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]

Ok, Alex...help me out here. As I follow your suggestions, I realize "metalwork earrings" only pulls up 2 thousand some odd pair of earrings rather than 300,000 plus in "wire earrings." BUT...how do I know customers are using "metalwork earrings" rather than "wire earrings" to search?

[Former_Member]

No Alex, you are not being critiqued...I want to take your advice, go look at their shops, go look at my shop, and see where I fall on the critique scale without having to take up your time.

So when you say "i thought there would be more clothes" I go look and see how many actually are and then know that you thought more would be better.

Just makes it easier for me to relate to your particular comment if I can see the store. Thanks for adding links on your reviews! I'll be learning a lot faster now!


And what the heck...if you are still critiquing, dump me in the lot and let her rip!
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i was kidding

it was a great idea

i didnt consider that there was more than one person reading along

yu will know if someone searches on metalwork earring to find you by looking at your stat page under keywords.

read that everyday
have susan do it too

[SweetSomeday]

Just jumping in again! I've been working on my tags (slowly - I work full time and don't have time to do it all at once) and am LOVING the concept of exactly repeating my title in my tags. I'm showing up on the first page of search results now. Can't believe I wasn't doing this before.

[Former_Member]

heather from minny

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

i like supergo creations

anywho, heather has many items
lotta different items
are you trying to see what sticks?
most pics are pretty good
6 sales tells me something is wrong here

hannah is an interior designer
i bet she didnt slean her work area for those pix
i bet it always looks like that
i bet her dog wears booties
she has a large poster with her shop banner on her wall
interesting
heather seems committed in developing other outlets for her creativity
heather seems to be above average
you betcha

i bet heather watches hgtv
ever see very gay david's show? that guy has talent
ever think about trying out for that?
I have an autographed pic of paige davis. It says "You will never bounce a quarter off my ass unless you stop doing (edit). SOmetimes ALex should keep his big yap shut.
I bet I could still bounce a quarter on her heinie.

cards
there is a store here called wildcard. They sell mainly indie girl handmade cards. check out their site. The store smells like estrogen.
lobster card

http://www.etsy.com/listing/103351515/coastal-note-card-lobster-note-card-with

you say note card
isnt this a greeting card?
to me a note card is a 3x5 lined index card
heather has worked on her tags, as that is what above average people do
do you know where lobster is HUGE?
brainerd
they catch them in lake wobegon
people come from duluth to minot for fresh brainerd lobster
that is who this card will appeal to. People from Brainerd. Lobster is part of their identity. If you target this to lobster lovin brainerdians, it will sell.
you betcha
there are 133,000 greeting cards here. you need to do more. find an angle.

blue crab card.
My uncle bought one thing for his wall in 80 years. A huge poster of a blue crab. He is from baltimore. When he was a kid, times were tough with the depression and WWII. People there caught their own crab from the bay, and every family had a live well to store the crab. You have to boil them alive. It was poor mans food back then. Now it is $16/lb. Crab is part of their identity. Do ya think they would like to find this card?

you still have some one word tags that can be combined

I start out most things targeted to specific groups. Who will this appeal to? Then make something that will. Check my sold items. That is how I got my first breakthrus. I made stuff that was already known in a way that was new,

so..... if I were a card maker in minny, i would make a card with Seasons Greetings From Minnesota. Then I would put a pic of a steaming plate of luttefisk under it. On the inside I would put, "Have an above average christmas, you betcha. Love Arne and Sonja Andersson."

look for ways to do this on all 243 listings.
target is not just a Minneapolis Drug Store

be above average about it

you betcha

[Former_Member]

Just jumping in again! I've been working on my tags (slowly - I work full time and don't have time to do it all at once) and am LOVING the concept of exactly repeating my title in my tags. I'm showing up on the first page of search results now. Can't believe I wasn't doing this before.
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thank yu for sharing

i would like to hear from others about their expereinces with this seo stuff

do tell

[Former_Member]

Alex- I found your critique of my shop. Thanks! So I guess you're saying one word tags aren't really worthwhile. Which kind of makes sense. I'll have to figure out multi work titles that I think folks might actually use. I guess I was thinking that if a person entered for instance- lampwork- they would subcategorize using the choices on the left.
Yeah, I'm not a newbie, but I still need someone to take a peek at my shop now and then and give me a new perspective- Thanks again!
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the subcat of lampwork-jelwry still has 56,000 items
do buyers keep narrowing further?
do they see it, or are they mesmerized by the shiny pictures?
I dont know
but I would love to see the stats on that

[Former_Member]

Alex...Finally finished reading all the pages...couldn't pull away to do any actual work til I had. Couldn't decide whether to scamper off & implement a bunch of your advice first, in hopes of a better critique (I want to be one of those smokin hot chicks whose shop stock you're buying!) or not.
I've decided that the only way I can get the full Alex treatment is to sit pat & let you see the shop as it is "pre-alex".
After which time I promise to apply myself fully to making whatever changes you suggest...between the next two weekends, when I have 2 days shows. (What kind of psycho books two 2 day weekend shows in a row? Yup. Me)
And while I have lived in Texas for the past 15 years, feel free to say what you will about the Lone Star State. I'm not from here, so I can appreciate both the good and the bad about this place. Thanks in advance!

