Why you are not getting found newbies

[#1]

Things are tough when your category has 2,000,000 items, and you have 40.
You must do everything possible to give yourself a chance to be found. I dont see that in threads compalining about low views.
And, it isnt that hard, nor does it take much time to have good tags and titles. Ignore all that constant "tweaking" noise you read about. Do it right the first time, and you can spend the tweaking time making things.

I have learned the following from the Queen of SEO:

1.Your title is not the name of your item. It is a 70 character string whose goal is to get your item found by etsy search.

2. If you cant tell exactly what the item is by reading your tags, your tags stink. Those words are what people search on. If I had a dime for every purple necklace that had neither purple nor necklace in the tags, I would have a lot of dimes.

3. Words in your title must show up in your tags. If Blue scarf is in your title, blue scarf needs to be in your tags.

4. Use as many of the 20 characters in your tags as possible. Blue scarf as one tag is better than blue, then scarf as two tags.

5.Read about SEO at cindys seo group. she is very wise. http://www.etsy.com/teams/10713/cindylouwho-team/discuss/10196168/

the end

[Former_Member]

LOL!!! I'll let my husband know your idea. He is already "my shipper", so I'm sure he'll llooove that (not).
I've been meaning to deactivate those 2 little items for a while, I will go ahead and do that now with that push! Yikes.
Sometimes I list, just to list, and don't take the time I need. Bad. I will work on my tags! Yes, my sales are too low for my liking (probably because I need more items too) & I want more, so I will get to work nonetheless.

Thank you!!! LOL

[Former_Member]

one mo b4 i go

jess from the uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/FawnAndRose

jewlerrlelly

etsy admins say either sppelling brings the same results
i havent checked

maybe a little too bright on the pics
never thought i'd say that
still above average
i like the look and feel so far

lets look at a listing
i will close my eyes and pic one at random

http://www.etsy.com/listing/109526923/geometric-rhombus-geometric-necklace

you seem to like the word geometric
why is (blue)?
it looks aqua
i like aqua blue
your title needs more attributes, though your model does not.
i like that a lot. It looks like an optical illusion.
what is the rhombus made from
what kinda paint?
didya know womens necklace has 100,000 results
ladies necklace has 8500
holy crap! You are on the first page under the "also from europe" header!!!
tag that ladies necklace
yo will rank higher in a smaller search
that is what we want
that and more cleavage pics

I post my stuff to wanelo. I had something shoot up the hot trend page. I got TONS of views from it in my etsy store. It stalled at page six on wanelo.
Know why?
cleavage pics got 1000s of saves.
thats how it goes
anywho
your tags arent rubbish, but they are too general
vague
mediocre
like Newcastle United
does it really cost $8 to ship that to the stateS??
some items have really good tags and short, nondescript titles

you are in a tough field

put your tags and search and see what comes up
that will tell you if they are descriptive enough

and aim to be in searches that have fewer results
like under 10,000

to be THE MOST RELEVANT for a given search, , YOU MUST REPEAT THE TITLE IN YOUR TAGS IN THE SAME WORD ORDER forthwith

you are close

.

[Former_Member]

Alex -- Thank you so much for the feedback. Sometimes the truth is hard to hear but it helps!!!

I just finished the tags today -- guess I need to go back and work on titles and tags. Photos are this weekend.

I appreciate your time so much. Thank you for the honesty!

Based on the feedback here -- you are an angel ;D

[Former_Member]

kat from cincy
I lied before about being sorry the reds lost

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PistilandPennyroyal

jewelry
wow
231 items
23 sales
open in june
you a busy bee
pix look good
mostly
I see you have an older bleh pic or two
and it looks like you have redone some seo
and some not
and you are saving tags for a rainy day
guess what?

