With a minimum number of clicks, you can launch your Etsy store in no time. However, opening a store doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll start making money.

To sell your handmade items on Etsy, shoppers need to find them. That’s where the importance of Etsy SEO comes into play. Focusing on optimizing your Etsy listings will increase your product’s visibility. More viewers mean more sales.

So, how do you optimize products on Etsy? Great question.

We’ve put together some starting points along with a few Etsy SEO tips to get your products in front of the right audience.

 

Why Sell Your Products on Etsy?

If you sell handmade items, Etsy is the marketplace for you. Since it began in 2005, Etsy has become one of the biggest online marketplaces, with 4.4 million sellers, 81.9 million active buyers, and $1.7 billion of annual revenue in 2020.

In addition to those favorable numbers, here are even more reasons to sell on Etsy:

• Quick Setup – Setting up shop on Etsy is simple, it doesn’t require any special computer skills. The setup process is user-friendly, and navigation is quick and easy.
•  Cost-Effective – Etsy only charges sellers $0.20 to list an item and 5% of the selling price when an item sells. There are no domain/hosting fees.
• Community Support – There’s a helpful and engaged seller community on Etsy where you can ask questions, exchange stories, and get support.

 

#1 – Put the Category in Your Title

As you know, it’s important to include the category in your title. These words are what shoppers are likely to type in when searching for a particular product.

For example, if you make pocket watches, you’d most likely list your product within the pocket watch subcategory. Make sure you include “pocket watch” in your product title since potential shoppers are most likely using those keywords when searching.

 

#2 – Use Longtail Keywords In Titles

The shorter a keyword is, the more traffic it will get. That’s a good thing, right? Not necessarily. Using a “longtail” keyword (a phrase with three or more words that is more specific) may likely bring in more sales.

Well, how does that make any sense?

People who use a shorter, more generic, keyword are often browsing and don’t know what they want. They’ll also be bombarded with a ton of products to sift through, which means more competition for you.

People searching with a more specific keyword are often more likely to make a purchase, and there’ll be less products to sift through, meaning less competition for you.

To continue with the earlier example, a generic keyword a person might use would be “watches” which would generate a ton of product listings to comb through. A person further down the sales funnel might use a longtail keyword such as “antique pocket watch” which would generate fewer results, but those results are exactly what they’re searching for, their specific ecommerce niche.

Using “antique pocket watch” in your product title will ensure your product listing is shown to these potential buyers.

 

#3 – Put Primary Keyword in Title First

The first 30 characters (approximately) are the most important for SEO. The first keyword in your title should be your money word. That means you shouldn’t put anything unnecessary in that prime spot such as size, color, or brand name.

 

#4 – Include Synonyms

Each person will use different words to search for the same product. While it’s important to put your primary keyword first in your product title, you should still consider other words the product may be known and searched by.

Capitalize on this and use synonyms after your keywords in a product title or include them in your product description and tags.

 

#5 – Vary Keywords for Similar Products

Etsy does what is called “declumping” which means Etsy won’t include more than one or two items for each seller in search results.

So, that means you shouldn’t use the same primary keyword for more than a couple of items. If you do, you’re essentially competing against yourself for a spot at the top of the search results.

Make sure more products show up in different search results by using different keyword variations for similar products.

 

#6 – Don’t Be Too Creative with Titles

As a seller on Etsy, you’re a creative and unique business owner. While it may be tempting to allow your creativity to extend product names, it’s better if you don’t. It makes for a very ineffective title, a common Etsy seller mistake.

People who are searching for products won’t use cutesy or overly creative terms. For example, if you sell original paintings, you don’t want to put the unique name of your painting in the title. Instead, use terms like “abstract painting, acrylic on canvas” in your title and save the painting’s title for the product description.

 

#7 – Use Keywords in Product Tags

Etsy allows up to 13 tags for your items, which is another great opportunity to add in relevant search terms. Each tag can be 20 characters long, so think of as many search terms as you can and add them to your tags. Here are a few types of keywords to use:

• Synonyms such as “timepiece” and “wristwatch” for your watches
• Descriptors “men’s watch” or “wooden watch” or “antique watch”
• Long-tail keywords “antique men’s watch” or “1925 gold watch” or “engraved pocketwatch” or “anniversary watch”

Etsy states that you shouldn’t repeat any categories or attributes because those are already accounted for in the search results. Save the more specific keywords for the tags.

 

#8 – Earn Backlinks

Backlinks (also called inbound links) are links to your site from other websites. Earning backlinks is crucial to improving your Etsy SEO because they increase search engine confidence in your site. Here are three strategies to help you earn backlinks:

Better Blogging – Blogs not only grow your audience, but can also increase your SEO, establish your brand as an industry leader, and help you earn backlinks.

Socializing – When you’re sharing links to your blog and website on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media channels, it increases your chances of reaching new customers who might backlink to your shop.

Reaching Out – Make a list of different mediums that may want to highlight your products or shop, including publications, blogs, and social media accounts. Then reach out to them. Consider incentivizing those who are interested by offering a sample or discount to sweeten the deal.

 

#9 – Renew Listings

Renewing your existing Etsy listings when they expire will give you a small boost in Etsy’s search rankings. While this isn’t going to be a long-term solution, it does help with the visibility of competitive keywords. This can be especially helpful during higher sales periods, like the holidays.

 

#10 – Create Great Customer Experiences

Etsy wants to make sure that sellers provide customers with outstanding shopping experiences, so it pays close attention to shops’ standings with its policies and reviews their customer service records. If your shop stays in good standing, it increases the likelihood that your listings will be ranked higher in search results.

Your customer service is another aspect that affects your shop’s SEO. When you provide good customer service by responding to customer questions promptly, offering returns and exchanges, and resolving negative feedback, it can have a positive effect on your ranking in search queries.

 

Final Thoughts about Etsy SEO

Even if you have unique, high-quality products, an attractive and inviting shop, detailed product images, and quick shipping, if no one sees your listings, you won’t have any sales. To optimize your listings even further, check out these do’s and don’ts of listing products on Etsy.

Have any other Etsy SEO tips that worked for you in the past? Let us know in the comments below.

Looking for a tool to help you with listing? Give our Etsy listing tool a try for free today!

 

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published April 2019 and was updated in July 2021 to reflect more accurate and relevant information.