IndieNorth – Canadian Made Gifts, Canadian Indie Business, Unique Canadian Gifts

All righty…I’ve heard from a few folks that  they’re still a bit baffled by SEO for their Etsy Shop, so let’s sneak this little post in and explain what you need to do in plain English, without any tech talk.

The truth is, Etsy Shop or not, there are only so many things you can do to entice those groovy google spiders to run your way.  Do what you can with this information, but don’t forget the importance of “off site optimization”, which I’ll explain at the end .

Ready?  Let’s do it!

Onsite Etsy Optimization

1.  Looking for Keywords:  Key words are basically words or phrases that describe your products.  Piece of cake, right?  Just imagine what a complete stranger would need to type into a search engine to find what you sell.  Now, some keywords are going to be more popular than others, so try to stretch you imagination a bit.  For example, ” handmade silver jewellery”  turned up over  1,500,000 search results…you might have a bit of trouble getting a front page google result for that one.  You might want to dig down and find some more unique keywords for your shop.  Stumped for ideas?  You can use Google’s Adwords Tool to give you some ideas.  You’re going to want to sprinkle those keywords throughout your shop (without being silly about it).  Okay…do you have a few good keywords?  Awesome.  Let’s move on.

2.  Fix your Shop Title:  It has to explain what you sell.  As an artsy/crafty flake, I’m jazzed by beautiful shop titles.  I love titles like

“Jennifer’s  magical little hidey hole on the world wide web”.  Unfortunately, Google is the anti-flake.  Imagine a tiny robotic spider with the combined logic, (and emotional sensibilities) of Spock and Data.  Yuppos…that’s who you need to write for.

“Handcrafted silver and gemstone jewellery” is better.  Maybe not as interesting to you and me, but utterly fascinating to google.  As well, when a product on etsy turns up in a google search, it looks like this:

<shop title> by <username> on etsy.

Keep your combined <shop title> by <username> down to less than 54 characters, to avoid losing information.  It it’s larger than 54, but less than 62 characters, “on etsy” is removed.  Anything larger than 62 characters and the shop title is shortened.

3.  Fix your Shop Announcement:  the first 160 characters of your shop announcement will appear under your <shop title> by <username> on etsy title in the google search results.  You can keep this more conversational, but make sure you include those keywords in the first 160 characters.  That way, a complete stranger searching for your products will be able to see right on the google page whether you’re the shop they need.

“Your source for handmade silver and opal jewellery” is a better opener google-wise than:

“Welcome to my little shop, run from my sister’s basement in beautiful downtown Vancouver.  I am always happy to customize, so drop me a line if you don’t see what you’re looking for.  I do my very best to get orders out within a week of purchase, but if you need something fast, don’t hesitate to convo me.”

You can be as conversational as you like, once you get the “meat and potatoes” of your store out of the way.

4.  Fix Your Item Titles: Your product pages work exactly the same way your Shop Title and Shop Announcement work.  Each of your products should have it’s own set of keywords.  Be logically descriptive when giving your products a title.  Again, a necklace called “Windego Blue in the Moonlight” speaks to me in ways you cannot imagine…but it will make a robotic google spider shrug her eight shoulders and move on.  “Opal and Silver Necklace” is the way to go.  Again, the 54 character rule applies.  If:

<item title> by <username> on etsy is greater than 54 characters, “on etsy” will be removed.  After that, google starts biting into your <item title>

5.  Fix your Item Descriptions:  The item description, like you shop announcement can be more conversational, but be sure to get a description of the exact products right up front.

“Beautiful handcrafted opal and silver necklace, polished to a gleaming luster…” rather than “I searched the world over, looking for inspiration for my latest collection.  It was in the back alleys of Paris that I happened upon a a bent spoon, mostly tarnished but with one gleaming spot that shone up at me in the moonlight…etc.etc.etc”

You’re getting the picture now, right?

***Bonus Note***

The item title is also assigned as the alternate text for your images.  Nice touch, Etsy.

Offsite Optimization:

Google likes to check out your reputation on the ol’ www before letting you creep up the ladder to first page google nirvana.  How does it do that?  Why, by checking back links, of course.  Get yourself listed in directories, and get your stuff featured on blogs.  Write your own blog and link back to your products often.  Those sneaky spiders also check out the “importance” of the site linking to you.  If you can score a link from a .gov or a .edu site, you’re golden.  Otherwise, the more people are talking about you on the www, the better.  That means you may need to loose your fear of marketing and start making connections.

So, this concludes a very, VERY basic introduction to SEOing your Etsy shop.  There is so much more I’d love to get into, but your eyes are probably crossing by now.    Let’s stop there for the time being, and you can look forward to a much more in depth look at SEO at The Lounge of Commerce, opening some time in January!

Feel free to ask questions in the comments below.  If I know the answer, I’ll give it.  If I don’t know the answer, I’ll consult the magic eight ball the people who are teaching me SEO as we go. 

Related posts:

1. RockStar Sponsor: Trans-Canada Etsy Team Let me introduce you to The Trans Canada Etsy...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.