✦ Feb.9 @ 11:30 a.m.: Intro to Keywords in the Online Labs

[#1]

Hi team!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR - http://etsy.me/Cal215

On February 9 @ 11:30 a.m. (EST) we will be hosting a live session in the Online Labs around keywords. This will be an introductory session for those of you who need basic information or a recap on how to best use keywords in your shop.

There are no sign ups or automatic reminders for this session so please be sure to set your own reminder or download and print the February calendar by clicking the above link.
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Subject: Intro to Keywords
When: Monday, February 9 @ 11:30 a.m. (EST)
Where: http://etsy.me/labs29
Who: Etsy Admin, and YOU!

To Participate: Ask your number one question OR share your best piece of advice around keywords. We will be highlighting some of your comments during the live event.
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We will be posting an archived version of the video in the Online Labs ( http://etsy.me/labs29) after the live session. Please note that if you would like to participate in the live chat, it is only available during the live session.

[AmySueCrafts]

Great and helpful lab!

One question that wasn't addressed was about how Etsy uses the words in a tag line. For example, if you put "red green blue" in one of the 13 tag lines, will Etsy just recognize that as a phrase and only return searches that are for the exact words "red green blue" or will it recognize each word individually and return searches that include "red" OR "green" OR "blue"?

I want to maximize the limited tag line space (20 characters), but I don't want to use certain compound tags if Etsy ONLY looks at that compound tag as a SINGLE search phrase. Any insights?

Thanks.

Amy

[popElephant]

not sure if this is the place to post this, but when I go to the labs page NO archived talks show up, and it also says no upcoming events are scheduled. Is anyone else having this issue? Is it not the case that talks from previous days/weeks/months should be visible under the video area? That's how it's been before but since at least last night nothing at all is showing up except live videos, and no ability to rewind them.

[Former_Member]

Great online lab, got lots of good tips. Thanks!

[Former_Member]

I'm about halfway through the video but wanted to post this in case it's not covered. Are there "default" keywords when you categorize your item that are attached to your listing above and beyond the tags. Ex. I choose Paper Goods, Cards, Birthday. Would these also be keywords or do I need to add these to my tags?

TIA Great topic!

[AlisonHiggins]

So sorry I had to miss this one. Just tried to log on to the archived presentation but it doesn't appear to be up. When will it be available?

Thanks!

[AlisonHiggins]

Ah, I see I'm not the only one with this question. Missed Veronica D's note above.

[PrairiePrimitives]

AmySue, I think Etsy sees words in tag phrases as individual words, as well as phrases. Also if there are more than 2 words in a tag, there are potentially additional optimized phrases within that tag ... i.e., "vintage wedding decor" (which I think is technically too long for a tag) would also be optimized for "vintage wedding" and "wedding decor."

[PrairiePrimitives]

Michelle, categories also double as tags.

[clairemagnolia]

Hi, I just watched this archive, great work! I am curious about "duplicate content." You guys covered items that are very similar in your lab - in this case, stamped metal bracelets. Your recommendation was to use all different keywords for the tags and titles per each of the 7 items. So, 7 x 13 keywords. If by chance there were any overlapping keywords, such as "stamped metal bracelet," would any/all of these products receive a negative affect due to duplicate content? And, if a differentiator/other word was added to the keyword, such as in the case of "stamped metal bracelet" - hand stamped metal bracelet or personalized stamped metal bracelet - would these words differentiate the keyword enough to avoid any duplicate content issues? I hope this makes sense!

Thanks for helping to clarify.
Courtney

[Former_Member]

Sorry, where can I watch the archives?
Thanks!

Ema

[clairemagnolia]

Hi Ema,

https://www.etsy.com/community/online-labs --- then look under VIDEO LIBRARY. It should be the first one, titled "intro to keywords." It's worth the 37:52 min!

Courtney

[SuomiiDesigns]

Hi,
i'm not able to find the archives too! Can anybody give the direct link to this online lab?
Thanks!

[Former_Member · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone!

Here is a link to the archived video from Monday's live session: http://etsy.me/labs29archive

If you have any more questions after watching the video you can find out more about keywords and getting found by reading these great resources:

FAQ on SEO (Search Engine Optimization): https://www.etsy.com/help/article/247

FAQ on Shop Stats: https://www.etsy.com/help/article/541

How to Get Found in Search: https://blog.etsy.com/en/2012/how-to-get-found-in-search/

How to Get Found in Browse: https://blog.etsy.com/en/2012/how-to-get-found-in-browse/

4 Ways to Improve Your SEO and Increase Your Traffic: https://blog.etsy.com/en/2013/4-ways-to-improve-your-seo/

Revamping your shop? Read Cheyne's post on How to Be Your Shop’s Best Critic: https://blog.etsy.com/en/2014/how-to-be-your-shops-best-critic/ - you can even take things a step further by downloading and printing our shop critique worksheets from the links provided in the article.
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Thanks again to all who participated in Monday's session! For those of you who couldn't make it, I hope you find the archived version to be helpful.

Dates for the next session will be shared in the Success Newsletter (https://www.etsy.com/emails/success), in our Etsy Support Twitter channel (@EtsyHelp) and in this team. Stay tuned!

[busylittlebird]

Thank you! I totally forgot about this on Monday, and thought I had missed it! Thanks for providing all the extra links!

[bellaTAZ]

Ditto.
Thanks, Clare!

[SecondSkein]

Looking forward to the session!

[AmericanHomeVintage]

Thanks so much for posting this! I had completely forgotten it.

