If you sell on Etsy, you know that success comes from intentionally positioning your shop in front of the right people. Etsy SEO can help with visibility.
“In 2021, over 96 million active Etsy buyers worldwide browsed through the shops of approximately 7.5 million sellers, up from 4.4 million active sellers in the previous year.”
And with this volume of growth, it’s not surprising that Etsy’s search engine is getting more and more competitive. So how can you make sure your products are seen by potential customers?
Read on to learn more.
And if you want to take your Etsy SEO to the next level, check out Everbee.io, the ultimate Etsy SEO tool.
What is Etsy SEO?
Etsy SEO is the process of optimizing your Etsy shop and listings to become eligible to rank higher in search engine results, drive more traffic to your shop, and ultimately increase sales.
Etsy’s algorithm is based on a number of factors, including:
– The title and tags of your listing
– Your shop’s name, announcement, sections, and About page
– Your shop’s ratings and reviews
– Your listing’s click-through rate (CTR)
– Your listing’s conversion rate
– The Freshness of your listings
– If your shop is verified by Etsy
Why is Etsy SEO important?
Etsy SEO is important because it helps you get found by potential customers who are actively searching for products like yours. It also allows you to compete against other sellers who may be selling similar products. In order to sell on Etsy, you’ll first need to be discovered in the Etsy search results.
Etsy sellers can apply a simple, straightforward SEO strategy that can help their online store be favored in search engine algorithms.
Etsy users can rank higher in the online marketplace by query matching, also known as optimization. Etsy’s search engine relies on an algorithm that analyzes a number of factors to decide which listings should be displayed first on the results page.
Some of these elements are:
– Keywords
– Tags
– Shop location
– Average review rating
– Number of sales
Etsy SEO vs. Quality Score
Etsy has a listing quality score system that determines where your listing appears in search results. The listing Quality score is based on a number of factors, including the title, tags, price, shipping time, and more.
While the quality score is important, it is separate from Etsy SEO. You can have a high-quality score and low Etsy SEO (or vice versa). SEO is about optimizing your listings so they rank higher, regardless of the listing quality score.
Etsy SEO Tips: How to optimize listings
Optimizing your product listings isn’t as simple as stuffing in multiple variations of your keyword. Instead, take a holistic approach by considering all aspects of your product page, from the title and description to the tags and images.
Here are 5 places you can optimize your listings for Etsy SEO:
1) Product Titles
Your item title is one of the most important elements of your listing, so it’s important to get it right with Etsy SEO. The title is what appears in search results, so including relevant keywords will help you get found by potential customers.
Potential buyers will also use your title to get an idea of what your product is before they click through to your listing. When you optimize your Etsy listings with the right keywords, you stand a better chance of doing well with the Etsy algorithm.
Ideally, the first few words in your listing title, tags, and descriptions will contain your target keywords. While some keywords might be extremely competitive, different keywords will have different levels of competition. Doing competitive research in advance will help you determine potential keywords to use in your item’s information.
Anchor Keywords
To optimize your product title to rank on Etsy, first, come up with a list of anchor keywords you wish to use. An anchor keyword is simply a word or phrase that potential customers might use when searching for your product.
Etsy autosuggest can be helpful in coming up with anchor keywords. Simply type part of your keyword into the Etsy search bar and see what suggestions come up. These are generally popular search terms that people use on Etsy.
If you have a holiday mug to sell, for example, some of your anchor keywords might be “holiday mug,” “Christmas mug,” or “coffee mug.” These keywords are most often nouns.
Descriptive Keywords
Descriptive keywords are generally words that describe the noun. In the case of our holiday coffee mug, the descriptive keywords might be “red,” “green,” “porcelain”, “plaid”, “Christmas” or “snowman”.
Once you have your anchor keywords and your descriptive keywords, you can combine them to make long-tail keywords. A long-tail keyword is simply a phrase that is more specific than a single word. For example, “holiday mug” is a single word, while “red holiday mug with snowman” is a long-tail keyword.
Everbee.io can help you come up with long-tail keywords that are relevant to your product. Simply type in your anchor keyword and Everbee will generate a list of long-tail keywords for you. When you first use the software, Everbee will ask to connect your Etsy account.
2) Listing Tags
You can add 13 tags, and up to 20 characters (multiple words) per tag. These tags don’t have to “make sense as Etsy will “shuffle” the tags to create combinations.
