Our Methodology
Where every number in KW Metrics actually comes from.
Our data source
KW Metrics is built entirely on Etsy's official Open API. We don't scrape Etsy's website, use unofficial endpoints, or buy data from third-party resellers. Every listing, tag, price, and engagement figure you see either comes directly from Etsy's API or is calculated from it.
What we compute
Keyword Competition Score
Based on how many live Etsy listings currently compete for a search term, combined with how well the top listings for that term convert views into favorites. A lower score means fewer, weaker competitors — an easier opening for a new listing.
Tag Relevance
We look at how often a tag appears across the top-ranking listings for a search term, weighted by those listings' engagement. A tag used by only a handful of listings can still be a strong opportunity if those listings are performing well.
Shop Sales Trend
Etsy only publishes a shop's lifetime total sales — not a day-by-day breakdown. For shops you track, we record that lifetime figure over time, turning a single running total into a visible trend.
Listing Audit Score
We check a listing's title length, tag usage, and description completeness against patterns seen in top-performing listings for similar search terms — then point out specific, actionable gaps.
What we don't claim
We don't show Etsy's internal search volume, because Etsy doesn't publish it, and we won't invent a number and present it as if it were real. Where you see actual search volume in KW Metrics, it comes from Google's Keyword Planner data — and only if you choose to connect it. We label every figure clearly so you always know exactly where it came from.
If a number in KW Metrics doesn't have a clear source, it's a bug — tell us and we'll fix it. Contact us.
Data freshness
Listing data is refreshed within a few hours; shop data more frequently. We follow Etsy's API data-freshness requirements as a floor, not a ceiling, so you're never looking at information that's meaningfully out of date.
Where AI is used
Where KW Metrics uses AI — like the AI Listing Helper — it only interprets the real, measured numbers already shown elsewhere in the tool. It never invents statistics or presents a guess as a fact.
A note on Etsy
KW Metrics uses the Etsy API but is not endorsed or certified by Etsy, Inc. "Etsy" is a trademark of Etsy, Inc.