New Etsy Format - Early Bird Writing Tips!

[BCCopywriting]

If you’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on with Etsy's update (final switch due in April, but small changes are being made every day), it might look a little confusing. Things have been moved around, sections that used to be at the top are now at the bottom, and, on the desktop, many images are now much larger. How will this affect the writing in your shop? Let's take a look.

SHOP ICON and SHOP TITLE
The name of your shop, your icon, your personal photo and your shop title (looks like a tag line) now appear at the top of the Home page. This puts a huge amount of pressure on your shop title and icon to deliver powerful messages that instantly engage buyers. Revisit these two items if you aren’t sure that you’ve fully optimized them.

Note: If you opt for a banner or cover photo, that image will appear across the page at the very top. If you decide to use a banner, make sure it’s gorgeous, and gives visitors a very clear, very appealing idea of what you sell and what makes your products so special. It’s extremely “in your face” when you land on your Home page, so you might consider leaving it out unless it adds real value.

REVIEWS INFO
Everyone seems to have noticed that your star rating and review count now appear at the top of the page. This will be difficult for new shop owners who by definition have had few sales so far. It also negatively affects anyone who has run into a difficult customer or two and has suffered from negative reviews that perhaps they didn’t deserve. Nothing much to be done about it, unfortunately.

On the other hand, this is good news for successful, long-term sellers with lots of great reviews and high sales volume. Here, as well, though (and the same was true in the past), sellers with lower-priced items that sell in large volume will get a break compared to higher-end sellers with expensive items and lower per-item sales overall.

FEATURED PRODUCTS
Your four featured product images come next on the page. This means that buyers will see some product photos before they get to your shop announcement. Keep this in mind when planning your strategy for overall marketing or for special sales. For example, suppose you have a limited promotion going on and have decided to use your shop announcement to highlight it. In this case, you might want to feature photos with a “SALE” notice on them, because buyers won’t see the “sale” message in your announcement unless they scroll down.

SHOP ANNOUNCEMENT
The visible portion of the shop announcement is very short, so use the opening sentences for your most powerful, most engaging messages. As mentioned above, you can also use the opener for special sales or promotions. The visible portion is even shorter on mobile devices, so you might want to investigate how your announcement looks on several different popular platforms.

PRODUCT PHOTOS
The next thing that buyers see moving down is a set of product photos and, to the left, a list of your categories/sections. These photos are huge now on the desktop, so your photography could make a big difference. Great photos will sell even better. Bad photos will hurt even more.

Good news: A little more of the listing title shows up underneath each photo in the desktop display, so you might be able to use that to your advantage.

REVIEWS
Next in line scrolling down are your latest reviews. I don’t know how many reviews will show up before the “see more.” These reviews are also quite large and conspicuous on the desktop, so a lot might be riding on how generous your buyers have been recently.

SHOP ABOUT INFORMATION
All the text that was previously on your shop About page now appears under the reviews on the Home page. You can also add a video or photos above the text. Whether or not to use photos/video depends on how strong a story you can tell visually. If your photos or video add a tremendous amount of appeal and value, and strongly support your selling messages, then by all means use them. Otherwise, you might consider going straight to the text.

The visible portion of the About section only contains a few paragraphs, so use the opener to deliver your most important messages. Readers won’t always click on “Read more.”

EXTERNAL LINKS
Links to your outside website, Facebook, and so on, previously appeared in the right-hand column of the shop About page on the desktop. In the new format, they’re located after the shop About information. Not as convenient as before, although this was already the case on mobile devices.

SHOP MEMBERS BIO(S)
The little bio blurbs that used to appear at the top of the shop About page have been moved to a lower position on your Home page, following the external links. Will anyone ever read this material? I’m not sure, but you should fill it out anyway.

POLICIES
Finally (this is a very long page!) your Shop Policies are listed. You can keep your current policies language or opt to use Etsy’s new policies template. Take a look and decide if Etsy’s template is better than your own wording. My guess is that there will be tweaks to the template over time as sellers begin to use it and provide feedback.

Note that clickable links at the top of the Home page can take a visitor directly to the About section, reviews or policies. We’ll have to wait and see if buyers actually use these links.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS
Product descriptions evidently look the same in the new format, but the editing area for each listing now lets you view a preview of what supposedly will show up in Google search results. Unfortunately, testing has revealed that this preview isn’t entirely reliable (at least not at this time), so the information might not be especially useful.