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone! I just watched the chat. Personally I'm more of a reader than a listener, that's just how I learn best. Actually the best thing for me is writing out what I've learned. So I thought I would write a transcript of this chat, for anyone who might find it helpful. In the future I really wish etsy would do something like this for people like me! :) But maybe that's a lot to ask, and I certainly appreciate the knowledge in any format. Note: info below is not word for word, and not in the same order that it comes up in the video. Sometimes it made sense to put the info in a different place.

Keywords are found in your title and the 13 Tags you get to ascribe to the item. You can make the title a long list of keywords if you want. Or you may prefer to make the title friendlier to buyers - e.g. rather than "BLUE VINTAGE BOOK Charles Dickens Pickwick Papers antique novel gift gold golden gilt cover lettering 1891 decorative shelf decoration home decor" you COULD put something like "BLUE VINTAGE BOOK The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - Decorative Blue Cover with Gold Lettering, 1891 novel". Sidenote: put the words in order of importance in the title. Put the words MOST important to your item at the front (eg in this case, vintage, book and blue, and I guess the next most relevant would be 'Charles Dickens' although that could also go first as its the most relevant to this particular item), the words people are MOST likely to use to search for your item. Put the less relevant or more niche, specific words at the end (eg novel, gold lettering). You get 3 words in capitals, if you want. Capitalization does not affect search results. But spelling does! Spell it right. But, 'grey' and 'gray' both give the same results. You can check this kind of thing by searching how many items show up for 'grey long scarf' and 'gray long scarf' - if same number, then etsy recognizes these as the same (its the same with eBay) - note from me: the man in the video is wrong on this, at about 29 mins in. Another thing to think about 'colour' and 'color' are recognized as the same. But color has less letters. So go with that because it means you'll get another letter to use in your title or tags. Tags are 20 characters long. The title is about attracting the shopper, and tags work more with the internal search engine than titles. Every tag is an opportunity to get found. Shoppers use keywords to find what they want. They may search 'antique brass lamp' rather than 'lamp'. So in your tags don't put 'lamp' put 'brass lamp' and or 'antique lamp' and or 'antique brass lamp'. Put those words together. Compound tags (2 or more words in one tag) ARE recommended. Better than 'antique', 'brass' and 'lamp' - this would be less relevant to etsy search than 'antique brass lamp'. Is it WORTH putting 'antique lamp' AND 'brass lamp' AND 'antique brass lamp'? YES! Because these will all be searches people will use. It doesn't matter that you're repeating the word 'lamp'. But does repeating help? Yes. If it turns up more that does make it more relevant. But don't go crazy - you want a wide range of tags to attract a maximum number of views. There may be several different types of customers for your item - how would they search? Use tags that will make sense to the buyer. Like 'full grain leather' will only really make sense to leatherworkers, so its not worth wasting tags on that term. You may want to be specific in some tags, but probably not all - depending on your market - how niche is it? What words will those people use to find items like yours? Look at similar products in your market - what tags are they using? Check those tags - if only very few people use that tag it may not be worth using. If millions come up, maybe you will not want all your tags too general in this way. EG 'black bag' 'leather bag', 'crossbody bag' - these are all general. It would be good to have maybe 1 or 2 more specific tags! Google also utilizes the key words that appear in tags, title and also SHOP SECTION TITLES! So make those shop titles sound good, although they're not AS relevant as tags or titles. Colours are good things to include in tags, but its not worth being too specific. Don't waste tags on: 'red book' 'dark red' 'fire engine red' - they're more looking for the item than the colour, and how many people will search 'fire engine red'? Think about (in no particular order) material, the way it was made, the themes it covers, it's appearance, the way it will be used, the way it could be used, the type of buyer who will want it, what boxes you'd put them in, etc. You could ask a friend to look at the item and write down what words they would say about it. They make think of things you wouldn't have. If you sell 2 things that are similar - it is really worth using 10 to 13 different tags for each item (maybe keep a few the same). That way you maximize the amount of opportunities you have for people to find what you sell. You can then work out what tags are working best for you. Check out etsy stats - you can figure out what keywords are working for you. You can see what words the buyer searched in order to find you. If you sell 2 or more similar items - you can see which tags work best by the number of view, especially if the photos are similar - it's the tags, not the photos! Also beyond tags have a think about what products you sell are selling better and how they're tagged. And also check out how other people are tagging their popular items. And what's trending? What's big? How can you tag your items to fit in with that? Holidays and big world events for example. An what kind of items are really selling - do any of your items connect with them in any way? Change your tags on a regular basis - see what works. Or add a similar item with different tags every now and then if possible. Experiment. You can definitely afford to do this if you're making items and can make them again. Maybe you can do this on a weekly or monthly basis, whatever. Tags and titles can change with trends, season, how big your shop is, etc. Question: if I have many tags, but want to change the order, do I have to delete all my tags? I want to put the one at the end at the front! Answer: If you have a word document, type in all the tags separated by commas. Copy and paste and hit enter, and they'll turn up in the order you want. Awesome! Question: What's the best way to optimize tags for phrases that have more than 20 characters? Answer: cover your bases. If you can't fit the whole thing in, too long, split it up. So say, Antique Brass Desklamp, its too long for tags. So repeat! Put Antique Desklamp, Brass Desklamp, Vintage Lamp, Vintage Desklamp, Brass Lamp, Vintage Brass Lamp, etc.

[PTarlowArt]

This was a helpful discussion even though I am already quite familiar with keywords. I am first coming across this series of videos through the email post from Etsy today, May 23, 2015.
I have one problem area relating to some of my listings which don't fit the 20 characters restriction. Some of my dog prints are of dogs with long names that when shortened to make them work as tags, don't quite make sense. I think those prints are having more trouble being found because of this. Why is the 20 character rule used?