The BIG Etsy SEO guide – for every new shop owner

In this guide, we will look at easy ways to improve your Etsy SEO and ensure you have done everything you can to succeed on Etsy.

It may seem that you have been flogging away at your shop for what feels like a generation without seeing any meaningful traction. However, Etsy is a long game, and unless you are selling something with high demand right now. E.g., masks, then you should always plan for the future.

I still believe that a house with poor foundations will never work and a smaller house on good bricks from the outset.

Agreed?

OK, let’s dive into how you can ensure you have maxed out that SEO on Etsy to get more sales – you deserve them.

*This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission. It will not cost you a penny more) Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Why is SEO important on Etsy

As you know, Etsy is a vast marketplace with thousands of shops competing for, but not always, the same portion of the traffic. The trick is to ensure that traffic comes to your shop and not the next best one. We want to please the Etsy gods, but not at the expense of our products’ quality.

No point in trying to sell a rubbish product – because if your reviews don’t trip you up- the fact that your traffic doesn’t convert into sale with eventually point you in the direction of a flop.

Just in case you didn’t know – SEO stands for Search engine optimization, and Etsy goes to great lengths to ensure they are doing as much as they can to wash traffic over your shops.

It is easy to think as a shop owner that Etsy is just a platform you sell on – and the staff are sat around listening to music watching shop performance. But actually, Etsy.com is working to simplify the service they provide for everyone.

It’s not easy being a big company with shareholders looking at you all the time. If you, as a shop owner, worked as hard as Etsy does for you as your shop platform – you would be killing it on Etsy. 

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Everything from introducing new ads, making payments easy from any platform or device – together with promoting themselves and in turn you on TV, and that’s just for the buyer. Etsy even have an app to help give a virtual view for Art buyers.

They haven’t always got things right – I’m looking at you Etsy Studio, and they haven’t made everyone happy – yes, free shipping isn’t great for everyone.

But as a shop owner – I’m not working as hard as Etsy is. I could be doing a lot more for my shop.

How to improve my Etsy shop SEO

Etsy uses lots of markers to determine where you sit in search for a particular term. Other factors also play a part. Here is a list, but not limited to how your shop plays a role in Etsy SEO.

Excellent customer service on Etsy

Customer service should be high up on your list of priorities for Etsy. It begins and ends with you as a person. How you interact with customers, how your customers receive your product and they are happy with it, and how you communicate with them and resolve issues. How you may deal with a bad review on Etsy.

What your review score is on Etsy and how well you converted those browsers into buyers.

Stop title.

This is not your shop name.

Your shop title is those few words you read underneath your shop name. It can be 55 characters long and is how Google sees your shop page.

The views I receive from Google are minimal. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. So make sure you use this space to say what you sell and use keywords if you can.

Don’t even go there with my many, many mistakes on Etsy.

Shop sections on Etsy

These also represent the title of the page for that shop section. They help shoppers find you in search and also navigate your shop. So you should use words that help buyers find your items.

I should update mine to reflect on how buyers find my prints. For example, I should have a section entitled Blue wall art prints or Blue printable art or Blue digital prints – not Blue prints, since people don’t search like this.

There are so many ways you can represent your shop sections – from colors, size, style, and design. The list is endless. If you have 100 products, you should always have at least five shop sections. These are the sections you find on the left-hand side of your shop page and can be edited in the listings section.

Etsy shop about section

Your shops about section should represent both your brand and you. Having a compelling and exciting about section is crucial if you want your customers to connect with you and buy from your store.

By telling your brand’s story, you can show how unique your product is and why they should buy from you.

What problem are you solving with your product? – 

Here is where you can make the most of a connection with your buyers by showing off your particular style, your people, and behind the scenes. All of these build a relationship right within your shop.

Remember, people buy from who they like – so showing a little vulnerability puts you onto their level. Build some curiosity without being arrogant.

Don’t say things like – you should buy my product because… I know Brad Pit, and they are really the best.

Do say

Our goal is to provide beautiful artistic products for those who love watercolor because art is for everyone.

If you give back to charity or have a strong community and workers, here is where you mention it.

You get the idea

Free shipping

Does free shipping improve your SEO on Etsy? – well, here is what Etsy have to say

Listings delivered for free to the United States and shops that offer a US free delivery guarantee get priority US search placement in the Etsy app where millions of Etsy’s most active shoppers are searching. Plus: We prioritize these items wherever Etsy advertises in the US – in email marketing, social media, and television ads.

Worried about delivery costs?

If you sell digital downloads – a priority search in the app is given by Etsy.

Selling your items with free shipping included may affect your rankings on Etsy, but I don’t believe it is paramount in success.

Here is a video from the wonderful Deborah – so you can decide for yourself. 

Etsy listing SEO

Creating a listing with great SEO is not difficult if you follow a few basic guidelines. Remember, everything you put into your listings will affect SEO where you are placed in search. But let’s look at some basic principles.

Keywords

Keywords don’t have to be difficult if you apply the same thing to each listing. Each listing should have a targeted keyword. This is your product in it’s simplest terms.

