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Etsy Seo Guide: A Step by Step Guide On How To Optimize Your Listings For Etsy SEO
Etsy Seo Guide: A Step by Step Guide On How To Optimize Your Listings For Etsy SEO
ATTENTION-GETTING.COM
ETSY SEO GUIDE
IMPORTANT!
The latest revision of the Etsy search algorithm primarily reads the keywords in your listing titles and tags (not the
description). While, having the right keywords in your titles and tags is an important component, it is also just part of
the overall Etsy SEO equation.
The Etsy search algorithm is frequently changing. The latest algorithm appears to be working as follows, with the
listings making the first page of search results for any given search phrase, typically having at least one of the
following in common:
• The shop is a top seller in its category OR is a new shop that opened 2017 to 2020.
• The listing has the exact search phrase in the title in the exact word order i.e. “Black and White Photo” as
opposed to “Photo Black and White”.
• Etsy also cares about spaces between words i.e. Face Mask versus Facemask.
• The listing has the exact search phrase in the title as close to the front as possible.
• There is some repetition of keywords in the title and tags.
• The search phrase is also in the tags (in some form)
• The listing has a large number of favorites.
• If the listing ships for free (or free on orders over $35).
• If the listing ships in 1 to 3 business days.
• If the listing is a best seller for that Etsy shop.
• If the listing was recently renewed (means it is selling well).
• If the shop has five star reviews.
Again, the listing does not always have to meet all of these criteria (except for free shipping, this one is necessary for
first page ranking). If one criteria is so significant, such as an exceptional number of favorites, but none of the other
criteria are met, it can still make the first page of search results. Also, this is pertaining to organic Etsy search only.
Now, when optimizing for Etsy Promoted Listings, it is much different. Etsy will read the title, tags and description for
keywords, and exact word order does not matter. It is sort of anything goes. If Etsy finds the search word anywhere on
the listing page, it will get pulled up for an ad impression. In fact, it is a really good opportunity to use your tags and
create really diverse ones, because the broader they are, the more ad impressions you will get. So how you write your
listing titles depends on your strategy. If certain listings are designated for Etsy Promoted Ads, go wide spread. If you
just want organic Etsy search, then stay very specific.
into whether or not one of your listings will be on the first page of Etsy search results for a particular search phrase.
o Use exact long tail search phrases (3 or more words) in your listing titles and tags in exact word order.
o Put the main search phrase as close to the front of the listing title as possible.
o Try to lead with a different main search phrase every time.
o Repeat some of the main keywords in the titles and tags, as Etsy likes repetition.
o Get lots of favorites on your listings. This is simply a matter of favoring other non-competitive
products from other Etsy sellers, and they will likely return the favor.
o Don’t focus solely on the most popular Etsy search phrases that have the highest competition, but also try using
some of the less popular search phrases as they have less competition (better some traffic than none at all).
o Offer free shipping or at least free shipping over orders of US$35.
o Ship in 1 to 3 days.
o Put the listing in the top category that Etsy suggests when in the Listing Manager.
o Fill in all of the attributes that apply (these are the boxes that appear once you have selected the category).
o Have a sale, as sale items do move up temporarily in search rankings, especially 24-hour sales.
o Use lots of adjectives in your titles and tag search phrases, as this is how people search. Depending on the
product, people search by color, size, materials, etc., as I will cover coming up.
o If applicable, use at least one gift search phrase in the listing title and tags.
Even if a listing gets on the first page of search results, you still have to have people click on your product photo,
and that can come down to whether the customer likes the photo or not (or even noticed it), whether your product is
priced similar to the other products also appearing, and whether or not the product is the style/color/size that the
customer is looking for.
As such, you do NOT want to deactivate a listing when you sell an item that you may not make again otherwise you lose
all the momentum it gained with favorites and views (not to mention social media traffic and other sources of traffic
linking to it). Therefore REUSE your old listings or deactivated listings for a new item, which is completely within the
rules of Etsy.
competing for this search phrase and if you are meeting their other requirements,
such as lots of sales and lots of favorites. If you are in a very niche category with
few competitors, then this rule is not as likely to apply.
