diff --git a/.changeset/weak-bottles-cross.md b/.changeset/weak-bottles-cross.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c12d32d7db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/weak-bottles-cross.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@backstage/plugin-catalog-backend': patch
+---
+
+Fix a bug where etags were expiring too soon in the URL reader
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processors/UrlReaderProcessor.test.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processors/UrlReaderProcessor.test.ts
index 7e895c5344..545888e7cb 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processors/UrlReaderProcessor.test.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processors/UrlReaderProcessor.test.ts
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ describe('UrlReaderProcessor', () => {
 
     expect(mockCache.get).toHaveBeenCalledWith('v1');
     expect(mockCache.get).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
-    expect(mockCache.set).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(0);
+    expect(mockCache.set).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
   });
 
   it('should fail load from url with error', async () => {
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processors/UrlReaderProcessor.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processors/UrlReaderProcessor.ts
index 9d76f5679f..e817e19616 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processors/UrlReaderProcessor.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/processors/UrlReaderProcessor.ts
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@ export class UrlReaderProcessor implements CatalogProcessor {
           emit(parseResult);
         }
         emit(processingResult.refresh(`${location.type}:${location.target}`));
+        await cache.set(CACHE_KEY, cacheItem);
       } else if (error.name === 'NotFoundError') {
         if (!optional) {
           emit(processingResult.notFoundError(location, message));