SEO Writing Tips for PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS

[#1]

Need help with your Etsy listings? Don’t panic! I recently completed a screencast about Etsy listings, and below -- just for you -- is a summary of the top points, including several insider tips you won’t see elsewhere. (Video version: http://www.facebook.com/chaconsulting)

PHOTO
Your product image is a key factor in Etsy search, since buyers usually click on an item based on the picture. When customers come from outside Etsy, it’s the first thing they see when they arrive. Make sure your photos are excellent.

-----TIP: Use all five photo slots. It helps keep buyers active and interested. Also, time matters. When customers stay in your shop even for a few minutes, it’s great for your overall SEO!

TITLE
Make the most of your title for search engine optimization (SEO). Your title is a major factor for outside search engines like Google. Research carefully so that you’re using the exact phrases buyers have been typing into their search bars to find items like yours.

-----TIP: Put your top couple SEO keyword phrases at the beginning of your title.

-----TIP: Include punctuation between phrases so that the title is easy to read. Leave a space either after the punctuation, or both before and after. (Example: “vintage beaded purse, red vintage purse” or “vintage beaded purse - red vintage purse”)

TAGS
Both Etsy and outside search engines use your tags, so fill up all your tag space!

-----TIP: Make sure the phrases in your tags match the SEO phrases in your title. It will make your overall SEO stronger. If a long SEO phrase doesn’t fit into a single tag, you can break up the phrase into two separate pieces.

MATERIALS
Use this area for actual materials only. The search engines don’t use this information, so just provide the physical details that buyers look for.

DESCRIPTION - First paragraph
The first paragraph of your description is extremely important. It should engage buyers immediately and clearly communicate your top selling messages (benefits of your item, value for the buyer, why it’s special, how it compares to the competition, and so on). Don’t know what your top messages are? This is critical for each listing and also for your shop as a whole. Put some time into it, and consult with a business consultant if necessary.

-----TIP: Remember the top performing SEO phrases you put at the beginning of your title? Those should appear in your first paragraph, also. Etsy doesn’t care, but Google and other outside search engines do.

-----TIP: Avoid the temptation to cut-and-paste your title into the first line of your description. This can lower your SEO value, and cause you to lose opportunities in searches. Instead, weave those phrases into natural sounding sentences.

DESCRIPTION - Middle paragraphs
Continue sprinkling your other SEO phrases throughout your description. You’ve already delivered your top selling points; now you can talk about other benefits. This is also the place for physical details like color, size, materials, process (if relevant), customization options, and so on.

-----TIP: Use attractive bullet points if you have a long list of details to present.

DESCRIPTION - End
Finish up with links to other places in your shop, such as similar listings or your About page.

-----TIP: Use the full URL, including the “ http://” to make sure the link goes “live.” You can also include pointers to pages outside Etsy, but those links won’t be clickable.

BONUS - DID YOU KNOW?
Grammar, spelling and punctuation count with outside search engines like Google! If your descriptions aren’t written clearly and accurately, you could start slipping in search results. Consider a grammar check. Also, look for efficient ways to improve the writing quality in your descriptions and other text pages in your shop.

If you have questions about product listings, or about your own shop, feel free to comment below. For SEO guidance, see all the information and resources available elsewhere in this team.

Note: If you’re on Facebook, you can find free help for your writing at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach.

[tombstonebead]

Good Morning Barbara & Mary, This is one of my two favorite teams. My other favorite team is Etsy Rank and it has pointed out my flaws. I have a horrible time with tags. I honestly believe whether you are a new shop or even a shop a few years old like ours you have a tendency to get stale.
Would you be so kind to take a peak at our shop and give me a suggestion. I just turned on promoted listing after taking a break of a few weeks and not many views.
BTW my husband is the beader and I do the "fun" stuff.

thanks
barb

[BCCopywriting]

Tombstone Bead Collection: Lovely items! If I had one thing to say, it would be that you might be missing some opportunities for sales by not optimizing your copy. Get to the benefits right away! No slow intros! Make sure that your best, most engaging and most persuasive selling points are visible above the "read more." Your About section starts off with some fairly bland material about beads - start off with what's so special about your shop and your work! Get right to it! This includes your descriptions.

