There’s no way to guarantee your listings will always appear on the first page of Etsy
search results.
But there are ways to make sure Etsy’s SEO gives your listings that little extra love
and puts them in front of more customers, increasing your sales.
Are you ready to make your Etsy store even more successful?
Keep watching to learn how!
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
By working on your Etsy store’s SEO, you’re improving the visibility of your shop and
listings on Etsy, and other search engines, like Google.
Basically, the more people see your products, the more likely you are to make sales.
There’s no way you can trick or outsmart the search engine, and any attempt at doing
that might actually hurt your store in the long run.
Instead, I’ll show you how to work with it.
To demonstrate how Etsy’s algorithm works, I’ll look up some art pieces on the marketplace.
To do that, I’ll search “wall art for living rooms.”
In a matter of seconds, a little over 5 million listings pop up.
To make sure the search results are more refined, I’ll filter them.
While it might seem like Etsy’s just showing me the bestselling items first, and the ones
with fewer orders last, that’s not exactly true.
Before I even see anything on my screen, the search engine goes through 2 phases to determine
which listings and in what order it will show me the products.
The first stage is called query matching.
During this stage, Etsy’s search engine looks at the titles and tags of each listing
and gathers the ones that match the search query.
A search query is a keyword a person has entered in the search bar.
Then all the listings that got selected go to a second stage: the ranking process.
Some of the factors that Etsy’s search engine looks at when ranking listings are attribute
relevancy and listing quality.
I’ll talk more about these two factors and the ranking process later in the video.
As I said, there’s no guarantee that you’ll always appear on the first page of the search
results, even if you do everything right.
While it might sound a little disappointing, there’s actually a good reason behind it.
Etsy’s SEO personalizes each customer’s experience and shows them the products that
they’re most likely to purchase based on their previous activity on the marketplace.
So, for example, if you sell bohemian wall art pieces, they’ll be shown primarily to
people who have bought or browsed similar style products before.
And that’s a good thing because someone who’s interested in minimalist wall art
might not be interested in your pieces anyway.
So Etsy’s search engine connects the right customer to the right product, rather than
throwing just anything at them and hoping something sticks.
So, don’t focus on the idea of appearing on the first page of every search result for
“wall art,” focus on refining your store and listings to attract your ideal customers.
In this video, I’ll share how to do that by improving your tactics.
For your listings to pass the query matching phase, they need to be written according to
Etsy’s SEO guidelines.
So, let’s look at how to write SEO-friendly Etsy titles and tags.
When writing your titles and tags always keep in mind that you’re writing them for a person
first, and a search engine second.
So, avoid stuffing the title with 8 different keywords strung together, trying to cover
any possible search term someone might use.
How to write SEO-friendly Etsy listing titles Focus on the 1–2 most important and effective
keywords for your product, and keep your title short and concise.
Let’s say I’m creating a listing title and tags for this art-deco-inspired poster.
A mistake that I see many people make on Etsy is keyword stuffing the listing titles.
This is what a keyword-stuffed title looks like: “Art deco art, art deco print, living
room wall art, roaring twenties inspired art nouveau poster.”
While it contains a lot of descriptive keywords, this title might leave potential customers
confused as to what you’re selling.
Instead, you should make your titles clear and descriptive, so people know what the product
is just by glancing at the title.
Here’s how to do that: 1.
Pick the 1–2 strongest keywords If you’ve had your store running for a while,
you might’ve already noticed which keywords perform the best for which products.
So, when writing the title, focus on 1 or 2 of the strongest keywords, and leave the
rest for the tags.
The keyword should also be at the very beginning of the title because the search engine considers
words at the beginning of the title more important than the words at the end.
Going back to our example, I’ll pick the keyword “1920s style poster,” because
that’s the best-performing keyword for this product.
2.
Add descriptive words Make the title sound appealing to potential
customers.
You can do that by adding descriptive keywords that mention the color, size, shape, or material
of the product.
For example, I can describe my product as “A 1920s Style Poster | Large Matte Print.”
It looks clean and understandable, and it works for Etsy’s SEO.
Alright, great!
Now, let’s talk a bit more about tags.
This is the section where the rest of your keywords should go.
Sounds easy enough, but there are a few misconceptions about the best practices of adding tags to
your Etsy listings.
Let’s discuss this.
1.
Myth number 1–The tags must match the titles Your tags don’t need to match your titles.
Instead, you should use tags to write alternative search keywords that people might be searching
for to find your product.
For example, this is where I’d add keywords like “art deco poster, living room wall
art, art nouveau print.”
2.
Myth number 2–You should Include plurals and misspelled words in your tags
It’s actually the opposite.
Etsy’s search engine is smart and will account for misspelled words and plurals, as well
as different spelling variations of the same word.
So you don’t need to include misspelled words and plurals in your tags, focus on correctly
spelled, diverse keywords instead.
