Etsy SEO Basics

Etsy SEO Basics:





By Rebecca Barborak























1. Find your Keywords

First and foremost I want to enlighten you to a FREE tool that anyone can use to see the potential of keywords for your shop. Go to

https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none

1. Type in a word or phrase that you think is the most descriptive of your product, for example- If you sell monogrammed children's clothing you can type exactly those words in the blank.


2. It might have you type in a word security code (the box with the funny letters in it- just retype them so they know it is a human trying to use the services and not a computer!)


3. Proceed by submitting and it should pull up a list of keywords related to the one you input.


When I look at the keyword tool it always gives me new ideas of how people could be searching for my product. Now, these keywords will be valuable to you when you go to step 2.




















2. Etsy Shop

Search engines “read” through your site to determine if it matches keywords that are being searched. The first part they read is your Title. Etsy makes it really easy for you to Edit Title, Description, Welcome Message, Shop Sections and Individual items.
Use the keywords you found on your Google analytics page. Use plural forms of your keywords, and make sure to think of your products as you customers would. For example, for Bridesmaid Gifts, you could use Bridesmaid Gift, Bridesmaids Gifts, Bridesmaid Gifts or Bridesmaids gift, all of which could be searched for by a Bride that is looking to purchase gifts for her Bridesmaids.


Search Engines can pick up on websites that are overusing keywords or have too many links, so make sure whatever you write on your etsy shop and your items is valuable “content” which is the word that is used to describe the wording in your site.
So, where do you place these keywords you ask?? Once you have defined what you want to be known as (and what has little or medium competition according to the keyword tool) you will be using those keywords to place them in different places across your shop.


First Place to edit: Your Shop Title

1. Log into your etsy account and click on "Your Shop" on the top right hand side of the screen.
2. On the left hand side you will see different categories that run down the side of the screen- look for Shop Settings and then click on "Info and Appearance" below that.
3. You will see your Shop Title. The first 30 characters of your shop title will be picked up by the Search Engines, so you need to place the most important keywords as close to the beginning as you can.

***For example- If you sell Monogrammed Baby Clothes and you've noticed that you sell a lot of newborn sets and you think it is a valuable keyword; your title could be "Monogrammed Baby Clothes, Newborn Sets, Monogrammed Children's outfits and more!"****


Here you have placed 3 AWESOME keywords as your title.


Now, we move on to optimizing EACH item that you sell on Etsy.

You will want to keyword optimize each title (specifically the first 30 characters of the item title. ) Let's look at the Monogramming business example again. Say one of your items is a Monogrammed Shirt for a girl and it is size 4T. A good example of a title would be Monogrammed Girl's Shirt, Monogrammed Birthday or Holiday Shirt, size 4T.


***Tip- think like a customer! I always get hung up on how I think things should be, but I remind myself that my customers are buying my products so I should think like them!***

****Another Tip- Copy similar items to use the same keywords, saves time! Just click on copy and edit the pictures if you need to. For example, if you have a Florida Gators T-shirt for children... The first version of this shirt is for girl’s size 4T, so you want to make sure the title and description say the appropriate size. ****


Truth is, when you list your next Gator Girl’s T shirt in a different size, you’ll use the same keywords and tags that you used for the 4T. You can actually copy the 4T item by doing the following-
1. Click on your Shop Name at the top bar
2. Click copy on the right hand side of the item you want to copy
3. The item will appear and you can now make changes to it before you publish it as the new one.
4. Change pictures if you need to.
5. Change title to show the new size you are selling , and change the description to match the new item. Remember to still use the same keywords at the beginning of the item title and item description so the search engines can find you easily. Just change the rest of the description, not the keywords!
6. Publish your item and voila!


Now, let’s talk about tagging. They keywords that you choose to tag your products are extremely important. Ask yourself these questions…


• What am I selling?? (shoes, jewelry, decorations, etc)

• More specifically, how would I describe this item (children’s shoes, gold plated jewelry, wedding decorations)

• What are other ways to describe my items?
 Children’s Shoes- Children’s Sandals, Kids Shoes, Baby Shoes, Girl’s Sandals, Kids Sneakers
 Gold Plated Jewelry- 14k gold jewelry, Gold Jewelry, Gold Plated Earrings, Gold Plated Necklace, Gold Plated Bracelet
 Wedding Decorations- Wedding Banners, Wedding Center pieces, wedding name cards, wedding candles, wedding décor, wedding supplies

• These different keywords can become your tags for each item. Like I mentioned before, a lot of your items will be so similar in keywords that you can just copy and change the details to save you some time.


Understanding shop Stats-


Shop stats are a great resource of information for you as your etsy shop grows. They shop stats will give you somewhat similar information as google analytics.

The first part of the shop stats is a graph that shows you how many visits you have had over a period of time. There is a drop down menu above this graph and you can change it to show you the last 30 days, 7 days, yesterday, etc.

If you ever run a promotion or do any type of advertising, you will want to compare your shop stats from that day to other days to see how well your promotion went. If you notice more visitors, sales and “favorites” on the day you advertised, then it was a successful advertising campaign!

Shop stats will allow you to see what keywords you are being found under, how many customers per keyword, and how these customers got to your page (this is useful if you have links on other website because you will see if they are leading traffic to your site.)








3. Links
They say that link building is extremely important for optimizing any internet site. The value of the links is in wether or not the link comes from or goes to a reputable website. You can add links leading to other parts of your own etsy store at the bottom of each item.
I have something like this listed at the end of each of my items:

“Click here to view more designs” with a link to my shop homepage.

You can also say “click here to view my shop policies” with a link to your etsy shop policy page.



Create a facebook page and place a link to your etsy shop on your facebook fan page. Also, etsy allows you to link your shop to a facebook fan page. You'll see this option under info and appearance.



Creating a blog is a great way to build links. First you can link your blog to your etsy shop, and add a link to your blog at the bottom of every item description. This way every single item will have a link leading to your blog.
Building a blog does take some time and dedication. You don't want to create a blog and forget about it, so make the time to write something everyday or every couple of days. Add pictures and fun facts about your work. Here are a few ideas of how to get started on your blog:
1. I use Blogger by gmail, you will need to create a google account it you haven’t already done so. You can find their info at blogger.com
2. Interview other sellers- you may know some personally, but you can always look for some good ones on etsy! Contact them using the contact option on their store and let them know that you are a blog writer and would like to share their story on their blog. Mention to them that you can link the blog post to their etsy shop which will also help them.



Create a website that links to your etsy shop. This will add a valuable link directed to your etsy site, and you can add this link to every item you list on etsy.com. A simple web page with a few pictures, a link to your etsy shop and a contact us form will do! You can purchase your domain name from servers such as godaddy.com and you can build your own website or have it designed for you. You will want to link your home page to your etsy shop and vice versa. This will create an outbound link and an inbound link.






This ebook should get you up and going with your shop! If you prefer to have someone else take care of these things for you, there are many services available on etsy by people like myself who enjoy optimizing sites. SEOchic can do handle the changes you need to make to your shop at a very affordable price. I can optimize your keywords individually, create a facebook fan page, create your blog and even a website. I wish you the best in your etsy endeavors!