How do i creat good SEO

[Former_Member]

How do you all come up with good SEO's? i try to think of good tags for a piece but when i go back and attempt to find my piece using a tag it still doesn't show up? Help! Anybody else have this problem??

[Former_Member]

SEO is Search Engine Optimization. Basically a fancy term for 'calling the item what it is so a buyer can find it'.

Its not only tags, but the combination of the title and the tags.

First off, start with the title. What are you selling?


For example, you are selling a 'fish hook heart". Now from that title, that could be just about anything. Is it a painting? A piece of jewelry? A purse? A fish hook in a heart shape?
http://www.etsy.com/listing/99739833/fish-hook-heart

When I do a google search for 'fish hook heart' I get all sorts of things coming up from charms, fish hooks shaped like a heart, embroidery of a fish hook, and a fishing heart fitness video.

So the first thing you need to decide is WHAT your fish hook heart is. Is it a key chain fob? A necklace? A pull tag?

Once you have decided WHAT it is, then you can write a great description. Include the measurements and all other information that a buyer may want to know.

When it comes to writing tags, start with the key words and phrases from your title. Don't use tags that describe possible uses as that really doesn't help you.

So for your fish hook heart the tags I would use would be
fish
hook,
heart
fish hook
fish heart
hook heart
fish hook heart

You've got a few tags that really aren't helping you. Its NOT a rear view mirror, is NOT a fisherman, and its probably not a car accessory. It can't be both a keychain and a charm at the same time so one of these tags should be removed as well. And its definately NOT an outdoor man!

One other thing to consider would be your shipping charges. Will it really cost $5.00 to ship this within the USA? The postage would be approx $1.81 for a small package so you've got $3.00 allotted for packaging and other expenses.

[PaperHeartandInk]

Great advice!

[Former_Member]

Hi,
Welcome, I read over your listed item and crochetgal gave some great advice but I want to add at the end it was sort of wonky for me as you put something like if you have any questions or want a handmade scarf contact me. If you make hand made scarfs also I would explain it a bit better and maybe include a link to a scarf you made and your website

At the end of my listing I always put something like if you like this item or items like it visit me at my shop at ---- URL and I always try to name it specifically to get my third keyword in there as I do not like to stuff my description with keywords to much

good luck

[Former_Member]

ok awesome... Thank you. I didn't quite understand the whole SEO thing. I understand it alot more now with your help crochetgale... my shop definatly needs ALOT of work. lol Thank you Thank you. :)

[Former_Member]

As many of you know, I am retired from the marketing business. During my years in marketing I encountered a lot of hustlers. One of the easiest sales was to people to "get rich quick" by selling information on the internet. Many people followed the formula and try to sell second hand information as their own to people who are genuinely selling an item. As sellers on Etsy, we are all vulnerable but especially new vendors, to information to help us increase sales. Etsy has a lot of good support information on the Etsy site and a lot of good teams and team members to help with that.
I have noticed that there are people who join, load down their profile with LOTS of favorites, then claim to have helped lots of people sell and open their own shop. Then they favor again. Lots of nice people respond by putting them in their circles. If you go to their profile and check the circles you will see they are in many circles but put no one in their own. Then you go to their shop and realize the only thing they have to sell is a book on how to increase sales. Be sure and check their sales....see how many sales they have with all their knowledge of how to boost Etsy sales. Check how long they have been in business, then check the "show item details" and the bottom of their listing. That will tell you when they listed the item and you can compare it to when they joined and what has been sold.
I really enjoy Etsy. I find it a much happier, laid back, pleasant place to sell than I ever expected when I started. There are so many nice people here. I genuinely like to help market my own and other people's products. But I am offended that someone would try to "hustle a hustler." So I encourage you to look closely before putting someone in your circle. Be cautious of anyone selling information on how YOU should run YOUR business when they do not have a business of their own. This is just a heads up. I do not want to see Etsy sellers get discouraged by being hustled.

[Former_Member]

What does the circle thing mean? I've put two people in my circle because i liked the stuff they sold in their shops and wanted an easy way to get back to their shop when i actually have money to spend. lol I'm not entirely sure how that works. I'm really new to all of this and i keep telling my friends that this site is ALOT of work and they never understand why/how it is alot of hard work. there is so many different things to learn and understand to be successful at this. I never thought it would be so complicated. But I still love it and even if i don't sell anything I can say i tried!

Thank you for warning me about the hustlers. There was someone on twitter the other day trying to get me to buy their service to fix my shop for $120. I was thinking I don't even have $120 worth of stuff to sell in my shop. so what's the point in that. lol And if i have someone else fix my shop, how will i know what to do for the next items i post. IDK maybe its just me but is this the type of hustling you are talking about?

[Former_Member]

The above posting prior to Caitlin's really isn't appropriate to this team and definitely not this thread so please don't continue the discussion or I will have to close the thread or at the very least delete the posts.

The world is full of hustlers, use your common sense and don't fork out for anything without having done prior research. There has been an example of this recently regarding Etsy sellers and it is still going on (off Etsy.) If you are unsure if it sounds like it is too good to be true or worth the $120 and can't figure it out from your own research ask people who can look at the site etc for you. You can ask me and others on this team e.g. Crochetgal (also a SASsy Mentor as I am) or on other teams like these http://www.etsy.com/teams/11352/relevancy-and-seo-for-all-etsy-shops
http://www.etsy.com/teams/10713/cindylouwho-team
or mentors on SASsy who know about SEO. http://etsymentors.blogspot.co.uk/p/find-mentor.html

99.9% of people use circles for the purpose they were intended and 99.9% of sellers wouldn't accuse anyone of hustling on the basis of lots of people in a circle. Plus what can a 'hustler' do with information in circles? If they spam convo they get kicked off, only EU sellers have to show who they are in full and as one of them I can safely say apart from the odd spam convo I have not received a load of unwanted stuff via any other route either. One item in a shop, no feedback and a ton of people in circles really doesn't make sense to purchase from, not that most people would notice anything to do with circles anyway. Let the buyer beware - most are!

Gigi if you want a proper discussion about this I would suggest starting a new thread in Business or Etsy Success for example.

Claire
Team Leader