Starting an Etsy shop is more than merely making everything look pretty. There are many things that have to be considered and implemented for your shop catch the attention of an ideal audience, get found it search, and set it apart from everyone else.

Today's post is for Etsy sellers who want to learn more about Etsy shop optimization. It's for all of you who own an Etsy shop, whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been in business for years. And it's for anyone who's curious about why some Etsy shops simply do better than others.

Before we get started…

I talked about Etsy SEO in this post, but Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps improve the visibility of your shop and item listings in search engine results for sites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, as well as through Etsy’s own platform. Today, I’m focusing on Etsy search specifically.

Each time you enter a subject in Etsy’s search bar and hit Enter, Etsy crawls and indexes their shops to see which listings are the most relevant. Many Etsy sellers optimize their listings through keywords, titles, tags, and other criteria in order for Etsy to find their listing relevant and rank higher in search. This practice is called SEO.

The higher your listing ranks in Etsy search, the more traffic you will generate.

Five Etsy SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Over and over again, I see these errors with it comes to Etsy shop optimization.

1 | Failing to find a niche

If you’ve been following along on my blog long enough, you’ll know that I’m a big proponent of finding of niche. I talk all about finding your niche in this blog post. But, let’s review again.

A niche is foundational to starting an Etsy shop or any type of business, really. Every decision you make in your business will build upon your niche. While I don’t want you to feel too much pressure from that statement, I do want you to understand why this step is so important: Your niche is what makes you special and what sets you apart from all of those other businesses out there.

Your niche is also going to help you with Etsy shop optimization. Once you know your niche, you can then optimize your Etsy shop for search according to your target market.

For example, let’s say you start a calligraphy business on Etsy. Your niche could be calligraphy vow prints. Find a 3-5 keyword phrase for that niche (i.e. “calligraphy vow prints for anniversary gifts”) and sprinkle it naturally throughout your Etsy shop, like in your Shop Title and in your About Section.

Once you do that, your shop and listings will likely rank higher in Etsy search for your 3-5 keyword phrase. In our example, you listings could rank higher for “calligraphy vow prints” and “anniversary gifts”.

Check out this post for help with finding keywords for your Etsy shop and listings.

2 | Vague Listing Titles

Stop using titles like, “The Laura Collection”. No one is searching for that. Instead, think like a buyer. How would a buyer describe your item, in the simplest terms? What words would they type into the search bar at the very beginning of their journey? In 3-5 words, what are you selling?

Let’s go back to our original example. Let’s say you want to start a calligraphy business on Etsy focusing mainly on selling wedding vow prints. A simple listing title for you might be “Calligraphy Wedding Vows”. You could even go a step further by adding who or what this item can be used for, like “Calligraphy Wedding Vows for Anniversary Gift”.

Avoid using random or technical terms, too, like “Deckled Edge Paper Calligraphy Wedding Vows” or “Spencerian Calligraphy Wedding Vows”. Technical terms like “Deckled Edge Paper” or “Spencerian” are normally best left for your item details. When a buyer first begins their search for wedding vows, they likely won’t be familiar with super specific terms like these.

Below is an example from my own shop, Betty Lu Paperie. I’ve had this listing in my shop since 2015 using this same title. In fact, I’ve never edited the title or tags for this listing because it has always done really well on Etsy.

Even when keyword stuffing was the “big thing” on Etsy, this listing always performed better than any other listing in my shop. Part of that is due to the simple, clear, and concise title.

3 | don’t use Your Shop Announcement to Share Sale Dates or Vacation Dates

Your Shop Announcement isn’t really an announcement at all. Part of your shop announcement is actually used for the description that populates in Google search results.

Instead, make this SEO-friendly with relevant details about your shop and products. This is another really great area to naturally sprinkle in your shop niche’s keyword phrase.

4 | Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing means using several repetitive keyword phrases in your listing title. For example, this listing I have on Etsy uses keyword stuffing in the title:

In this listing, I’ve repeated the keyword “stamp”, “address”, and “gift”. I’ve also packed in a bunch of keyword phrases. A better title might be something like “custom wedding address stamp, personalized engagement gift”.

Keyword stuffing used to work on Etsy in the past, but they no longer recommend this practice anymore. That’s because it’s really confusing to buyers when you have a listing title like this. Etsy no longer focuses on just the item title anymore, either. Instead, the keywords you use in your tags, titles, categories, and attributes work together to match your listings with shoppers’ searches.

5 | Single-word Tags

When it comes to Etsy SEO, single-word tag is a waste of a good tag. Instead, try to find keyword phrases for your tags. Let’s go back to our original example, say you want to start a calligraphy business on Etsy focusing on wedding vows.

For your wedding vows listings, don’t simply use the word “vows” as one of your tags. A better tag might be “wedding vows print” or “anniversary gift”.