Fall Is in the Air

You wouldn't know it by the weather in southern California, but fall is coming. September is tomorrow. No, really.

So, here are a few things from the team to get you in a fall mood...

From Lulu's Creations1: Sale, Save 25%!

Mocha Brown Hand Bag with Silk Lining in Fall Colors

From annie k designs: 

Great way to start out fall with a set of kitchen towels:

Scarecrow Kitchen Towels

From Ocean Avenue Silks:

Such a pretty scarf. Certain to add a touch of fall to any outfit!

Hand Dyed Small Square Silk Scarf Bandana in Golden Yellow and Brown

From Epicurius: 

Beautiful handspun yarn. What can you make with this?

Hand Spun Yarn - Alpaca and BFL Wool

From Leah's Heart:

We all need to celebrate Fall!

Fall bib

And finally from OhMay:

A stunning hat pattern for any season but perfect for Fall and those chilly days.

PDF Knitting Pattern - Hola Fiesta Cloche Hat

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Annie from annie k designs for finding most of the wonderful items in today's post.

Picking the Best Keywords for Tags: Peridot and Garnet Long Necklace

Once you've generated a list of keywords to use, the next step is evaluating which ones will work the best. The idea is to get as many people to see your items as possible.

Let's look at this Bella Beads Originals necklace:

26 Inch Gold Chain Necklace With Lampwork Pendant

Some of the tags being used: statement necklace, long necklace, pendant necklace, large pendant, gold chain necklace, lampwork pendant, plum and apple green, peridot and garnet. 

There are various ways to get an idea as to how well a tag might do. If we type "statement necklace" into Etsy's search we get: 

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When Etsy's search comes up with over 228,000 hits, that's a popular tag. If you look underneath the search bar, you'll see the add on called Keywords Everywhere:

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That tells us two things. The volume/month is how many people are searching for this tag. The competition is "1" which is the highest it can be. (Competition ranks from 0 to 1. The higher the number, the more competition.) 

Here is where things get tricky. Competition can be good, because if a lot of people are searching for a tag, a lot of people are probably buying. However, it is easy to get lost in all the available listings.

Maramlead and Etsy Rank have tools to help evaluate things like competition, demand, and engagement. Competition is how many other listings are using that tag. Demand is how many people are actually searching that tag. Engagement is how many people are interacting with that tag--as in, liking listings from it and buying listings with it.

Is "statement necklace" a good tag, then? It's getting lots of hits, but it's also easy to get overlooked with it. But, there are 13 tags possible, so it can be a great tag in combination with other, more specific tags. 

Let's try "lampwork pendant":

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That's a much smaller search volume with 70/month. But the competition is still high at 0.98. It sounds like this tag has way more competition than is merited by the number of searches for it. 

So, if we check it in Etsy Rank: 

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...we find that it has very high competition, but a low demand. But... high engagement. Meaning, those who do search for it are more likely to buy. 

Is it a good keyword? Maybe. And this is where "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes in. Is this listing being seen? Is it getting likes? Or has no one looked at it in a while? Is this tag bringing in views? Or are other tags doing the work? 

(How do you know if the tags are working? Go into Shop Manager-->Dashboard-->View Detailed Stats, and scroll down to Search Terms.) 

Ultimately, the idea is to get found in search. These are some tools to help narrow down keywords that will help with that.

Finding Good Tags: An Amigurumi Witch

Lately, I've been talking about "Maximizing Tags" and "Finding Good Tags". But, really, how does this work? 

So, let's start with this listing from The Crafty Nana: 

Doll, Witch named Winnie, Handmade

Of the tags already used, the two that jumped out at me were "amigurumi" and "witch". Non-crocheters probably are unfamiliar with the term "amigurumi", but that's still a good place to start. 

(For those who might want this look but not know the terminology, "crochet" and "stuffed doll" can be used. There are 13 tags, so there'll be plenty of space to get all that covered.) 

So, I started with amigurumi witch. I plugged that into Etsy's own search... 

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...and "amigurumi witch doll" was suggested. That's exactly 20 characters. So, that can be one tag. 

On that page, I clicked on various other dolls to see what tags they utilized. (And one of the reasons for this series of posts was because when I do this, I find so many bad tags.) I pulled out "amigurumi toys" and "home decor halloween". We definitely want "Halloween" in there, so those two get added to the list. 

At this point it's a good idea to note several tags to follow up on. Plugging them into Etsy's search can lead to some other tag ideas. 

Still looking at "amigurumi witch doll", I utilized another website, Marmalead: 

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A couple interesting keywords jumped out here: "crochet witch doll" and "Halloween witch". (Capitalization doesn't matter at this point.)

Etsy Rank has a similar tool: 

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In both word clouds, the larger words are tags most often used. Smaller tags are other ideas to pursue. 

Things like "amigurumi pattern" won't work as this is a finished object and not a pattern. But "crochet witch" will. (However, "crochet witch" is part of "crochet witch doll". Go with the more detailed tag to get the most possible hits.) 

This is the sort of list to start with. Ideally, you'll generate a much longer list than 13 keywords. 

The next step is to evaluate which of those keywords are the best to try. That will be the topic for a future post. ("Picking the Best Keywords for Tags")

Your Product Titles

Finding the best tags for your items takes time and effort. I've delved briefly into the process in the last three blog posts: "Maximizing Tags", "Finding Good Tags", and "Picking the Best Keywords for Tags". And there are numerous other resources to help you learn about and find the best tags to use (such as Marmalead and Etsy Rank).

