Need your advice on getting found on search

[Former_Member]

Hi!

I love the Etsy Success team for the spot on and always so helpful advice I've gotten not only on my own threads, but others' as well, so I figured, this is the place to ask...

For some reason my shop/items are really hard to find on Etsy search. I've read up on SEO and relevancy search, I've worked on my tags, title and descriptions to include the most important keywords at the beginning. Basically, I feel I've done everything to make my shop seen. But, nothing!

If I type in "button earrings" (which is the main type of product in my shop), my first item comes up on the 5th page (and then nothing again for pages). I have button earrings in the first 3 words of the title, the 1st 3 words of the description and in tags (in different forms).

What else could I do to make my shop show up higher in the search?

All of your advice is greatly appreciated.

[Plektra]

I randomly clicked on a few listings and your tags are ok, mostly phrases instead of words that just describe your items.

With relevancy, the most recent items will come up first in searches. Are you items recent? That might be a reason why you don't come up in searches. I've read here that you should also repeat those keywords in your listing descriptions too...

Other than that...I don't know! A few people post in the forum about this...

[Former_Member]

The more recent the item is listed the higher up you're in the search results. It seems like SEO has nothing to do with it.

You still need to be searchable and be found - so good tags, titles, descriptions help. But you won't be on the front page unless you just listed an item.

[RunkPockDesigns]

I don't think recency plays much into it either.. it must be some magical formula no one can figure out! I have "wedding invitations" in all of my titles, tags, first line of description etc. If I search "wedding invitations" it is completely random which one of my listings will show up first and all over the place. I have not changed these tags at all, and one day I'll have a design on page 6 and it hasn't been renewed recently at all compared to my other listings. Then I'll look the next day and that listing is all the way on page 40 or so. For no reason. They seem to be completely random and I have no idea why one or another shows up earlier than the other ones...

[ComfortAndGrins]

I think a lot of us are having problems being found.

[Former_Member]

I've found that how recently an item was listed doesn't affect relevancy, at least not for me. I've had items that are 3 months old show up on the first few pages of a relevancy search if I type in my exact keyword phrases. When I set up my listings I try to think like a buyer - what keyword phrases would the average person looking for my item use?

I check my shop stats every day. If a keyword phrase that I hadn't thought of before comes up in search results I'll add it to some of my listings. I figure if someone out there thought of it, there must be more buyers that are using the same keywords. Another thing I do is check other shops' listings of similar items to see what phrases they use in their titles and tags to get them higher in the search results.

I'm a small-time seller here but I've managed 24 sales since the end of January. Most of my sales were from new buyers who found me through search results.

[Former_Member]

Oops, it's only 23 sales! I'm getting ahead of myself here! lol

[Former_Member]

Based on my own experience, in relevancy search recency doesn't count. That's the whole point of it. And, in the past, when I was still selling clothing, I managed to get all my listing into the 1st 5 pages. Maybe with jewelry, since there's so much competition, some other factors come into play, such as recency?

I also checked other similar listings for tag ideas, and I already have all the one that apply to me.

[ArianeMariane]

I have exactly the same problem with my brooches and necklaces - they rarley show up. Same for accessories. Only my garments show up more frequently.
It's getting hard to sell here...

[bapsicrafts]

i have the problem of showing up in at least the first page for most of my products, but only in very specific searches that i doubt would be conducted by a typical shopper :\

i suppose that's as bad..my search testing is clearly biased

[Former_Member]

OP - I think there's only so much one can do to be as relevant as possible. After a certain stage, it's out of our hands, as there are things in the search algorithm we know nothing about/can't control.

I'm in a similar position, with a similar number of search results for bow tie as there are for button earring. I tag, title & describe to optimise for relevancy. My experience is that recency plays in to it by bumping a listing up a little, but after24 hours or so, it drops back to where it was.

What I'm finding is that the number of favourites I get, over all my items, seems to affect where I place...the more I get, the more relevant I become. I think that the number of sales a shop gets also boosts relevancy performance.

The best advice I got when starting was to not worry about being a sall fish in a big pond, but to be a big fish in a small pond. So I focused less on how I did in the general 'bow tie' search - when faced with over 20,000 results, buyers will start to do a more focused search...maybe they're after a purple bow tie, so they'll search for that. Or maybe it's a silk bow tie. Or an adjustable bow tie. So I make sure I cover all those more specific bases as best I can, so that I appear on the first couple of pages of those searches.

So for you, concentrate on how you perform for things such as your wooden button earrings and your purple button earrings etc etc.

[Former_Member]

I had and still have the same problem. But it did get better when I add more items in my shop. When I had only 20-25 items, I wasn't found so easily. But now, having 54 items, I have been found on 1st and 2nd searching page.
Funny, I saw that you also have almost 50 items in your shop. I have no clue why is this so....
I tried not to repeat the first 3 words in the title also in my tags. I rather include the other tags, that are not in my titles.
I have no clue why is this so....

[Former_Member]

Dan Lee, thanks for the advice, I'll try to change some of my listings' tags and see what happens. I guess, with more and more sellers on Etsy it's also becoming harder to get noticed. But that's just life!