E.g., Flower print.

This is how a buyer would find your product – what you expect them to type into the search bar.

A second long-tail keyword for each listing is also essential. This is sometimes the same thing but with more detail, but can also be different. E.g., Watercolor flower print, Watercolor art print, Floral watercolor art.

Do you see? – there are many ways to skin a cat here. (Not that you would want to do that, of course)

A third General keyword should be where you capture buyers who don’t yet know what they are looking for, except they know it’s a print.

E.g., Printable watercolor art, watercolor print, digital print for kitchen.

These phrases capture those buyers who are browsing for something – but may not yet be ready to buy. Often these keywords result in more ‘Likes’ or hearts on Etsy. Hearts on Etsy – mean the item will pop back up in their feed later on. You are thus enticing them back to your shop.

We love hearts (and diamonds as it happens) – these can lead to one item becoming a best seller on Etsy in the future. (Link)

Don’t forget to fill in your attributes on your Etsy listing.

This happens to be one of the biggest problems in my shop. As I sell digital prints in various sizes, I don’t often add attributes apart from the primary color – because, well, my prints don’t have occasions either. But I encourage you not to follow my example and fill in your attributes each time you can. Don’t leave them blank as its’ another layer of search you can use.

Listing quality

Think of this as how browsers react to your product and listings. Etsy will be following shoppers all the time, basically gathering details of their actions as they visit the platform. Think of this as the shoppers’ unique internet trail.

How did the buyer find your shop or item? Did they go on purchase the product, heart the item, or leave. This determines the products’ appeal to buyers.

If many buyers visit your shop and many of them purchase your items, this tells Etsy that your product is right and buyers like it.

This improves the listing score in Etsy and gives it a boost in search results. After all, Etsy wants to deliver the best, most suitable product to buyers and convince them to buy.

In contrast, the opposite is also true. This is why for digital sellers, I encourage them to put their items up very cheaply, to begin with – which results in more sales v fewer views and gives them a little boost in search from the outset.

Your item title and description also go a long way to improve your SEO, so adding a listing on Etsy the correct way each time is important.

Creating backlinks to your Etsy products

A backlink to your Etsy product will give your listings weight in both google and Etsy. But what is a backlink on Etsy?

This is where your listing has been linked either from an outside source – e.g., Facebook, Pinterest, or your website.

SEO is about creating layers upon layers of SEO – Each backlink is another layer of traffic juice. Telling the traffic bots this has more weight and so will become more relevant for anyone searching.

You can create backlinks to your Etsy products with Pinterest by promoting your Etsy shop there or linking from your Facebook page. Both create links to your items on Etsy and improve your SEO.

Still don’t understand?

Think of all the links that go to your shop as roads for people to find your products and point Google and search engines in the right direction.

Use new keywords in your items.

I see so many shops with beautiful items and fantastic imagery, but then I look at their titles, and each one has the same three words at the beginning.

Yes, I’ve also done this.

When I began selling digital paper – I started each listing title with Digital paper at the beginning. Which only resulted in my shop looking very neat, but had no bearing in search. The search gods never found me.

When you look at your shop – please ensure you have used several relevant search terms at the beginning of your listing titles. Not the same.

Interlink between listings

Once you have written your listing description using keywords in the first 60 words – you should interlink to other listings in your shop.

To do this, copy the listing URL – you don’t have to copy the entire URL, only the short version, which contains only the number.

Note – here is where we go wrong

Myself included. 

You don’t want Etsy to show other similar items from other shops, do you?

So edit each one to show like this. 

Now you have isolated the results to your shop only, and because there are no search terms at the end, Etsy will not show completing shop products either.

See below images.

Now look at what they show in at the bottom of your listing when you add in your shop name to the URL.

See below image

We love this.

Create more products

Much like this website – my traffic improves when I add more information. By adding more posts, I can include more keywords; I can tell google I have more information, which results in more google traffic. This is the same for your shop.

Please do add more products.

Etsy is huge – so huge if it were a physical shop, it would take days and days to walk around it. Each of your items is a window on that walkway, and the more windows you have, the more chances someone will visit your shop to buy.

Simple.

Add more items to your store when and where you can. If making products takes an age for you, why not bundle some products together. Group your Etsy listings if possible. Mix up colors or sizes to allow you to add more products quickly without having to create or invent new items.

Etsy SEO is a vast subject, and although we have covered several main points in this post – you can help with your shop SEO more by reading through my other posts, which also cover SEO in your Etsy shop.

Quick tips to help your Etsy shop

Creating a best seller on Etsy is easy with this guide

Start with Etsy tags in mind

Do you know the correct way to write an item title on Etsy

Make the most of your Etsy listing photos

Final thoughts on SEO for Etsy – Have a great listing from the beginning, remember everthing counts on Etsy. So maximimis your chances of getting a sale by ensuring you are using great and relevant Keywords. Using all of the space in your shop to advertise yourself will build a solid brand off Etsy – allowing you to create back links to your shops items.

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