Etsy shop owners new and old can always grow and learn especially when it comes to SEO, or search engine optimization. While the online environment is always growing and changing there are always some key things you can be doing to optimize your shop and your product listings. Follow along for my top 5 Etsy tips for SEO and ways to optimize your shop with more text!
DISCLOSURE: Some of the links in this post contain affiliate links, which come at no cost to you. Know that I only promote products I personally use and stand behind. To learn more about my affiliates, please review my disclosure policy.
Thanks so much for the love on my first post in this series with my top 5 Etsy Tips for Organization. I’m happy that it helped get some of you more organized and to explore some of the options Etsy provides to you to become more efficient, including the saved replies function.
Now I’m not technically trained expert in SEO but I have picked up things here and there over years from industry experts, podcasts, blogs and the help sections of these platforms, including Etsy. Today’s post includes my top 5 Etsy Tips for SEO to help grow your organic reach and visibility in the Etsy and online platforms. These are built on my experience in my own Spot of Tea Designs Etsy shop the last 3 years and over several years consulting for companies on website and back end admin functions for Etsy and eCommerce.
Let’s focus on optimizing the contents of your etsy shop and the listings to get you more traffic and hopefully more sales with some SEO!
- Take advantage of all your title character limits
You are allowed 55 characters for your product title. Start with a strong one that defines the product and add additional ones that feature it’s use or purpose, all while adding keywords. Separate these additional titles with characters like a , or a |.
Example: I feel I have good success with my Good Game Soccer Favor Tags in both the fall and spring soccer seasons as I include many keywords that people might be searching for built in my title, all within the character limits. The title of this product is technically “Good Game Soccer Favor Tags | Soccer Printables | Soccer Game Snack Duty Tags | Soccer Thank you Tag | INSTANT DOWNLOAD” which describes their purpose in several ways, plus defines that it’s not a physical item and actually a digital download.
2. Create a product description that includes your product name and shop name.
I know this was a point I made on my last post but I’m going to explore it a little further here with a focus on SEO. As I shared, the first 160 characters of your item description is used to create the meta description for your listing page so make them count and include your listing title and shop name in it.
Example: my O-fish-ally summer bag topper description starts with “Welcome the end of the school year or beginning of summer break with a some cheddar fish crackers in a cute “It’s o-fish-ally summer!” bag topper by Spot of Tea Designs.” Additional sentences reiterate it’s purposes, ideas on what to fill in the bag and how to go about cutting and applying it to your bag.
3. Link to other products in your own shop.
Sending people elsewhere within your shop keeps you on etsy longer which gets you SEO brownie points. For each listing, after describing the item’s potential use, dimensions and any important details or inspiration for the consumer, add more general details about your shop or other categories that might appeal to them.
In the product description of each of my listings, I have a “OTHER DESIGNS” section that links to similar products, such as a tag design that looks like the gift card holder design I’m selling, or the full sections for the topic I’m sharing. For example: in the description for these Retro Father’s Day tags, I list the whole Father’s Day Section they can explore in case they want to see what other designs I offer for that theme.
4. Fulfill all the listing details, especially all 13 tags.
When you upload a new listing there are lots of required categories to fill out and some optional ones. Tags are optional, but you should 100% fill out all 13 you’re allotted! These are 13 more ways someone can find your product when searching the etsy platform.
Tip: choose different words to define your product vs using the plural version of the same product. Example: My Tooth Fairy Kit not only includes tags like “tooth fairy kit”,”tooth fairy letter”, “tooth fairy receipt” (which are all components of the kit I sell), but I also include phrases like “lost tooth” and “childhood milestone” (which are actions surrounding the event) and something a parent might search.
Need ideas on what to add? Go to a similar product already live on etsy and scroll to the bottom as you’ll see more keywords in the “explore related searches” and the “explore related categories and searches” for that item.
5. Fill out all shop detail sections fully.
Under settings –> Info and Appearance, fill out “Shop Title” to give not only the name, but also an additional description if you have the characters. Example: my shop is “Spot of Tea Designs | Party Printables and Digital Art”
Under settings –> Info and Appearance, fill out “Shop Announcement.” Tip: many people use “Shop Announcement” as a static area for shop details vs literal sale details . As a visitor, people see those first two lines which can be another spot to help describe your shops goals and purpose. Users can choose “read more” to find additional shop details, including hours and social media listings.
Under settings –> About your Shop, add yourself a “shop member” and give your shop a little personality. Remember this site is all about handmade by people so show the people off behind your shop! Have an extra helper who takes photos, helps package or drops off goods at the post office? Include them and show off your team. Under settings –> About your Shop, click the “story” tab and add more details about your shop, especially all the social media links!
With these SEO tips I hope you find more traffic headed your way as both your shop and your listings will be more complete.
I hope you as a current or potential shop owner have found this article helpful and will sit down and work to optimize your shop for SEO today! Remember: it’s the internet and always editable but do yourself a favor and work off your google doc or local spreadsheet prior to putting stuff on Etsy so you can a reference off the website for your personal records.
Leave a Reply