Hey Creative, you must be ready to get serious with your Etsy SEO. I’m glad you’re here because I’m about to break down Etsy SEO for beginners in a way that’s easy to understand so you can start ranking on Etsy. It’s time to increase your traffic, start ranking on Etsy and start hearing that lovely little Etsy “Cha-ching”.
This is a long one, but it’s jam-packed with what you need to know!
If you are serious about your shop, you need a good understanding of Etsy SEO, trust me when I say it makes ALL the difference in your sales game!
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What does Etsy SEO mean and why is it so important?
SEO – Search Engine Optimization – Simply put, it is the optimizing of your shop, listings, website etc. that makes you rank higher in search engine results. When done right, this process can greatly improve the visibility of your shop listings coming up in search engine results.
As the seller, it’s a way of writing about your product so that it will get the attention from the search engine and ideally put you in front of your soon-to-be buyer. (That’s where Etsy SEO for beginners is really going to help you shine!)
When done right, proper Etsy SEO will help your shop pop up on the first few pages of the Etsy platform. Proper SEO will go beyond the Etsy platform and also cause your shop to generate in search results on sites like Google.
You can dive deep into learning all about Etsy SEO, really deep. But honestly, as a beginner, it just doesn’t have to be that complicated. Yes, SEO plays a major role in online business, but you don’t want to get stuck in an SEO research spiral, overwhelm yourself, and avoid it altogether.
I wanted to make money on Etsy, actual money. I didn’t have a former marketing or SEO background, and I wondered if it was even possible. Was I just too late to the game? (Spoiler alert, I wasn’t too late and that’s why I’m able to share what really works with you now!)
With a better understanding that you need to use SEO so that Etsy can put your listings in front of the people who are looking for what you offer.. let’s quickly go over why it’s important that you don’t just “wing it” when it comes to choosing keywords.
In the first quarter of 2021, there were over 4.6 million sellers on Etsy. That’s a big number. I’m not trying to scare you. It’s just to let you know that ya, there are a lot of people selling on Etsy so you need to take things seriously if you want to be seen. Writing a listing description and filling out your tags and title without doing any research, is going to leave you with the sounds of crickets, and not happy little cha-chings.
I’ve put as much time into being found on Etsy as working on my products themselves. But because of that, I know it’s possible to be a new shop and get found. That’s why I can speak to the importance of Etsy SEO for beginners.
The whole purpose of the Etsy platform is to match buyers with the right sellers to make it a good customer experience so they return to Etsy time and time again. Like any business, right? Etsy SEO isn’t designed to be a big tricky secret. They want happy shoppers which takes educated sellers and they are pretty good at sharing how their algorithms and SEO works in addition to lots of other helpful information that they shares with us.
Shoppers search and Etsy pairs. Query matching is based on specific factors in your listing that then boost your ranking towards a shoppers search query. SEO doing its job.
This is where everything you have added to your listing comes together in hopes to make your listing one that Etsy suggests to the buyer. Behind the scenes, Etsy gathers all the listings that match the shopper’s query, views the information they have about each listing and shop and then ranks them for the best fit. Which lets them be able to show the shopper the listings they think they are most likely to purchase.
Relevancy – Comes from your tags, titles, categories, and attributes matching up throughout your listing and to the shopper’s query. If your keywords are an exact match, then chances are you will rank higher and have the potential to show up in the search results. This is why you need to do your research to see what shoppers are actually searching, not just assume they have the same thoughts as you.
New Listings – Every time you publish a new listing, it gets a small temporary boost in the Etsy search results to help the platform gather its data. To see how buyers are interacting, and develop the listings quality score. This boost can be a few hours to a few days. It’s not really something that helps us have a good idea of how the listing is performing in such a short period of time.
Listing Quality Score – Etsy wants to show a buyer something that they think is right for them so they buy it and Etsy gets the overall sale. Etsy is a massive database that is constantly taking clues from how other shoppers interact with your listings. They know how many people are landing on your listing and how many are making a purchase. This is your conversion rate. These actions will determine if they think buyers are actually interested in your listing. If they are interested, this info will boost that listings place in the search results and the overall quality score. This is why you don’t want to use irrelevant or really broad keywords because it can do you more harm than good to your listing.
Shipping Costs $ – It’s all about FREE shipping. This was introduced in the last few years but any physical seller can do it. Shoppers love the term FREE and Etsy is going to boost those listings with free shipping and put them ahead of those without. If your item is $30.00 and $15 to ship, change your price to $45 and offer free shipping.
Customer Experience – Etsy is a buyers market. They want the customer to have a great experience and they reward the shops that take the time to align with this experience. Getting good reviews is a HUGE deal on Etsy. Positive reviews are also going to help get you another boost in the ranking. It is also crucial to fill out your shop policies, your FAQ section, and the about me section. The more pride you take in your shop is not only just helpful for the customers but also to show Etsy you’re trying to make your shop a good experience. Which can also have a positive impact on your ranking. You want to respond to customer inquiries in 24-48 hours. The sooner the better.
Titles – Most important place to add Long-tail keywords, focus keywords, additional keywords
Attributes – Colour, Occasion, Holiday, etc.
Categories – Kind of like tags, help optimize for SEO
Tags – Research, Use all 13, Crucial for SEO and should pair with your title
Shop Sections – Don’t do T I T L E S L I K E T H I S your wasting SEO space, be strategic
Description – *Updated May 17, 2022* In the past, Etsy has mentioned that the product description section does not factor into ranking in search results. If this seems to ring a bell, this USED to be true. It has always been a good idea to use your focus keywords in your descriptions regardless though because it is something search engines like Google pay attention to.. so you might already be in luck. As of May 2022, Etsy has now confirmed they will be scanning listing descriptions as a part of the ranking process. I strongly suggest making sure that the first 155 characters of your description contain the most important keywords that you are trying to rank for. Then, sprinkle some additional tags throughout the remainder of your write up. Form good sentences here because this is a major opportunity to sell the shopper on your listing and turn them into your customer. You don’t want to keyword stuff and sound like a robot or have them wondering additional questions.
KEYWORDS are the foundation of your entire shop and being found by shoppers that are going to convert into sales. Make sure to read Etsy Keywords Explained for ultimate exposure so you can optimize your entire Etsy shop and start getting excited about driving more traffic.
I hope this got you thinking of some areas you could work on within your shop, or that maybe you’ve neglected altogether. If you learnt anything new I’d love to know down below.
Good luck!