The opening couple sentences of your product description remain the most important. Use your top selling points to engage buyers immediately. Also include your top one or two SEO keyword phrases to improve your chances of being seen in buyer searches.

I'll keep tabs on the update as Etsy continues to implement changes, and will let you know if I spot anything new that affects the writing in your shop.

By the way, If you'd like me to take a quick look at your shop, just post below. I might be able to offer some quick tips.

Note: Feel free to view this article and previous posts for Etsy sellers at http://www.facebook.com/chaconsulting.

[PatsysPressedFlowers]

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PatsysPressedFlowers?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Hi Barbara, feeling so overwhelmed here. If you don't mind taking a look at my shop I would appreciate it. I feel like I need to do a thorough spring cleaning, but before I do, any tips you could give would be appreciated.
After reading your post above (thank you for the info!) I think I will forget the banner, but need to learn how to use a nice font for my shop name.
Thank you!

[BCCopywriting]

Patsy:
Love your gorgeous pressed flower items, and the image in your icon is beautiful! A lot of people put a welcome comment at the beginning of their announcement, but I think in the new format, getting right to the point might be more effective. Consider saying immediately what the biggest benefit is. What makes your items different from the competition? Something along the lines of "Quality cards and bookmarks with real pressed flowers. From my heart." And then you can continue with the rest. You don't need to use this exact language, but you get the idea.

The same goes for every other block of text in your shop, from descriptions to your about section. Buyers are scrolling through fast, might not click on "read more," and need to be grabbed as quickly as possible with the best messages you've got.

I think you have some great opportunities for stronger sales here, based on the high quality of your items, and very beautiful designs. You probably can improve the impact of the writing throughout. My guess is that your SEO could be improved, too. Don't forget to match the keywords in your description to the keywords you use in your title. And research the keywords, so that you're using the actual phrases that real-world buyers are typing into their search bars.

Hope this gives you some ideas! Best of luck, and let us know how you do!

[VivaTerraVintage]

@Barbara - thanks so much for sharing this extremely useful and very valuable information.

[AmyandAnnaDesigns]

Hi Barbara. Thank you kindly for the update and information. Could you take a look at my shop and maybe educate me on what I could possibly change for SEO purposes? I would really appreciate that.

[EECustomGifts]

Thank you so much! Could you take a look at our shop? I'd appreciate any help you may offer! Thank you! 😊. Cheryl

EECustomHorseShoes.etsy.com

[BluebirrrdDreams]

Thank you, Barbara! I love how you broke this down so thoughtfully.

I would add that the shop title isn't viewable on mobile. For me, not being able to see it removes context that helps shoppers quickly understand what I sell. For sellers who include product photos in their icon or cover photo it's not as much of an issue. Since I don't, I went ahead and added text to my cover photo to cover all my bases.

[TheBlueRam]

Great info, Barbara! I've made my first round of edits with the new Canva tools and would appreciate a shop review. I struggled with including a large banner vs. the current format of typical product listing photos, ending with my shop icon. Thank you!

[LENNYshop]

Thank you for your always useful articles!
I'm a little confused about the new policies because I am seller from EU. Also I think, I have trouble finding a suitable unique phrases. I already have my new cover. If you have time, would be great to look at it :)

[BCCopywriting]

Sarah Blue: Thanks for your comment. That's a good point. If the banner or cover photo doesn't have your shop name in it, then the first thing anyone will see is the image alone. Good catch!

[BCCopywriting]

Amy and Anna: From the SEO copywriting perspective, the first thing you might want to do is make sure that you're using your best SEO keyword phrases in all the places you can. Not only the titles and tags. Use them in your descriptions (in a natural sounding way), shop announcement and anywhere else it seems comfortable to weave them in. They'll reinforce each other that way. For actual SEO technical tips on how to optimize your SEO overall, check in with Mary for expert help. Thanks for your comment!

[SignsByDiane]

Thank you for taking the time to post this very helpful information!

I've been going over each item mentioned when I can. It can all be a bit overwhelming!

