Perfecting your tags

[RudyLudy]

Hello Etsy Sellers!

I have become obsessed with getting my tags right. I am stuck on one thing that I'm hoping to get your advice on. Some of the top listings seem to put categories first in their tags, almost like the chain of how your item is listed. For example, for a baby bodysuit:
Clothing, Unisex Kids' Clothing, Unisex Baby Clothing.... then into more specific tags about the actual design, 'Whale Bodysuit' for instance.
I just read an Etsy book where they said to tag only what a buyer would actually search. I've seen that written on these threads too. The category tags don't seem like something I would put in if I was searching for a particular design. More on the lines of 'Whale Bodysuit' as mentioned and variations of the same thing.
Why do people do this? Is there something I'm missing with how the search works? I know you must put your strongest at the beginning. It seems a lot of the top sellers list categories first. Do you have a formula that works? Have you changed your tags and seen a big increase in sales? Mine are still a jumble as I'm not sure which way to go! I've tried new methods on various listings but haven't had any amazing progress with my sales. Any advice and feedback on what you've achieved with mastering tagging would be so appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[MariasWorkshop]

Hi Claire,

The categories you mention are automatically inserted by Etsy. When you first list an item, you fill in the category section under Listing Details. Those names are the ones that appear as the first tags (even though they do not show when you are actually listing your tags), then you are given an option of 13 additional tags and those are the ones that is recommended that you insert thinking about what people would actually search.

I hope this helps.

[LeedsRadio]

There is no formula. I have several items that come up in the top 5 or 10 in search (in fact I have a few that come up as #1) and none of them obey the standard SEO voodoo for tags, or titles or even number of photos.

You make sales not by obsessing on one aspect but by balancing. What good is it to have great tags or titles of your photos aren't good? What good is it to have great photos if your items are irrelevant or overpriced?

Not saying that this is the case with yours but you can be sure that if you're obsessing on tags and not paying the same attention myriad of other aspects you will not improve sales.

[hooknsaw]

Claire,
I agree with Richard, that there is no formula. I glanced at your listings and you need to flesh out your titles and tags. If I were shopping I would be searching for children or toddlers shirts, then I may add more specific terms such as Christmas, Holiday, reindeer or Santa. I have played around with long and short titles, Relevant tag words at the beginning or end of a title and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to search placement. Sometimes we show up on page one and sometimes we don't.
Balance (thank you Richard) is the key. Our items that have sold the most often are the most relevant. When they have sold out often another item from our shop moves up in search... not always. Search changes and sometime new tag words become more popular. I watch our stats and if something is changing I will change a few keywords in our tags and see how they perform.

[TwistedKnickersInc]

Looking at your listing for
Naughty or Nice Shirts - Twins or Siblings - Unisex - Also available in Baby Bodysuits

here are two examples of poor SEO
you have baby bodysuit in the title, but not as a tag and not in your description
Holiday outfit as a tag but not in your title or description

match up your tags titles and descriptions for better SEO and get rid of the useless words like "also available in" from your title. It reads nice, but is not part of the SEO game. Put words like that in your description.

good luck, you have very cute shirts and sweet models ♥

[HildaLea]

The first few are usually the automatic etsy categories that get counted as tags in addition to the 13 that you can create yourself.

[RudyLudy]

Thank you so much to all of you for your insights! It has been beyond helpful. I am now finally finding some time after finishing a big work project (I do freelance Graphic Design too) to work through my tags.

Understanding that Etsy automatically list the categories is huge as I am now not wasting the first few tags. I started going through them early this morning and am matching the title to the first few tags, exactly, so I'll see if this makes any difference.

I know tagging is not the be all and end all to getting sales but I felt I was lacking in a full understanding until now. I realize I need to improve my photography and descriptions on some items and am planning to give my shop a good overall this January.

I haven't done them all yet as I just started (the first 8 or so in the quick edit view). It is definitely not something you can do in one sitting for 75 listings!

Either way I know I'll probably tweak these tags and my titles as I watch what is working the best. I truly appreciate that all of you took the time to help my with this question. Good luck with all your shops in 2017. I feel like it will be my best year yet!

Thank you!

