Here's what the 13 slots are actually for.

6 min read
AEO / GEO

What Is GEO (and Why Your Listings Need It Before Everyone Else's Do)

Buyers are starting to ask ChatGPT and Perplexity what to buy instead of typing into a search bar. What that means for how you write a listing.

8 min read
Strategy

Etsy vs eBay vs Shopify: Where Should a New Seller Start?

Three completely different traffic models, three completely different seller expectations. A practical comparison, not a sales pitch for any of them.

9 min read
AI & Listings

Why AI-Written Listings Get Flagged (and What "Grounding" Actually Means)

Ask an AI tool to write a candle listing and it will probably call it "hand-poured" whether or not you told it that. Here's the actual failure mode.

8 min read
Strategy

TikTok Shop and Pinterest: The Traffic Small Sellers Leave on the Table

Two platforms with completely different buyer intent, both usually treated as an afterthought. What each one actually rewards.

7 min read