Order of Tags and Item Descriptions

[Former_Member]

Hi Everyone!

I am pretty new to Etsy. I opened my shop this past November and had a decent amount of sales over the first month due to a unique product I offered (it was an item specific to the holiday season). I'm now trying to build the items in my shop and have joined a few teams to learn and read up on SEO, tagging, etc. I've watched a few videos and read lots of discussions within the teams I've joined, but am wondering if the order of the tags matter? I feel like I've heard this mentioned through a video or read this somewhere, but didn't think the order mattered. Should I put the more important, more relevant tags first before any other tag?

Also, I've been looking at some similar,established shops and noticed some have listed the category as a tag several times even though it's already included by Etsy. This was a fairly popular shop that seemed to do pretty well and appeared on the first page of the search results. To give you an example...I sell wreaths and so does the shop I was looking at. The items are categorized under Housewares - Home Decor - Wreath. This particular shop had included "wreath" and "wreaths" in its tags although Etsy had already included "wreath" as a free tag. If a tag is listed more than once, does that tag receive more weight than another?

Lastly, in looking at similar shops, I noticed several have listed short product descriptions at the beginning of the item description. I know they are doing this because Google uses the descriptions, so rather than blending these keywords into the descriptions, they've just listed them at the beginning all together. I have done this with my listings just to see if it would increase my views, but it hasn't. Does anyone else use this approach? Would they recommend it, do they feel it helps?

I have really enjoyed being on this team. I am learning so much, but know I still have a lot to read and learn!

Thanks!

[Former_Member]

It does matter in terms of titles, but I don't believe tag order matters.

Yes, I have seen that happen before... Generally though, phrases are still better as tags, and different tags are better than having two of the same (I don't see a point in this unless it is a spelling variation). Perhaps those shops have external publicity measures that help them. :)

Cute wreaths, by the way! :)

[TOMgirlApparel]

Tag order does not matter. You don't need to repeat the category tag. Lastly, Google prefers natural writing. I have short descriptions at the top purely for customers who don't want to read the whole thing.

[Former_Member]

In reference to descriptions, I have catchy short lines first that I try to keep natural, before moving on to the details of my products.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the help!

[JBDRusticOrganic]

From what I have read recently, repeating the title word for word as the top line of your description is bad for SEO, but using the keyword phrases in your title in a natural way throughout the description is good.
If you test keyword phrases in Google adwords you will find that repeating the name of the item a couple of times in the title makes sense, if, for instance, you enter 'boho, tribal necklace' that will have had far fewer searches than 'boho necklace' or 'tribal necklace', so to get the words 'boho' and 'tribal' in there and connect them directly to the word 'necklace' you would need to use the word 'necklace' twice. I think that makes sense. I'm still getting my head round it myself, and have a whole shop's worth of stuff to change! ;-(
Yes, I've noticed successful shops with what seem to be rubbish tags. That is just confusing. . . They probably do everything else right.
Etsy tags are nothing to do with SEO as google doesn't read them apparently.