Friday, August 12, 2011

The Importance Of Tags And Keywords For Relevant Searches


Recently Etsy went to "Relevancy" as their default search. When they did this it made tags, titles and descriptions even more important than they already were. Now Etsy sellers do not have to rely on renewing their items many times a week to be seen. It has leveled the playing field, so to speak.

The biggest impact is the need to rework your listings to be found. Your shop needs a makeover. Today I want to discuss the first step- Tags. Tags have a lot of weight in Etsy search but they are the not the most important. However, because they are the foundation in which you build your entire listing from, they are very important in the long run.

Why are tags so important? Because in Etsy's Relevancy search if someone types one of your keyword phrases exactly like you have it in your tags, you have a good chance of being found. If you have the words "red crochet hat" as one of your keyword phrases and someone types "red crochet hat" into the search, Etsy's search algorithm says that you have exactly what they are looking for and puts you in the list of results with everyone else who has used that exact phrase in their shop.

Before they went to relevancy search default, Etsy encouraged you to use single word tags with few exceptions. They have rewritten their policy on this. They now encourage you to use multiple word phrases as long as they describe your work and are not keyword stuffing. Basically if your phrase makes a statement as to what it is, who made it, what is it made from or who it's made for then it is fine to use. If you just use multiple words stuffed together that do not relate to each other it called tag stuffing and it is not okay.

Here is an example. If you have a rainbow colored crochet hat for sale you could tag it as "rainbow colored hat" but not "red orange yellow" and "green blue indigo" because you are just listing colors. Do not confuse this with common color word combinations like "black and white" which could be used to describe a photograph accurately.

I always do my tags first, then my title and then my description. This way I can pick the words that I want to be found with. I am fortunate to be in a pretty small niche so it is a little easier for me to come up with keywords that are used to find items similar to what I make. I do however try to do as much keyword research as I can. In fact I recently found that one of my items, a chainmail and bead handflower, was searched for as a slave bracelet 60 times more often than a handflower. So I adjusted my tags, titles and descriptions to put more weight on slave bracelet.

How do you do keyword research? Start by coming up with a list of 20 keywords or keyword phrases you would use to find your product. Next sign up for a Google AdWords account. You do not have to actually start an advertising campaign to use their tools. Type your keywords into their keyword tool and see how they do. You want to try to concentrate on words and phrases that have less competition and fewer monthly searches. Look for the ones that have 1000 to 10,000 monthly hits. Ignore ones that have over 25,000 hits for now. I will go into all of this in greater detail very soon.

Next week, I will be talking more about keywords, titles and descriptions. If you have questions, please feel free to post them here and I will be happy to answer them. I hope you all have a great weekend.

25 comments:

  1. Thanks for starting this blog. I eagerly await the next installment!

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  2. Are you a Pat Flynn follower, blogger?

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  3. Great post, thanks! Can I ask how you discovered that your item was being searched for as a "slave bracelet" please?

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  4. Terrific job! It's great to have the information laid out this way. Very informative. :-)

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  5. Steph, I actually found it out two ways. I used the Google Keywords tool I mentioned above and it gave suggestions and then I went on Etsy and did a search for all relevant terms that the Keyword Tool gave me.

    I ended up optimizing for both sets and I come up within the first two pages on both search words.

    Sarah, I am not. Who is Pat Flynn?

    Mad, Thanks.

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  6. New follower. Great information!

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  7. Welcome, Elizabeth. Glad to help. Let me know if you ever have any questions.

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  8. Hi again - I'm probably going to drive you nuts with questions :)

    Do you know how Etsy and Google handle plurals like woman/women and possessives like woman/woman's? I'm not sure if I need to cover all of those possibilities in my tags or if the search algorithms take care of that for me. Thanks.

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  9. Karen,
    Ask as many questions as you like. To answer this one, Google treats keywords like most places do including Etsy. If the plural or possessive changes spelling you may want to go for both version if you just add an "s" to the end or "'s" just use the plural. Most search engines do not recognize apostrophes and find the root word by parsing. So kittens is good for "kitten" "kittens" and "kitten's." Remember to think like a buyer when you are writing your tags. How would they search.

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  10. Great Blog! Thanks so much for all this valuable information. I will definitely be reading this daily!

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  11. Thanks. According to the keyword tool the vast majority of people search for "womens whatever" but there are still a fair amount of people that use "womans" and I have room for it in my tags so far. This is so much fun - my search and category views have quadrupled since I started to work on it. I can't wait until google crawls my shop again.

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  12. if i could keep my eyes open I'd re-do my shop right now! I've been putting up items all day, but your tips are brilliant. Thank you!

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  13. thanks so much for the great tips! very clear and logical! I'm making time this weekend to work on the titles and tags, i appreciate your blogs on the subjects, so you have a new follower in me :)

    > came to this blog post via etsy success team :)

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  14. Thanks for the follow, Kitty. I am trying to make it so that anyone can understand it and do a better job in the searches.

    Mariana, Start small and pick 5 items to do. See how it works then do a few more. You want to make sure what you are doing is working before you jump into doing your entire shop.

    Karen, Yes, try for optimizing for two phrases in your title too. See my post from today for an example.

    Nomsa, Glad to have you aboard.

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  15. Thanks! I will try it with 5 items first-- and also have the same question as Steph. I'll follow your answer about utilizing the Google keywords tool.

    Thanks again!

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  16. Excellent article. I'm still sussing out the new tag system, having a heck of a time with the "style" options.

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  17. Thanks for that - you've finally shed some light on what is required. Do wish all you technophiles would use language that us silver surfers actually can understand. You've so far come nearest to it for me - so will now go off and have a go at changing things.

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  18. Isobel, I worked as a software trainer for a while. I was always working with people who had no idea what was going on. It does not seem to have anything to do with age really. I just try to think of the easiest way to say something that anyone can understand. And I try to answer questions if my first attempt fails. :)

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  19. Looks like I've got lots of re-tagging to do!

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  20. Wow Thank you so much! Plain straight forward to the point English

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  21. I try to explain it so that anyone can understand. I do not always succeed but I am working on it.

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  22. this helps...i'm always experimenting with my tags but was wondering which ones really work.

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  23. freakypeas,
    Knowing how people will search for your product will help determine what tags are the best for your shop. Look at the archive and find the article on how people search. That might help you out.

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  24. Thank you so much, Eric! I am new to ETSY and have never imagined everything that goes on behind the scenes before I started my shop :)

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  25. I love the simplicity of your writing, very easy to understand and follow through. Great info. I will be checking with you often.Thank you for putting this together.

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