Claire

[Cadinera]

Wow! This thread was so helpful for me; thank you all! And happy holidays! 🎄🎁

[PrairiePrimitives]

Using identical phrases which a customer is likely to search for in both the title & tags is VERY important for Etsy SEO. There are other factors, of course, but this is definitely a biggie.

More info here: https://www.etsy.com/help/article/34234144469

[CurlicueCreations]

Thanks for the great tagging to match your title tip. I did not know about that. Time to go and tweak! Have a super day, everyone!

[Pookieandness]

I read somewhere on here to always include who it was for i.e women in the title also colour and size (esp. if its clothing ). If someones looking specifically for a small blue bear they wont know yours is blue or small unless both "blue" and "small" are somewhere in titles and tags 😊

[nloiscrafts]

oh....this is really a useful discussion. Someone said it's always to write the title first before writing the tags, is that true? And make sure words in the title will appear in the tags?

[PrairiePrimitives]

Yes, it's good to write the title first. Then you can copy and paste the entire title to the tags field ... adding commas (if you don't have them in the title) breaks the title up into individual tags! If you need to re-word anything to make it fit as a tag, BE SURE to go back and make the same change in the title. IDENTICAL is important here!

Remember to think in terms of PHRASES, not just words, for the title and tags. And be sure you're using phrases that shoppers are likely to search for; this may not be the way *you* would describe the item. "Think like a shopper!" :-)

If you need help trying to think of phrases, start typing something about your item into the Etsy search box. Don't type too fast ... watch what pops up as suggested searches. Etsy has said these suggestions are things that shoppers are actively searching for (or buying ... I've heard it both ways). Of course this means these suggestions can change as shoppers look for different things (there may be fewer suggestions for "Christmas" merchandise in April, for example).

Hope this helps!

[nloiscrafts]

Thank you Tana

But I found that most of the phrases on etsy search are too mass that I don't even find my listing, so someone do suggest going for some unique tags, however, it's really hard to think of something special......

[nloiscrafts]

especially when I am selling materials, items are not very descriptive, quite straight forward and most of the time, I might have the same title and tags if I have a style which has many colors, they will all be more or less same.......

[LeedsRadio]

In life as well as business it pays to be a bit of a doubting Thomas and TEST any piece of information you hear or read. I did and found that it is absolutely unnecessary to repeat the all of the phrases or words in the title in the tags.

Not interested in starting a debate will people who are 100% sure they are right and I am wrong. Just do what you want. I say this for the people reading this thread, looking for guidance. I followed that silly advice about the tags for my first year. Then tested it found it wanting, started doing things MY way and sale started to come in.

For the people on the fence type "black and blue 4 you" into search with quotes. It bring you to one of my items even though that phase is NO WHERE in the title or body of the description.

[nloiscrafts]

Thanks Richard....still in my 1st year...looking forward to a breakthrough in 2017....work hard play hard.....happy new year!!!

[PrairiePrimitives]

Richard, I have seen some exceptions, and those tend to be shops that are selling very specialized items. Since there are relatively few of those items listed, it's easy enough to find an Amphenol chassis mount or a vacuum capacitor. But when the competition is stiff(er), as it is for many Etsy sellers, doing the title & tag thing can be quite helpful.

[PrairiePrimitives]

Nina, I don't know about supplies, but you seem to have found what works for you!

[nloiscrafts]

Tana, not really, I am still testing different ways to do it, but obviously, sales and views are increasing everyday, but too slow(sorry, guess I'm too greedy).

I understand for selling supplies, you need to have lots of varieties for buyers to choose from and I do, I just finished 30% of what I have. But it was unexpectedly time consuming in shooting, writing titles and tags.

But after all, I learnt a lot which I found more and more interesting.

[Former_Member]

I've found that if I take the phrases directly from my titles and use them as tags that it works best for me.

I also will throw in my shop name as a tag because I know people will search for that as well (its been one of my top 10 searches for the past 8 years).

I will also on occasion throw in an obscure word in the tags that relates to the item being sold but isn't strong enough to be in the title simply because I've seen it come up in my stats occasionally.

And don't be afraid to change your tags if you need to!

[nloiscrafts]

agreed.....I am doing this and obviously, I see some results of changing the tags in the way you mentioned....and tried to think of unique tags, not tags with mass appeal, but it's so so difficult...we have too many items, very time consuming......