New Etsy Format - Early Bird Writing Tips!

[#1]

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.

[BCCopywriting]

Elizabeth: No, you're on my list - sorry it got out of order, though! You're next, after Carmen! :)

[BCCopywriting]

Carmen: Such colorful items, and I think you're doing great with trying to show off their best qualities. A couple quick things:

The banner on the new format page is a little confusing. I thought it was jewelry, but then when I saw the frames, I began to wonder if it was some sort of unusual type of art in a frame. So think about that.

Make sure you don't overuse capital letters. See my blog post on this: http://www.clavan.net/blog/capital-letters

Your grammar tenses can get a little confused. This is an issue that might require a little more explanation, so feel free to contact me for paid critique if that's something you're interested in.

Make sure to check your SEO phrases, and use the ones that buyers are actually typing into their search bars to find items like yours. Also, repeat these phrases - exactly - in your descriptions (and even elsewhere in your shop where appropriate). Don't list the phrases, though. Use them in natural sounding sentences.

Hope this helps! Best of luck to you!

[RBeadDesigns]

Hi Barbara. Normally I would not ask for anyone to look at my site. Kinda not my style but I have been working really hard on making both SEO changes in my titles and descriptions (not 100% done yet) and on the new site. If I'm going in the wrong direction on anything with anything on the new site or my SEO's I would love some feedback. Spending hours not knowing if you've done something correctly is just a tad frustrating :)

[wildthingvintage]

I would love a quick look! It's a major bummer that low price high quantity sellers seem to benefit most, as they are mostly importers :(

[BCCopywriting]

Elizabeth: Such beautiful items! What a colorful shop! Your writing is great, too! I think you've got a wonderful tone to your shop writing, and you've done a good job of nailing down the specifics that your buyers will be interested in. A couple things:

Avoid strings of keywords anywhere in your shop (other than product titles). Outside search engines will pick this up as spam, and can downgrade you in search results. Use your best keywords in natural sounding sentences.

Have you carefully researched the SEO? If not, check with Mary on how to identify the best keyword phrases - the phrases that buyers are actually typing into their search bars to find items like yours. Use those exactly in your titles, tags, descriptions (and other places in your shop, where appropriate). If you do the job right, you'll attract buyers who are already interested in the exact types of things you're selling.

Best of luck to you!

[WaveSong]

fabulous post! THANK YOU THANK YOU.

Mind taking a peak at my shop?

[BCCopywriting]

Diane: Beautiful shop! I'm a vintage fan, so enjoyed my quick browse through your items. If you don't mind, I'm going to point you to the comments I made for Elizabeth above. Your shop has similar issues regarding SEO and keword strings. Let me know if you have any specific questions beyond that. Thanks! And good luck to you!

[camilaestrella]

Ohhh thank you Barbara We work hard on that. Thank you for your wonderful time.
💜Camila

[BCCopywriting]

Lenny: It sounds like you're looking for some SEO guidance. You can definitely do that by starting a thread asking for an SEO critique. I'm sure the SEO experts will be happy to help!

[BCCopywriting]

Evie: Thanks for your comment! I wasn't sure what your question was. Are you looking for feedback on your banner? If so, unfortunately, that isn't really my area of expertise. However, let me know if you have a specific writing question, and I'll be happy to give you some thoughts.

[WaveSong]

Only problem is you can't see my new cover photo yet.

[BCCopywriting]

Barbara: Lovely vintage shop! Go ahead and post a request for a critique out in the threads so that everyone can see, and a number of us can respond. Thanks!

[BCCopywriting]

Catherine: Thanks for your comment! I know the process can be a little overwhelming at times. Go ahead and ask for a critique out in the threads. That way all of us can respond, including Mary on SEO issues. Thanks!

[BCCopywriting]

Roberta: It sounds like you're looking for SEO help, which is great! Mary can help if you post a request for a critique out in the threads. Include any specific questions you have on your writing, too. We can answer all in one place. Thanks!

[CreativeLampShades]

Fantastic information which I need to apply! Would love you to have a peek at my shop if you have the chance...
Thanks, Robin

[Former_Member]

Dear Barbara,
Thank you so much for all the information you always spread in this group! It helped me a lot getting started on Etsy. If you have the time I would love to hear what you think of my shop so far. I'm still changing thing every now and then but I hope I'm on a good way.
Many thanks in advance <3

[WaveSong]

Figured out how to send my new cover photo. I'm not happy with it because it's too pixelated. And I think I need to change my shop icon as well.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/WaveSong/neu?ref=shop_home_edit

[CollectionSelection]

Thank you Barbara!

[BCCopywriting]

Ev: I agree about the pixillation on the banner and icon. Keep trying! Remember that you can leave off the banner entirely if you want. I'm thinking of doing that with my own shop. It gets you down to the product images faster.

[BCCopywriting]

Robin: Your shop is perfectly named! Those are amazing, creative lamp shades! I have a couple comments to make, but if you post out in the threads, then you can get some SEO advice, too. Do you mind?

[RBeadDesigns]

Barbara, who is Mary? I don't know what threads to post on. I'm not putting it out there in the forums because people have no idea what they are talking about which is why I came to you. If I can go to a specific thread then great but finding one on my own is like going back to where I started which was a mess.

[LakesideQuiltsMaine]

Hi Barbara
Thank you for sharing all the new changes, I appreciate it very much.
I am thinking it would be best to drop my banner. I wanted to change my shop name to better create branding but don't want to start over with regards to reviews.
If you have a moment to peek at my shop ,I would love it.
Thank you

[StephanDesign]

Thank you Barbara. Can you please take a look at my shop?

[BCCopywriting]

Sorry, Roberta. Didn't mean to confuse you! :) Mary is the captain of this group, an SEO web design expert with years in the field and a huge amount of information to provide. Anyone can start a thread here in the team. So just "Start a Thread," and there will be a place to enter your question, and then you can "Post." I agree with you that the forums are filled with misleading information. It's hard to know what's real and what's not. But here you know you'll get the inside scoop. If you have any more questions about the process, just let me know.

[gabriellapucci]

Hi Barbara
Can you please take a look at my shop any kind of help will be greatly appreciated..
Thank you
Gabriella