Niche Down To Identify Less Competitive Keywords
Now that you have found products with great potential, it’s time to dig deeper and see whether we can find a small niche/keyword that has high demand and low competition.
Once you’ve spotted a winning product, use the Alura extension to check its title and tags - the two places we can get the keywords the listing is using. This way we can explore the long-tail keywords stemming from this successful listing.
Long-tail keywords are highly specific phrases that are usually made up of 3-5 words. They target exactly what the buyer is looking for. Because they are so specific, they have less competition compared to short, broad keywords, making it easier to rank on the first page. And they have less competition compared to short keywords, making it easier to rank on the first page.
Search Etsy with the keywords from the successful listings. The aim is to find long-tail keywords that are less competitive but still with high demand.
Once you add more to the keyword (more specific), you will see the competition level drop (fewer listings competing for that keyword).
Another good thing about Alura is that it gives keyword a score based on demand and competition. Keywords with high demand and low competition will get a high score and vice versa.
From the previous example, some of the top selling ‘digital planners’ are dated and some are undated. So I searched ‘digital planner undated’. The demand is still high (many top selling listings) and the competing listings drop from over 300k to about 20k (which is still a lot). but you get the idea of finding longer tail keyword that still have good demand and less competition.
And when I added the word ‘green’ to make the keyword ‘green digital planner undated’, there are only about 1700 listings competing at the time of writing and the demand is still pretty good. Alura even gives this keyword a score of 8 out of 10.
How To Find Long-Tail Keywords Efficiently
Sometimes it’s hard to mark down all long-tail keyword combination. What I like to do is to have ‘components’ of keywords and combine them together to form long-tail keywords.
Continuing from the previous example:
Target keywords like “digital planner”, “iPad planner”, “undated”, “monthly”, “hyperlinked”, “for notability”, “for goodnotes”.
Product feature keywords like “digital downloads”, “instant download”
Usage keywords like “fitness”, “student”, “business owner”, “weight loss”
Style words like “minimalist”, “boho”, “green”, “botanical”
You can then mix-and-match from the list to get long-tail, targeted keywords like “digital fitness planner for goodnotes” or “green iPad planner for students”. Note: When you eventually write your listing titles, make sure they read naturally for a human. Do not just paste a robotic list of overlapping keywords (known as keyword stuffing), as Etsy's current search algorithm could penalise this.
How To Do The Research Manually
In case you don’t want to use Alura. You can still do this market research manually.
As mentioned above, pay attention to ‘bestseller’ and ‘popular now’ badges. If a search page has many listings with lots of badges, it is likely that keyword is popular. Also, use the Etsy Search Bar Autocomplete. Simply type your broad keyword (like "digital planner") into the search bar and do not hit enter. Etsy will drop down a list of the most popular long-tail variations buyers are currently searching for.
As mentioned above, pay attention to ‘bestseller’ and ‘popular now’ badges. If a search page with many listings with badges, it is likely that keyword is popular.
Also, you can check the review rate to determine estimated sales. Usually, the review rate for digital downloads is a bit lower between 2% and 5% of number of sales (buyers tend to download the file and leave without reviewing). You can click into the listing and see how many reviews that specific item has to estimate total sales. For example, if a digital product has 10 reviews, it likely has between 200 and 500 sales.
But I would strongly encourage using Alura as it speeds up the process a lot and allow you to go through many products at once and see the highest performing products in seconds.