FINDING THINGS? Is really a matter of looking for them!

[Former_Member]

And here in lies a problem. If for example you have really done very little looking for things on the internet than the difficulty is not with how things are listed.
It is with how things are looked for.
There are really a number of effective methods to look for things and a lot of ineffective ones.
Browsing, a common term used is not really a very effective method of finding things, it is more a form of entertainment. There are no rules, guidelines or standards applied to browsing, no preferred methods or approaches.
You more or less poke about and if you run across something you can’t live with out, so be it. I do that with garage sales. If I have time to spare I will follow a sign. You never know what will be for sale and you have no clue what you might run across.
I am a wood worker; I can build or fix almost anything and am good at it.
I recently ran across a Victorian Rocking Chair at a garage sale and it was damaged and I bought it for $5.00. With a lot of work, it might be worth $300.00. You can not create a business plan based on rummaging through garage sales and you can not make a marketing plan based on Browsing.
Recently the functions of the search bar seen at the top of the page has changed to an INDUSTRY STANDARD of Relevance or Best Match search mechanics.
That search tool, a tool to be used to find things with now works as well as any standard search program in the industry.
It is a BUYERS tool. A tool to be used by a buyer to locate and list the things that a BUYER or a CUSTOMER would be looking for. AS such it works by means of a whole bunch of rules known as algorithms. A list of criteria that are used to find and create a list of products that relate to what is being looked for by a customer.
The list in general will be fabricated starting with something that Most Matches or is a Best Match to the SEARCH REQUEST and then go to Least or Worst match.
There are a whole series of variables that must be taken into account, but only one basic one, well one and a corollary. ALL of the terms use to create a search request MUST be in the search field somewhere. The search field for Etsy, consisting of Titles (the most important) and tags (secondary to the importance of the titles and a substitute for a description).
The above in it’s simplicity is a basic rule applied to a Most Relevant search engine.
From that should be seen, it is NOT a listing tool.
Knowing how a search engine works would probably help in making something listed be findable. It does not help listing things to say that a listed product is RELEVANT.
A search result is relevant TO THE SEARCH.
Until a listing actually shows up in a search result, it is just a listing with a lot of words. It takes something to compare the list too before it becomes relevant and until there is a search made, nothing is relevant.
The object is to develop a usable, findable listed product by knowing how a search engine may actually list something out AND that it also depends on the search generated to create the list.
The above information is typed out to be read and hopefully understood to aid in listing a product for sale ------ so it can be found.
Thus findable.
Knowing how a product may be found should also help in listing something for sale.
The current change in search engine default as Etsy has done is both functionally sound and industrially correct.
ALL SEARCH ENGINES of any value at all, whose primary function is in general to allow some one looking for something, is to find them is through RELEVANT or BEST MATCH algorythems.
So what does that do for listings?
NOTHING
Nor can it.
However the current trend in play at the moment is to title stuff with what people think are RELEVANT WORDS making a title that has all the appearance of a verbal collage and tags. My GAWD, most of those tags are atrocious.
And have little or no bearing at all on findability and if taken outside the environment of ETSY and its insulated existence would disappear into the waste land sections of the internet as hopelessly ignorant.
And frankly that all comes from lack of knowledge of the real world and how to deal with it. A subject ignored in it’s entirety when it comes to guidance.
So the objective is to create a listing so it can be found. At least from the stand point of a store.
The other half equation comes from actually finding a listing because you are looking for one.
The two objectives are intertwined.
So this objective is to start with using Google to find something you are looking for.
WHY? Why not? It is a Most Relevant Search Engine or a Best Match Search Engine! A good one, better than most but and there is always a but.

You want a simple answer? It works more or less like Etsy’s, just a whole bunch more complex.

What do you know about Google?
Probably next to nothing other than if you write a sentence it interprets things sort of well. An extremely complex feature BUT YOU still have to tell it what you are looking for.