The other main source that the search engines (including Etsy's internal one) use to categorize and define your items is your product title.

The good news is, once you've done your research for your keywords for tags, you've done your research for your title. It's just a matter of tweaking those tags a bit.

You want your titles to mirror your tags. But, Etsy warns that your titles need to be readable. That is, the title should sound like a human wrote it (and not some computer algorithm).

The title has 140 possible characters. You want to use as many of them as you can. How can you fill up 140 characters mirroring your tags and make it sound like a human wrote it?

Of the 13 tags in your listing, one or two should basically describe the item. Right? Arrange those in a naturally sounding phrase (making sure to keep the words in the same order as your tags). If you keep this in mind while figuring out your tags, this step won't be too hard. This will be the first part of your title.

Most of us won't read the rest of the item title that carefully. Google cuts off the title after a set number of characters (but it takes the rest of those words into account when categorizing your item). So, if you focus on making the first 20 to 40 characters of the title make sense, the rest of the title can be packed with other tags you'd like your item to show up for in search.

And that's what you do. You need to fill that title with as many tags as you can.

This is how you maximize your chances of having your item show up in search. It's how most of our customers find us.

Are your tags and title helping your items get found?

Picking the Best Keywords for Tags

For the past couple weeks, I've been talking about tags--those thirteen spots Etsy gives each listing. In perusing other listings, I've found so many sellers not making the best use of them. And I wondered, why not?

This is one of those instances of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". If you're getting plenty of views and your sales are just where you want them, feel free to ignore these posts. But if, like me, you could use more traffic to your listings, this is one thing you can do.

I already discussed if you're making good use of your tags and some ways to come up with other ideas for tags. The idea is to generate a list of possible keywords to use in your tags.

Ideally, you'll have a list that won't be contained in thirteen tags. And this is where you start evaluating which tags are best.

(Keep in mind that each tag has twenty characters allowed. That means, each tag can be more than one word. It is best to use as many phrases as you possibly can.)

But back to evaluating tags. Which ones should you use?

First, you want tags that are actually being searched for. You can have the most descriptive keyword, but if no one is looking for it, no one is going to find you.

Then you need to balance this with competition. If you are using a tag that everyone else has, there are going to be so many others that pop up in search results that your item will get lost.

There are various tools out there to help you evaluate which keywords are best. They'll pinpoint which tags have higher competition (that is, everyone is using them) and which tags are actually being searched for.

A really great tool is Marmalead. It looks at your listings. It ranks keywords and tells you how well those keywords are competing. It also requires a monthly subscription fee to get all of the best insights. It's worth it if you want to take your shop to the next level.

Etsy Rank is a similar tool. It'll help you find keywords and also give you insights into things you can do to help your shop. There is also a paid tier for more help.

A third tool is called Keywords Everywhere. It's a Chrome and Firefox extension that shows keywords in several search places, including Etsy. It gives you stats on every keyword you use in search, and it just adds those in. It's really useful in seeing how well various search terms are doing.

How well do you check out your keywords? Are your tags working for you?

For more information:

• Keyword Decision Tree
• Evaluating Etsy Keywords
• Etsy's Latest SEO Updates

Finding Good Tags

Tags are important. These are what the search engines "look at" when scanning your listings. But what if you don't know what tags to use?

You want to target terms that people are actually using in search. What you are calling something isn't necessarily what those who are looking to buy it might call it.

If you can, ask people not necessarily associated with your products to tell you what they'd call it. That's a good jumping off point.

Then, try those terms out. Search them in Etsy. Search them in Google. What are your results? If you're seeing products comparable to your own, you're on the right track.

What tags do those listings use? You might be surprised by some terms you hadn't considered.

Also, into the Etsy search bar (or Google search bar), start a search. What autocomplete suggestions does it offer? Some terms to consider?

Finally, you can try out keywords in either Marmalead or Etsy Rank. Type in a keyword and check out their keyword cloud. There might be some ideas to help push you in a different direction.

For more information:

• Brainstorming Keywords for Tags and Titles from the Seller's Handbook
• Finding Creative Tags and Title Keywords for your Etsy Listings
• 4 Tips for Strong Etsy SEO Keywords

Maximizing Tags

Are you making the best use of your tags?

Before any of us can make a sale, the first thing we need to do is get online shoppers to find our listings. The most powerful tool we have at our disposal is Etsy's own search.

I'm sure you've done it. You're looking to buy something. You know sort of what you want. So, you type in a few words into a search bar and you see what comes up.

So, how do those shoppers who want exactly what we're offering find us?

Your tags.

When you type a request into Etsy's search bar, Etsy matches this search to the tags in the listing.

(Of course, there are other factors. But this is one thing you have control over.)

Etsy gives us thirteen tags per listing. Each listing has a twenty character limit.

You want to pack these tags full of anything someone might use to describe your items. Use all thirteen tags. Use phrases rather than just individual words. The more you pack in there, the more likely you are to get found.

So, are you making the best use of your tags?

For more information:

• How to Get Found in Search from the Seller's Handbook
• How to Use Etsy Tags: 13 chances to woo a buyer
• Etsy SEO: Get Found in Etsy Search