SEO (search engine optimisation) is how shoppers can find you on Etsy.

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It involves finding the right keyword to use for your products and implementing those keywords in the right places like title and tags.

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Mastering Etsy SEO can help you maximise the chance of showing up in front of the right customers.

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How Does Etsy Search Work?

After a shopper types in a keyword in the search box, Etsy first finds all the listings matches the search term, and then rank them by a number of factors.

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Query Matching

Etsy listings that have the search keyword in any one of these places will be eligible to rank.

• Title
• Tags
• Categories
• Attributes
• Listing Description

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Ranking Factors Of Etsy Search

After Etsy has all the products that are eligible to rank for a query, Etsy algorithm uses these extra factors to determine the final search ranking. Here are the most important ones:

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Relevancy

This is how well your listing's titles, tags, etc match what shopper searches for. Exact matching of keywords will improve the ranking.

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Product Description

Etsy looks at your product description to further determine the ranking of your listing in Etsy search. Aim to write a short paragraph in the beginning of your listing description that includes 3-5 keywords and describe the benefits and features of the product.

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Listing Quality Score

This looks at how well a particular product sells/converts. Etsy takes into account the percentage of people clicking, favoriting and buying a product to determine the score. Etsy wants visitors to actually buy the products. The higher the conversion rate, the higher your Etsy ranking will be.

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Recency

A new or just renewed product will get a small boost in ranking, but the effect is very small. So renewing all your products constantly will not be helpful, especially because it costs money to renew listings.

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Shop's Age

New Etsy store gets a boost in ranking for a period of time.

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Customer And Market Experience Score

Etsy also looks at your shop’s review, policy and more. Achieving these will help your ranking:

• Good reviews for the particular products
• Good reviews for your shop
• Finished About page
• Completed shop policy
• No cases open against your shop

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Shipping Price

Etsy ranks shops higher if they offer free shipping to the US for orders over US$35. This could be difficult to do if you are outside the US.

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Finding Long-Tail Keywords

Method 1 - The A-to-Z Method

Step 1 - Put in your ‘seed’ keyword in your search bar. A good seed keyword should be specific to your product and about 2-3 word long, like “gemstone ring”, “soy candle”, “floral tshirt”.

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Step 2 - Add a space to the end and start adding on a letter. Once you added a letter, the search bar should come up with suggestions of other popular keywords. For example, when you type “gemstone ring s”, it should come up with keywords like “gemstone ring sterling silver” and “gemstone ring set”.

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Step 3 - Go through this process from A-to-Z and mark down all the keywords that are suitable.

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Step 4 - Repeat the process with other ‘seed’ keywords. For example, once you finish with “gemstone ring”, you can go on to “amethyst ring” or “gemstone jewelry”.

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Method 2 - Using Etsy Keyword Tools

There are some paid Etsy tools that are great at finding keywords. My favourites are Alura and EtsyHunt, both of which have great free/affordable plans for keyword research.

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How To Choose The Best Keywords To Use

The best keywords should be:

1. High demand and used by many Etsy shoppers
2. Low competition from other Etsy shops

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High Demand

The keywords generated by our previous A-to-Z method should have decent demand generally. This is because the keywords suggested by the Etsy search bar are based on real shoppers' data.

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Low Competition

You want to use long-tail keywords, which are keywords that are 2-5 word long. They tend to have lower competition and higher purchase intent by shoppers.

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For example, 'jewelry' is a highly competitive keyword and ranking on the first page for it is almost impossible. Instead, use keyword like 'rose gold amethyst ring' that are less competitive and more specific to increase your chance of ranking.

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For a small shop, I would recommend aiming for long-tail keywords with less than 5,000 search results.

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Optimising Your Listing For SEO

Title

Put your most descriptive keyword at the front of the title. The front of the title is given more importance in search ranking. Separate keywords with commas, dashes and other symbols to make it easy to understand.

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Example from my shop: "Custom Tea Packaging Label Template - Printable Label Design, Square Product Label, Tea Label Editable, Minimalist Product Label Template"

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Tags

Use all 13 tags. They should also be long-tail keywords, and are keywords that customer would actually search for. I'll explain it with examples:

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First, come up with tags that are in your title. Using the example above, "Custom Tea Packaging", "Tea Packaging Label" and "Square Product Label" are in the title and can be used as highly relevant tags.

