Advice on my shop please?

[Former_Member]

Hi all,

I've been lurking for a while, and hard at work on my shop recently. I was wondering if you could take a look at my shop and see if there's anything I can do to improve my SEO.

Thanks so much for all your insightful help in these threads!

[Former_Member]

Hi Ashly
Doggone, you make some beautiful jewelry.
This is certainly one of the benefits of performing this kind of a service. Having a good excuse to go to a particular shop.
Having done so let me comment very first thing on a pet peeve of mine.
When I go shopping for something I have in mind what it is in general that I am looking for. For example, if I decide to look for say, a new shirt or a western belt. I have no intention of buying women’s jewelry.
And I won’t.
I am not looking for women’s jewelry just saying. I expect to see products that I am looking for because when I tell a search engine to create a list of product for me I expect that list to have product that I am looking for in it.
The size of that list initially is beyond my control so I will scan that list that I asked to be generated to see if what I am looking for is represented, how many of them there might be and any indicators that I can use to further define the size of the list into something more manageable.
I will use functions of the search engine options that favor what I am looking for and one of them is to generate something in LIST rather than GALLERY mode. The LIST mode features 40 or so (my option) products with the pictures running down the left side and the Titles of the product running down the right side of my page. I will scan the pictures and read the titles.
so If for example I have three or four hundred dollars to spend on something like a silver necklace I expect the product titles to explain what the pictures are.
So I have to ask this.
In the following product;
https://www.etsy.com/listing/166045141/tree-night-sky-shadowbox-pendant?ref=shop_home_active
what exactly is a;
Tree Night Sky Shadowbox Pendant Necklace Sterling Silver Copper

I can promise you this! Titles are meant to clearly define the product that is listed so a PERSON can read it and be aware of what is for sale.
A title is NOT the place to put a collection of words hoping beyond hope that some one will klick on it because one or more of those words were part of a search request when using a Search Engine.
And I can also promise that specifically if I have three to four hundred dollars to spend, if I can not figure out from the title what is for sale? I aint gonna look at it.

IF I am using a Search Engine I expect the results from using one to be things that I am looking for and in this case as I start to read the Title I will get as far as Tree Night Sky and think to myself, this one is a waste of my time! NEXT!

Keep in mind that some one looking for something using a search engine will have some idea of what it is that they are looking for and some form of rudimentary knowledge in being able to describe it so the search engine can find it and others to create a list of them.

for example if I were looking for silver stud earrings with a fall theme, I might very well ask the search engine to find:
Silver Stud Earrings Fall.
And get this.
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=silver%20stud%20earrings%20fall&view_type=list&ship_to=ZZ
or possibly I might word it this way,
Earrings, silver stud fall.
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=earrings%20%20silver%20%20studs%20%20fall&view_type=list&ship_to=ZZ

The point here is that I might use two different searches with the same words in them. Except the order of the words in the search is different.
One is
Silver Stud Earring Fall
and the other is
Earrings Silver Stud Fall.

Both of those search results will have the same number of items in the end result, 577 at this writing. But the order of the items are going to be a function of the order of the words in the search request.
Go look at the first few items!
They will be different.
The point? The specific items and the number of them included in general will be the same IF the search request uses the same words BUT in a different order.
So you as a seller, can not pre-determine where your product will come up on a list generated by a potential buyer using a search engine. Unless you can predict in advance the terms used to find something with. In essence become a very good mind reader.
The best you can hope for is:
That your item WILL come up If you use words that are commonly used to describe your product, or synonyms or words that may have a preference to be used as determined by colloquialisms.