3.
Myth number 3–You should repeat the same keyword with minor changes
Just like you should avoid plurals and misspelled words in your tags, you should avoid repeating
the same word over and over again.
For example, I don’t need to write “Art deco art, art deco print, art deco poster.”
Instead, add different keywords that people might use to find your art.
In my case, these keywords could be “art deco home decor, art nouveau artwork”.
To sum it up—try to add a variety of keywords to your tags, to make sure people can find
your product no matter which keywords they type in the search bar.
Another piece of information that Etsy’s search engine looks at in the first phase
of sorting listings, is item attribute relevancy.
Let’s learn more about it.
Attributes are the additional details you might use to describe your products.
From the customer’s point of view, they’re called Filters and they’re displayed on
the left-hand side of the search results page.
Shoppers can use them to narrow down the search results.
You can add or update a listing’s attributes during the listing process or use the listing
editor.
It’s a good idea to add all the attributes that are relevant to your listing, and skip
any attributes that don’t apply.
Correctly added attributes help increase the visibility of your listing, as people can
choose exactly what they want to find and so they’ll find your product more effectively.
For example, my poster would go in the wall art category and would fit nicely in with
the art deco style category too.
But I definitely shouldn’t put it in the Christmas gift category.
While this poster could be a nice Christmas present, it’s not really Christmas-themed.
Once your listings pass the query matching phase, it’s important to optimize them to
make sure they also rank high in the search results.
While a keyword-optimized listing is a must, having strong visuals and a solid copy is
just as important.
After all, that’s what makes people click on your listings.
And the more people look at, like, and purchase your listings, the higher Etsy’s algorithm
places them in the search results.
Why?
Etsy assumes that listings that get the most attention are the ones that serve customers’
needs the best.
1.
Listing photos First impressions matter, so put your best
photo forward.
Make sure that the first listing photo is clear, yet eye-catching enough so that people
want to take a closer look.
That’s not all though.
Etsy gives you an opportunity to add up to 10 photos or videos to your listing and you
should definitely take this opportunity.
But don’t just add the same 10 photos.
Show your product from different angles, show it alone and with other items, show it being
used, and include a video of it in action.
When shopping online, people can’t touch the product and view it themselves, so your
visuals should help them understand how great the product is, and give potential buyers
an idea of the product’s size, texture, thickness, etc.
2.
Write clear and informative descriptions Once you’ve captured someone’s attention
with amazing visuals, it’s time to reel them in with a good description.
Etsy’s algorithm doesn’t scan product descriptions, so you don’t have to worry
about including all of your best keywords here.
So why should you care about this?
Product descriptions help shoppers make a decision if they want to buy a product or
not.
And the more people who choose to buy your product, the higher your listings are ranked
by Etsy’s algorithm.
When writing your description, make sure you follow these best practices:
1.
Write the most important information first When online shopping, it’s pretty frustrating
if you have to spend time searching for basic information about a product’s size, material,
or customization instructions.
So make sure all the necessary info is front and center.
Feel free to repeat some of the words that you’ve used in your title, attributes, tags,
and categories.
2. Make your descriptions structured Instead of just adding a huge wall of text,
separate it into paragraphs, add bullet points, use bold, italics, and underline when you
can.
That’ll make the text easier to read and people will be much more likely to get the
information they need.
There’s another way to sweeten the deal for your customers even more—the shipping
price.
Did you know that 75% of shoppers say that free shipping motivates them to make a purchase?
Etsy knows that too, and since they want customers to buy more products, they favor listings
with lower shipping fees.
Lowering your shipping costs can be tricky, but there are a couple of creative tactics
to try.
We have a video covering this topic , so make sure to watch it right after this.
I’ll leave a link in the description.
Nearly all shoppers read reviews, and the majority consider them an essential resource
when deciding whether to buy a product or not.
And it’s not just your potential customers who are looking for positive reviews.
Etsy ranks your listings by your reviews, and the better you have, the higher your listings
will rank in search results.
So make sure to provide an amazing shopping experience for your customers, listen to them,
and try to solve any issues that come up to get those 5 shining stars.
Last but not least, give people a chance to learn your story.
This is your chance to let shoppers know what makes your shop unique.
You can include a video or photos of yourself, your workspace, or your work process.
A completed About section positively affects your chances of being ranked higher in search
results too.
Adding an About section increases your ranking score, and that can improve how high up in
the search results your listings appear.
So make sure to share all about how you got started, the inspiration behind your products,
and fun tidbits about you or your business.
You can do this!
Implementing a successful Etsy SEO strategy requires a combo of selling products that
people are looking for, optimizing your store and listings for their search engine, and
being a hardworking seller.
Get all 3 ingredients right, and you’ll have the recipe to succeed in the Etsy SEO
game.