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You are here: Home / Etsy Shop SEO / Etsy Shop SEO Mastery – 6 Ways to Be a People Pleaser

Etsy Shop SEO Mastery – 6 Ways to Be a People Pleaser

By Tim Layton 20 Comments

etsy seo tip at everythingetsy

Have you ever tried to make everyone happy at the same time? The kids and the husband; the boss and the customer; the shoe collection and the bank balance!

Etsy Shop SEO is just like that, except that it’s actually possible and not all that hard to do.

Please the Robot and the Human

SEO is all about pleasing the “bots” that search engines send out to crawl and index the Internet. These are completely emotionless strings of computer code. Nothing more than a program and no more human than my toaster. What goes in, is what comes out, just not always exactly the way you want it.

Key considerations in pleasing bots:

  • Title Text – the first few words of your item/listing title are key to good results in SEO – they should clearly describe your item and match potential (or target) search terms very closely (or exactly).
  • Item Description – From a bot perspective, this is where you answer the “are you sure that’s what you’re selling?” question. The title says what you’re selling and the item description reinforces that you didn’t get confused when writing the title. It also gives you a chance to target a few more keywords.
  • Image Information – For now, Etsy changes the name of your pictures to a computer generated number, but you should get into the habit of naming your image files with SEO in mind. If you use your pictures on blogs, in forums, or dozens of other places online, the image name is indexed by search engines and should describe the item.
  • Inbound Links and Anchor Text – When you really want to get serious about building your listings up in terms of SEO, you need to focus on getting links pointing to those listings that reinforce the nature of the item and indicate that it is (or might be) popular.

For a good introduction, see our Basic Etsy Shop SEO Video (click here)

People Pleasing

woman shopping online

It’s smart business to please the bots, because they have the power to send lots of people to your shop. Read that again… lots of people to your shop.

People do the buying so it’s really not a good idea to forget them when doing your listings. Believe it or not, it’s really not that tough to please the people, without confusing the bots.

Here are a six simple tips:

  1. Use words that invoke emotions in your titles – Words like love, excitement, happy, luxurious, refreshing… you get the idea.
  2. Don’t shy away from catchy names for your items – Good SEO doesn’t mean you can’t put your own personality in your item titles. Your title is the first impression to a buyer, show some originality!
  3. Be descriptive and use more than one keyword phrase in your title, but keep it easy to scan (read super-quickly).
  4. Consider Including Your Shop Name – If you have room after including keywords, emotions, and personality, consider including your shop name at the end. The more it’s out there, the more recognizable it will become over time and the stronger your brand will be.
  5. If you offer free shipping, put it in the title. People search for this and even if they didn’t, it will get you more clicks to your shop because they want to see what else you’ll ship to them for free.
  6. BEST KEYWORDS FIRST – The key to all of this is to include the most relevant keywords first, then work backwards, but include as much as you can. There is no penalty for a long title.

The bottom line is to remember that you have two “customers” to please when you’re writing your item title and descriptions. The bots, which are only interested in keywords and non-emotional stuff, and people who care about things like feelings and free shipping!

The easiest way to remember this is to write your title in the same order you envision the sale really happening. Make the bots happy first and they will send people. Then be a people pleaser!

Related posts:

  1. Featured Directory Listings
  2. Learn Basic HTML and Awesome Directory Feature {Video}
  3. Your New Etsy Ads Questions Answered {Podcast: Interview with Etsy}
  4. How to Start a Blog for Your Etsy Business

Filed Under: Etsy Shop SEO, Tips & Tools

Comments

  1. Beth says

    August 23, 2011 at 9:55 am

    As usual, great tips. It’s so hard for me to figure out what is good for the bots and the people at the same time 🙂 I didn’t know about image (photo) descriptions. Thank you!

    Reply
  2. Sedie says

    August 23, 2011 at 10:25 am

    I’ve been working on my titles, descriptions and tags and this article really helped solidify my thinking. Thanks!
    .-= Sedie´s last blog ..New Finished Projects! =-.