Your description is so very important to this process. A well written description will create a verbal picture of your product.
Take this one for example.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/116204216/sterling-silver-acorn-post-earrings?ref=shop_home_active
The description while a bit of a story behind it and kinda nice to read also creates a verbal picture of the product.
The important part of the description is that it is readable AND clearly defines the product.
From the Description and it terms comes a Title:
Sterling Silver Acorn Post Earrings
which in and of itself describes the product.
And now the tags.
It too describes the product with synonyms. Post and Studs. Fall and Autumn, Oak and Acorn, Nature and tree.
Lets for example change the search used from Studs to Post.
Earrings, post, Silver, Fall.
A one word change.
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=earrings%20%20posts%20silver%20%20fall&view_type=list&ship_to=ZZ
A different total to this search but about the same number of earrings but it too is different.
And I am not going to look at 17 pages.
Some one else might but I won’t. I want a smaller list, so I will add the word OAK to my search:
7 items all on one page and guess who’s earrings are there? Go look.
The point.?
This is a good example of a well listed product.
The description is used for the basis of a readable title.
The description is also used as a basis for the tags and they have included synonyms AND the alternative of describing post vs studs. Along with the added word of sterling.
There is nothing to fault this listing with.
And it was found by knowing pretty much in advance what it was that I was looking for to tell the search engine what to find and lit for me AND the capability to read and learn about the product I am looking for to further refine my search.
You nailed this one.
And my youngest daughter might like these.
I need to find out what I have in my PayPal account.
Hope this helped.
If not? Well I tried and please come back.

[Former_Member]

Wow, thank you so much for your response, and also for the compliment! I am thrilled that I've gotten at least SOME of my listings right.

For the first listing, it is a pendant necklace made of sterling silver and copper, it also happens to be in the form of a shadowbox because the layers are offset, creating a shadow in the box. It features a tree in the night sky.

Would this be a better title? "Sterling and Copper Pendant Necklace - Tree at Night Shadowbox" I'm really not sure what to do with this one...it's a lot more complicated than acorn posts, that's for sure! Is the problem with this listing mostly the title, or are the tags and description problematic too? Just trying to figure out where to focus my efforts.

Thank you so much! You are very helpful, as usual! (And I would be honored to make some earrings for your daughter.)

[Former_Member]

Ashley,
Lets take a look at this listing now as an example.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/166045141/sterling-and-copper-pendant-necklace?ref=shop_home_active


And yes the Jewelry section of Etsy is huge and intimidating. And if you think of some one looking for something to purchase and that is the way to think of it. The odds are favorable that the person willing to lay out cold hard cash for something, they generally have some idea of what they are looking for.

Now it might be they want a necklace.
That is a pretty general and broad based concept. How many necklaces are out there? And I ask at this point in time, if you have ever looked for a necklace didn’t you have some idea what you wanted?
And on the internet which is neutral in character, and enormous, having some idea of what you are looking for is paramount in actually being able to find it don’t you think?
If you were going to a brick and mortar store wouldn’t you pick a store that reflected the quality of the product you wanted to purchase?
Zales:

http://www.zales.com/

For example would be preferred over Wallmart for a nice piece of jewelry I am sure. Or if you are going to go on the internet to avoid looking at things you do not want to see, you would have to pretty much describe what you are looking for in order for the Search Engine to actually find something that meets your requirement.

Well, the host for the Store Fronts in this case is Etsy. And they are advertising or claiming 10 million stores. Think about that for a second.

The probability of blundering in to something you wanted to purchase is pretty remote isn’t it? Now granted on the odd moment a knee jerk reaction can happen! But to plan building a business around knee jerk reactions is not the best business model.

Etsy has a few ways to actually set out to find things. One of them is based on browsing. But browsing by it’s very nature is dependant on knee jerk reactions to finding something to spend your money on.

The other is the use of a Search Engine which has to be told what it is you are trying to find (e.g., painting a verbal picture) and then sorting through all the listings on Etsy that represent similar products and creating a list of them for you to see.

Howe ever that list that is found, is found by the search engine taking the Verbal Description it is given and then word matching it to words in product listings.

It stands to reason that the more accurate the Verbal Description used to find something with, thus painting a verbal picture is in relation to what you want to find the better the list is going to be when it is generated making it easier for you to find what you want.
As a buyer, that is your objective, but as a seller what you want to do is to also create a verbal description the clearly identifies the product you are trying to market in such a way that there is a high probability that the verbal description you use to list a product, will match a verbal description that is used to find a product with.

PROBABILITY is the watch word here. Because if the two verbal descriptions are not some how similar than the two of you will never meet. The buyer and the seller.
The two verbal pictures need to match as much as possible.
How many words will that take?
Too many or not enough come to most peoples minds.
But brevity and clarity in both the search and the listing turns out to have the highest probability of matching with in reason.

