Who gets to be relevant?

[#1]

I have tried the whole tweaking my tags to better my SEO, and have tested it by doing my own "search" as if I were a customer. While my stuff hardly ever shows up in a search (I realize there is a sea of sellers and it is very saturated), I look at those who do make it to the 1st page, and look at their tags to get an idea of what I am doing wrong...and you know what? I saw a lot of one word tags, such as "girl" "boy" "baby"...same seller over again gets exposure, whereas my tags are way more detailed using phrases and I'm nonexistent? I know this is probably not the case for every listing, but it kind of puts a bit of confusion as to who is relevant and who isn't.

[Former_Member]

I wouldn't be mad at cha if anyone wants to help me with my shop.
I need all the help I can get.
Tina...;)

[Former_Member]

Gosh I am obviously not awake. Sorry for all the awful spelling. Once again thanks TNTees and Disco Sorbet for all your helpful info! I hope my post didn't come across as grouchy, it's just with all the conflicting info on Etsy it can be tough. Off to go work on titles, tags, and descriptions...

[Former_Member]

Christina Cassidy from tinaswaycrochet says
I wouldn't be mad at cha if anyone wants to help me with my shop.
I need all the help I can get.
Tina...;)

---------------------

I'll give it a shot. I'll randomly pull one of your listings (which, btw, are absolutely gorgeous).

http://www.etsy.com/listing/96127776/aqua-annies-crochet-barefoot-sandals-in

So I have no idea what Aqua Annie's is or what it means. I don't know any of the common crochet terms so I couldn't even tell someone if Aqua Annie's was the name of a yarn company, a design pattern, or if it's just something that you created yourself. (If it is something you created yourself, then girl you can market the heck out of that).

For this listing, there's nothing necessarily 'wrong' with the title, other than aesthetics. I would change it to Yellow Barefoot Sandals - Aqua Annie's Collection. This establishes "Yellow Barefoot Sandals" as your main keyword/phrase, is 50 characters long, and establishes the phrase "Aqua Annie's" as a collective phrase for other Aqua Annie's listings. (The current title is 47 characters.)

Your description is too short and has way too many personal opinions that just won't hold any weight with a potential consumer.

"You are gonna love these barefoot sandals."

Why? What makes you so sure that I'm going to love them if you're not telling me anything about them? I would try to steer clear of using phrases like this.

Instead, tell me something about these sandals and how they're different from all the other barefoot sandals that are available. Here's where the Aqua Annie's collection comes in. Explain what Aqua Annie's is, especially if it's your own design.

"These Yellow Barefoot Sandals (see how you're reiterating your main keyword/phrase here?) are one of my Aqua Annie's Designs (this is called branding). I crafted these using [insert material here]. They are [insert description like soft or sturdy or comfortable here] and [insert what they do here like "decorate your pretty feet"].

You want to break up your description after two or three sentences. Consumers don't like walls of text.

[Here, tell me how you came up with the design for Aqua Annie's.] And, finally, here is where you want to tell me the general size but avoid saying one size fits ALL. There's bound to be someone out there with some really huge feet and they won't fit which will make this person very, very sad. T___T Rather, say 'one size fits most.'"

If you have these available in different colors, you should probably list them separately if you're going to use a certain color in your title. This does at least three positive things for you. One, it avoids unnecessary confusion. Believe it or not, consumers are very easily confused. Thus, why there are so many laws in place to protect them. Two, it frees up some valuable picture space for your gorgeous Yellow Barefoot Sandals - Aqua Annie's Collection. Third, it increases your listing count which means you've increased your chances of being found. (What if someone's looking for a pair of Red Barefoot Sandals?!)


Also, if Aqua Annie's is your own design and you intend to use this as a branding element, then I suggest that you group all of your Barefoot Sandals in their own section titled "Aqua Annie's Collection".

Include a link in the body of your description to a relevant section of your shop and tell the potential customer why.

"Not what you're looking for? View more of my Aqua Annie's Collection here:

[insert shop link]"

This keeps the customer looking around in your shop. Even if he/she doesn't buy the Yellow Barefoot Sandals, he/she may purchase a different pair of sandals.

Apologies for another long rant. >__<

[Former_Member]

@ Genevieve - Nah, your post definitely didn't come across as grouchy. I know that SEO can be a real confusing pain in the rear end. And I can definitely relate with you about the conflicting advice. When I first joined, I seriously thought that SEO on Etsy was different than ... SEO everywhere else. It took me awhile to figure out that a lot of advice givers are just repeating things they've seen or heard and aren't really sure themselves if what they're saying really works. I do this on a daily for a creative writing website and it's worked for us for the past three years. I gotta admit, though, SEO for a jewelry shop is soooo much more difficult than SEO for a free writing site. =P

[Former_Member]

What a great thread - so helpful! Thanks to all.