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Keep in mind that the tags should make sense. For example, "Custom tea" and "Editable minimalist" appear in the title but not relevant.

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Afterwards, there are two methods to get additional tags to fill up all 13 spots:

1. Mix-and-match keywords in your title. E.g. "Square tea label" doesn't appear as a whole in the title but is relevant
2. Add extra words that is relevant or from your keyword research. It could be style, size, use case, colour, etc. For example, "Tea pouch label" and "Pastel label design" are two possible relevant tags.

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Description

Because Etsy now considers keywords in your description as well. Aim to write a short paragraph in the beginning that includes 3-5 keywords and describe the benefits and features of the product.

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For more in-depth SEO strategies, click here to start the SEO course

Now that we increase the chance of your products showing up in front of shoppers, it’s time to make sure they actually click and buy.

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There are two main parts of this process: Get shoppers to click your listing from the search page, and convince them to buy your product.

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Clickable Thumbnail photo

Whether shoppers click depends heavily on your product photos, especially the first photo which is the thumbnail photo.

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Make sure your photo is bright, clean and with the product being the focus. I would also recommend using a simple background with minimal texture and patterns to reduce any distractions as we discussed in previous section of the roadmap.

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Another way to increase the clicks into your listings is adding text to your product photos. The text you add should be your strongest selling point and/or product information. Here's an example from MyLifePlans:

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Showcase Your Product with Strategic Listing Photos

To convince shoppers to buy, there are two main ways: present them with your strongest USP + features, and eliminate barriers of purchase.

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Also, because Etsy has been reducing the visibility of product description over the years, I'd recommend students to consider adding text of these in your listing photos.

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Highlight Your USP & product Features

• Visualise Your USP - Can you capture your USP in an image? Maybe it's a unique functionality, an eco-friendly material or a list of customisable colours. Pair that with a few words to explain your USP.
• Emphasise Key Features: Stage photos to showcase the features that matter most to your target customers. This could be beautiful details, size comparisons, or various use cases.

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Reduce Barriers Of Purchase

They are the uncertainties that can stop people from buying even though they want the product. Some common concerns people have:

• Are the photos accurate? - Make sure your photos look as close to the real product as possible. Check them across multiple screens to double check. Use Canva or Lightroom to edit your photos.
• Can I trust this shop? - When you are crafting your listing, sprinkle in some behind the scenes photos and even technical details of how you make your product is good. Just make sure you say it in an easy-to-understand way.
• Do other people like this product? - Other than the product review, you can extract some of your best customer reviews and put them in the product description and product photo (a photo with 3-5 related quotes from customer reviews).
• What if it breaks in the future? - Have a clear shop policy. You can consider offering refunds or exchange.

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For more details about listing optimisations, read the Etsy Listing Sales Machine course. Also, copy my Etsy listing photo templates as a great starting point for high converting listings.

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Writing Product Description

Even though it's become less prominent on Etsy, a good product description can still boost your conversion rate by articulating the benefits to your target customers, and eliminate any concerns that they may have.

Now you should have everything you need to open your Etsy shop! Yay!

Let’s walk through the simple steps to open your Etsy shop:

1. Using this link to get 40 free listings, click “Open a shop today” and follow the steps.
2. Set your shop preferences - including shop country, language and currency
3. Name your shop - Use Namelix or ChatGPT to generate catchy brand name quickly.
4. Create your listings - You will need at least one listing created, but you will be able to open your shop first before adding more.
5. Choose how you’ll get paid - Most sellers will use Etsy Payment, which is Etsy’s own payment processing system.
6. Set up billing - entering your credit card details
7. Open your shop. Your shop address will be etsy.com/shop/yourshopname or yourshopname.etsy.com
8. Customise your shop - set up shop policy, upload shop icon and cover image/banner, add about section, etc.
9. Add the rest of your products - be sure to use the duplicate listing and quick edit functions to speed up the process