When creating listing tags, consider the following questions and answers: who, what, where, when, and why to create the proper target audience.
In a Youtube video, Vlad Kuksenko from one of the top-selling Etsy shops in the pet niche (TagPup), stresses that repeating your keyword in the tag is a waste of the 13 spots you have to enter tags.
Your first 3 tags can contain the primary keyword you want to rank for. Think “exact match” based on actual queries. The other keywords should be unique, rather than using the same keyword in different variations. Etsy will create combinations of those keywords to help customers find your product.
These 3 are OK to repeat keywords because you are targeting the most popular matches. Such as:
- Christmas Mug
- Christmas Cup
- Christmas Gift
After that, you would change the keywords as in the following example:
4. Holiday Coffee
5. Funny Present
6. Handmade Porcelain
7. Seasonal Decorations
8. Hot Chocolate
9. Funny Drink
10 Festive Dishes
11 Co-worker beverage
12 Love Snowman
13 Be Merry
Now, Etsy can use the keywords to create new combinations such as:
- Snowman Drink
- Festive Decorations
- Handmade Present
- Porcelain Holiday
- Christmas Snowman
- Funny Present
- Co-worker Coffee
If you have the paid version of Everbee.io for Etsy shop analytics, you can open all of the keywords your competitors have used for tags.
Etsy autosuggest will also give you ideas. Start with the main keywords that describe your item, so such as ‘Christmas mug’.
You’ll see suggestions like:
- Personalized
- Vintage
- Gift
- Boss
- Bestseller
and so on. If it fits, these are good tags to add to your list.
Who: who is the ideal customer? In the coffee mug example, the ideal customer might be “coffee lover,” “tea drinker,” “mom,” or “boss.” When you first go to Etsy as a shopper, you are asked who you are shopping for. The options include “who’s” like: mother, father, and best friend. You are also able to select “occasions” like anniversaries, birthdays, and Christmas. By knowing who your ideal customer is, you can use these terms as listing tags.
What: what does the product do? The coffee mug might be used for “coffee,” “tea,” or “hot chocolate.”
What: what is the ideal customer doing? The customer might be “shopping for Christmas gifts,” “looking for a unique mug,” or “drinking their favorite coffee”.
Where: where will the product be used? For our mug, the answer might be “at home,” “at work,” or “on the go.”
When: when will the product be used? In our mug example, the customer might use the mug “in the morning,” “during the holidays,” or “all year round.”
Why: why does the customer need this product? For our mug, the customer might want to feel cozy, get in the holiday mood, or show their personality.
If you sell anything on Etsy and want to grow your Etsy business, EverBee will give you the information you NEED to grow your Etsy shop.
Using the free version of Everbee, which only provides a limited number of tags, I was able to find tags for a funny holiday mug about Amazon. The tags included:
- Amazon driveway mug
- Christmas Mom gift
- Christmas gift
3) Product Attributes
Product attributes are the details about your product that appear in search results. This includes information like color, material, size, etc.
including relevant attributes in your listing will help you rank higher in search engine results and give potential customers more information about your product. The more relevant and specific your attributes are, the easier it is for customers to find your product when they’re searching for something similar.
This is especially important if you’re selling products that are similar to others on the market. For example, if you’re selling a black t-shirt, including the word “black” in your attributes will help you show up in search results for people who are looking for a black t-shirt.
Attributes can be divided into two categories: physical attributes and non-physical attributes. Physical attributes are those that can be seen, felt, or touched, such as color, size, or material.
Non-physical attributes are those that can’t be seen or touched, such as benefits or features.
Some examples of physical attributes include:
– Color
– Size
– Weight
– Dimensions
– Material
Some examples of non-physical attributes include:
– Brand
– Age Group
– Gender
– Country of Origin
When you’re writing your product listing, make sure to include as many relevant attributes as possible. The more information you can give potential customers about your product, the better.
If you’re not sure which attributes to include, try doing a search on Amazon for products similar to yours and see which attributes appear in the results. You can also use keyword research tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Amazon Keyword Tool to find popular keywords that potential customers might use when searching for products like yours.
Including relevant attributes in your listing will help you rank higher in results and give potential customers more information about your product in your Etsy shops. The more specific your attributes are, the easier it is for customers to find your product when they’re searching for something similar. So don’t forget to include them in your next product listing!
