Help :(

[Former_Member]

I need some help with both titles and tags. I have made some changes as I learn from forums but I feel like all of my tags and titles are the same for all of my listings and I'm barely getting any views. On a good day I get 20.

Tags I currently use include:
bead and ribbon
ribbon necklace
bead jewelry
such and such pendant
such and such colored ribbon/beads

Does anyone have any ideas on how to add variety and create titles and tags that will actually get me some views.

Thank you so much!

[Former_Member]

Andrea Mitchell from AlyxAndreaDesign says
I need some help with both titles and tags. I have made some changes as I learn from forums but I feel like all of my tags and titles are the same for all of my listings and I'm barely getting any views. On a good day I get 20.

Tags I currently use include:
bead and ribbon
ribbon necklace
bead jewelry
such and such pendant
such and such colored ribbon/beads

Does anyone have any ideas on how to add variety and create titles and tags that will actually get me some views.

Thank you so much!
======================
Andrea,
Stop and think for a moment what the function of a search engine is.
While it can be pretty much anything you want it to be, primarily it is an internet tool used by some one to find something they are looking for.
Now that seems to be self evident, but is it?
If for example I am looking for something I generally have a pretty fair idea of what it is that I am intending to find.
Be it a part for my car, some data for research of a given product that might be a Christmas Present, I am not looking for some random un-identified product, but something that I have a preconceived idea of what it might be.

A random un-identified product can be found pretty much by stumbling on it through a variety of methods. And using a search engine is one of them, but that is a secondary function of a search engine. Something akin to Browsing which has no rules or methodology.
The primary function is one of locating what it is I am looking for by my telling it verbally and creating some form of a verbal picture as to what it is I want it to find.

Now take for example this product from your store:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/117989629/steam-punk-watch-gears-pendant-bead-and
This is something you are offering for sale.
If I were to look for this item then I would expect it to show up on a list of products located by my search. My search would describe verbally what I want to find and the search engine would locate something on Etsy with the Title and Tags that also describe verbally a product and if it matches my description to the search engine, it will be one of many displayed as my search results.

Lets say I wanted to find a Necklace that is of a Steampunk genre and as I have a reason to find a certain style of this necklace I want to find one with a Watch Gear Themed pendant.


So my Search could possibly be something like this.
A simple search to start with.
Necklace, watch gear pendant.

Now first look back at that search request. Does it sound logical to you? Is it written a logical format? One that might possibly be both functional and readable?

If so look at this title.

Steam punk watch gears pendant, bead and ribbon necklace, green and orange glass beads, free shipping

Think for a moment. Is this a clearly defined product so that when you read the title it defines exactly what the product is that is for sale?
And remember while thinking about this. products are found by a search engine by matching words and phrases in the title and in the tags to words and phrases in the search request.

Also think about this. Some product lines do not have a whole lot of differences to the product involved. Maybe a color change or a material change or there might be a theme change. But in the case of a necklace with a steampunk themed watch gear pendant?
There is not a lot of difference in a brief description of what a title can describe.
And truly it is not really important if you have a whole bunch of product with similar titles. The search engine does not make a value judgment as to creativity. It does little more than match words and phrases of a search request to words and phrases in a product listing.
In fact the shorter and clearer a title is that uses terminology that represents the product clearly also has the highest probability of also being used by some one looking for a product to create a list of similar products.
And how does ones product rate maybe higher on a list of products found by a search?
Well there are multiple reasons for that but one important one is a relatively short and clear title using commonly used words and phrases.
And by definition, if you have many items listed that are similar than you are also going to have many items with boringly similar Titles. And the search engine does not care if it is boring, just if it matches the search request efficiently.
And a shorter clearer title can be far more an efficient match than a long wordy one that when read by a person, does not make a whole lot of sense.

There is another probability factor that must be taken into consideration when evaluating your store search results from your statistics.
Your store is part of a numbers game played here. What game? You are one of about 900,000 stores. That is a bunch so to some extent, 20 views a day might be considered a lot of views in the grand scheme of things. The important thing is sort of this.
Are those views representing people with an idea in mind of what they want and a budget to buy it with? Or some one stumbling on to your listing almost by accident?
The higher the probability your titles and tags clearly define what is for sale? The higher the probability some one looking for something with a budget to buy it with, is locating what you have for sale.

So going back to look at this listing and reading the description you get this;

Steam punk style metal pendant made with watch gears is 1.75 x 1.5" Necklace uses alternating 2mm brown ribbon and 3mm cream ribbon. Beads are glass in various shapes, sizes and shades of green and orange. Ribbon is left untied in the back so you can tie this necklace by AlyxAndrea Design to any length.

Do you have any idea how good this description is? Read it again! It clearly defines what is for sale. It creates a wonderful verbal picture of the product. You almost do not need the picture to accent the marketability. And that is good as the search engine does not care about the picture. But and there is a but, the search engine does not read the description. It reads the title and tags.
And the title does not even come close to describing the product with any degree of accuracy. It is a random (almost) collection of words amassed together to fill up a space.

The purpose of a title is to define what is going to be talked about. Not to be collage of words which when analyzed are also used elsewhere. The Title should tell some one what is going to be for sale.

Then what are the tags?
The tags are used to emulate the description. Why? Because the description is not searched, the title and tags are. This is where you stick a word or an important phrase that describes some element of the product more clearly.

In your tags, the word bead or beads is used 5 times.
While on one hand repetitive use as a tag has an advantage there is also a disadvantage applied to repetitive use. The lack of brevity counts against being found early.
Thus a balancing act takes place.
The word of the color green is used twice. It could be possible that using it only once is a better way to do thigns.
Read your description again and then go look at the tags.
Do they say the same thing? Can you read your tags and create the same verbal picture as reading the description? If not then the tags are not doing their job. There are a few jobs the tags do, but one of the most important is to create a verbal picture of the product for sale the same as the description does. Why,? Because a potential customer is going to create some form of a verbal picture using words to command the search engine to create a list of products to look at.
So back to my search.
http://www.etsy.com/search?q=Necklace%20%20Watch%20Gears%20Pendant&order=most_relevant&view_type=lis...
This gives me some 1800 + items to look at on some 46 or so pages all representing my initial attempt to find something.
Each potential customer is going to do something here to winnow down the size of the list to something manageable to look at.
And that will be to add some descriptive term to the search request to narrow it down some.
The Steampunk as a design element might be added.:;
http://www.etsy.com/search?q=Necklace%20%20Watch%20Gears%20Pendant%20Steampunk&order=most_relevant&v...
I am not down to some 1700 items on the list and down 2 pages.
For me that is way to many to look through. I need to make it even smaller for my purposes so I will add a color to further describe one of the features I would like to see.
Fall colors, Orange and Green.
http://www.etsy.com/search?q=Necklace%20%20Watch%20Gears%20Pendant%20%20Orange%20Green&view_type=lis...
Well that did something good. That brings it way down to something manageable. 2 items on 1 page. Frankly I can deal with that as it represents what I am looking for and did not take up some huge amount of pages to get me there.
Now if you have followed to this point the message is this.
The title should give a clear concise definition of what is for sale.
The tags should fill in the gaps in describing what it is so that between the two locations the product is defined clearly with readability a criteria and while people will be different in how they search and what their objectives are, if there is a certain amount of brevity used with the title and tags, the same WILL be true of a search request and brevity makes better matches.
As does probability of search term usage.
I hope this does help some AND
Merry Christmas

[Former_Member]

Thank you soooo much for the help!!!! That was a wonderfully descriptive response and I really appreciate the time you took to look into this for me. I can't thank you enough and I will keep plugging away at it.