If you like, you can view the video version of this article, where I go into a little more detail: http://www.facebook.com/chaconsulting (scroll down). Plus, take a look at the "Top 5 Fixes" thread which was just added here this week. For additional tips, critiques, advice and support, visit these two free Facebook groups:

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

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

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

[tombstonebead]

Thank you so much!! I have a lot of work and studying to do it seems.

[Former_Member]

Tombstone,

Please do join my Facebook SEO Group for SEO reviews and critiques. The group members are very active and will help you even when I am not available.

[tombstonebead]

Thank you Mary I did join. I appreciate the addition. But to be honest I do not know where to start.

[JillsTreasureChest]

I just asked to join the FB groups. I'm doing the best I can with what I know, but I'm not having good results, so I'm obviously not doing something well enough! I would love some advice for my shop, if anyone has time.

[BCCopywriting]

Jill: Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. I've been unusually busy. I took a quick look at your shop. Overall, the writing itself looks pretty good, but the shop overall lacks focus. It might help to sit down and think about ways in which you might be able to put a name to what you do and what you sell. How can you present your shop in a way that will stand out among all the competition? Not necessarily an easy process, but possibly necessary. Also, from a quick scan of your titles, I suspect that your SEO is off. I recommend contacting Mary for some direction about that. It could very well make a big difference.

[Former_Member]

Hello Barbara.

Your advices are great. I read all thread.
Can you make a short check at my shop? Or maybe this listing https://www.etsy.com/listing/275992506/beaded-bracelet-set-boho-bracelet-set?ref=shop_home_listings

I am still working on my SEO. What do you think about tags, description and title? Photos too.Today I try Google keyword planner but it is new for me so I have to take a look. I am from Poland so it takes me to Polish site automatically and checks words that people from Poland put into a searh. Schould I change it for United States and choose only English language?
I would also like to tell that English is not my first language. I know that sometimes I make spell or grammar mistakes. Before adding new listing I check my description in Spell Checker because someone in team told me that i have to look at my spelling.
I also use Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. But I don't have much views from that.
I also added new line of products - tiny beads bracelets. I started from Sterling Silver jewelry but it is too expensive for now with small sale - thats why I changed products in my shop.
I would Etsy to become my full time job. Sometimes it makes me sad because of low sale :( I don' t know what I am doing wrong.
Thanks a lot for any advice :)

[BCCopywriting]

Marta: Beautiful jewelry! Very lovely pieces! Your main area of improvement in terms of copywriting is to make some solid decisions about what you want to say about your jewelry. In some places you talk about steampunk, and in others the language is more upscale, higher end, talking about sterling silver, precious stones, and so on. For best results, decide which way you want to go and then stick with those types of messages throughout. Otherwise your buyers will get confused and you'll miss making connections.

Due to the language gap, your descriptions do have a lot of English language problems. Possibly consider professional help in editing. Maybe start by having someone correct a few descriptions for you, so you can see where the major issues are. Possibly after a few have been done by a professional, you might be able to improve the rest on your own.

You also definitely need help with SEO. You can get some tips from Mary on that. You're missing quite a lot of opportunities to reach buyers searching on Etsy and on the Internet. You'll need to find out what phrases buyers are actually typing in to their search bars to find items like yours. Once you figure that out, you can use those terms in your titles, tags and descriptions.

For ongoing help with writing, free on Facebook, visit: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach

For ongoing help with SEO, free on Facebook, see Mary's group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1686821111533696

Best of luck with everything!

[Former_Member]

Hello again. Thank you for your answer!
It sounds not very good to me. A lot of work to do.
You mean that I should decide what I want to sell? Steampunk jewelry or sterling silver or beaded jeweley? Not everything in one shop? To be honest I am not sure right now what is better to sell. I also would like to tell I found shop with many sales and only 73 items. Only beaded and boho jewelry. That mean that it is not necessary to have 500 items in stock to have many sales?
Thank you.

