Like many Etsy sellers, you might be a little intimidated by Etsy SEO and unsure of where to start. In fact, so many of you have shared that your number one struggle when it comes to Etsy is getting found in search.

With that in mind, today’s post is all about making Etsy SEO, or search engine optimization, easier for you.

Before We Begin…

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, we’re going to talk about ranking on Etsy’s platform, not Google or another search platform.

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.

A Great Product is better than SEO

Start with a really great product. That’s Etsy’s first piece of advice when it comes to SEO.

A great product is the single most important aspect of your Etsy shop. That’s because a great product will likely be favorited, purchased, and/or featured on other websites more than a decent product with great SEO. Favorites, purchases, and/or features on sites like BRIDES Magazine or BuzzFeed increase your listing score quality.

According to Etsy:

We look at how well a listing converts—how many people view it and then make a purchase—to determine whether buyers are interested in it, which boosts that listing’s quality score and placement in search results.

Inbound links, or features on other websites, are also vital to ranking higher in search. According to SEO expert, Neil Patel:

Backlinks, or inbound links, are links to your store or products from external sites. These are vital to Etsy SEO strategy as they increase search engine confidence in a site.

Take a look at what happened after a return address stamp of mine (great product, decent SEO) was featured in BRIDES in 2020:

I listed this item in my shop in 2018. It did well in Etsy search, had decent product photos and reviews, and shipped quickly. I have not made any major changes to this listing in the past three years, and I don’t promote it on social media or to my email list.

Fast forward to today, and my revenue grew exponentially for this item after it was featured in BRIDES last year.

Sometimes, you may already have a really great product, but it isn’t taking off on Etsy. If that sounds like you, I recommend showcasing how great your product is through video and high quality images of your product. Use all 10 photos to make sure every angle of your item is photographed, as well as your packaging and any other details that need to be featured.

What You Should Do for your Etsy SEO Right Now

You have a really great product, check. Next, we’ll talk about the steps you should take to optimize your Etsy shop and listings right now.

Although having a great product is the most important step, don’t ignore SEO altogether. SEO is a continuous aspect of managing your listings and your Etsy shop. Here’s how to improve your SEO today.

1 | Optimize your Etsy shop for one keyword phrase. I recommend choosing one flagship product for your shop, like custom watercolor home portraits. Then, find a keyword phrase for that item (i.e. “custom home portrait”) and sprinkle it naturally throughout your Etsy shop, like in your About section. This increases Etsy traffic because now your shop can now be indexed under that search term.

You’ll also want to make sure a majority of your listings in your shop are custom home portraits. That way, the majority of your listings will rank higher in Etsy search since your shop is optimized for that term.

2 | Select Etsy SEO keywords for listing titles carefully. To find keywords for your listing titles, think like a buyer. Literally, just answer the question: What are you selling?

Put the most important keywords in the front of your title. For example, if you’re selling custom home portraits, don’t put “8x10” or other irrelevant details at the beginning of your title. Rather, put those details in the listing description.

3 | Keep listing titles simple. Etsy uses all the keywords from your title, tags, and attributes when it comes to ranking your items in search. This is why you don’t have to stuff a bunch of keywords in your title. Additionally, keyword stuffing can turn buyers off. Instead, keep it simple using one long tail keyword phrase.

Keyword stuffing used to work in the past on Etsy. However, according to the Etsy handbook:

Focus on writing short, clear, descriptive titles that make it easy for shoppers who are scanning a busy search results page to see what you’re selling. Lead with the keywords that best describe what your item is since that’s what shoppers see first when browsing, especially on mobile devices… Adding long lists of keywords to your titles may confuse buyers or turn them off your listings.

4 | Fill out all relevant attributes for every single listing. A listing’s attributes are also considered in Etsy search, the same way keywords are considered in item titles and tags.

Attributes are additional types of information sellers should provide about their products while creating or editing a listing to help describe what they’re selling so that buyers can easily find just the right item.

Etsy recommends that sellers select as many accurate attributes as each item has available. This will help maximize your item’s exposure in search results because each attribute acts as an additional tag for your listing.

For example, here are some of the attributes for items in the “invitations” category.

5 | Use all 13 tags. Sometimes, it’s an accident. Sometimes, you just don’t know any better. Each tag is an opportunity to be found in Etsy search, so make sure you use all of them. Focus on long-tail keywords and think beyond existing keywords that you’ve already used in your attributes.

You can view additional information about finding keywords for your titles and tags in this blog post.

One Last Thing…

Today's post covers the basics of Etsy SEO. Although this post is just the tip of the iceberg, my hope is that it gets you headed in the right direction for optimizing your shop for Etsy search. But, I don’t want you to fall into the rabbit hole of spending hours on keyword research. Keep it simple.

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