it is raining

I see you have poor views on stuff in the latter pages
you arent showing up in the 30,000 reults for button earring when i stopped looking at page 5
buyers stop looking too
you tag and title for that
so do all the others
you aint sellin good
most pics are good, even though YOU DONT USE ALL 5
on some you do everything right
I dont know enough to know whether its yor items
mebbe
mebbe not
still early in the game
took my friend one year
she cried a lot
with the unused tags, mebbe try aqua button earring, mauve button earring
stuff like that
some items have mostly weak tags
pin, white, blue, tan
you have room to stick all that mess into one tag
you have to research where you rank in various searches.
there is an app that does that, but I forgot what it is
maybe someone out there knows

you have work to do in research
what keywords have the most traffic?
do you use them a lot?
are there other smaller searches you can use
like the ladies ring vs womens ring example

you need to be a clever kat

i think you have the will to do it

join cindylous seo team
she tests these things on her six computers

[Former_Member]

Hi Alex,

I'm trying very hard to get my store off the ground and get the first few sales. I am getting between 10-20 views a day. My products are very niche though and I am worried that the occasional potential customer turns away when they see 0 feedback :(

Suggestions, feedback, comments?
Thanks a lot!
Iri

[Former_Member]

ina from finland

finland is Not a scandinavian country, although it is in scandavia, and it is also a "country:.
I would like an explanation

she is selling clothes
goodie
vintage.
I dont get vintage. And why is Springsteen gettin played on the oldies stations?
a texas t shirt
listen, dont go to texas. ever. You dont go to texas, you go to a parody of texas.And I mean that in the best way you can possibly mean an insult
she is from finland
uh
she collects americana And finnish nonscandanavian clothes
so...why am i looking at a finnish womans collection of old american clothes.
I am actually wearing "vintage" jeans right now. they are levis. 35/35.gettin snug. cotton shrinks pretty fast once it gets to 20.
anywho
i am intrigued
i want to look at more old us/fin/nonscandy stuff
i cant believe it
whats with all the texan crap?? they had to have had manure stains and skoal spit on them. You musta had to soak them for days.
If you had a finnish soccer or hockey jersey, i would probly buy it.
I use old Texas tshirts to clean the toilet.
You know, I donated a lot of old clothes to serbian war charities. They do not sell the clothes. They sell them to a broker by the ton. He doesnt pay much. I have heard that they approach churches, and offers them a deal.cash for clothes.
Can you get in on that? Those brokers sell the clothes to somebody.
I reckon you sell usa clothes to europe and europe clothes here. All made in china.
wow allegany fire dept.
i am in allegheny county
you have cool stuff
I should be reading your tags, but i am window shopping.
hey!
I think those wayfarers are mine!!!
did you get them from new jersey???
i lost a pair there in '84.
see if my intitials are in there.

oh no

that is definitely my old members only jacket!!
I think my keys are in the pocket.
i used to roll up the sleeves.
i was bitchin

i will come back later to shop

cool stuff

I was in there for quite a while and i think vintage is stupid.
and you need finnish sports stuff
like a reijo ruotselinen jersey
or jarri kurri

i think you should do that right now.
men would buy that
real men
like me

be patient
everything is fine

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much Alex! That wasn't hard to read at all ;) You mentioned just what I'm working on - tags!
I really appreciate the advice. Fingers crossed for better sales for both of us.

Cheers
(And I'm not a baseball fan and don't really care if we lost!)

[KondooWoolArt]

alex ............................may i have i critique plese please

thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JudysLittleShop]

Thanks so much for the critique of my shop Alex. I was away for three days and had to search through 31 pages...you are a rock star on etsy. Now that I've spent hours reading some of the critiques you've given. I'll get to work on my tags, photos, etc.
You are helping so many people, its amazing. Thank you for your time & energy.

[DecorDesignsAndMore]

Coming Soon NEW Etsy Shop and Shop Owner "Branding, Banner Branding, and Many More Branding Supportive Products"

Is You Etsy Shop's Banner fulfilling all of its job requirements?

What job requirements have you assigned your banner to do?

What are the important elements to review in your shop banner?

What are the most motivating and mood establishing colors for your shop banner?

Answers soon to come.

Best regards,

Mike M.

www.Etsy.com/shop/WOWPhoto
www.Etsy.com/shop/WOWPhoto41

[Former_Member]

Wowzas.... I'm digging this thread. Love the honesty and your simple list type critique style. 0_0 So here goes... my little sensitive butt is going to put my shop on the chopping block and let us see what survives the cut.

