Google

[Former_Member]

How do you drive traffic from google? I dont get that many hits from google, what am i missing?

[Former_Member]

I drive traffic from google because my titles are written in plain English and contain commonly used words and phrases that people are looking for.

My most frequently searched phrases are 'wooden soap dish' and 'wood soap dish' and that's exactly what I use in my title and description.

When it comes to yarns, its cotton yarn, acrylic yarn, wool yarn, etc that bring the people in.

[Former_Member]

I've tried different titles I guess i just have to play around with it a little more

[Former_Member]

I'll explain what little I understand - The first 3 words of your title are most important for SEO. Like CrochetGal said, you want to use searchable terms. Try to brainstorm what buyers would type in to find your product.

For example:

Moisturizing Sugar Scrub - pretty good, says exactly what it is.

Tropacolada soap goat - Not good. What are the chances that people will type in this combination of words?

Toasted Coconut Soap - pretty good, again very descriptive.

Coco Mango Shower - Not good. Gel doesn't make it until the 4th word, and even then you call it "jelly". How likely is it that someone will search for "coco mango" or even "shower jelly" ?



It will help you a lot if you do 2 things

1) Brainstorm with friends. Think like a buyer. Act like you have NO IDEA how to make soap. What would a buyer type in to find your item? This can be hard, that's why doing it with friends helps.

2.) Use google adwords keyword tool. This will help you realize what keywords are useful and which ones you can discard.

[Former_Member]

Its not necessarily the first 3 words that make the difference but how you phrase the title.

One of my most searched for items from outside Etsy is Flamenco yarn yet if you look at the listings, the phrase 'flamenco yarn' isn't anywhere near the beginning of the title but the phrase is used in the title.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/crochetgal/search?search_query=flamenco&order=date_desc&view_type=list&ref=...

I also called it 'ruffling yarn' and by its proper name as well.

[Former_Member]

the first 3 words thing is a myth that needs to die lol.

the whole title is important to google. it's just the first 100 (or so) characters appear in the search preview. as crochetgal says the order of the phrases is what matters.

There are a lot of days where most of my traffic comes from Google and not Etsy. I can assure you based on stats and analytics that the first three words aren't the hugest factors.

pick some popular phrases and use them in your title and then in your item description, shop section, or shop description.

[Former_Member]

here is the google adwords keyword suggestion tool:
https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWOR...

[LoopsAndLines]

I get the repeating phrases, but sometimes it gets pretty hilarious. There are only so many ways to phrase christmas stockings, hand knit Christmas stockings, striped stockings, striped christmas stockings, knit stockings, knit christmas stockings knitted stockings, knitted christmas stockings, red and green stockings . . .

Sorry, someone hit me!

[Former_Member]

Good titles, a memorable shop name for when people shop by that name, great tags, constant pimping of your stuff on every forum you possibly can. I'm lucky with my name, I'm one of the top Google hits. But that doesn't mean I can stop promoting for a single second.

[Former_Member]

"constant pimping of your stuff"

@Jaie baha! love the wording. so true.

[Former_Member]

And More stockings! :)

[elainesgems]

Thanks Brittany. The link was very helpful, you made my day!

[Former_Member]

Brittany Bevelle - good girls promote, dirty girls pimp.

[Former_Member]

I find my jewelry wont show up in google unless people search for the particular material, just because the internet is so saturated with it. e.g. 'black tourmaline ring' works for me rather than 'black ring'

My pottery doesnt show up at all, but I'd rather not lose what the object is about by messing up my naming.. I just trust the jewelry will bring google people!

I find similarly that I show up well on etsy but hardly ever on google - there are just so many more items!

[Former_Member]

no problem Elaine! I'm glad you can put it to good use. It works well if you take the time to analyze your keywords.

@Jaie I'm a lazy girl and I do neither. I'm not sure I'm cool enough to pimp my wares lol.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for dispelling the myth, Brittany. The whole "First three words" thing was something I learned when I first joined Etsy and found the SEO & Relevancy team. I did not know it wasn't true!

[Former_Member]

haha no problem. i see people post it all the time and the computer scientist in me is like nooooooooooooo!

[Former_Member]

I always just assumed the first three words was for Etsy's search engine rather than the SERPs. (Honestly, the way people explained things around here had me thinking that SEO on Etsy was going to be a whole new animal to tame and I had one heckuva time taming the Google beast.)

[Former_Member]

I kept getting told "first three words" too, I'm glad to know it isn't the case, makes me feel I might be doing it right after all.