[Former_Member]

"yu will know if someone searches on metalwork earring to find you by looking at your stat page under keywords.

read that everyday
have susan do it too"

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Ok...that tells me if they hit MY page using that key word. What I want to know is...how many people use the keyword "metal work" to look for earrings vs how many use the key word "wire earrings". See?

There may only be 500 people in the key word "blah blah blah" but if I'm using a keyword that NOBODY uses to shop...still not effective.

Clear as mud?

[Former_Member]

BTW...love that you are still taking time to help others out!

[Former_Member]

Debora
Have you tried out the google adwords keyword search thingy?
Thats where i started when trying to figure out which keywords are actually used.
Also, pretend to be shoppin on etsy. type in a search term very slowly... it will drop down commonly used search words.

[Former_Member]

Any advice for my new candle shop would be great. I'm still adding items and working on my banner. Thanks!

[Former_Member]

Thanks Dawn M. @Beadsbydawn...The google adwords keyword search thingy is WAY above my head. Technically challenged here. I have done the etsy search thingy and looked at the drop down words.

[Former_Member]

Alex,
Thank you so much!
I will definitely work on the pictures. I am steadily changing each one each day.
I am working on the clothing as well. They take so much longer to make than all of my other handmade items, so I can only do a bit at a time with school and all.
Yay! I passed the Big Test! :D
I really do list new items every other day, and I wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true/possible :)
I'm making more items to list, so there will be many more in a short while.
I'm SO excited! :D
*skipping along joyfully*

[Former_Member]

Alex, thanks for the heads up! I will continue to do what I do and try to market mainly to the pulled together classy ladies who like a little funk in their trunk! ;)

[KAGITLIK]

As a newbie may I ask for critique as well? My shop's opened just this Saturday and I'm steadily adding new items, so it'll get bigger. Other than that... criticism would be so great...

[Former_Member]

@Debora....
if i can find my darn link again to the google info I can help you out with that.
its not perfect (nothing is) but i learned that many of the search phrases i thought were good just weren't used at all. LOL
And it helped me to find a more narrow audience ( i get swamped in "flower headbands" but "beaded headbands" has a much smaller set of items for sale to compete with )

[Former_Member]

@Dawn...that would be lovely.

Thanks.

[Former_Member]

OK - grabbed this listing

http://www.etsy.com/listing/101774720/spiral-earrings-with-glass-bead-drop

I took most of your tags from the bottom of page (not the one word tags) and put them into google.
Results are shown as keyword phrase and number of google searches per month in US for that phrase:

[spiral earrings] 390

[spiral jewelry] 73

[teardrop earring] 46

[fun jewelry] 480

[gorgeous jewelry] 46

[casual earrings] 16

[burgundy earrings] 22

[silver earrings] 1,900

[glass bead earrings] 73

My understanding has been that you want to be sure you are using keywords that get used, but don't necessarily put you up against 5million other people.
You can put these same keywords into Etsy to see how many items show, and see which ones appear in your stats on a monthly basis. Should help you filter out bad keywords.
Google will also give you ideas on other keywords :)

[Former_Member]

"yu will know if someone searches on metalwork earring to find you by looking at your stat page under keywords.

read that everyday
have susan do it too"

___________________________________________________

Ok...that tells me if they hit MY page using that key word. What I want to know is...how many people use the keyword "metal work" to look for earrings vs how many use the key word "wire earrings". See?

There may only be 500 people in the key word "blah blah blah" but if I'm using a keyword that NOBODY uses to shop...still not effective.

Clear as mud?
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damn fine question, and it has been something I have been harping on. I shall endeavour to pound this home with a resounding alacrity.

Lets take the example for my cross. again.

the "cross" keyword has over 100,000 search returns. Even though I have dozens of items with "cross" in the tag and title, alex doesnt have agood chance to be in the first five pages. And if I do make it, it wont be for long.
I go to my stats page, 247 have entered alexworld via searching on that keyword. pretty good. Not quite kappa kappa gamma with 370, but we will take it.
All of my cross stuff has cross in the tags and titles.

