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]

Linda: There seems to be a rumor floating around about being penalized in Etsy search but so far I haven't seen it confirmed. Might be just a rumor. It's probably best to just wait and see how the whole Patterns issue develops. Mary might know more.

[LazyHollowDesigns]

Barbara

This is great information. I have a lot of banner work to do!

Every little tweak helps. You are a valuable team member.

[Former_Member]

No penalty for not using Pattern from my observation, it's simply an option.

However if you have the regular ol Etsy shop and do not use their policies you will get dinged. I experimented and found that when i used their policies, I was number # 1 in my specific nitch, when I changed back to my policies, I dropped down to the 4th or fifth row in my specfic nitch, and to page 4 or so in the larger categories.

[LazyHollowDesigns]

Tami-

ok, just so I understood.

If I only have an Etsy shop, it behooves me to use Etsy's polices verses my own?

Or is it, if I am now have a Pattern as well, it behooves me to use Etsy/Pattern's polices verses my own?

Thanks!

[BCCopywriting]

Tami and Catie: Good information, but I don't think there's been final confirmation about using Etsy policies (versus your own) in terms of how much it actually affects search results. My guess is that we'll be seeing some more details come out over the next several weeks. I doubt that switching right now could hurt, but I'll be curious to see what else we learn in the near future.

[Former_Member]

hi hi,

This is only from what I have observed when doing a night of listings.

If you use Etsy's policies you will indeed rank higher in search. If you use your own policies, you will be lower in search.. not by much like I said, I was still on the first page but 4-6 (can't remember now) positions lower, but it was enough for me to notice.

From what I understand in Pattern you can only use Etsy Policies and Direct Checkout

If I am unclear, let me know and I will explain further.

[LazyHollowDesigns]

Thanks Tami, sorry for my lack of clarity. I was "Teaming" this morning with insufficient amounts of coffee.

Thanks too Barbra! :)

[Former_Member]

Tami,

In addition to my six years of Etsy SEO work with hundreds of Etsy shops, I also have another Etsy shop where I use my own shop policies. The listings in that shop for a long time have been and continue to stay on pages 1, 2, 3 etc. for all of the keywords used in those listings. I work with so many shops that usually have their own policies. I have never seen rankings affected by which policies are used.

I think there is something else going on that is affecting the rankings of your listings that is not immediately apparent to you.

[Former_Member]

Ok Mary, you know best, I was only going on my observations of etsy policies vs my own. I admit I am still a noob here and my instincts are to trust you. I apologize if I gave any incorrect info, my intention will always be for all of us to succeed.

[Former_Member]

Tami,

You did nothing wrong! You are just passing along your own experiences which is normal. Since I have not seen what you have experienced with changing the shop policies, I can can't even guess what might really be causing ranking problems for your listings.

[Former_Member]

Thank you Linda! I was happy to ready your comments. I will be seeking an SEO guru :)

[AngeCphotography]

Hello would love some/ any /all advice with my shop !
Thank you

[LazyHollowDesigns]

Morning Angela!

I really like your photos and use of showing how your items can fit into someone's home.

The only thing that I can see is that they images of your items are cast in shadow. I know you are going for the natural light/color scheme, but they are a tad dark.

[BCCopywriting]

Angela: You have some spectacular items and love the photos - with the exception that Catie mentioned: in some you can't see the artwork because of the shadows. Otherwise, I like the sleek lines.

Your main area of improvement is in getting to the benefits quicker. No slow intro! You've got to get buyers' attention immediately. Whatever the top selling points are, say those first, in your announcement, about sections and descriptions. Also, avoid long strings of keywords. You can get penalized in searches for that. You might be able to do better with your SEO, too.

Also, several punctuation problems. A comma should follow immediately after a word, then the space, as you can see in this sentence. If something matches up nicely with something else, it "complements" it.

Your announcement would probably be better if it were shorter, and don't hit the return key right away, because it leaves a big blank space before the "read more," rather than some excellent language that would help entice visitors to stay in your shop.

Have you read the Product Description thread? That material is also available on video at: http://www.facebook.com/chaconsulting (scroll down). It might be very helpful.

Also check out the Top 5 Fixes thread.

Finally, ongoing help is available in the following free Facebook groups:

The Copywriting Coach: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach

The SEO Salon: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1686821111533696/

Hope these few comments and the resources help! Best of luck!

[ErstwhileStyle]

I've just updated my shop, if anyone wants to take a peek and tell me how it looks.

[BCCopywriting]

Simone and Aleydis: At a quick glance, things look good. A spotted a couple small things here and there, but a lot would depend on your experience in the past with customers. Did you have a specific question about a particular area of your shop? Any concerns about your descriptions or other areas?

[Former_Member]

Hello again, Barbara. I have been asking you various questions recently about 'copy', SEO, lack of sales and what to do. You generously took time and looked at my shop. One of your suggestions was to target buyers, not merely viewers, by making my keywords more specific. I have to say I found this challenging; to have fewer views and yet more sales - how could that work? Long story short, I did what you said, got way fewer views, but have had a substantial increase in sales. Not as many as I was aiming for, but a definite improvement. I just wanted to thank you for your advice and taking the time to help non-techy newbies like me!

[BCCopywriting]

Cormeen Home Decor: Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback! Great to hear that you've been having some success. Did you ever check in with Mary for specific recommendations about your keywords? She can probably provide good ideas for boosting your visibility with the right buyers even more. Are you in her Facebook group? Here are our links, in case you need them:

The SEO Salon: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1686821111533696
The Copywriting Coach: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach

[Former_Member]

Yes, Mary suggested 'longtail' keywords. After I found out what these were, I incorporated some in each listing. I posted a new thread asking about external links (back links), but I don't think Mary has had a chance to look at it. I will join her Facebook group and see what more I can glean. Seriously could not do this without your generous help! Thank you.

[Former_Member]

Hi there. I just read in the forums that Google will no longer crawl our shop announcements and that the shop announcements no longer function as SEO real estate. Is this true?

[BCCopywriting]

Erica: I haven't heard anything about this. Mary would be the right person to ask. Actually, this would be a great question to ask in her Facebook group. Are you a member? Below is the link. I'll throw my link in, too, in case you're interested.

The SEO Salon: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1686821111533696/

The Copywriting Coach: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach

[Former_Member]

Hi Barbara, thanks for the links but I don't have a Facebook.

[BCCopywriting]

Erica: Oh, sorry. Well, possibly you could "create a thread" here and use "Shop Announcement SEO" as the title, and Mary will see it. That should work.

[ZuzkasDesigns]

Hi Barbara, thank you so much for all the great info on the new Etsy set up. I have been on Etsy since January and have few sales. I have been trying to use your advice on SEO and picture quality. I see that you are very wanted advisor and a busy person but if you get a chance I would love to hear what you think about my shop. Please critique I will take it as an compliment:) Thank you for all your great work! Zuzka with Zuzka's Designs

[BCCopywriting]

Zuzka: Thanks for your question. I took a quick look and overall things look pretty good! Have you tested your title phrases to make sure that's how buyers are searching? If yes, congratulations! If not, you might want to check in with Mary to see if she has any specific advice.

By the way, don't forget to fill in your personal profile section. Etsy has become very sensitive to shops that don't have all their sections filled out and it's possible you could lose opportunities in searches if something like that is empty. Also, when buyers click on your name, they expect to see a little story there, and you don't want to disappoint them!

If you have any specific concerns, just let me know. Best of luck with everything!