[Former_Member]

Marta,

I know several shops that have less than 30 listings and have made thousands of sales (see https://www.etsy.com/shop/PillandPattern, for example).

You do not need a lot of listings, but you do need to use great keywords. Good descriptions also really help to make sales.

Mary

[Former_Member]

Dear Barbara and Mary. I just wrote to my friend who is from US now lives in Poland. I hope she will correct my listings.After Barbara answer I think it is better to leave it to profesionalist.
So.. should I choose one style of jewelry I want to make and use similar tags in my shop?
Mary can you help with seo? Or give some good article to read. I do not want to abuse your curiosity for help.
Thank you.

[Former_Member]

Hello Barbara,

Thank you for your involvement on this team. I have read several posts of great help and I feel I begin to understand the SEO approach.

May I ask your opinion on my writing ?
I feel quite confident with writing descriptions in French, my native language, but I fear that my English may be a bit random at times. My niche is small, but I know it very well, and I want my writing to express that. Of course that effect will be lost if my english doesn't sound natural.
Would you mind to give me your feelings on it ?

[hollyhillwreaths]

Valuable information. I have done research on SEO and getting ranked but my problem is I sell wreaths and many of the keywords are the same. How can I vary them? I think my descriptions are good but I get stuck on keywords. I would appreciate a critique of my shop. Thank you.

[BCCopywriting]

Marta: You can sell many different types of jewelry. But you need to have a way to describe all of the jewelry together if you want them in the same shop. (Two shops is always an option.) Steampunk and minimalist are very different images, and speak to two different types of buyers. In marketing, you need to identify the people you're selling to and then speak to them in language that they like, that they use, and that they'll respond to. Specifics about this and how to handle it in your particular shop is more complex and would require a professional consultation. I offer comprehensive critiques (with recommendations) myself, and there are other qualified writers around who could help. (Please check credentials carefully and make sure they have sales and marketing skills as well as writing skills. In your case that will be important.)

I see that you're asking questions in Mary's SEO group, which is perfect. Hope it's providing some help!

[BCCopywriting]

Sheila: Gorgeous wreaths and photos! One thing I noticed immediately. It can be very bad for SEO to just copy the title into the top of each description. Sometimes the outside search engines will read that as spam and downgrade your listing (or even your shop if it's widespread). Weave those phrases naturally into normal sounding sentences.

Also, rather than just listing all the different types of flowers in the wreath to start, it might be more helpful to talk about how to use the wreath. Give buyers a tantalizing image of how the wreath might look in their home, or as a gift, or however buyers typically use your wreaths. Tell a story to engage them. They've seen the photo, now they're looking for more reasons to buy. Then you can follow up with the details.

If you're interested in ongoing writing tips, advice, critiques and support, feel free to visit: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach

For SEO advice: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1686821111533696

Hope these few comments help!

[BCCopywriting]

Laetitia: Beautiful dolls! Quite lovely! Did you see where I placed the exclamation point in those phrases? All punctuation at the end of sentences comes immediately after the last letter, no space!

Overall your English is good. There were a few places here and there that could use a slight change, but I think you're doing very well. I did notice that a lot of interesting and engaging information is way down in the third or fourth paragraph in each description. Whatever facts are going to see your item - put them first! If authenticity is a big selling point for these items - then talk about it right away. If authenticity isn't that important, and you would rather emphasize the look of the dolls, their decorative value, and so on, then leave out a lot of the background detail, and just put all of it in your About section.

If you're interested in ongoing writing tips and help, feel free to visit: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach. We current have a lot of members from outside the U.S. who have similar issues about writing in a second language.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your shop!

[Former_Member]

Barbara,
Thank you very much for your quick feedback! (Look! I am already getting better at respecting English typo rules!)
I will rearrange my product description to emphasize the authenticity point and background info.

Thank you again!

[EchidnaArtandCards]

Hi Barbara,

I have been following the posts and tips from you and Mary on this team, and also really appreciate your quick look at my shop a few weeks ago. There is a lot to learn and I am trying to focus on your advice of highlighting benefits and engaging potential customers at the beginning of the description.