4) Product categories
Categories help potential customers find your listing when they’re browsing Etsy. When you list a product, you’ll need to choose a primary and secondary category. Etsy sellers should carefully choose the category that best describes their product to make sure it’s easy for customers to find.
For example, if you’re selling a t-shirt, choose “Clothing & Accessories > Men > Shirts > T-shirts” as your primary category.
Be sure to choose categories that accurately describe your product. This will help you rank higher in results and make it easier for potential customers to find your listing.
For example, let’s say you sell handmade soap. You might be tempted to put your soap in the “Handmade” category and call it a day. But what if someone is specifically looking for “vegan soap”? If you’ve listed your product under “Bath & Beauty -> Soap -> Vegan Soap”, they’ll be able to find it. If you’ve just listed it under “Handmade -> Soap”, they might not think to look there.
To find the best categories for your product, start by browsing through similar items on Etsy. Look at the primary and secondary categories other sellers have used for their listings. You can also use the Etsy search engine to find relevant categories.
5) Product descriptions
In May of 2022, Etsy disclosed its algorithm update to include descriptions in its ranking factors. While item descriptions are being used to help rank products in Etsy’s search engine, Nicholas Peltekakis, an Etsy consultant, believes that only the top sellers are getting this benefit due to the limitations of indexing a massive catalog of products the size of Etsy.
The item description you create can help your product rank in two ways:
-Relevancy: The description should be relevant to the product title and tags. This helps Etsy understand what your listing is about and how it should be classified.
-Search engine optimization (SEO): The description is an opportunity to include your best keywords that potential customers might use to search for your product.
While optimized descriptions have always helped optimize your listings for ranking on Google, Etsy didn’t use the description previously in their search algorithm.
The first 160 characters of your description are used to create the meta description for your listing page, so make them count! The meta description is the text that appears under your page title on a product results page.
Etsy suggests using target keywords early on in your product description but warns against keyword stuffing, which is the practice of cramming as many keywords into your listing as possible. This can actually hurt your ranking rather than help it.
Furthermore, Etsy warns against copying your title to use as your description, as this will not help your listing rank any higher, and doesn’t do a good job of helping your potential customers understand what your product is.
Instead, write a description that is clear, concise, and easy to read. Be sure to include relevant keywords throughout the description, but don’t sacrifice quality for keyword optimization.
In order to return the best match for the query (search term), Etsy now uses the description to return relevant results as well as the title, tags, and attributes. Etsy shops that have well-written, keyword-rich descriptions should see a boost in their Etsy SEO.
An example of a well-optimized product description:
This vegan soap is made with olive oil, coconut oil, and sustainable palm oil. It’s scented with a blend of essential oils and has no artificial colors or fragrances.
Etsy suggests that you use conversational language and natural spelling and grammar in your descriptions.
Conversational language is a language that sounds natural and easy to read. It uses informal words and contractions and is typically less formal than other types of writing.
Natural spelling and grammar mean using the way you would normally spell a word or phrase, even if it’s not the correct dictionary spelling. For example, you might use the phrase “gonna” instead of “going to”.
Conversational tone: This pillow is so soft! I’m gonna buy one for myself.
Non-conversational tone: This pillow is made of 100% polyester and is soft to the touch.
To recap, an optimized product description:
– is relevant to the product title and tags
– uses natural spelling and grammar
– uses conversational language
– includes target keywords throughout
– is easy to read and understand
Optimizing your product title, tags, description, attributes, and categories can help your listing rank higher in Etsy’s search engine, making it more likely for potential customers to find and purchase your products.
While there is no guarantee that following these steps will result in sales, taking the time to optimize your listings will give you a better chance of ranking high in Etsy’s search engine and driving traffic to your shop.
FAQ
Do inbound links help with Etsy SEO?
There is no definitive answer, but in general, inbound links are thought to be beneficial for SEO. Inbound links are links from other websites that point to your website or listing.
If you have inbound links from high-quality websites, it can signal to search engines that your website is also high quality and worth ranking
How can an Etsy shop increase search engine confidence?
There is no one answer that will work for every Etsy shop. However, a few things that may help include optimizing your product titles and descriptions, using relevant keywords, and maintaining consistent branding across all listing photos.
Additionally, making sure your website and social media accounts are linked to your Etsy shop can also help increase confidence in search
