Let’s find out how we can find the best keywords from the list of keywords we have.
In theory, the best keywords should be:
- High demand and used by many Etsy shoppers
- Low competition from other Etsy shops
By using our previous method of finding the keywords from Etsy (search bar, search filters and related listings), we can be quite sure that the demand for the keywords are there.
For finding keywords with low competition, it’s a bit more difficult.
In general, the longer the keyword, the less competition there will be.
For example, keywords like “jewelry” will be very competitive, and it’s unlikely that any shop can rank for that keyword consistently.
However, keywords like “rose gold amethyst ring” is much less competitive, meaning that you have a way better chance of ranking on the first page.
Another good thing about using a longer keyword is that they are specific. If a shopper typed in a long keyword, it’s likely that they have a good idea of what they want, and they may even be ready to buy. On the contrary, shoppers typing in a short keyword like ‘jewelry’ are likely just browsing and not ready to purchase yet.
And this brings us to the concept of long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keyword is a phrase that is made up of about 3-5 words. It should be more specific and targeted than short keywords. And on Etsy, long-tail keywords will have less competition than a short keyword.
Finding Low Competition Keywords
First, look for keywords with fewer search results:
- Very high competition: 100,000+ results
- High competition: 50,000-100,000 results
- Average competition: 10,000-50,000 results
- Low competition: 5,000-10,000 results
- Very low competition: Fewer than 5000 results
In general, I would recommend aiming keywords that are “low” to “very low” competition. If you struggle to find such a keyword, it’s helpful to adding extra words to your existing keywords. For example, ‘bath bomb’ could be too competitive. So you can add a word either to the front or the back to get keywords like “pink bath bomb” or “bath bomb set”, both of which are lower competition keywords.
Another thing that you can look out for is the “bestseller” badge. If a keyword has many listings with that badge, it’s more competitive and harder for you to rank.
Save this list of keywords somewhere. It will be useful in the next steps and also in the future.