[camilaestrella]

Thank you so much Barbara, that is very important article for us the jewelry designer we have a lot of competition in the market. He has also been very strong in customers who do not read the description well and then you get a bad review just for the lost information, in our case has been very hard bring the great message. It is also hard for all of us who have small businesses and do everything with our hands that little things affect us. But equally to keep working hard on what we like. Success all :)
(Take a look at our shop, please Barbara) ;)

[Former_Member]

Would love a quick peek and how tremendously kind of you!

[AmyandAnnaDesigns]

Thank you so much Barbara.

[BCCopywriting]

Cheryl:
Your descriptions are so much fun! You've got a great attitude, and your friendly approach really comes through in the writing. You're missing some SEO opportunities, though, and there are a few suggestions I could make about the organization. Not all of your titles are optimized for SEO search. You can get more details on how to do that from Mary. Also, once you've settle on your top SEO keyword phrases (the ones that draw buyers to your shop), make sure to use them in your descriptions, too. Couple quick things in our limited space here:

Not sure about the capital letters at the beginning of each title. The highlighted words aren't necessarily that important.

Some of your descriptions have some excellent selling points farther down. Make a priority list with your most compelling points at the top, and use those first.

Your customization options at the bottom of the descriptions are a little confusing and it isn't exactly clear to the buyer how to tell you what they want. Possibly clarify or break your listings down into more specific types of items, so that there are fewer options in each listing.

If you like, there's some more information on Etsy writing and product descriptions on video at: http://www.facebook.com/chaconsulting.

Best of luck to you! Feel free to come back with some updates for a second look!

[EvieZaccardelliArt]

Thanks Barbara for such a wealth of info. If you have time, could you please have a look at my shop? Initially I have changed my banner and would apreciate your comments. Thank you!

[EstateSaleTreasure]

Would love to have you take a peek at my shop and offer any comments you feel are warranted. Thanks much!

[BCCopywriting]

Butterfly Orbs: Your mobiles are delightful! And your writing overall is great! The big improvement you can make immediately (and you should do it right away) is to remove all the strings of keyword phrases in your announcement, descriptions, about page and so on. These can cause outside search engines like Google to identify your pages as containing spam. Which will lose you opportunities in outside searches. Plus, it isn't very interesting for buyers to read. They'll tune out. Try using those great keyword phrases in natural sounding sentences. Also, make sure that when you use keyword phrases in your descriptions, they match the title/tags phrases exactly. They'll reinforce each other better that way. Good luck to you with your fun and colorful items!

[BabsiesPlace]

Please take a look-see at my shop. I know it needs something. Offer any comments that might help me. Thank you so much.

[Former_Member]

Beyond over-whelmed. I started my shop backwards doing the inventory first not paying attention to the business side of things. In January I read an article about reviewing what worked and didn't work for 2015. I have immersed myself in learning the business side of owning a business. I have had a free lanced writer complete the shop announcement and about me section. I have been working diligently on changing my SEO's, tags and re-doing photos. Could you possibly look at my shop and give any suggestions you think my be helpful? I appreciate your time and efforts in explaining the changes that are coming. etsy.com/shop/JewelsByCatShop

[GoodLuckWishes4U]

Barbara thak you for this valuable information. I would love your input on my page. I'm considering changing the logo. https://etsy.com/shop/goodluckwishes4U/neu
Thanks!!
Carmen

[BCCopywriting]

Camila: You've got some gorgeous items in your shop! And you're right. You're facing a lot of competition. You do seem to have done a nice job of identifying many of your top selling points and using those at the beginning of your descriptions, so good job there!

First thing - it's best to avoid using strings of phrases anywhere in the shop. The outside search engines can view that as spam, and you'll slip in search results. Replace those strings of phrases with natural sounding sentences - in your descriptions, announcement, or anywhere else.

The biggest area for improvement, though, is your overall grammar, spelling, punctuation, and so on. Did you know that these things count with outside search engines? You'll get a higher rating for accurate language, and can get penalized for bad grammar, and so on. I recommend a professional editor or even a couple rewrites to show you where mistakes are being made. Once you see some corrections, that should help you avoid the same errors in the future.

Good luck to you! And thanks for your comment!

[TheBlueRam]

Hi again Barbara... I think you skipped me!

[CollectionSelection]

Thanks for this important info, Barb. I "think" I'm pretty good to go, but would LOVE to have your professional opinion, if and when you have time to take a quick peek! After all, I know I'm not perfect!