Google and Etsy Revisited Part 2 - Tags

Yesterday I talked once again about using your title to the fullest potential. Today I want to revisit how tags and keywords are used.  Google doesn't even really look at your keywords. In fact, most search engines completely ignore them. On the other hand Etsy uses them in their search.

First off, let me just say that tags and keywords are the same thing. If you look at the source code from pages generated by Etsy you will see your tags in the keyword section. So, from this point forward I will call them tags. Tags are very important for multiple reasons. So important in fact I always do my tags first.

Why do I do my tags first? Because I build my title and description around my tags. I choose what i am going to optimize for from my list of tags. I am in a pretty competitive market - jewelry. I know better than to just optimize for "jewelry" or "necklace" or "earrings" because those are just too broad to ever be seen. This is one reason that multiple word tags are so very important.

The difference between "jewelry" and "steampunk jewelry" is 3,060,513 items for jewelry and 72,366 items for steampunk jewelry. Shaving off about three million items really helps people find you. That is just on Etsy. I'll let you compare the searches on Google. The more precise you can get in your tags the easier someone can find you.

When you are creating your tags here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Multiple Spelling - such as "steampunk" and "steam punk" or "jewelry" and "jewellery" - European spelling should be included if you are marketing to the UK or even Canada. Sometimes there is more than one accepted spelling of a word. You may even want to take into consideration adding common misspellings. More than a few people have made money by registering misspelled domain names and putting advertising on them.
2. Multiple Color Names - such as "red" "rose red" "blood red" "crimson red" - Try and think like a customer. If you are marketing an item to someone who is into the Gothic subculture they may look for "blood red" while those into Fantasy may look for "crimson red"
3. Order of Words - such as "Victorian Steampunk" and "Steampunk Victorian" - Etsy uses EXACT TAG MATCH in their algorithm. So "Victorian Steampunk" is NOT the same thing as "Steampunk Victorian" and yes, people search in different ways using the same words.

That is all for today. Tomorrow I will look back at writing descriptions that search engines like. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at MarketMyShop@gmail.com or leave a comment here.

Be sure to check out the archived articles, you'll find much more information there.