So i’ve been catching up on my seo reading. Google did a core update to its algorithm late august/ early september designed to correct some of the issues introduced by its core updates late last year and earlier this year (the ‘helpful content’ changes that were anything but helpful to small and independent websites). That is going to take a while for the effects of this update to filter through and for folksy to assess and respond to them (thankfully google didn’t do this update in november like they did last year).
Also found something interesting on the google blog about changes they have made to the image search in response to how people have been using it especially using in conjunction with AI on smart phones to do their shopping. It certainly explains why I’m seeing fewer images from pinterest and a website which had a portfolio of my work on it compared to previously. Thankfully my images on folksy are still ranking highly in an image search and it is picking up recently listed images. (here’s the google blog link Official Google Search news and updates | Google Blog)
I personally think Folksy need to concentrate on getting the platform working along with visitors before trying to get more sellers. These new sellers often not proper handmade is unfair on the length of time some of us have been here. I think I have been on about 10 years now. Apart from 1 sale this month, none in September and none since 23/8. Dreadful.
My stats are really poor, i have also had less sales this month but did close for a holiday and didn’t have new bears until yesterday. The one i sold yesterday was to a return customer who saw the WIP pic and asked if I could keep it for her. Recently most of my sales have gone to the same few buyers, October is usually busier but has been quiet this year so far. November is usually my busiest month for new customers and christmas shoppers so will see how it compares to the last couple of years. I keep wondering about a simple webpage, directing traffic to my Folksy shop, just to display new bears but no idea where to start and can’t afford to pay much for it, i have been going to look into it for 10 years now so no rush lol. To those who have their own website…is it worth it ? do you get many views on your website.,
You can get free ones Sarah. Been thinking along the same line as maybe it would help, or at least get more traffic.
I have a website. It has a page which links directly to every listing here in my Folksy shop but if anyone bothers to click through it is not showing itself in views or sales… Maybe they try to click and wait so long for a response they go to my other shops instead.
I have just been to your website Joy. I clicked on the first 4 or 5 items that caught my eye, straight through to Folksy with no delay. That’s on my phone.
Dont know if it helps at all. But there are definitely views there which should show in GA if not folksy stats
Thanks Helen I will be interested to see what Folksy stats show when they have been updated overnight.
Problem is that I need some of the other 70 million++ UK residents ( not the 3k Folksy sellers) to find my shop / Folksy and for some reason that appears not to be happening… My glass is just as popular as it always has been everywhere else… just not here. Rather like being behind an invisibility screen really.
I am pretty sure it is not just me. Just looking at the value of sales needed to get into Best Sellers tells me that…
I’m sure Folksy is doing everything they can with their limited budget to improve visibility, after all the more sales achieved the higher fees they earn, so it is in their interest as well as ours to resolve any issues as they occur.
Yeah I’m an optimist
They do have all the shop fees and commissions to spend… 
The commission received would go up if we all made sales …maybe that could be made a priority … 
I don’t understand why ‘limited budget’ is always referred to as a constraint on Folksy performance.
I’ve added it to my ‘to do list’ again, free one would be good to start with
You will find an annoying problem is that you won’t easily be able to just download your photos from here as if you do they will be .avif unless you use a mobile and they will all have the same ‘display (nn)’ name … I do retain one photo of every single thing i make (and list) but if you want more per item you are going to find it very tedious…converting (and i have found no quick way to do that only round the houses options) and renaming.
Could you upload them to Canva or similar and then download as .jpg? Or maybe there is a 3rd party app that just does file conversion? Not sure that would get round the need to rename them all though…
There are a few free sites that will convert avif files to jpg
I work on my desktop. I do not want to work on the internet editing or converting. That is the way i choose to work. With Avif / Folksy alone i am unable to do that.
And why on earth should i need to spend my time doing that.
Whilst I do understand the frustration of not being able to just copy and paste and image from folksy to social media. I also understand that to store the numerous images of folksy as jpg would require up to 10 times the amount of storage space.
Also why should any company store your images as jpg just to make it easier for you to be able to copy them to another website. I have backups of all my images, so I just use those to share on social media.
For those interest you can batch convert avifs to jpg online for free and download. It converts them to jpg or png and the multiple files are saved in one zip file for convenience.
Oh sounds too complicated already @JOYSofGLASS 
…don’t even know what an avif is, no idea what my images are. I take them with my iphone but the screen is too small for me to see clearly when editing, I like a bigger screen so i then have to download each one individually to my tablet to edit them, if I don’t download them they don’t show up when I want to feature them on instagram. It’s a pain in the backside and takes twice as long as it use to when i just photographed using my tablet but the photos are so much better this way. Yesterday i spent nearly all day photographing, editing and listing 4 items.
Like you, Sue, I keep copies of all my images Just In Case. I wouldn’t think of deleting the local masters after I’d loaded them on the listing.
I have around 9000 photos on my tablet, I take at least 20 to 30 of each bear, then choose 10 to keep for Folksy and delete the rest. Once a bear sells i delete more pics but keep at least one or two of each on my tablet, i pay for extra storage with Google. When i list on social media i upload the images from google photos, until last week i didnt even know we could do them from Folksy.
I havn’t had any issues with the file type, i am presuming they are all jpeg, i wouldn’t know how to change it or what to change it to.
Deleted my post as yet again made to feel like a child. At my age I can be as belligerent as I want. Yet another tick about not renewing my shop next year.
There are other compression formats than .Avif. just as effective at space saving and to be honest do we need that extra teeny bit of resolution if we sre not broadcasting our work on Tv screens. .
I did check a number of sales websites earlier and found only Folksy and I think it was M&s who used it. Couldn’t find another multi vendor site though.
.Avif is not recognised by Microsoft technology. On my laptop it cannot even give a thumbnail so if I downloaded 5 images they would all have the same name ( though loaded by me with full meaningful descriptive names as required for good SEO ) and if I wanted to convert them to a proper photo type I would not know which of the five I was working on as all I see is a blank .