If your shop has two or more listings that all start “blue wedding invitations”
the search engine will likely choose the listing(s) with the most favorites or the
one that is a best seller in your shop, to go on the first page of results for this
particular search phrase. This is actually something good to note. If you have
many product listings for the same type of product, you really want to optimize
the listings with the most favorites for the most popular search phrases, as they
have the best chance of getting on the first page of Etsy search results.
Therefore, ideally you want to use many popular Etsy search phrases, preferably
three to six word search phrases, and not just the same ones over and over again,
as this will allow you to get on more first page results for different search phrases
and, as such, have a wider reach. Again, you will also increase your ad impressions
if running Etsy Promoted Listings.
Using “Etsy auto-complete” (whereby you start typing a word in the Etsy search
box and the most popular searches for that word will fill down) is one of the best ways to find out how people are
searching for your type of products. For example, if I started typing in “gold necklace”, on the right are the currently
most popular search phrases customers are entering on Etsy, and what you should base your titles and tags on, if
they apply, taking note of word order.
Now, the results are only showing searches where the adjective comes after the main phrase, as Etsy’s auto-complete
will only show these forms of searches. Obviously people search in a variety of ways. Some people will search
“necklace name”, and some people will search “name necklace”. Therefore, you need to test for all forms of the
order of the words for the search phrases that come up.
Using Etsy auto-complete, start typing in words that refer to what you are selling, focusing on two, three and four
keyword search phrases (people rarely search using one-word) and compile a list of phrases that you will use for
titles and tags.
For example, let’s say I am writing a listing title for a horse oil painting on canvas, I would try typing various search
So I am going to use these to create the listing title. More on this in a minute.
Etsy and then check the side bar on the left, to see the “filtering” criteria for searches. This will help you determine
how people are searching for your types of products.
People search by MATERIAL / METAL / MEDIUM, as in these popular Etsy search phrases:
People also search by the STYLE, as in these popular Etsy search phrases:
• Floral wallpaper
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People also search by the SHAPE, as in these popular Etsy search phrases:
When it comes to COLOR, people search for a color or combination of colors, as in these popular Etsy search phrases:
People also search by the SUBJECT / SCENT / INGREDIENT, as in these popular Etsy search phrases:
People also search by the PERSON who might be for, as in these Etsy search phrases:
People also search by the GENDER that they need it for (particularly baby and kids products)
as in these Etsy searches:
• Kitchen art
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Another way that people like to search by using FOR, ON, WITH, THAT, AND, IN as in these popular
Etsy search phrases:
People also search using ADJECTIVES you may not have thought of, as in these popular Etsy search phrases:
• Weird earrings
• Quirky home decor
• Unique engagement ring
• Funny tshirts
• Surreal art
• Colorful leather bracelets
• Cool stickers
• Real gold necklace
• Simple wedding dress
• Soft tshirts for women
• Clear purse crossbody
• Cute key chains
• Pretty dog collars
• Genuine leather bag
• Cheap groomsmen gifts
• 1 gram gold jewelry
• Matching family shirts
• Meaningful art
• Free shipping furniture
sometimes in the middle. This is important to note because, as I said earlier, Etsy does prefer the words to be in the
exact order, as in these Etsy search phrases:
People also search by OCCASION, EVENT and SEASON, as in these popular Etsy search phrases:
GIFT search phrases are very important to add to your titles and tags as a lot of customers come to Etsy for gifts.
However, don’t overdo them and don’t try to make the gift appeal to every type of occasion, pick one. It is important
to focus on one as then you can also choose the right occasion in attribute, which Etsy puts a lot of weight on. If you
try to include too many different types of gift occasions or receipients, it tends to backfire in terms of SEO. Also, if
you really want the gift search phrase to be effective, start the listing title with it.
If your product is for an occasion like Father’s Day, change the listing title and tags about 3 months prior to Father’s
Day and then change them to something else once Father’s Day is over. Some popular Etsy gift searches:
that is the TRADITIONAL gift for that anniversary, then you can then use the appropriate anniversary gift search
phrase. For example, paper products (traditional 1st wedding anniversary gift), leather products (3rd anniversary),
wood products (5th anniversary), crystal (15th anniversary), ruby (40th anniversary), gold (50th anniversary):
The same holds true for BIRTHDAY gifts with many people searching by the BIRTHSTONE and ZODIAC SIGN, for example,
Garnet (January), Amethyst (February), Aquamarine (March), April (Aries/Taurus), etc.
