Get a Relevant Makeover

[#1]

Hi Team,

Many of you have already heard – Etsy search now defaults by relevancy. HeyMichelle and I are working on a blog post to help you get the most out of this change. In addition to this great post by Natalie, "Putting Your Shop on Top : Etsy’s Most Relevant Search"
http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/putting-your-shop-on-top-etsy%E2%80%99s-most-relevant-search/

Michelle and I will select a few of you to use as real life examples to explain how you can best optimize your search position. Let us know if you think you need help below – and tell us a bit about how you're already worked to optimize your shop with the tips above, so we can see what is and isn't working for you!

I'll pop back in this thread to let you know when we have enough submissions and when the blog post will go live!

Best,
Danielle

Here are a few more links to help you:

Answers to common questions:
http://www.etsy.com/help#/relevancy/1

Chat with Frank (and the rest of the Search Team working on this) here:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7718/site-help/discuss/8808254/

[Former_Member]

I just recently opened a shop a couple months ago and read many forums and advice newsletters on how to improve my shop's visits and sales. So far I have tried using very descriptive titles and all 13 of my tags for each item. However, I am not seeing a lot of traffic on my page and no sales. :( Please Help!

[Former_Member]

I'm in the same boat as most of you! Open since Jan. but my shop has only seen sales to friends and family despite a facebook and twitter, my blog, team activity, and giveaways on other blogs! I try to take great photos, use tags, labels, and titles effectively, but I am struggling to figure out the best way to get my name out there. I have received a few convos for questions about custom orders, but nothing came of them. I think people expect my prices to come down if they convo me, but how can I give deep discounts when I'm not making any real sales?

[Former_Member]

Hi!!

I could definitely use some help..! Its been about a month since I started putting up things in my shop.. When I add a new item to my shop, it comes to the notice of everyone surfing on etsy... and there are quite a few number of views and admirers for some time.. But then there's a stagnancy...

Also no sales seems to be taking place on Etsy! :( I put up my first art work in my shop on 7th of July.. and nothing has sold as yet...

Please help me so that my items are visible in the relevancy search and they reach the buyers who are indeed interested in such art work..

For your reference, this is the link to my shop..
http://www.etsy.com/shop/artistryunlimited?ref=pr_shop_more&view_type=gallery

Thanks!

[Former_Member]

Hi, Artsix
I looked at your shop to learn from you-- and see that your titles are great as you said, but I think you're getting views b/c your items are interesting & yr images are good! The tags are short, so no mystery there-- you do good work!. Congrats!

[Former_Member]

Hi Livingatnight!

Thanks!!

As you just said, if my work is good and looks interesting, then I guess its just a matter of time..! All I should be doing is wait and watch I suppose! :)

Thanks a lot for taking a peek into my shop!

[ResaWilkinson]

I have found by shortening my description for a more precise search helps, followed by a desire for excellent and clear photography of the items in my shop. I have seen some improvement in buyers finding my store, but still feel I have a long way to go to get the right words for relevance so buyers and treasuries are at an optimum. Thank you for your help. Resa

[Former_Member]

I as with everyone else in this thread would love to be considered. Im not really all that new to etsy..but just started recently getting serious about adding inventory, updating info and photos, etc. within the past 6 months or so. I currently updated the tags, titles, retook some photos (all of this after i got a critique from sassy critique team here on etsy). I am constantly looking for ways to improve the shop (as im sure all of us are!)

[ileanaEnchantedBeads]

I would love to be considered. I am not a new seller on Etsy and I started to make some improvements in my shop, but I definitely need help. I make beadwoven Jewelry, mostly OOAK, and I feel I need to learn more about how to sell it more successfully on Etsy.
Thank you!

[Former_Member]

Just about every shop on Etsy would love to be picked for this - mine included! Some things I've done are to keep consistent branding throughout all marketing and other materials (follow-up emails, business cards, banner...) , use the best tags I can think of (and of course use ALL tags), post new products on facebook, and just today I bought a Showcase spot to try my products on that.