So let’s look at your listing here and see how to massage it for brevity and clarity.
As a Buyer, Readability to me is most important.
It is copper and Sterling Silver. As for materials anyway.
The chain is Sterling Silver and that is important for both quality and people who have allergies.
The pendant is of the style of a Shadowbox.
It is also Copper.
The theme of the pendant is one of seeing the night sky through the limbs or branches of at tree.
The hard part now is actually listing the IMPORANT concepts of this piece of Jewelry in such a way that it can be found. by some one looking for something like this.
You have three areas of interest.
The Title which, is searched by a search engine.
And the potential customer will also read this title.
The tags which are searched by a search engine, but are not read by the customer.
And a description which is read by a potential customer if they decide to actually look at the product listing. But is not read by a search engine.

So for the sake of brevity and clearness, how about something like, Shadow box copper pendant of the night sky and Sterling Silver necklace.

The two metals are mentioned because it is an important style feature of the listing.
Shadow box is mentioned because it also is an important style feature.
The night sky is mentioned because while it is only part of the decorative theme it is an important concept. And at this point you have to make a decision.
How important is it to extend the Title out further for the sake of being read by a potential customer or so long that it might be ignored by some one scanning? Granted it is a gut call, but it is an important marketing decision. Why? Because you want some one to be interested in it AND you want some one to find it, and this is where the benefit of TAGS come into play.
Assume for a moment some one is looking for a night sky scene as seen through tree limbs.
While the words Tree and Limbs or maybe Bows are not in the Title, if they were in the tags, some one looking for a product that the search consisted of Sterling Silver, Sky, Tree and shadow box. 4 words which have an abbreviated verbal picture associated with them, would indeed fine this as a product providing those same words were in the Title and Tags combined .
It is the potential combination of words in both areas as long as they are all there AND in the search request, a product will be found and included on a list to be looked at.
Now here is a sample search:
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=Necklace%20tree%20sterling%20shadowbox&order=most_relevant&view_type=l...

The search consisted of four words, Necklace and tree, Sterling implying sterling silver and shadowbox (one word) for style.
The search did not make grammatical sense, but it does not have to. A search consists of WORD MATCHING not correct usage of the language.
I might have almost any kind of a mental image in mind when I created my search but out of those hundreds of thousands of jewelry listings only 3 of them showed up.
And one of them was your necklace.
The point being that it did not take a really big long title to describe what you are listing and it reads better and looks better to be shorter and clear. The extra words will work well as tags. AND be just as findable if you take into the probability of certain words being higher on the usage scale than others.
Now I would like to point out here that it is really hard to do this. If you are good silver smith the odds are you are probably not a good English major. But all you have to do is describe what you are listing it titles and tags.
And keep this in mind.
It could be that all, each and every one of your listing could actually have the same title if they are more or less the same thing.
If you intend to be found by a Search Engine, it is titles and TAGS that get things found.
If you intend to have some one run across your product by browsing and knee jerk reactions, your shop might look boring and drive you to come up with a different creative name for what might be a whole bunch of very similar product. But a search engine will not care, I won’t care if I am using one because if your TAGS are different to further explain nuances that will differ between two listing, they will show up as single product listings as a result of my search.
I am first a buyer.
I find what I am looking for.
I am second a shop owner.
Which at the moment is on vacation as I have had a heart attack and have to put things on hold for awhile.
And third, a craftsman, I make things and I am dang good at it.
I can’t spell, I have lousy sentence structure, but I have spell check and I know how to find an on line thesaurus. And that will give me synonyms, speaking of which synonyms and spelling variations make good TAGS. Why? My first search was for Shadow Box, two words; you are spelling with one word. Shadowbox.
Both of them should be in your product listing to make sure that some one who spells as bad as I do, will find this listing and have the almost $400.00 it is going to take to buy it. Eh?
You don’t want to miss out because of a spelling error do you?
Does this help?

[Former_Member]

Thanks so much! I'm going through and trying to make all my titles clearer. I will keep working on it. I never thought of making shadow box into two words, how silly of me.