I JUST learned more about tags. I've been using simple one word tags and never knew that I should be filling them up with longer phrases. I've read several times now in this thread about restating your title in your tags, so I guess I need to understand that a bit better. Currently, my titles state the type of item first since I figured that was easiest to see when looking at the thumbnails, then I have the collection name, etc and then the sizing available. I am JUST NOW getting around to seeing if that is a good or bad way to go about things.

Recent changes.... I have gone through most of my listings and made sure they are similar with the information provided including the turn around time, shop description, policies, etc. I separated key information with the "~~~~~~~~" breaks so that visually, it isn't too overwhelming. I figure many people do not read all the way to the bottom, but even less people probably take the time to go to the policy page specifically. I still wonder if there is TOO much information in the description. Everyone has their own taste. For me, as a shopper, this is about the max that I would want to see in a listing.

Photos are mostly all professionally modeled and I went over them with the cropping feature to make sure no ones head was cut off. lol

Previously, I had my listings organized in "collections". That was difficult since I had too many different collections to fit the 10 sections allowed.... and some collections only had 2 or 3 items. So, they are now listed in clothing type categories... in alphabetical order, besides the first category for ready to ship and/or seasonal items. I am currently organizing the shop further by letting go of listings that didn't sell well or that are too funky. I have a tendency to love EVERYTHING and so I have a mismatch bunch of random stuff in the shop rather than one specific style.

Alrighty... have at it! :0)

THANKS! BTW... I am SO in love with your flying piggies art! Big pig fan here. :0)

[Former_Member]

Next week, I will be taking the Halloween RTS Items out of the shop to make room for new items.

[Former_Member]

Shoot... forgot to add... my shop account was opened in 2009 but that was a previous hobby that I had up for a month and got bored of. HEARTMADE CREATIONS had it's first sale in early 2011, but I didn't really do much with it seriously until late 2011 to early 2012. So, it is about a year old. :0) Thanks

I never realized how bad that might look... open since 2009 with less than 100 sales. :0( There's really no way to change that now. I have that stated in my shop information page though. I'm not sure how badly that looks on my behalf. Also, I have recently learned to not buy through my shop page. I dealt with a HORRIBLE shop who refused to answer my emails and so when I left them negative feedback, they in return gave ME bad feedback. Etsy, of course, will do nothing about this. The other shop doesn't exist any longer also. :0(

[Former_Member]

Hi Alex,

Loving this post, the most entertaining (& helpful) post I've read. Ever.
Maybe you should start your own team, like 'Tell it Like it is!'

Opened a few months ago, with no prior knowledge of Etsy world, & have been reading, learning, photos, listing. Have heaps more to list, but as you've said, I want to get the SEO process great now, before I have 100+ items to go back & change. Joined an SEO team recently & have been working on title-tag relationship. How do you think I'm going? I'm ready, give it to me!

Thanks a million, Melinda

[Former_Member]

Okay, I am going back through my edits again. Thank you. I will check the titles against the tags. I just worked on both. I removed the actual piece title and headlined with the object first, as advised in a success online workshop. But. you are very clear about that tag matching so I will do that next. Thanks for the help and precise advice. I think I' have got it now.

I also used the thumbnail adjustment tool for all of my listings this week. It took a while to go through each of them but i love that tool! The results were so much better. Thanks again.

[Phoebedreams]

Great thread with tons of useful advice. Still working my way through all 32 pages. Thanks Alex.

[sewbigkeepsake]

I, too, am struggling with low number searches...I believe I have come up against a wall.

Not many items...I know I need more.

Please take a peek and see if you can advise. I like your approach and hope you can help or someone who reads this can.

[FawnAndRose]

Thanks, Alex!
That was really helpful.

- does it really cost $8 to ship that to the states??

Unfortunately, yes - it actually costs double that, so I make a loss on shipping costs. It would be a lot cheaper to post without tracking or insurance, but I don't fancy taking the risk

Right, I better to get to work!

[Crafts2Love]

for Jess:
I don't insure at all and don't track under $100, I add $1 self insurance to my items, figuring something will get lost so I will remake it, after couple hundred sales nothing has been missing yet :) the risk isn't that high..

[Former_Member]

Alex! You really need to put a warning label on this thread. I have a suggestion.

