If you sell on Etsy, eRank is probably part of your weekly routine. You check search volume for a phrase, look at competition levels, compare a few tag variations and adjust your listings accordingly. Sooner or later a reasonable question surfaces: where does that data actually come from? Specifically, does eRank pull its keyword numbers from Bing, or from Etsy itself, or from somewhere else entirely? The answer matters more than it might seem, because the source of a keyword metric determines how you should interpret it. Marketplace search behaviour and general web search behaviour are different things, and treating a number from one context as if it described the other leads to listings optimised for the wrong audience.

How AAMAX.CO Can Help With Your SEO

We are AAMAX.CO, a full service digital marketing company providing web development, digital marketing and SEO services worldwide, and we work with e-commerce sellers who want to grow beyond a single marketplace. Our SEO services help product businesses build their own web presence, rank for the commercial searches happening outside Etsy, and reduce dependence on any one platform's algorithm. We combine marketplace keyword insight with genuine web search data, so you know which phrases are worth chasing inside Etsy and which justify building a product page, buying guide or collection page on your own domain where you keep the customer relationship.

What eRank Is Designed To Do

eRank is a marketplace research tool. Its purpose is to help sellers understand demand and competition inside Etsy's own search environment: which phrases shoppers type into the marketplace search bar, how many listings compete for them, how those listings are tagged and priced, and how a specific shop performs over time. That focus is its strength. Etsy shoppers behave differently from general web searchers because they arrive already intending to buy handmade, vintage or custom goods, and their queries reflect that: highly specific product descriptors, materials, occasions, personalisation options and style modifiers.

Because Etsy does not publish a comprehensive public keyword volume API, tools in this space assemble estimates from a combination of available sources. That is the crux of the question about Bing.

Where the Data Comes From, Realistically

Marketplace keyword tools typically build their datasets from several inputs. Internal marketplace signals such as autocomplete suggestions, search result counts, category taxonomies and trending phrase feeds provide direct evidence of what shoppers search within the platform. Scraped and aggregated listing data reveals how sellers tag products and which tags correlate with visibility. Historical tracking of the tool's own user base contributes observed performance data. And external search engine data, which can include Bing's publicly documented keyword and search APIs as well as other third-party providers, is used to supplement volume estimates and trend information where internal data is thin.

eRank has publicly indicated that some of its keyword volume estimates draw on external search data rather than being direct measurements of Etsy searches, precisely because Etsy does not expose that information. Bing's keyword services have historically been a common source for tools needing licensable search volume data, since it is more openly accessible than the alternatives. So the honest answer is that eRank's numbers are best understood as blended estimates, part marketplace-derived and part externally modelled, rather than as a literal count of Etsy searches.

Why That Distinction Changes How You Use the Data

Once you accept that a volume figure is an estimate assembled partly from web search data, several practical rules follow. First, treat absolute numbers with scepticism and relative comparisons with respect. If phrase A shows three times the volume of phrase B, that ordering is probably meaningful even if neither number is precise. Chasing a specific figure is far less useful than choosing the stronger of two options.

Second, watch for context mismatch. A phrase can carry substantial general web search volume while performing poorly inside a marketplace, because the searchers are looking for information, cheaper mass-market alternatives, or a different category entirely. Conversely, some highly commercial marketplace phrases show almost no external volume because they are marketplace-native ways of describing products. Marketplace-native phrasing is often where the best opportunities hide.

Third, prioritise evidence from inside the platform. Marketplace autocomplete, your own listing analytics showing which queries actually produced views and orders, competitor tag patterns among top-selling listings, and seasonal trend data all describe your real environment. Those signals should outrank any third-party volume estimate when they conflict.

A More Reliable Keyword Process For Marketplace Sellers

Start with your own data. Your shop statistics tell you which search terms already bring visitors and which convert, and that is the highest-quality information available to you. Expand from those winners rather than starting from a blank slate. Use autocomplete on the marketplace itself to gather the phrasing shoppers genuinely use, including the modifiers they append. Then use a tool like eRank to compare candidates for relative demand and competition, and to spot trends you would not have thought of.

Build listings around specific, descriptive long-tail phrases rather than broad category words. A phrase like personalised oak cheese board wedding gift will convert far better than cheese board, even though the broad term looks more attractive on a volume chart. Test deliberately: change tags and titles on a small set of listings, wait long enough for meaningful data, and compare against a control group rather than changing everything at once and losing your ability to attribute results.

Do Not Let a Marketplace Be Your Only Channel

The deeper strategic point is that marketplace keyword tools optimise for visibility inside someone else's platform, under their algorithm, their fee structure and their control of the customer relationship. A change to marketplace search ranking can halve your traffic overnight with no recourse. Sellers who build a parallel presence on their own domain, ranking in general web search for the same buying intent, gain resilience and better margins.

That is a different discipline. Web search rewards well-structured product pages, useful buying guides, category pages that answer comparison queries, product structured data, fast mobile performance and genuine authority built through content and links. Increasingly it also rewards content that AI-driven answer engines can interpret and cite, which is why our GEO services focus on making product and guide content clear, structured and quotable.

The Answer In Short

eRank's keyword volumes are best understood as estimates that blend marketplace-derived signals with externally licensed search data, and Bing-sourced data has been part of that picture rather than the whole of it. Use the tool for comparison, discovery and trend spotting, and use your own shop analytics and marketplace autocomplete as the final authority. And if you want product visibility that does not depend on a single platform's algorithm, our digital marketing team can help you build it on ground you actually own.