PINNED: Discussions and Questions About Everything Else

[#1]

USE THIS THREAD FOR ALL QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS THAT DO NOT FIT ANY OF THESE OTHER PINNED THREADS:

1. PINNED: Discuss SEO and Relevancy Myths http://www.etsy.com/teams/11352/relevancy-and-seo-for-all-ets­y-shops/discuss/10406495
2. PINNED: Discuss Etsy Shop Titles, Section Names and Shop Welcome Text http://www.etsy.com/teams/11352/relevancy-and-seo-for-all-ets­y-shops/discuss
3. PINNED: Discuss Listing Titles, Listing Descriptions and Listing Tags http://www.etsy.com/teams/11352/relevancy-and-seo-for-all-ets­y-shops/discuss/10406457/
4. PINNED: Discuss Google SEO: Keywords and Text http://www.etsy.com/teams/11352/relevancy-and-seo-for-all-ets­y-shops/discuss/10406463
5. PINNED: Discuss Google SEO: Backlinks, Link Building, Link Popularity http://www.etsy.com/teams/11352/relevancy-and-seo-for-all-ets­y-shops/discuss/10406483
6. PINNED: Google+ for SEO http://www.etsy.com/teams/11352/relevancy-and-seo-for-all-ets­y-shops/discuss/10416906

[Former_Member]

Hi Minnie,

I tried a few searches and did not see anything like you are seeing. Etsy might be testing something new with a small number of people searching.

Maybe someone else on the team has seen this new idea.

[kikisjewelrybox]

Sharyl,

To be successful first and foremost make sure you take care of yourself. I'm sure you know this. But as Mary to be successful requires time, energy, and dedication and in order to have this you have to take all the means involved in taking care of yourself. If you don't do this you won't be able to get where you want to get. Plus, no matter how successful you want to be...all you can do is the best that you can do. Lastly, it will take more time with your shop when you are learning everything involved in putting together your shop. Once you get the hang of it will take less time adding to your shop. You'll always need a lot of time but it should move more quickly once you know what you need to do.

:)Karen

[Former_Member]

I am new to this team so I am not sure if this is the right place for this question. I was just exploring Etsy's new browsing categories and could not figure out how anyone will find several of the types of items that I make.

First of all, much of what I make are beaded lanyards, yet when I browsed Women>Accessories>Lanyards, not a single one of my items showed up in the first 5 pages of listings (yet they did prior to this "new and improved" system.

Then I was completely unable to find a location for Women's eyeglass holders or chains; nor was I able to figure out how what we have been categorizing as "Unisex" will be browsable by men since none of them appeared there. And even worse, there doesn't seem to be a category for Men's lanyards at all . . . AND lanyards are no longer subdivided into canvas cheapies and the much more expensive hand-beaded varieties!

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc???

[gilstrapdesigns]

I'm new here also Laurie, I'm glad you are posting about the new browsing categories. I had always not really know where my artwork designed specifically for the kitchen or dining room. I did have it under art categories with the tags kitchen, kitchen artwork but I've always not been sure about it should it go under art or housewares after reading and looking under housewares categories I did see art especially for kitchen or dining room so I changed them to go under housewares and then kitchen with tags of kitchen decor, art for the kitchen, dining room art and so on. I hope that was the right decision to change them. What does everyone think about that was that the right thing to do. To me it kind of makes more sense.

[GraceEarrings]

the new browsing category is not good for me
but
maybe its good for some shops

because my sub-category : Ear Piercing
is totally gone
in the new set up.

none of my items show up under the new set up.
they have " Body ", then under body is some other things such as anklets or cuff or plugs
but
NO ear piercing
which is my whole shop !

[gilstrapdesigns]

Oh Grace I hope that some kind of way they can and will fix that. I wonder if my changing what I said makes and seems like it makes more sense.

[GraceEarrings]

they *** won't ** fix it
I have emailed the admin over 5 times last month
the 1st time they gave me a reply right away " its a test, they said "
& I kept complaining a few more times, they just ignored me :-)
no reply from them.

but luckily,
& I have monitored.....they only put up the new set up
on days that are the slowest, such as mon / tue / wed morning & afternoon,
like today
and the " old set up " with all the sub-categories
will come back in the evening
when most of my customers shop ( at night ).

they have not done this new thing on the week end :-)
and
my customers seem to use the search bar up on top & not used the category to search ....so, that's good too.

so if anyone is worry about their items in their category
please make sure you have all the good / suitable keywords
that you think your buyers will use
in the title & in the tags
then your buyers will ( hopefully ) find you in the search bar.

[gilstrapdesigns]

You have really researched it and I'm glad hopefully you will still get sales. So the changes that they have made with the new browse features are not permanent is that what you're saying Grace?

[GraceEarrings]

hopefully it is not permanent
because
my sub-cat is not there
so I am definitely being ** selfish ** here :-)

its like " its here now & its gone later, then its here again ........ "

[GraceEarrings]

I noticed that The new browsing category

- Takes time for all those photos to load up
- i have noticed that the selections are random ( not recently listed)
I finally found a couple of my oldest listing showed up under another sub-category. Yes, one of my oldest listing in my shop.