This is my latest listing. Would you kindly take a look to see if it's better and what I should continue/stop doing? Thanks in advance.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/290347311

[BCCopywriting]

Anita: Thanks for your follow-up inquiry. Nice job of incorporating your keywords! And I can see that you're getting better with features and benefits. However: "A handcrafted, versatile and modern leather pendant necklace ~ give new life and purpose to upcycled leather swatches when you wear this piece of contemporary leather jewellery." This sounds like a great benefit to society (which is nice) but it doesn't tell buyers what the benefit is to THEM. I know this is a little tricky, but you might need to do some more thinking about this.

Are you on Facebook? We do critiques on Wednesdays in my group, and listings are a perfect thing to submit for that. (I can give you more information than I have room for here.) You can get ongoing support for your writing, ask questions, and participate in our weekly schedule of activities. If you're interested: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach

Keep up the good work!

[EchidnaArtandCards]

Thanks for your feedback, Barbara! I'll take a look at the FB page and see what I can participate in. Would love more help on product description writing. I appreciate your taking the time to look at my listing.

[InkOnMyPaws]

Hi Gang,
I've been on Etsy for several years now. At one point I had 3 shops at the same time for 3 different types of things. I rolled them all into 1 when we moved from MA to AZ this past August. I have found that it has been much easier to manage and even sometimes when someone is looking for one thing they find that they are interersted in the other thing that is now all in one shop.
Case in point - Girl Scout Vintage items was in my Savannah's Friends shop. Now it's in INK. I had a gal come by and wanted to look at my GS items and ask questions about old GS books I have. Then she saw I had Washi Tape Bookmarkers. She got all excited about those too. It was great.
I guess I'd like help with trying to figure out a good way to have a SALE. I have a coupon in my home page - About me and the View Listings page. I also post BOGO sales every now and then on specific items. That does seem to attract sales, but it's more random. What have you found that works?
I'd also love it if you would take a breeze through my shop and let me know if you think there is something I can improve upon. I know my photos could use some work, esp. with lighting.
Other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Nola

[BCCopywriting]

Nola: It sounds as though you're hoping to get some input from the team about your shop. To do that, go to the main team page and "Create a New Thread." Ask for a critique or for help. Then anyone who wants can comment. From my quick look, I think you could use some specific SEO help to get more visibility, and to get seen by the right people. So feel free to ask for SEO help, too. For ongoing tips and professional help, free on Facebook, you might like to check out:

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

Best of luck to you!

[GabriellasTreasures]

Barbara and Mary, I follow this thread/team daily and just want to say thank you so very much. You give your time and energy to help us. For me, it is a never ending learning process, and I think/hope I've got it. Not totally for sure, but getting it better and continuing to learn. The thing I can't wrap my brain around is to use or not to use the same word like "dress" in my titles several times. "Vintage 70s womens dress" then "black cocktail evening dress" etc as examples. If I just use dress in the first example, then follow without using dress, it would read cocktail evening black party fancy. Does my question make sense?

[BCCopywriting]

Patricia: You can use "dress" several times in your title. Remember that it's the phrases that make the difference. "70s womens dress" is different from "cocktail evening dress." Even though they both contain the word "dress," that word is being used in several different, very specific phrases. Be careful, though, to make sure that the phrases you're using are actually the ones that real-world buyers are typing into their search bars to find items like yours. For example: "summer sleeveless yellow knit sheath dress" doesn't sound to me like something that lots of people would use as a typical way to search for a dress. Maybe I'm wrong, and if Google AdWords offers this as a good phrase, no problem. But otherwise, figure out which pieces of this long phrase are close to how buyers are actually searching.

Remember that the title isn't there simply to describe your item to visitors. The title is used primarily to match up your item with buyers who are searching for the kinds of things you sell. To do that, you need to use the exact words and phrases they use. How to know what they use? Google AdWords or other keyword testing tool.

For more specific advice on SEO and keywords, one of the Marys would be your best bet. If you're on Facebook, two groups you might want to check out:

Writing advice and support: http://www.facebook.com/groups/copywritingcoach
SEO help: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1686821111533696/

Hope this helps! Best of luck to you!