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")