I think one of the biggest things I struggle with is lighting for pictures. I have to use my iPhone for pics, and I try to get creative with the shots with angles and background, but the pics always turn out darker than the actual item. As I am drawn to color, I want the images to most accurately reflect the item so people have a good idea of what they're getting (noting that there can be variations in screen coloring).

I also think I'm still floundering a bit with finding a niche. Right now I'm just making a variety of items to see what's popular, and trying out new things for my own fun.

Thanks for your consideration of analyzing my shop!

MJ
CraftRabbits

[lilruby]

I would so appreciate your help!
Although I've learned so much in the 2 1/2 years my shop's been open, I just can't get to where I need to be. I get some views each day, but nowhere near the triple digit figures other jewelry sellers are reporting.
It's discouraging sometimes to keep going, but I believe I have the talent to do this - and I certainly have the desire! Thanks!

[ZhivanaDesigns]

Hi,

I've worked on some of my listings to try to make them more relevant, and I've made sure that the terms I think are most descriptive of my items are in my titles, descriptions and tags .

I changed a couple of sterling silver necklace listings and relisted them, but only found them on page 22 when I searched for "sterling silver necklace". They have each had a few views, but the listings that have the most views are ones I haven't changed.

So clearly I could use some help! :)

Thanks,
Louise.

[JanislaJewels]

I would love to have some help!
I've been open nearly a year and have only had 7 sales, nothing since April. There was 1 yesterday but the buyer cancelled it!
I've been trying to work on my SEO with titles etc and have had a few more views but they need to translate into sales. (My stuff does sell locally so I'm assuming it's not being ignored because it's crap!)

[Former_Member]

Hi!
I'm also a newcomer and trying to learn how to optimize my items description.
I've tried several ways:
1- used short title
2- used phrases as tag
3- changed the order of the tags

And I have yet got the clue why some items are above mine. The second problem I see for me - it's quite hard to find good key words for jewelry. I mean that a buyer would rather search for "blue necklace" than "turquoise bird necklace" and this brings my item to the end of the list, because I'm trying to be more precise in description...
Of cause, it's hard to make a conclusion from a low statistics but I suppose it's common problem for new shops.
I have two very similar necklaces and I performed experiments over one of them having the other one as a control. It's very useful but still I have a lot of questions.
Here is one of them:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77743155/turquoise-bird-necklace

[coastalartglass]

I would love help with the relevancy search, I am a fused glass artist and my products encompass both the other saturated jewelry category as well as larger pieces. I've only been with Etsy four months and sales of been slow. I am not sure my titles and tags were correct before the change, therefore I'm not sure the shop stats are correct.
Thanks for any help you can offer
Joy

[Former_Member]

I am a mature (older) seller who absolutely loves to shop on Etsy but finds selling to be a big challenge. Even though my listings could no doubt use some tweaking I had hoped by now to see a bit more response to my products. What, in your opinion, should be my major focus in setting up my listings - the search words in my title, good photography, circles, treasures, etc. ? I know they are all important but where, if I may inquire, should I put my energy. Etsy is complex in my humble opinion and a bit challenging for some of us oldsters. I would truly value some imput into pointing me in the right direction. Thank you so much. Catherine

[Former_Member]

I've been selling actively on etsy for at least a year now, although I've had a shop for about 2 1/2 years. Since the spring I had seen a jump in sales and seemed to be doing a more regular business, but now with the new relevancy search I am unsure if I'm being found enough. It seems that fewer people are finding me, but the ones that do are hanging out longer.

Since the big change I've tried a few things:
I've rotated out different phrases for my titles to hit the first few keyword slots ex. I sell yoga bags, so I have changed my titles so that some read: Yoga Bag Yoga Mat Bag Pilates Bag Floral Yoga Bag
and I change the order to see if one is more successful than the other.
I've also cut out any irrelevant words and tried to stick to short descriptive phrases in both my titles and tags, with possibly a color or two at the end.