WARNING DO NOT READ WHILE DRINKING COFFEE

I have had coffee spew all over the monitor twice now.

I love this, informative and entertaining. You are awesome :)

[FawnAndRose]

Nadia - Do you ship from the UK? Which service do you use - Airmail?
Airsure is supposedly the quickest way to ship internationally, and also includes tracking and insurance. I like it for peace of mind, but my word is it pricey!

[Former_Member]

emily from south england

http://www.etsy.com/shop/EmilyMadeMe

emily makes pendants
open 3 months
emily is a bookish gal
i bet she is neat and organized
i bet i would drive her nuts

looks like stuff for younger women in their 20s

so emily prints an image, then puts it in a glass pendant
emily is on the ball
I bet emily has read the sellers handbook, seo teams and any posts that explain the how to's of etsy
emily does complete work
yep
emily belongs to at least 3 seo teams
does emily use wanelo? It works for me

everything is right with emily
make more

you are already at the point where it is time to fine tune.
check to see where you come up in various searches
draw inferences on why this ranked higher than that
do experiments with keywords to see what input leads to what output

the search algorithim tries to retuen the best results for a given term. In a search for "gold Cat", we have a good idea that items with "gold cat" in the title, in that order, will rank higher than "cat" alone. We also know that having "gold cat" in the rags makes you highly relevant. Yet some items may rank high without those terms. Ignore that. This aint perfect.
we also know that buyers behaviour when encountering your item in their search for "gold cat" is important. Do they click on it? That means that they searched for gold cat, clicked on your item, ergo that item gotta be a gold cat!! If a lot of people do that, then that reallyreallyreally is a gold cat. THAT IS WHY A GOOD PIC IS SO IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!! You want the search function to know that your gold cat is a gold cat!!!!!!!!!

so, organized and methodical emily, get more items listed and study how to make the algorithim know that your dragonfly pendant is indeed a dragonfly pendant.

I am buying emily.com stock

[Former_Member]

I love Emily's shop! I will buy her stuff and ........... I'm old!

[Former_Member]

sarah from detroit

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetSomeday

sarah is an upcycler of stuff
scrabble stuff
someone on etsy has sold 8 billion scrabble pendants
sarah is in the mental health field
sarah needs to divert her mind off hours
i know many chicks in the health field like that
sarah is a little afraid of power tools
that is healthy

i aint crazy about the backdrop for the scrabble stuff
where is nerd? thatll sell
and bite me
alex knows

not real cohesive looking in terms of items or "look"
even toddler hats
oh no
sarahsarahsarah
I would rather (have you ever played the "would you rather" game?) look at a painting of Fat Naked Hairy Old Men On The Toilet than read your tags.

alex cant stop shaking his head in a disapproving fashion

it is still shaking

i cant stop it either

it is hard to type with a sjaking heed

do yo uknow what would make a good tag for your pink toddler hat??????

brim, red and ribbon are all very nice, but alex thinks that

PINK (freaking) TODDLER HAT

may also work

alex is verklempt

i like that star license plate
make more
lotta poeple put them on their houses here
the cheap tin ones


did yu see the merry song?

I want you to sing it with your bf

to this tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1YlviwvrxQ

itll be fun!!!

merry, merry youre on my mind
youre tags are blech
but your title looks fine
merry, merry I aint the boss of you
but I'm gonna tell you what to do
you gotsta make those keywords Two
your category is so tight
everythings gotta be right right Right RIGHT

check all your listings, do it tonight
we both know alex is right
come on merry it wont take long
it dont take much to make a short tag long

lucite and crystal will fit with bead
"gunmetal chain" is what you need
silver findings is gonna work, too
so thats all you gotta do
make all those one words two
youll get found, all right
even if your category is tight tight Tight TIght

take a little time every night
gotta make sure you got it right
come on merry it wont take long
less time than it took to write this song

[Former_Member]

I love Emily's shop! I will buy her stuff and ........... I'm old!
.................

at shows, i rarely sell anything to anyone over 60. I hope they leave my booth

except for those 75 year olds who ride the bike trail 14 miles to the show

i know 35 year olds who will soon turn 80