CHRISTMAS gift buying is huge on Etsy, and there are a variety of search phrases that people use that you can take
advantage of, such as these popular Etsy searches:
There are other HOLIDAY gifting occasions on Etsy you can take advantage of:
Let’s not forget how big the CUSTOM and PERSONALIZED market is on Etsy, as seen in these popular Etsy searches:
• Set of 6 prints
• Set of 3 earrings
• Sets of 5 bridesmaid robes
• Necklace and earring set
• Pair of lamps
• Gift set for kitchen
• Bridesmaid necklace set of 5
• Pillow set for couch
People are also searching for certain TYPES OF SELLERS, as in these popular Etsy search phrases:
• Black artists
• New Orleans artists
• Israeli clothing
• Greece jewelry
• Italy leather bag
A lot of customers on Etsy still don’t seem to know about the “shop location” search filter, so people will look for
products and/or shops on Etsy from specific CITIES and COUNTRIES by entering it in the search box. Here are some
recent popular searches on Etsy, therefore you may want to add your city and/or country to your tags:
• Made in Maine
• Made in Greece
• Made in Ireland
• Made in USA
• Made in Israel
This being said, you also want to include your city and state in the “city” box in your profile settings in order to come
up in local searches.
People also search by PRICE but with the word spelt out as Etsy never includes the currency sign, as in these Etsy
search phrases:
Now, remember there are TRADEMARKED words you should not use on Etsy, in either your titles or tags, if you do not
wish to get that listing deactivated. They include:
• Onesie
• Realtor
• Super bowl
• Tiffany blue
• Canary yellow (just in office and stationery products)
• Super hero
• Navy seal
• Yeti
• Popsicle
• Koozie
• The Elf on the Shelf
• Frappuccino
Therefore, I will lead the title with a main search phrase, and then add in a few other search phrases, just to be
considered for other searches if my main one is too popular. But you want to do this without making the title simply
a string of tags. Titles that are strings of tags have proven to have a lower conversion rate as they confuse the
customer. If the customer is confused they don’t buy. As such, I would make the listing title:
Horse Painting on Canvas, Original Oil Painting, Horse Art Large Canvas Wall Art, Horse Wall Art
Canvas, Horse Decor, Gift for Horse Lover
Horse painting
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Notice how I managed to use 19 popular Etsy search phrases in their exact order. As a result, this title gives you 19
potential search phrases and a very wide reach.
It also uses a mix of short tail (generic) and long tail (more specific) search phrases, which also helps for Etsy
Promoted Listings to improve the number of impressions. Remember, for Etsy ads to be successful you need your
listings to get a lot of impressions in order to turn into clicks in order to turn into orders. Again, the Etsy Promoted
Listings do not seem to care about exact word order, just a variety of words in any order.
Finally, do not use the same listing titles, or repeat the same search phrases over and over again, for other listings. You
want to use as many Etsy search phrases as possible to widen your reach.
NOTE: Etsy doesn’t care if there is a comma in between words in either the title or tags as it tends to ignore them.
Therefore, the search engine reads “horse art large canvas” and “horse art, large canvas” the same way.
There has been a lot of different rumors that you have to use all 140 characters allowed for titles. Not true. You don’t
have to use all 140 characters it is just recommended that you use all of them so that you get as many search phrases
Now, these listings may not show up for any other search phrases since they
are just focused on this one search phrase, but that can be enough if the search
phrase is one of the most popular on Etsy. It could be because the listing did not
give the Etsy search engine any other options in terms of search phrases, so it
actually worked to their benefit. It may be worth the experiment on just a select
few listings.
I have experimented using a very short listing title with a few clients when we
were desperate to get them on the first page of Etsy search results, because it
was a time sensitive product.
