The concept of Etsy SEO is a method used by stores to increase their organic sales by strategically standing out without paying for advertisements on the platform. The Etsy SEO strategies that sellers who want to have a sustainable store must follow mean that you need to regularly optimize your store because it has a dynamic structure.
So, don't you know what to do to make your Etsy store more SEO-friendly? Then good news! In this article, you will get the answers to the following questions:
• What is the working logic of Etsy search results?
• How can you bring your store to the forefront in Etsy search results?
What is Etsy SEO?
Etsy SEO is an optimization process that aims to get more traffic and sales by making your products and shop appear higher in search results on the Etsy platform. This process involves optimizing your products, descriptions, keywords, and the overall structure of your shop in accordance with search engine and Etsy algorithms.
How Does the Search Engine Work on Etsy?
Etsy search results work by evaluating many criteria from your product titles to your tags, descriptions to your product photos. Etsy SEO experts generally divide this algorithm into two stages:
• Query matching
• Ranking
So, what do these concepts mean?
• Query matching: When a buyer enters a search term, Etsy checks the matching listings in its inventory for this term.
Ranking, on the other hand, can be considered a much deeper subject than query matching. Etsy generally uses 8 different factors for ranking. Now let's take a brief look at these factors.
• Relevance: If tags, titles, categories, and attributes match the user's search query, listings can appear in search results. Exactly matching keywords rank higher in search results.
• Listing quality score: The listing quality score is determined by the view and purchase rates of your product. Since the working logic of the algorithm is aimed at getting more sales, successful products will have a higher quality score.
• Recency: How new the products are is also among the evaluated criteria. When you list a new product, Etsy makes you more visible in search results for a while. In this way, it determines a quality score for your product.
• Customer and market experience score: Based on businesses' customer reviews, how you complete your store's "about" section, and negative reviews, AI gives you an experience score.
• Shipping price: As you can guess, one of the most important factors influencing users' purchasing decisions is the shipping price. Etsy prioritizes businesses that offer free shipping or guarantee free shipping, especially to customers in the US.
• Translation and language: All the information you enter for your store must be in the language you selected during the creation process. For other languages, Etsy will already help you with the translation.
• Shop location: In the European Union, Australia, and Canada, the location of sellers is taken into account, and local items appear slightly higher in search results. In searches done in other countries, the location factor is ignored.
• Shopping habits: Search results are also specially personalized for each buyer. Etsy analyzes customers' past searches and behaviors and displays products they are more likely to purchase.
Etsy evaluates listings by using a technology called Context Specific Ranking (CSR) for these factors.
CSR helps show relevant listings that are more likely to be purchased, based on the preferences of buyers on Etsy.
Now that you know how Etsy SEO works, we can move on to tips for optimizing and improving your store!
7 Tips to Increase Your Etsy Store's Visibility with SEO
When you accurately optimize your store across 8 different factors, you will notice that both your sales and visibility increase in a very short time. Now let's get started.
1. Choose a Shop Name That Describes Your Products
Your shop name is actually the shortest description of your business and briefly tells customers what you sell. For this reason, it is very important to choose the title most relevant to your products.
Your shop name will be the first message greeting the user. Therefore, you should choose a store name suitable for your product portfolio.
2. Identify Your Primary and Most Important Keywords
The subject of keywords is considered the most important factor of Etsy SEO. Now it would be more beneficial to first understand what keywords do and exactly how they work on Etsy.
2.1 How do keywords work in Etsy searches?
Before identifying keywords, it is important to understand how search results work specifically for words.
Your products must match the search queries made by a user, and the search terms closest to the user's search will appear at the top of the search results.
When a customer searches for "authentic rug" on Etsy, the algorithm returns all items that contain both "authentic" and "rug" in their product tags or titles. Then, it lists the products in the most relevant way specifically for these keywords.
While running this algorithm and listing products based on search terms, Etsy pays attention to the following points in particular:
Exact phrase match: An exact phrase match is when the user's search term appears directly in your product. Going through the authentic rug search example, "Ottoman authentic rug" is an exact phrase match, while "Authentic ottoman rug" is a weaker match.
Title and Tag: The algorithm tries to find as much relevance as possible by searching for the user's search query in product tags as well as in the title. Therefore, using the words searched by users in tags will increase your chances.
Keyword Placement in Title: Placing your keyword as far to the front of your product title as possible will again put you ahead of your competitors in matching and ranking.
2.2 Find the right keywords for your products
First of all, you should position yourself as a buyer when determining keywords for your products. This makes it more possible to discover the words that will perform best.
Questions like "What would I write in the search bar if I wanted to buy this product?" give you a good starting point. Then, test if your answers are correct by typing the keywords you found into the search bar on Etsy.
Another topic is long-tail keywords. Such keywords have both low competition and a high probability of purchase by the searching user.
An example of a long-tail keyword is "blue square patterned authentic rug".
When thinking about potential keywords, it will provide ease to start from modifiers such as the size or color of your product.
You might consider other search terms a buyer could use to describe your product in terms of what it is, such as:
• Occasion: Users can search for terms such as "bachelorette party", "wedding accessories", "first anniversary", and "Christmas sweaters" on Etsy.
• Style: Think about how your customers usually have an aesthetic in mind and how this affects how your listing is found. For example, “rustic”, “minimalist”, “nature-inspired”, “art deco”, etc.
