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Using Keyword Research to Improve Etsy Sales

by Tim Layton   {Google+}   {Pinterest}   {Twitter}

in Running Your Etsy Business,Tutorials

Did you know that Etsy Shops perform extremely well on Google?

The Etsy site as a whole has quite a bit of authority in the eyes of major search engines which can absolutely translate into sales for you! The most important part of the equation is in the wording you add to your Etsy shop.

We’ll show you how to get better at it!

Take a few minutes to do keyword research before writing your product description.

Here’s how you do that:

1.

Go to Google’s Keyword Research Tool (read the rest of the post first so you know what to do when you get there!)

2.

Think of some words that you think describe your product. I just pulled an idea out of the air and searched for “Wooden Toys” Here is the screen:

ScreenHunter 01 Jan. 29 11

3.

On the results page, you’ll see various phrases related to the term. These are combinations of words searched for (you can use quotations to search for exact worded phrases) and you can see how many searches per month Google gets for that term.

ScreenHunter 03 Jan. 29 11

4.

On the left, you can see a green bar… that shows how stiff the competition is for paid Google AdWords campaigns for that keyword group. The more solid the bar, the harder it will be to gain search traffic in that term (but you still should use it if the numbers are huge)

Run down that column looking for a term that has three characteristics:

  • It fits your product
  • It has low or medium competition
  • It gets at least 1000 searches per month, preferably more.

Since I don’t sell wooden toys this was more of an exercise for me, but I saw a decent idea! I saw that about 1600 people per month search for “Old Wooden Toys” and the competition wasn’t that high. Vintage (old) stuff sells great on Etsy! Maybe not a bad idea for a shop!

ScreenHunter 02 Jan. 29 11

5.

Once you find some good terms, include those in your item description. This will help your Etsy shop perform better in search results for your items! You can also keep a list of these terms so that you can use them in an AdWords campaign should you decide to advertise that way. Which we’ll be talking about soon.

I’ve really simplified this. If you want to get ultra-serious, there is a whole lot of information online about keyword research. It’s probably worth some time to learn even more. But this will get you started! Good luck!

(note fyi: this and most of the business how-to posts on Everything Etsy are written by someone far less pretty than the girl in the sidebar. I’m her lucky husband, Tim, aka RemodelingGuy. )

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{ 4 trackbacks }

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February 9, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Learn Basic SEO for Etsy
February 25, 2012 at 1:23 am
Does Focusing on Keywords Increase Sales?
February 27, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Basic Etsy Shop SEO Video
February 29, 2012 at 4:58 pm

{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Christy January 29, 2010 at 9:33 pm

Great tip, thanks for sharing. I’ll be sure to bookmark this.

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2 Manette January 31, 2010 at 3:49 pm

Hey Tim, thanks for the tips, great info. By the way I found you on google search. I have tried using the search words you mention and still find that when I search for sea glass jewelry in google that my shop just doesn’t show up and yet many others do. I wish I knew what I was doing wrong. Thanks, newsprout

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3 Jennifer Schulting February 1, 2010 at 10:12 pm

WOW, that’s all I can say…so happy to have found this site. My etsy store is under a major reconstruction and I’m so grateful to have found Everything Etsy…haven’t found a post yet that I can’t use something out of it. Thank You very much……..

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4 angie February 2, 2010 at 1:04 am

This is a great tip. I have been wondering how everyone “just knows” what terms to use. Thanks for posting this! I will be book marking this for later.

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5 Genevieve March 23, 2010 at 11:14 am

What a great link! I agree ~ this may be more helpful than the color naming (but I still like that idea too).

:)

Genevieve

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6 Jen March 24, 2010 at 7:33 pm

Great info! Thanks! Love your site!
.-= Jen´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.

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7 Kat, Designs by Kat March 25, 2010 at 10:31 pm

Thanks so much for this! Lovin the blog- just found it today and aleady added the banner to my own little blog, http://www.customdesignsbykat.blogspot.com. Thanks for the tip!
-Kat

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8 Niki Miller March 26, 2010 at 10:19 am

Great tip! Thank you so much! I’m currently working on revamping my site and I’m going to try this!

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9 Jami March 29, 2010 at 5:08 pm

Awesome tip! I just found quite a few keywords that I never would have thought to use. Thanks!

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10 Holly March 29, 2010 at 10:09 pm

Just a quick ?- Do you paste these words in the description of your item, or just use them as your tags?? That’s the only thing I wanted to make sure I am getting right?? Thanks!

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11 Everything Etsy March 29, 2010 at 10:17 pm

Hi Holly – Once you find keywords that are fitting for your items, you want to use those words in a natural manner in your item description. You can also use them in the tags, and you can use any that are fitting, but couldn’t be naturally worked into your wording, in the tags. It’s not a problem to duplicate the same keywords in the tags that you use in the item descriptions. If I had to pick, I would say the words in the item description are more important.

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12 Holly March 29, 2010 at 10:46 pm

Great! Thanks so much for the tips! I am definitely going to do this!

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13 Judy April 13, 2010 at 7:53 pm

Thanks so much for this information. My partner Alisa and I are relatively new to etsy and are trying to figure out how to get more customer traffic. I can see that knowing how to describe our wonderful clothing will go a long way toward boosting sales! Thank you again.

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14 GreenTrunk June 5, 2010 at 8:12 am

Much needed info Thanks!
.-= GreenTrunk´s last blog ..Smart Women Tote Bag =-.

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15 Rene@bargainhoot June 25, 2010 at 10:01 pm

Thank you so much! This is great info!

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16 Lee Ann October 13, 2010 at 11:00 pm

Wow! Great information! Thank you very much for taking the time to share this. I can see that I am going to learn so much here that will help me and my shop!

Lee Ann
.-= Lee Ann´s last blog ..I Love This Idea! =-.

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17 Echo October 27, 2010 at 5:16 pm

Great tip! Thanks:)

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18 Charla February 14, 2011 at 10:13 am

What a great article and more importantly, what a great husband for the lovely comment about your wife!

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19 doris February 21, 2011 at 12:24 pm

Thank you so much for your insight. I haven’t yet sit up my site, but with the information you have given me I will be ready very soon.

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20 margarita July 27, 2011 at 2:55 am

I’m on it…
.-= margarita´s last blog ..Cuidados debidos =-.

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21 mouse design August 8, 2011 at 1:36 am

i am new at etsy and your site is a treasure for me :) i do not have many keywords and i am working it these days so that will be helpful! i always think the more the better!
.-= mouse design´s last blog ..wooden hearts earrings =-.

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22 molgallery September 15, 2011 at 11:57 am

Thank you for your info.Could you provide us with few additional good links re:kewords/adwords.
Stay well,
molgallery

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23 Cranberry Morning October 25, 2011 at 1:41 pm

Friends are urging me to start an Etsy site, rather than only selling my handcrafted soaps. I am SO glad I found your site before trying to get an Etsy store up and running. I can see that I need to do a lot of work re. key words and phrases before starting. Thanks so much for all the valuable help!!

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24 Amy January 5, 2012 at 11:58 am

Great idea! I’ve been really stuck sometimes with my tagging – I do know enough to use my shop name as a tag but I often have trouble using all 13 tags. This may really help me and I look forward to trying it for my next listing (I try to list 1 or 2 items a day).

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25 Victoria Valentine November 8, 2012 at 10:09 am

Thanks so much! I am also a new Etsy shop person and appreciate all the advise that anyone has to offer. Will get busy on those tags and keywords today.

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26 Victoria Valentine November 8, 2012 at 10:11 am

opps that should be – do not know how that happened
thanks again for all the info

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