For example, I had a client how had created a Halloween banner and it was the
middle of September. So it needed to quickly rank on the first page of Etsy
search results for “Halloween Banner” because it only had a 5 week selling
period. So we simply made the title, “Happy Halloween Banner”, and sure
enough, within a week it had made the first page of Etsy search results, which is
pretty amazing considering it was a new listing with no favorites. But we gave
the Etsy search engine no other options to rank it for, so it worked. Three years
later, it is still on the first page of results. Therefore, as I said, try it with a few listings that are just not pulling well
for you, are new, or just have no favorites. It might work.
horse painting, on canvas, painting on canvas, original painting, oil painting, horse art, horse art large, large canvas,
horse wall art, horse decor, horse canvas, horse canvas art, gift horse lover
As you can see I kept all the tags focused on the popular search phrases given above and made sure the words in the
title come first as tags. I had to break up “horse painting on canvas” into two phrases, but I kept them side by side
so they will still be in the exact order.
or a service such as MarmaLead. For organic Etsy search, keep them similar as they like repetition. For paid search
listings, go wide spread for more ad impressions.
PLACE LONG SEARCHES SIDE BY SIDE – If a search phrase is too long for the 20-character limit on tags, you can break it
up into two tags as long as they are side by side.
AVOID ONE WORD TAGS – Try to avoid one-word tags unless they are pulling well for you as people rarely search using
one-word. Yes, there are some first timers who come to Etsy and type “art” and “necklace”, so you can test these
keywords and see how they do for you, but they likely already appear as part of a two-word tag.
DON’T GUESS OR ASSUME – Do not guess at how you think people are searching, always test
the tag first using Etsy autocomplete to see if it shows up. Using phrases for tags that people are not using to search
on Etsy is just a waste of a tag.
ONLY CHANGE WEAK PERFORMING TAGS – Always be updating titles and tags on listings that
get LOW traffic or are not getting a lot of impressions in Etsy Promoted Listings. Any of your product listings that are
currently getting good traffic from Etsy should be left alone.
KEEP CURRENT – You will want to update titles and tags for popular holiday, special occasion and seasonal searches
(i.e. “Christmas decor”), as well but remember to switch out these titles and tags once the occasion is over. Again,
you may not want to touch any listings that already have strong Etsy traffic, but rather update new or weaker traffic
listings with the holiday / seasonal search phrases.
CATEGORIES
Now, the big change that impacted many Etsy shops in March/April 2018 was the change to categories. Therefore,
simply type the name of the product in the category box i.e. “ ” and then put it in the FIRST
category that Etsy recommends. This is your best bet.
ATTRIBUTES
After you select the category, a variety of attribute boxes will fill down such as Recipient, Materials, Size, Occasions,
etc. Check all that apply but only ones that truly apply. Do not try to fool the search engine just because you want
your product to show up in a popular category, even if it really doesn’t belong there. The more truthful you are, the
better.
© 2018-2020 Attention Getting Marketing. All rights reserved.
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A lot of shops will come to me after they have made changes to their SEO, and say that traffic still hasn’t increased.
Before you go and start changing things again, check to see if your listings are coming up on the first page of results
If they are, then it is a photo and/or price issue, not an SEO issue.
BE PATIENT!
SEO takes time. Do not keep panicking and change titles and tags constantly. This will not help. Remember, it could
be another issue that is impacting whether or not your listing is ranking on the first page for a particular keyword,
like not offering free shipping or it is a new listing with no favorites.
Google does not care about exact word order (in fact they hate it). They just care that all of the words are there. But
do not keyword stuff the opening with a whole paragraph of tags, as Google hates this. One line is ideal.
IN CONCLUSION
I hope this has helped you understand how to optimize your Etsy listings for Etsy SEO. It is by no means a perfect or
predictable search algorithm, and it could change at any time. My best advice would be not to be too dependent upon
Etsy search and find other ways to bring traffic to your shop including advertising, Google SEO, social media, publicity
and email marketing. Another good way is with my 30-Day Success Plan, available at my Etsy shop.
Gail
My Marketing Blog
http://attention-getting.com
My Phone Consultations
https://cutt.ly/Me2DIQF
BLOG: http://attention-getting.com
ETSY: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AttentionGetting