The above example was a Serbian Orthodox cross. That type of cross is less than 20% of my cross line. I tag and title those with "serbian Orthodox" (no room to add cross to that).
Being from arkansas, you may have no idea what that is. I would reckon that there are 500,000 more searches on cross than serbian orthodox. At least.
lets go to my stats page keyword thingy:
Serbia(n) 449
orthodox 181
serbian orthodox 47
plus there are 30ish misspellings of theose wrods

so that one tag of serbian orthodox got me 800 people.Those are NOT views. Those are TRAFFIC. One traffic=5views.

So even though Serbian Orhtodox is obscure, that got me 3x more traffic than cross.
I dont have to look, but I KNOW i own all the first pages of Serbian, Orthodox, and Serbian Orthodox.

And, the buy rate of those obscure words is MUCH higher than the general word "cross".

I started to llok at those stats after Queen Cindylou told someone that you will get your most traffic from your most obscure keywords because the returns are so small and you will be found by all who search on those.

it is counterintuitive in the freakonomic sense.

didya know if you want to kill your cat by tossing it off of a high building, your best bet is the 8th floor? Lower than 6 or higher than 10 , the cat will walk away and begin plotting its revenge.
Some MAWG (middle aged white guy) studied that for two years.

be the MAWG deb

i hear good things about you

[Former_Member]

Debora
Have you tried out the google adwords keyword search thingy?
Thats where i started when trying to figure out which keywords are actually used.
Also, pretend to be shoppin on etsy. type in a search term very slowly... it will drop down commonly used search words.
...............................

cindylou is a big fan of google adwords

[Former_Member]

"it is counterintuitive in the freakonomic sense."

@Alex and Dawn...you all have made my day. I will endeavor to learn, learn, learn...then implement!

obscure keywords...my middle name!

[Former_Member]

Google adwords kicked my butt LOL

When I first started my keywords either got like 3600 hits per month (which means i would never be found) or less than 12 per month (again, never be found cuz they are basically never used)

Now, not that i am being found much yet in search.... but i feel somewhat confident its not cuz i have the worst keywords ever . ;)

[MagicMoonPottery]

Thanks for explaining the Google AdWords/Keyword search! I could NOT figure out that damned thing. The majority of my keywords are listing as HIGH competition. Boo....

[MagicMoonPottery]

didya know if you want to kill your cat by tossing it off of a high building, your best bet is the 8th floor? Lower than 6 or higher than 10 , the cat will walk away and begin plotting its revenge.
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LOL! Classic. (I don't like cats......they are E-ville).

[Former_Member]

HA! Thanks, Alex! Somehow I knew "you betcha" would come into play during your critique of my shop. ;)

I like your ideas about targeting people with my items...I'll definitely have to do that. Love it! See you next year with all my items... ;) I'll do it - you know I will.

I'll work on my single word tags, too. I have heard that before...oh it was from you in an earlier post.

Just to clear things up:

Who's Hannah? She must be my alter ego.

Hannah would keep her workspace clean at all times, like in the pictures. Heather's workspace, on the other hand, is usually a hot mess. Ornaments here, beading supplies all over the floor, note cards there, a basket of folded laundry that needs to be put away o'er yonder, oh and an empty beer can or two (ok, maybe 4) on the ledge that need to be brought down to recycling.

Hannah's dog wears booties.
Heather's dog wears two spray painted stripes down his back and we call him Hosehead.

Hannah watches HGTV and thinks David Bromstad is neat-o.
Heather watches "death shows" (as my husband calls them) on Discovery ID, laughs hysterically at HGTV and thinks Nate Burkus is neat-o. ;)

Paige Davis...OH YEAH. She used to be on Trading Spaces...I used to watch that show! She's cute! But I also think she adhered moss to a whole wall in a bedroom once, if I'm remembering correctly... :/ Anywho...you probably could give a rip about the moss.

Note cards come in many sizes. I make my note cards in the A2 size (also greeting card size) and A1 size (the index card size). Maybe I should include those in my tags (A1 notecard, or A2 notecard)...Just a thought.

Thanks again, Alex. I really enjoyed reading your advice and I'll definitely put it to use. I've been open since April, but I didn't know what the "bleep" I was doing and didn't start to focus on my shop (teams and reading forums helped my snap to it) until late August. I'm not happy with 6 sales, but I'm hoping that will change after I put a little more effort into it. I'll check out your sold items, and Wildcard, as well.

Have a good evening!