    Reply
  3. Amanda Joy says

    August 23, 2011 at 10:44 am

    I didn’t even think about naming the pictures for the products… thanks for the tips!
    .-= Amanda Joy´s last blog ..{Recipe} Zucchini Bread =-.

    Reply
  4. sparrowgrey says

    August 23, 2011 at 11:04 am

    Awesome information; I’m still working on it. Thanks!

    Reply
  5. Sandra says

    August 23, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    Wonderful information, thanks for sharing! I never thought about photo titles.
    .-= Sandra´s last blog ..Treasury of the Day =-.

    Reply
  6. Tricia @ SweeterThanSweets says

    August 23, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    You finally inspired me to change my titles on my {link removed} since the relevancy change on Etsy! I’ve been dragging my feet. =)

    And I didn’t know that image titles affect SEO for blogs (and one day maybe Etsy too?). Thank you!
    .-= Tricia @ SweeterThanSweets´s last blog ..How to Cut a Pineapple – Tutorial =-.

    Reply
  7. patsy Evins says

    August 23, 2011 at 9:14 pm

    Wonderful post, Kim! Love it!

    Reply
  8. Tammy/FancieStrands says

    August 23, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    Excellent advice! Im in the process of all changing titles and tags in my Etsy shop. Sometimes I have trouble on which tags are the most effective. Good luck to us all.
    .-= Tammy/FancieStrands´s last blog ..White and blue pearl bridal hair flower, wedding headpiece, bridal hairpiece, bridal flowers, flower fascinator, hair clip =-.

    Reply
  9. LeAnn says

    August 24, 2011 at 12:52 am

    Very helpful post! Thank you!
    .-= LeAnn´s last blog ..It’s Never Too Late =-.

    Reply
  10. Ambrya says

    August 24, 2011 at 7:40 am

    Thank you for sharing, great tips and will definitely be using them!
    .-= Ambrya´s last blog ..Football Party Packs {Sneak Peek} =-.

    Reply
  11. Lisa says

    August 24, 2011 at 11:09 am

    LOVE the advice on picture naming.
    NEVER even crossed my mind!

    Reply
  12. samsstuff says

    August 24, 2011 at 2:06 pm

    Excellent & easy to follow advice. When I first started my shop & blogging, I had no idea about adding image titles & am just now starting to do this. Thank you for the great advice!
    .-= samsstuff´s last blog ..Another New Project: Pincushion from a Tea Tin Lid =-.

    Reply
  13. MCatherine says

    August 25, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    Exceptionally helpful!!! T.Y.S.M.!
    .-= MCatherine´s last blog ..Purple Glass Heart Sympathy Gentle Reminder Keepsake Inspiration Support 1.5×1.5x.5" 1.6oz =-.

    Reply
  14. Pauline, Hill Country Woodcraft says

    October 9, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    Great tips, thanks a lot!

    Reply
  15. jeanne costello says

    March 14, 2012 at 10:50 am

    Great advice, but putting the free shipping in the title is apparently a no no. Anything with the name free in your title or description will not be picked up by google. I just learned that recently and had to review all my listings because it said feel free to email me! Just thought I would mention that.

    Reply
  16. YerocsJewelry says

    May 23, 2012 at 10:06 am

    These are wonderful tips!! I had always sounded boring in my description, and used the bare minimum of words to describe my items. Now, since I have read this, I’ve changed, and still in the process of adding more details, and creative wording for these “bots” Thanks for the excellent advice!!

    Reply
  17. Alane says

    August 21, 2012 at 1:33 am

    I need to work on my titles. Thanks for the great article.

    Reply
  18. sophie says

    September 17, 2012 at 1:31 pm

    Nice, this just answered what I was working on 🙂

    Reply
  19. Mari says

    February 25, 2013 at 1:09 pm

    Thanks for the great tips!! I’m a beginner at all this but your site has been very helpful so far 🙂

    Mari

    Reply
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