Keyword research is a crucial first step for Etsy sellers looking to improve their shop's visibility and increase sales.

By using the right keywords, you can increase your product’s chance of being discovered by your target customers.

That’s why in this comprehensive guide, I’ll go through my favourite ways to research and brainstorm keywords, so that you can get more traffic to your Etsy shop.

Let’s get started.

Keyword Research Basics

What Are Keywords

Keywords are the words and phrases that:

1. Shoppers use when searching for products on Etsy, and
2. Etsy sellers use to describe their listings and optimise for search.

They should describe your product accurately by using the keywords that your target customers would use. By matching the two, you increase the chance of the right customers finding you through Etsy search engine.

Using Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific keyword phrases that shoppers are likely to use when they are close to making a purchase.

Long-tail keywords are often less competitive (fewer sellers targeting it), and with higher buyer intent (more ready to buy). That’s why it’s a good idea for Etsy sellers to use long-tail keywords for the product listings.

For example, instead of using “earrings”, using a longer, more descriptive keyword like “rose gold amethyst stud earrings” to target your customers better.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s jump into my some of my favourite methods for keyword research:

Etsy Keyword Research Methods

Analysing Your Own Etsy Shop Stats

One of the first places to start keyword research is within your own Etsy shop.

Go to your shop dashboard and click on “Stats”. Scroll down and you’ll see your most viewed listings.

Clicking on the listings will give you a more detailed view. Scroll down to the “Search terms” section and you will see a list of keywords that’s currently driving traffic to this listing. The search terms are ranked by the number of visits.

By looking at these keywords, you can identify opportunities to include relevant keywords that you aren’t directly targeting, but are getting clicks. Putting them in your title and tag can help you rank higher under those keywords and potentially increase your traffic.

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Leveraging Etsy Ads Data

Etsy Ads used to be a valuable resource for keyword research. However, recent updates from Etsy has greatly limited the information you can get from your Etsy ads.

After going to your Etsy ads section, scroll down and click on individual listings to get a detailed view.

You will be able to see the search terms your listing ranked for in the last 30 days. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to extend the time period, which means that if you are not running ads with a high budget, you probably won’t get enough data to get a useful list of keywords.

Analysing Etsy Search Analytics

The Search Analytics under the “Marketing” tab in your dashboard can give you some keyword ideas, although there are a few issues that make it not as useful as it can be.

First, sort the keywords by impression or visits. Then go through the first few pages of the keyword list to see if there are any relevant ones that you are not currently using, or whether there are any that you can target with new products.

However, the lack of filtering options make this tool not as useful as it can be. For example, it would be great to be able to only show keywords that has the position of 20-50 to reveal keyword opportunities. Instead, there’s no way to do that without having to jump through pages and pages of data.

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Using Etsy Search Bar To Get Long-Tail Keywords

Etsy’s search bar is one of the best free ways to find long-tail keywords for your products. It shows up-to-date information of what actual shoppers are searching on Etsy recently.

As you are typing into the search bar, Etsy’s auto-complete feature will give you suggestions of longer search terms. These are terms that shoppers actually search for on Etsy. The keywords that show on in the search bar is likely to have a good level of demand.

We can also use it to get long-tail keyword ideas. For example, by typing "tote bag" followed by a letter like "f," you can discover keyword ideas like "tote bag for teacher" or "tote bag flower":

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Using Keyword Research Tools Like EtsyHunt

Etsy market search tools can help you speed up the process of keyword research. One of the tools that I like using is EtsyHunt, which is also one of my recommended Etsy SEO tools.

First, search your main product keyword in the “Keyword Analysis” page. Then scroll down to the “Keyword Expansion” section where you will find a list of keywords used by listings ranking under that particular keyword on Etsy.

One of the best features I love using is the “Rec Degree” (Recommendation Degree) filter. It ranks keywords based on both the estimated views and competition level. Higher number reveals potentially underserved keywords. The higher the number, the bigger the gap is between demand and competition.

There’s a free plan on EtsyHunt which lets you try out most of the features.

Generating Keyword Ideas With AI Tools

Free AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard and Claude AI can help you generating a long list of keyword ideas.

Describe your product to the AI tool, and ask for a list of keyword ideas optimised for SEO on Etsy. Here’s an example prompt that I use on Claude AI to generate keyword ideas:

Because these tools don’t have access to live search data, you’ll still need to verify these keywords as they may be too competitive or not high in demand. I’ve included some methods of how to pick the right keywords later in this article.

Using Pinterest For Keyword Ideas

Pinterest can be leveraged in a few ways to get keyword ideas.

Similar to Etsy, Pinterest has an auto-complete feature that gives you popular long-tail keyword variations to consider. Keep in mind that some of these may not be product related.

After you’ve typed in the search term, at the top of the search page, Pinterest gives you a list of related terms on the top to ‘niche down’ on your original keyword. For example, after searching “jar labels”, you get other terms like “spice” and “kitchen”, which can all add to the original keyword to get “spice jar labels” and “kitchen jar labels”

When you scroll down in the search results, you’ll also get “Related searches”, which shows other relevant keywords based on what people search for.

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Researching What Keywords Your Competitors Use

Researching the specific keywords your competitors are ranking for can uncover new keyword opportunities.

To do that, search for your main product keyword on Etsy and look at the bestselling listings from your biggest competitors.

Click into those listings and see whether there are keywords that are relevant to your listings that you haven’t thought of.

Etsy market research tools like EtsyHunt that I’ve mentioned above can also speed up the process. It can reveal the frequency of keywords used by your competitors, alongside the keyword’s competition level and estimated demand.

Where To Use Your Keywords

Now that you have researched a list of keywords, it’s time to implement them.

The keywords you get from your research are used primarily in your titles and tags to help potential customers find your products.

The beginning of your listing title is the most visible, so make sure the long-tail keyword you put there is descriptive and something that resonate with your target customers. You should also separate different long-tail keywords in your title so that it’s easy for shoppers to read.

For listing tags, make sure to use all 13 of them. And use long-tail keywords that will match what your target customers search for.

Etsy also consider keywords in your listing descriptions, categories, and attributes. For listing description, I’d recommend putting a short paragraph in the beginning to describe your products. Aim to use 2-3 highly relevant keywords naturally in your paragraph, but don’t stuff the listing description with just keywords as that affects readability. And for listing categories and attributes, choose the ones that match your products the best.

How To Pick The Right Keywords For Your Etsy Shop

The most important factor in picking your keywords is relevance. Make sure they describe your products accurately.

Also, it’s important to choose keywords that are relatively higher in demand and lower in competition level. Here are some tips to find high demand, low competition niches:

• Keywords appearing in the Etsy search bar can indicate good level of demand
• If there are many listings under a keyword with the “Bestseller” or “Popular Now” badges, then the demand is likely to be higher
• The higher the number of listings competing in the same keyword, the more likely that the niche is competitive
• If there are a large number of big sellers competing for sales in a niche, it may be hard for a new Etsy shop to break in the market

Check out this article for more details.

Or you can speed up the analysis with Etsy research tools like EtsyHunt. They are able to estimate the demand and competitiveness of a certain keyword, which can help you identify opportunities on Etsy.