At this point it's obvious from my shop stats that most of my traffic is coming from etsy search, but I'm curious on how to optimize my titles and tags to connect with the right buyer. I've always been a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to google analytics and shop stats so the help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the consideration. :)

[Former_Member]

Hi Danielle,

I have been watching your videos of relevancy shop critiques. These are very useful, and thank you for taking the time of doing this. I have been trying several things, such as trying short and long titles, repeating keywords, having different keyword combination in titles, and I am not getting a good idea of what works. I have also changed my tags to have phrases.

Something I am having difficulties with is how to make my feather earrings relevant to the search "feather earrings." One problem, is that there are many feather earrings out there, however, a good amount of people search for feather earrings over a specific color or size of feather earrings. Thus, it is not like the search "silk dress," for instance. My other question is about those who come on the top of the search results. You mentions that the words in the front are more important, however, when I search for "feather earrings" the top results do not have these keywords in the front, but rather after at least one word.

Thanks for the help!

Dona

[Former_Member]

We would love to be considered for the relevant makeover! We've never been featured anywhere on Etsy, so it would be awesome for a little help! We are currently in the stages of changing our business name and discontinuing old stuff and adding new stuff. So now would be a perfect time to get some insight into what we can do to stay relevant! Thanks for considering us!
Tara

[Former_Member]

I am new to Etsy and would love some help on how to optimize my Etsy store. I have been selling on Ebay for years but recently decided to move my products to Etsy. It is a whole different world. I have been trying to be like a sponge and soak in all the great blog lessons Etsy has to offer. So far I have changed my tag lines, changed my pics, changed titles, re-arranged my store and set up a facebook fan page with My Etsy on it. But so far I have still not been getting regular views and have not sold anything. I would love to know what I am doing wrong. Thanks for your consideration!
Bambi

[VintageGypsies]

Hi-
We would like to be considered for some relevancy intell. We've been looking at stats and I finally went to doing more multiple word tags...trying to guess how someone would search if they wanted something we have listed. But perhaps we should be also trying to get our listings in front of other eyes that might decide they love it and must have it? I feel we flounder with the best way to use stats of any kinds.
Thanks!
Deb

[lapisbeach]

Saw the videos - great stuff Danielle and Michelle! Thanks for taking the time to make these and for the link to the Etsy Announcements by Michelle. Love the advise - all very helpful. I know you helped my friend Angela and it was fun to watch her video with you guys. Too bad your mini me was off camera at the time- hehehe!

[Former_Member]

Hi, We need help with being seen by the public. We have been struggling trying to stay alive and we have changed our titles, changed parts in the descriptions, changed the tags. We also became sydicated recently and listing and shop views just dropped and nothing seems to help much.

We were finally able to get 3 of our products on the recently and relevancy items just to find out the next day they were nowhere to be found, so we renewed them again and couldn't find them. We redid them and renewed 2 more times and this time only a couple were found on recently and only one could be found on relevancy.

We really don't understand what needs to be done. We souldn't have to redo and renew every day to be seen on the relevancy items. We use the etsy search to find what would be closest to what our item is and then listed it as far as relevancy is concerned. Please help.

[Former_Member]

I would love some help with my shop. I've read the advice on tagging items, and I've been changing tags but am not having much success in increasing traffic. I really am not much of a salesperson, and would love some tips.
Thanks!
Angel

[Former_Member]

Hello! I make felted wool products and my gadget sweaters (cases) are my best sellers.

Some time ago, I edited my titles to put what the item is in the first three words, with descriptive words after. When tagging I try to put phrases that people would search for, such as "kindle sleeve", but also include "gadget sweater" in my title tags as part of branding my product. I check the shop stats to see what people are actually searching for, and try to adjust my tags accordingly.

I would appreciate any feedback on my shop, tagging & titles. Thanks!

Sara

[darrylblack]

I'm really confused now I have been relisting regularly around 5 items a day I currently have just over 60 items in my shops and now it seems that is not the way to keep up in the listings....what to do what to do ...I only just recently simplified all my tags as advised and now am wishing I hadn't...maybe...or not?
Please consider my shop to take a look at and HELP!!!!!!!!Thank you in advance