- keep your positive thoughts !
Know your target buyers. My target customers go straight to the search bar &
They do not have the time to browse aimlessly.... So i guess that is good that my customers are using the search bar & they told me that they also search for items directly in google.

Good luck everyone!

[Former_Member]

As shop owners, have you made any changes to tittles, keywords etc?

You guys really helped me out months ago with SEO and my shop was super relevant! :) Now, with this new browse feature, I've literally become invisible!! :( so sad!
Does this change SEO for ETSY and how relevant my shop is? What should one be changing, if anything, to their listings?

[GraceEarrings]

i dunno what to say...
i cried today
&
then I realized I cried easily so
I wiped my tears &
went back to creating more new items.

[Former_Member]

The Browse feature is probably here to stay and Etsy will be tweaking the algorithm a lot over the coming months just like they have tweaked the Relevancy algorithm.

Relevancy is part of Browse as Etsy has stated in one of the articles about the Browse feature. For example, your listings for Dangle Earrings will come up in the Dangle Earrings Sub-Category if these two words are in the listing title and listing tags.

SEO for Etsy and for Google is more important than ever before.

Big Truth to Remember: shoppers will ALWAYS use the Relevancy search when they are ready to buy. It is SO important to use keywords that the shoppers are using to look for your listings.
1. Use Google Adwords or other keyword research tool to find popular keywords that are a good fit for each listing.
2. Use a variety of keywords for each listing to come up for a variety of searches. Find more about this on our SEO Reviews on the SEO Review Team,

[GraceEarrings]

but there is NO sub-category for my items

when you list an item ,
etsy still make you to choose sub-category : *** Piercing ***
then one more sub-category: Ear

but the category & the Browse no longer has *** Piercing **
so your listing & the Browse
do not match / do not synchronize

so when listing an item ,
you select ** piercing **
then ** ear ***
the items will not come up under Browse

see what I mean ?

ok...back to taking care of orders ...... luckily my customers use ' search " .
otherwise I will not have any transaction :-)

[AnneLondezGlass]

Same here, there is no sub-category for lampwork glass beads. I'm aware that customers who already know what they are looking for will know to type the right keywords in the search. However there is very little chance of browsers coming upon my kind of work by chance.
My question is : in addition to the tweaking I've already done with relevancy in mind, should I add the new browse pathway to my titles and keywords ? In my case that would be Supplies>Handmade>Glass beads.

[Former_Member]

Anne,

It looks like Etsy is dropping sub-category words that are not as popular as others in searches. Lampwork glass beads are still glass beads and I would definitely use the path that is available: Supplies>Handmade>Glass beads. Your beads will be included in the Browse feature in this path

[AnneLondezGlass]

Well, there seems to be a bit of a lag time between posting and appearing in browse.
Yesterday morning (for me, i.e. middle of the night for the US) I posted a watercolor that obviously got on the first browse pages because it sold within the day.
So last night (early evening for US) I posted another and for a couple of hours I monitored the corresponding Browse section... no trace of it, no views.
Now this morning, this item is at the top of page 2 in browse and is starting to get views !

[LarkRoadRhymes]

Hi. I keep trying to find a post to ask a question about item labeling and tags and the one I keep finding says is is closed. Where should I post my question? Thanks

[jerseymaid]

Should we be tagging items Christmas gift now?

[GraceEarrings]

hi Stephanie
you can use this pinned thread.

hi Sharyl
Xmas gift as tag ? etsy is making a ton of changes lately
so it is up to you.... I have an item tag " Halloween " since last January ( lol, no kidding ) ,,,,9 months ago ! its up to you.
I have items tag " Valentine Day " too .

[Former_Member]

Stephanie,

This is the right ongoing PINNED thread for questions about Listing Titles and Tags.

[Former_Member]

Sharyn,

You can use Christmas or any other holiday word in listing titles and tags at any time of the year. There are year-round Christmas shops on Etsy that always use these tags. There is no rule on Etsy about using Christmas tags.

[GLSJewelryAndArt]

I just checked my site on google, and it seems there is another business now using GLSjewelry! In 2004 I created a website, glsjewelry.com, which I closed down after joining Etsy, but still own the URL. Seems they host it on tumblr and really know how to promote. I went down several pages and never came to mine. When I closed down my site, they didn't even exist, so I came up first. What do I do now?

[Former_Member]

Hi Gay,

The way to move your shop and listing up higher in Google search results for keywords or for just your shop name is to build backlinks. Google sees backlinks as "votes" for your Web site. The more good quality "votes" (backlinks) your web site has, the higher up it will go in the search engine rankings.

Your competition using the same name has only about 6 backlinks. But your shop does not have any backlinks. It would take only some backlink building work to move your shop up higher in Google than the competition.

You can read more about backlinks on our team blog:
http://e-seoteam.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-is-link-building-backlinks-link.html
and
http://e-seoteam.blogspot.com/2012/07/googles-penguin-update-overoptimizing.html

To check backlinks for any Web site, use http://www.opensiteexplorer.org

[GLSJewelryAndArt]

This is great information. Now I just need to set up a blog & find a few others willing to link me. Item #101 on my To Do list. I did all this for my own website before. I had quite a few, but they are all lost to me now. Argh.