So lets assume for a moment IF you have been reading any of these explanations that you are looking for something like those Hammered Copper Earrings with Blue Crystals.
These:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/85114196/wire-wrapped-hammered-earrings-with-sky

IF you had never ever seen them before, would the description to find them with be adequate as Hammered Copper Earrings with Blue Crystals?

If not what would your description to find them be?
Until then we will use mine.
What do you know about Google?
Lets start with the definition of SEO! What does that mean? It means SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION.
And what does that mean.
Loosely speaking it means making a listing findable using a search engine AND describing what is for sale so people can actually find it.

And how is that done?
THE SEO part is simply, Google looks at the TITLE and the First Couple of Lines of the description. And going back to a previously made statement on this listing, There is no first couple of lines. Just one. The second line is a line space.
That is poorly done. It is however a very good first line. The title of this listings,
Wire wrapped hammered earrings with sky blue crystals, Copper jewelry
actually describes what is for sale.
It is a set of earrings,
made from hammered copper,
with Blue Crystal accents or bling
and it is jewelry.
Those are four (4) very specific features of this listing to identify what it is to some one who has never seen it.
The other part of knowing something about Google finding things, is the importance of the first couple of lines.
That is where the MOST IMPORTANT features that describe what these things are should be in. And the first line of the description is simply:
Unique hammered copper earrings with sky blue crystals, inspired by ferns and dewdrops.
and that is where the title comes from. Yes it is a repeat and there is some benefit to repeating information. There is also a benefit to expanding information in the first couple of lines, another listing aid. That can be discussed later because this one happens to be not only a repeat but a good one.

Why?
Because!
When I write a search for something I am looking for using Google I know that IF my search request consists of enough words to adequately describe what I am looking for fairly clearly and accurately and at least one of the elements I use to describe what I am looking for, either a word that is an adjective or a phrase that also does the same thing, the list of things developed has a high probability of having things exactly like I am looking for in the first page of a Google listing almost no matter how many listing there are in the generated list of results.

That does depend on the person creating the listed product following the rules on SEO to Google and that is using the Title and the First couple of lines of the description to tell me about the product, not what inspired it or stick a line space in.

Why is that important? To ME?
It is my search and I am in charge.
I am looking for a product AND if there is an adequate number of products listed in the first couple of pages of MY SEARCH I really don’t care about the rest of the pages. I am done. I do not need 9,356,497 listings to make a choice. 30 is more than adequate.
30 accurately identified products.
Based on my Search which is how things work.

So knowing how a search works, I create mine, hoping that the people who listed a product also know how to list a product to be found by a Google Search.

Here is my search!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1352&bih=535&q=hammered+copper+earrings+with+blue+crystals&oq...

and on page one, 4 or 5 down from the top, of almost 64,000 listings of hammered copper earrings is a set of earrings from
COOKONSTRIKE from Etsy.

I can guarantee you that there are enough listings on the first couple of pages for me to find a nice pair of earrings that reflect what I started out to find.
With out having to look much past page 3.

I found them. The various stores did not have a relevant listing and still don’t.
I used a relevant search engine to create a list of relevant products according to my search. And it did.
I as a buyer am satisfied.

and here is a set of earrings that has no chance what so ever of being anywhere near page one of a Google Search:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/82084039/beaded-glass-and-copper-earrings-teal?ref=sr_list_5&ga_search_s...

Go look and see if you can figure out why!

[CookOnStrike]

>> "and here is a set of earrings that has no chance what so ever of being anywhere near page one of a Google Search: "

depends on what words you use to search for it.. I'd probably describe it as "handmade teal blue lampwork bead copper earrings" and it's there, the 2nd one in my google results.
The only problem I see - it's not "blue" enough, so I'd probably skip it if I was looking for something really blue. The dominant color is sand/ivory/cream and has a grainy ceramic texture look to it. (changing "teal blue" to "ivory" in that string gives me another listing from the same shop, which I figure is good enough to draw me to their shop to Browse).

Btw karmelidesigns seems to do quite well, looking at the number of sales :) So maybe hitting page 1 in google with super relevant keywords is not vitally important to actually make a sale afterall? :)