[Former_Member]

Okay the lightbulb totally went on!

[Former_Member]

SEO can be complicated but learning the basics is not hard.

Your listings use very few keywords. It does help to use multiple keyword phrases that you have researched and found to be at least somewhat popular on Etsy and Google.

Which words are you using in your searches when you test on Etsy? If the words are very general, such as "hat,." then it would very unlikely that your listings would be seen in the crowd.

In my own testing on Etsy using very broad or general keywords, most of the listings that come up on first few pages of the search results are shops with high sales. There are very few newer shops included.

Your listings would stand a better chance of being included in the beginning of the search results if you use more targeted keywords, such as, "red beanie hat" or "blue newsboy hat." I am just guessing on possible good keyword phrases. You would have to research to find good keywords that you can use in your listings.

Add keywords to the shop title and section names - Google uses these in Google searches, even if Etsy does not (yet).

Someone mentioned backlinks. Building backlinksis the primary way to move your shop and listings up higher in Google search results - to the first page if you work on it - where all the shoppers are.

[PeonyandThistle]

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions! I've marked this for some serious work next week!!!

[Former_Member]

Another suggestion that I'd like to make here is to be very, very (read: extremely) wary of sites that sell SEO guides, manuals, information, 'tricks of the trade', or other such things.

Here's why:

Everything that can be learned about SEO, both the basics and the more detailed complicated stuff, can be learned for free. There is a wealth of knowledge that can be gleaned from the internet about SEO for free. And, because SEO changes -every single day-, paying for this information is wholly a waste of your hard earned money. You also want to steer clear of SEO'ers who -guarantee- that their process will work. Many top SEO'ers work off their reputation and understand that the work, itself, cannot be guaranteed to work.

A few free sites that I'd like to suggest are:

http://www.seomoz.org/
http://www.searchengineland.com/
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/


You can learn quite a bit from these sites. There is also a lot of very helpful information from Etsy in the Seller Handbook here:

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/the-seller-handbook/#getfound

[Former_Member]

There is free SEO information out on the Internet but it has to be pieced together. There are also unique features about Etsy that are not addressed by any of these great resources.

My Etsy SEO guides are kept up to date with Etsy and Google algorithm changes and are written specifically for Etsy shops.

There are other SEO guides available on Etsy. I have never read any of them but hopefully, they also address the features unique to Etsy shops.

[VintageFabricStudios]

TNT thanks for the resource, I'll jump on those. I also list on blog link parties for my craft, they are fun and with the benefit of a back link. My blog Blue Bird Sews is #1 on google when you search for it. who-woo. But my etsy shop is no where to be found...something I gotta work on.

Also a good SEO tool is Google keyword search. find it here: http://www.googlekeywordtool.com/
it's also helpful for figuring out what words hit for searches. Opened my eyes to what I should be listing as my first 3-4 words for descriptions (which I'm still working through)

[Former_Member]

Absolutely Kelly- link ups & blog rolls are a great way to gain back links and also build those networking connections!

Amanda excited that your switch was flicked on!

[Former_Member]

There are so many myths to SEO that it gives me anxiety!

[Former_Member]

Disco
Thanks so much for your help I'm going to hash it all out.
I saved your post so I can do some homework.
I'm thinking it might help to change my about page too.
Thanks heaps
loveand blessings
Tina

[PaperWhispers]

This is one of the best discussions I have seen so far, thank you all for the contributions.

[ScoSiCa]

This has been a super informative thread but I have to admit - how in the heck does one weed out the truth from the myths and untangle well meaning but wrong advice from the good stuff?

I've heard all sorts of things (and try implementing each one) and now I'm not sure what is right and what is wrong regarding SEO and relevancy etc.

I'm doing my darndest to optimize my shop but one thread will say "A" is good and then another thread elsewhere says "A" is bad but do B! Then a different thread says B! is a terrible idea and won't work but if you do C&D you'll be on the right path.

I want to tear my hair out sometimes because its difficult to separate the rights from the wrongs no matter how much I'm trying to research and this is within SEO specific teams too.

[Former_Member]

Research.

There are many websites devoted to white hat SEO that can/will provide you with the information that you need. There is no SEO "customized for Etsy shops". It's all the same information, just employed by an Etsy shop rather than a singular website. The same myths that you find on Etsy are the same myths that populate the internet. And the same methods that actually work in your favor and gets you ranked on search engines are the same methods that work for Etsy.

Don't think of your Etsy shop as a page on a major website (even though it is exactly that). Imagine your shop as a single entity and Etsy's search engine as a major search engine. Now, design your SEO efforts around that.