Tagging tips for Etsy

 

I’ve written up a few tips on improving your SEO today (two Etsy-themed posts within the last few days – guess who’s been tinkering with her shop this week?). I started my Etsy shop at the end of September last year, and had NO CLUE about search engine optimisation, or SEO for short. It’s all to do with relevancy and making it easier for people to find your shop. I thought because my listings are on this huge shopping website, people are automatically going to find them – that’s what it’s for, right? Not quite. The thing about Etsy is that the marketplace is SO saturated, you’ve got to be really quite specific about what it is you’re selling, but you also have to think like a buyer and avoid really technical terms that only you and fellow artists will ever think to use (surprisingly few people search for "archival 300gsm art print", as it turns out). Also if you're used to tagging on Instagram or Twitter, tagging on Etsy can be a bit irritating. Where on IG you've got around 30 tags to use as you like and you're guaranteed to be found with at least a handful of them, on Etsy you've only got 13 - so you have to use your tags wisely.
So here’s a little checklist for doing up your titles and tags on Etsy (please note that they do change their search algorithm every now and again, so although these tips may work now, check and see if there’s any new info in the Etsy forums about SEO).

• Match your titles and tags! The way Etsy works is that to consider something relevant to a search, not only does the title have to include the search term, the tags do too. This means that your listing will be more likely to be found nearer the first few pages of the search. 
• Avoid one word tags. Say you’re selling a really cute dog-themed greeting card, so you include the tag “cute”. At the time of writing this post, there are 596,498 results for that tag. It’s pretty unlikely your listing will be at the top of those results. Now switch that tag to “cute dog card”, and there’s just 2177 results – one of the first listings is one of my cards. It’s SO much more likely that something searching for your kind of product will use a more specific search term, and finding it will be a lot easier this way.  
• Don't include the name of your artwork. Us artists love using the name of our work in our titles. However, if that title isn’t along the lines of “sheepdog painting”, NOBODY is going to find it in a search. Instead of using the name in your title, why not pop it in the description? :)
• What are your buyers searching for? Try to think of potential uses for your product and include those in the title and tags. For example, people might be searching for “dog lover gift” or “farm animal décor” – if your art would be PERFECT for either of those uses, go ahead and tag it as such! 
• Use descriptive tags! What exactly is your product? If it's an A4 art print, tag it! If it's a kids birthday card, pop that in there too! Also with art it can be a bit difficult to pick out a single colour for your tags, but if you’ve got work where this is possible, definitely use tags like “purple dog art” or “blue cat painting” – I’ve had A LOT of people find my shop with colour-related tags. 
• Don’t tag everything exactly the same way. You're probably selling similar products - I sell dog art, cards and gifts, so it's all pretty much in the same niche. Experiment with different tags where you can – use “art for kids” on one listing, and “dog wall art” on another. The more searches come up with your items, the more people will see them and click through to see the rest of your shop! 
• Update your tags little by little. It’s easier to tell what’s working and what isn’t when you redo a few listings at a time. I did about ten a day, and since I saw immediate results, I had got through all my updates within a week. :)