• Solution: You should offer a solution to your customers. Think about how a user might look for a way to solve their problems, such as a "drawer organizer" or a "microchip pet tag", etc.
But we realize that brainstorming this much for each product listing would be quite exhausting. That's why there are developed special tools.
Among these tools, Roketfy, a local startup active globally, offers highly impressive and accurate results both in finding the keywords your competitors selling similar products are listed for, and in discovering how much the words you want to match with your product are displayed in Etsy results.
3. Do not use the same keyword over and over again
When a user performs a search on Etsy, only one or two products from a seller are shown among the results. Maximum product visibility here depends on how closely it matches the user's search.
Etsy calls this factor "de-clumping". In this way, Etsy ensures that many different shops appear in search results.
To be more specific, when you search for "bangles" on Etsy, you will come across many results, as in the screenshot below.
In order not to experience a disadvantage in this de-clumping algorithm on Etsy, you should take care not to use a keyword more than once in your products.
For example, if you sell multiple necklaces in your shop, using the term "necklace" for every product you sell is not a good idea. Instead, diversify your keywords after using the word "necklace" a few times.
For instance, position your products under different keywords with more detailed and relevant terms like "gold necklace" or "Italian cut silver necklace". This will increase your chances of showing multiple products in search results.
4. Use All Your Tag Rights on Every Product
When creating a product, there are many fields you need to fill out, such as title, category, and description. These fields are already marked as mandatory by Etsy on the panel with an asterisk (*). The fields marked with an asterisk are sensory points that the algorithm directly pays attention to.
The tags field is displayed as optional. It is very important to provide a variety of tags to optimize your products for search. You can use a maximum of 13 tags for each product on Etsy. At this point, you can take your visibility to an even better level by using all your rights.
At this stage, when entering tags, adding synonyms of your product among your tags will be a good signal for the algorithm.
Generally, keeping the following points in mind when entering tags will be extremely helpful:
• Tags should not be repeated: You should utilize your 13 rights not around the same words, but with as diverse words as possible.
• If a tag is already in the attributes, do not use it: If you have already stated that you sell red and gold vintage earrings, you do not need to add a tag for "red and gold vintage earrings".
• Tags should not contain plurals or typos: When a user enters a query, Etsy scans root words and frequently redirects users who make typos to the correct spelling of the word.
• Adding tags in several languages is not a good idea: Only use the language you selected when creating your shop. Etsy will help translate your listings.
5. Start Your Products with Keywords
When creating a new product, start with the most important information about your shop or item, in other words, with the keywords you want to rank for. This will both capture the user's attention and increase relevance.
When putting the details of your product on the product page, you can pay attention to the following when adding the most important features of your item in the first few words:
• Item title: At the very beginning of the product title, clearly describe the product and include the most relevant keyword a buyer would use to search.
• Item description: You can use the first 160 characters of your item description to create the meta description of your listing page. This is the text that appears beneath your page title in search engine results. Even if your description is longer than 160 characters, the first 40 characters should contain the most important keywords for your product.
• Shop sections: You can create up to 20 custom sections in your shop, and each has its own landing page. A page title based on the section name will be used for each landing page.
These page titles, like your shop title, are what a user will see in a search engine when they click on a link to your shop. The name of a section can be up to 24 characters long.
6. Update Your Products Regularly
Recency is a factor in Etsy's search algorithm when you create a new product and works quite effectively. Etsy tracks and records how customers interact with shops and products.
Then, it uses this information to evaluate the quality score of the products. At the same time, updated products receive similar support and Etsy directly tests your products by bringing them to the forefront for a while.
Warning: Regularly renewing or re-listing your products is not an effective Etsy SEO strategy, but it can be beneficial to renew listings at specific times.
For example, in a scenario where you optimize one or more keywords for your product, using this method to strengthen your product's SEO will provide additional benefits. However, at this point, choosing the hours when users are more active on Etsy will be more effective in increasing sales.
7. Maximize Customer Experience
Etsy's goal is to provide its users with a top-notch shopping experience. Therefore, it evaluates a shop's interaction and quality with its customers. Stores that offer a good experience come to the forefront more.
At this point, creating a strategy by examining the customer experience of both your store and competitor stores will set you apart. Using the Roketfy review analysis module for this will benefit you in determining a strategy.
To verify that your shop complies with the quality standards set by Etsy, you must complete all requested information in full. About me, shipping, payment options, returns and exchanges, and privacy sections must be in your store.
Additionally, your relationship with your customers is also directly related to your SEO visibility on Etsy. For example, providing a tracking number for shipping on Etsy, managing return processes, and providing quick responses to all kinds of positive/negative reviews and questions from users will make you a higher-quality store in the eyes of Etsy.
Final Words - Regularly Optimize Your Etsy Store's SEO
As the number of products in your Etsy store expands, making edits with manual controls can become challenging. However, in order to sustain your store's organic sales, you must actively continue to develop your SEO.
For this, you can continue to automatically optimize by regularly checking your store and products through Roketfy. So, in which areas will it help you?
• Keyword analysis
• Listing analysis
• AI-powered product description writing
• Review analysis
• Product research
Remember that organic sales come through data analysis. If you regularly update your store based on data, it is impossible for your sales on Etsy not to peak!
