Everything You Need to Know About Etsy SEO
Here’s the thing. I loathe SEO. It’s boring and frankly, I’d much rather be doing something else. However, without good SEO you’re most likely not going to be successful on Etsy. So here is the story of how I improved my Etsy SEO and got my items on the first page of searches!
If you’re here you’ve probably read a few other articles about how to be successful on Etsy you’ve probably heard that you gotta get your SEO down. If you haven’t and you need to start your Etsy shop well click here to get 40 FREE LISTINGS!! Who doesn’t love free crap?
The better your Etsy SEO is the more likely someone will see your item and the more likely you’ll make a sale. But how exactly does one get good SEO? Where do you find these elusive keywords? Well, my friend, let me tell you.
What is a Keyword?
A keyword is a small group of words that customers would search to find your item. You don’t want these to be too simple, for example, “mug” or too complex like “pink and blue unicorn mug with clouds and flowers”. Instead just try “unicorn mug”.
Finding Keywords
There are two main ways I find keywords:
- Etsy
The best way I like to find keywords is by looking at successful products on Etsy using the primary keyword I’ve already picked out. Going with the example I’ve already used I would search “unicorn mug” on Etsy. Then, I’ll click on a few of the items that come up on the first page and see what other keywords they’re using in their titles.
So some other keywords I could include in my title are “Magical Mug”, “Cute Unicorn Mug”, or “Gifts for Her”. You want to make sure that you have more specific keywords such as “Cute Unicorn Mug” as well as some more generic ones like “Gift for Her”.
You could also look at the other keywords that come up after you do your search:
These are other keywords that people have searched that are related to your search and keywords that you could include in your title. The goal is to come up with 13 keywords.
- Marmaleade
Marmaleade is an awesome website that allows you to research keywords specifically for Etsy and how to improve your listings. You can see trending keywords, compare keywords, and see how strong the keywords you pick are.
My favorite feature is the storm feature. This allows you to plug in your primary keyword and it pull other keywords related to it. It then rates those keywords so that you can choose the strongest and most relevant ones. There are three categories that they score: search popularity, engagement, and competition. Each keyword is rated as green, yellow, or red for each category.
I try to pick out as many keywords that are fully green as possible. If I need more I focus on keywords that are green for search popularity and engagement but allow a red rating for competition. Its impossible to get 13 unique keywords that are perfect in all three categories. Therefore, I want to focus on keywords that are searched and have a high chance of my product being clicked on. This is because if no one is searching for my product, even if the competition is low, no one is going to see it.
How to Implement Etsy SEO
So after doing a little research, you’ve picked out your 13 keywords. Now, what do you do with them?
Title
Put as many of your keywords into your title as possible. The first 40 characters of your title are the most important because you will rank higher for these. Not only that but this is the first thing potential customers will see, so you have to make sure they know the specific item you’re selling. Therefore, make sure you’re putting your most specific keywords at the beginning of your title and the more general keywords at the end of your title.
Tags
This is where you include all 13 of those keywords you picked out. Make sure that your tags match your title perfectly. This means that if your title is Unicorn Mug / Magical Unicorn Mug you want one tag that is “Unicorn Mug” and one tag that is “Magical Unicorn Mug”. Even though you already used “Unicorn Mug” as a tag you do not want to just add “Magical” as a one-word tag. Match your tags to your title exactly. The only time you should break up tags like this is if you exceed the tag character limit.
Description
First off, make sure your description is telling your customer everything they need to know about the product they are purchasing. You want no room for complaints of not getting what they expected. Secondly, the description is another great place to stuff your SEO! Get as many of those long-tail keywords in your description as you can! The more the better – but focus on the ones that appear in both your title and your tags. I try to get about 3-4 keywords that appear in all three places.
Add and Renew Listings
Etsy favors shops that are consistent as well as new items. Make sure you are frequently adding new items to your shop. Both Etsy and your potential buyers want to know that you are active and invested. Also, because Etsy SEO favors new items if you’re experiencing a dip in sales try renewing some of your most popular items so that they get boosted in the search.
Final Note
Etsy SEO is not an instantaneous fix. You won’t see results overnight. Don’t get discouraged if you spend hours fixing your SEO and your stats haven’t skyrocketed by the next morning. It takes about a month to kick in and after that, you should start to see your stats increase!
