Etsy Relevancy and Google SEO

I've spent the last several days learning about SEO for google and the concepts are the same but google focuses much more on our titles and descriptions than it does on our tags. This presents a problem for me. In order to be the most relevant on Etsy I have to use the word "women" near the front of every title because they lump genders and ages together and that's not very google-friendly and titles like that don't do well when you look at them in the keyword tool. It's particularly bad for plus size items since using women is redundant in that case. Plus size is only used to describe women's clothes so very few people use it in a search. The way that I'm going to get around this is that I've opened a second shop on Zibbet that will only carry plus size sweaters. I don't have many if any expectations for sales there because it's so tiny and has relatively little traffic but there I can optimize the shop however I want to for google. Plus size sweater coats and variations on that phrase are the keywords that get me the most hits (along with wool blankets). The shop will be pretty empty for a while because I only have 5 plus size items right now but I'm working on another and plan to do all of them in plus sizes in the future unless I only have enough of a particular yarn for a smaller size.

I'm still finding my way around Zibbet but so far I really like the layout and the way that I can customize the colors of my shop. One of the best things is that I get to change my shop name to the one that I want instead of the one that I have on Etsy. I'm still getting set up and working on my titles and descriptions there but it shouldn't take very long. Another thing that I've discovered is that google seems to crawl Zibbet much more frequently than it does Etsy which makes testing my changes much easier. I don't know how spiders decide which parts of a large site to crawl and when but maybe it has something to do with the size.

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com

Easy Etsy Relevancy

Looking for a fast and easy way to be relevant on Etsy?

This might not get you to page 1 of search, but it will help some, and is a great start. (and not everyone can be on pg 1 anyway)

Take a look at your shop in gallery mode. You notice that only a little bit of the title shows that way.

Now read those little bits of titles. Do they say what your product is???

If not, you need to make sure that your titles say what the item is in gallery mode.

Easy peasy.

This is a good start to SEO too. 

Joy, Joy: Testing Relevancy When You Have 200+ Listings-Relevancy is working

So, Etsy recently decided to make it so that relevancy search is default, and as Karen said before, the forums are all up in arms over it.

As someone who can't throw 20¢ at renewing often, I decided to try to get into Google search from the get go, so I don't really have all that much to do in my shop for relevancy.

But I do currently have 161 listings in Stephanie Makes All, 52 listings in One Stitch, and 20 listings in the soon to be closed (at least for now) Stephanie Re-Makes All to test and tweak a little.

Joy, Joy, I feel for the sellers with even more listings who just threw money at renewing, I really do.

The good news is that in One Stitch, I must have done something right, because I only have 3 fingerless glove patterns there right now, and those 3 patterns are spread out between the first 3 pages of the fingerless glove pattern search. And I have started selling several of the one that is on the first page!

I still haven't sold anything in Stephanie Makes All since the change, but I'm coming up pretty high in some searches, so I believe it's only a matter of time :)

Happy Selling!

Steph

I'm So Relevant!

All of this SEO work really paid off because now I'm in the #1 spot of every one of my targeted searches. My views have quadrupled and I sold something that had been sitting there for ages. I even make the first row or page of the more general searches. I'm so happy about this. I've tuned up my descriptions for google and all I have left is to figure out if my category and subcategories are considered to be the first 3 and most important tags to google or the first 3 of the 13 that I get to fill in. I asked a question on Market My Shop and I'll post it here when he has time to answer me.

I also want to show off my latest sweater of course.

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com

A great new blog for SEO and Etsy Relevancy

As anyone paying attention on Etsy knows, the default search is now relevancy. The big sellers who relied solely on renewing to get exposure are having a somewhat hilarious cow in the forums because they don't want to have to learn about SEO and implement it for their shops. This is really paying off in a big way for little sellers like me who are willing to do the SEO work to be seen. I can hardly believe it - I went from not being able to find myself to being on the first page of all of my targeted searches and even on the first page in one of the very general ones with just one day's work!

Anyway, it's always been hard to get detailed and specific SEO information on Etsy because you aren't generally allowed to talk to anyone technical. The only time I ever got decent technical information was in one man's thread and luckily for all of us he has started a blog that focuses on SEO in general but also has very specific information on Etsy relevancy. He writes in a very accessible style that you don't need to be technical to understand and he even answers questions. Anyway, go read his blog from beginning to end if you're feeling lost or just want to know a bit more. It's called Market My Shop and it's just great.

Please come see my handmade designer plus size sweaters, sweater coats, capes and shrugs at MirabilisFashions.com