PINNED: Discuss Listing Titles, Listing Descriptions and Listing Tags

[Former_Member]

This thread is for discussions and questions about Listing Titles, Listing Descriptions and Listing Tags

Google uses the listing title and listing description for searches on Google. Google does not use the listing tags.

At this time, Etsy uses the listing title and listing tags for Relevancy searches on Etsy. Etsy does not use the listing description . . . but we never know when that might change.

Post your questions and comments here.

[GraceEarrings]

as we get closer to the holidays,
many shops use the following " special term " in their title and tags,
for ex:
FreeShippingEtsy
BlackFridaySale
CyberMondaySale
Gifts Under $25
Gifts Under $10
Mother's Day Gifts ( or Xmas / Valentine's / etc etc )
XmasInJuly
etc

How are these very broad terms / not targeted keywords affect
Google ranking of the shop's items
or are they necessary in order to gain etsy traffic?

bumping up for new members to see this

[Former_Member]

Google does not "see" the listing tags and they do not affect rankings on Google. Etsy made the listings tags "invisible" to the search engines several months ago. Now the listing tags are only used within Etsy Relevancy searches.

[AkitlaFlair]

Thanks for the info Mary.

[Former_Member]

Moving up for more Q&A

[Former_Member]

I have learned so much since joining a month ago. I can not believe how much there is to absorb. Mary you are so knowledgeable about SEO and the Google crawl.

Still making my effort to get through all the threads. Is there a thread that encompasses a majority of your info in one thread? Or one I have missed.
Mickey

[GraceEarrings]

yes, her very detailed SEO guide directly from her :)

[Former_Member]

SEO is very complex and very detailed. One forum thread or post would not be big enough. It would take a whole book to cover everything about SEO.

[PaperFlora]

How often does Google crawl through a site? And what about other search sites like Bing?
I recently read an article on SEO and it stated "remember, google only knows what you tell it" that makes a lot of sense.

[citydetails]

I found this in a thread about titles. Is this correct?

Etsy only allows three capitalized words total so keep that in mind.

edited for grammer.

[GraceEarrings]

re: Etsy only allows three capitalized words

~~~ I think this is a myth ~~~
but will definitely wait for Mary

[Former_Member]

Natalie from PaperFlora says Edited on Jun 16, 2012
How often does Google crawl through a site? And what about other search sites like Bing?

-------------------------------------------------------

Google crawls web pages at different rates depending on how often the information changes. News Web sites, for example, are crawled several times each day.

How to find out when Google last visited your shop: Go to google.com and type in your shop name is the search box and click enter. Your shop should be the first listing that you see on Google search results. Hover the mouse pointer to the right of your shop listing until you see faint arrows pointing to the right. You should then see a screen print of your main shop page. Move the mouse pointer to the right and click on "cached." You will then see the date that Google last cached (visited) your shop. Check this status every week or so until you see the cached date updated.

[Former_Member]

citydetails from citydetails says

I found this in a thread about titles. Is this correct?

Etsy only allows three capitalized words total so keep that in mind.

---------------------------------------------------
I know from personal experience that this is true. I had so many caps in my listing titles that I had to change most titles. Three capitalized words are the most I can get away with, like this listing:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/94825609/owls-on-branches-etsy-shop-banner-and

[citydetails]

Wow!! Thanks Mary. All of the words in my titles are caps! Time to get to work. Thanks again.

[citydetails]

Oh, I misunderstood. Three solid words, not the first letter of each word.

[GraceEarrings]

as you can see,
i should keep my opinion to myself from now on:)

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone! I have just joined the team. I started my own business seven months ago and have been selling my artwork mainly through retailers. It has been a big challenge to break into the online business because of the reasons that everyone on Etsy knows. This is very helpful! Thank you.

junko

[Former_Member]

moving up.

[Former_Member]

Hi!
Last week, I was lucky enough to be featured on the Etsy facebook page. Since then, my shop stats and google analytics indicate that people are searching for my store name on google, and are using it as a keyword to find my shop. And this is so stupid, my shop's copy isn't optimized for my store name. When I google "seashore love," my etsy store doesn't even show up. I'm thinking more than a few people are performing the same search, and not finding my store.

So, these are my questions: Should I include my shop name as a keyword on my listings? Or, is this just a quick social media blip that will end soon, and not really worth the time it would take to retool everything? If it is worth the time, how do I retool the product description copy without it reading awkwardly or using too much duplicate copy?

Thanks!

[Former_Member]

Your shop does come up first in Google search results for "seashore love" and for "seashorelove."

This is your shop title:
Handmade Beach Jewelry by Seashore Love on Etsy

This is the title tag that Etsy creates for Google from your shop title:
<title>Handmade Beach Jewelry by Seashore Love on Etsy by SeashoreLove</title>

You do not need to add your shop name to the shop title or anywhere else in your shop. Etsy adds your shop name to the title tag for your main shop page and every other page in your shop for Google and other search engines. In fact if you left out "by Seashore Love on Etsy", Etsy would add the same information for you: "by SeashoreLove on Etsy"

[Former_Member]

Thanks, Mary! I'll definitely edit those redundancies. Wonder why my search results are different... internet mysteries!

[Former_Member]

Cass,

Google has thousands of data centers around the world. They are updated at different times. You and are might be looking at data from different data centers. This is usually the explanation for differences in search results.

Mary

[SHERIBERYL]

Do we have to put punctuation between the key word phrases in the titles?

[Former_Member]

Sheriberry, you do not have to use punctuation between in the titles. The search engines skip over any punctuation. Punctuation is used so that the titles are more readable to the human viewers.

[SHERIBERYL]

Thanks Mary, I just saw in all of the SEO reviews they were used.