[Archived - Maio] Please help! Is anyone else having issues with search results in the shop, and in their OWN catalogue?

Posted by “Maio” on March 06, 2024.

I have two main issues. The first is that my best selling items aren't ranking in shop even when I'm including my username, and the second issue is that my own items aren't appearing when I search within my own catalogue on browser.

I made a 114 piece plaid pattern Christmas set called "PLAID". At least 5 products sold so well they made it to the front page, some stayed for as long as two weeks, and several other items made it within the top 10 pages of the front page. It was my first and only time on the front page, so in theory, those products should rank higher when my username or "plaid" is searched, right?

But when I search "Maio" in the shop, NONE of those Christmas Plaid best sellers, or ANYTHING from that Plaid set, appear. I get a bunch of old best sellers, and random old products I made YEARS ago, that don't sell anymore.

When I go to search "Plaid" in the shop, be it on Browser or in the Client, NONE of my recently top selling items return within the first 120 PAGES of results.

I'm not expecting my own products to rank higher than other plaid items, but in theory they SHOULD rank higher than some of the results I was getting: pink shorts, grey shoes, black dresses, blonde hair etc. They were on the front page 2 months ago, so why are they nowhere to be found when I search for them in the shop? If the algorithm is working properly, should it not prioritize an item that is a) Plaid colored, b) has "Plaid" in the name AND tags, and c) recently sold high quantities?

Other strong selling plaid items appear, but so do a LOT of older items that don't fit the description well, including some of my own older plaid items. Why are 4+ year old Plaid-colored items of mine ranking higher than new ones that outsold the old ones?

I even typed "Plaid Maio'' into the search bar, thinking that would surely cause my top selling plaid items to show in the first page of results, but it didn't. 20 pages deep into the "Plaid Maio" search, and the Plaid pants and dresses that were on the front page for 2 weeks at Christmas are nowhere to be found. The search returned items that *were* top sellers of mine YEARS ago, but have no "plaid" in the name or tags. For instance, I searched "Plaid Maio" trying to get my plaid Christmas dress to turn up, and instead the top results were old (but popular) BLACK socks I made, a cowprint milk bottle I'd made, and some very old white angel wings of mine. NO SIGN of my recent and most popular items within the first few pages of a very specific search.

I thought it might be because it's a Christmas set, so it's not ranking because it's March. But when I searched "Maio Christmas" and "Christmas Maio" NONE of my products returned. Oddly enough, a few pages in I get the SAME results as when searching "Plaid Maio": Black socks, Milkbottle, Angel wings. Something is very wrong with the shop.

My second issue is: I went to my OWN catalogue on browser, typed in "Plaid" hoping to view the whole 114 piece set, and only 25 products actually showed in the results. In my OWN catalogue. The search disregarded 89 of my own products, that ALL had "Plaid" in the name. They show up in Client, but not in the browser (see attached images).

My sales have TANKED lately, and I can't help but feel that the shop algorithm has something to do with it. Or is it possible the acc has been shadowbanned? Are some tag words being used to filter out products from showing when searched? What is happening?

The shop has been broken for a LONG time. I remember bringing the issue of old items ranking high in search results a year ago. It gets "fixed" but then it breaks again. Even now it's still ranking my old products higher than my current best sellers. Can someone from IMVU please help me understand what is going on with the shop? Is anyone else having similar issues?

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