Etsy SEO – How to Rank Your Products on Etsy

how to rank your products on etsy

Etsy SEO: 7 Things You’ll Need to Know to Learn How to Rank Your Products on Etsy

Hi! My name is Zander Aycock. I am an Etsy Shop owner and a Digital Marketer from South Carolina. I’ve been practicing regular SEO for a few years here and there. As a digital marketer with the majority of my experience in eCommerce, SEO is important. When I decided on an idea for my small business, I was looking at different platforms where I could sell my products. Once I looked into Etsy and realized it’s all about people searching for products (just like Amazon), I knew this was the right channel for me to start out on. Since opening our shop, I’ve studied, tested, measured just about everything possible to help get a good idea of how to rank your products on Etsy – aka Etsy SEO. There are 7 main things that I have found. So let’s dive into what I’ve found.

1. Do Your Research

There are many ways to research which keywords to use. You can start by using the Google Keyword Planner. Type in the main root key phrase (or keyword) for your product. You can figure out what your main keyword / key phrase is by asking yourself “What do I sell?” Answer it in 2 or 3 words. The phrase you come up with is going to be your main root key phrase. Click on “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category” and type in your main key phrase and click “Get Ideas”. You’ll soon see something that looks like the screenshot below.

google keyword planner etsy seo

In this example, I’ve typed in “boho headbands” as my main key phrase.

As you scroll down you’ll see a list of similar Keywords that may be similar to your main one. Scroll down slowly and find the keywords that are synonyms for the product you’re selling. Next to each keyword, it will show you a number… This is the Average Number of Monthly Searches on this phrase. In this example, I found a few that are noticeably relevant right away: “boho hair accessories” volume: 210, “boho flower headband” volume: 70, “boho head wrap” volume: 390, “headbands for women” volume: 5,400, “boho style clothing” volume: 1,300, “fashion headbands” volume: 880″.

You’ll want to try to get between 4 and 10 key phrases. Not every product will have 10 key phrases. For this example, I’ll just start with these 6 phrases. Let’s say the first product we are working on is a boho headband that is flowery. It has a beautiful flower design. Just imagine… Now, we’re going to prioritize these in two ways: 1. We’re going to copy all of the words and list them in order from highest monthly search volume to least volume. 2. We’re going to copy all of the words and list them in most relevant order. Once we have these two lists created, we can then begin to prioritize each word. This will help us develop our Etsy Listings so they will be Etsy SEO ready!

Sorted by Volume:

  1. headbands for women
  2. boho style clothing
  3. fashion headbands
  4. boho head wrap
  5. boho hair accessories
  6. boho flower headband

Sorted by Relevance:

  1. boho flower headband
  2. boho hair accessories
  3. headbands for women
  4. boho head wrap
  5. boho style clothing
  6. fashion headbands

Now we’re going to add each number together for each keyword. For example, we’ll take “headbands for women” and see that it’s ranked #1 for Volume, and #3 for Relevance. So we’ll give it a 4 as it’s score. Once we have figured up all of the scores, our number 1 keyword will have the lowest score. The keywords will then be ordered how we want them in our title. This will signify the Importance of each key phrase.

boho flower headband = 6 + 1 = 7

boho hair accessories = 5 + 2 = 7

headbands for women = 1 + 3 = 4

boho head wrap = 4 + 4 = 8

boho style clothing = 2 + 5 = 7

fashion headbands = 3 + 6 = 9

And our #1 winner is “headbands for women”. Since our 2nd place consists of 3 different phrases, we can prioritize them by relevance. In this specific case, the 2nd place will be “boho flower headband”, 3rd place is “boho hair accessories”, and 4th place is “boho style clothing”. After that, we have 5th place as “boho head wrap” and 6th place as “fashion headbands”.

2. Optimize Your Product Listings Titles

Next, we’ll want to add our keywords in order as the Title. When writing your title for Etsy, it’s important that you focus on the main keywords you have found from your research. Once you’ve listed them all, you may then add other relevant phrases to the end of the title. It’s also important to try to use up as much of the characters Etsy allows you to use as possible. Following the example above, our title will look something like this:

Headbands for Women, BoHo Flower Headband, BoHo Hair Accessories, BoHo Style Clothing, BoHo Head Wrap, Fashion Headbands

** Please note that capitalization only matters for Aesthetics. We recommend using Title Caps for your Title. Ety’s search engine does not care whether or not you use upper or lowercase letters. **

3. Use All 13 Keywords

It’s extremely important to use ALL KEYWORDS POSSIBLE in each listing! This is probably the #1 most important thing to do. The trick here is to use the phrases from your title as your keywords. Since Etsy only allows keywords/phrases with a max of 20 characters, sometimes, you’ll be limited on how you can do it. For example, if you have the word “boho hair accessories”… split this into two. So one keyword will be “boho hair” and the other will be “hair accessories”. If you can’t think of any other keywords, think of the colors used, or other relevant attributes to the product. If you decide “red” is relevant… first try “red headband”… The more specific you can be with these, the better.

4. Optimize Your Etsy Descriptions

Know those keywords you found while doing your research in step 1? It’s time to write a description of your product. You’ll want to make sure you use each key phrase in this description without it looking sloppy (like you just jammed in a bunch of keywords). Also, do not hit “return” until you’ve used each key phrase. It’s important that Etsy sees that you used those keywords in the “First Paragraph” of your description. When Etsy sees that your description matches the keyword in your title + keywords section + and what the customer searched, it will give you more credit and consider your product very relevant… ultimately moving you up in rankings.

5. Links are Your Best Friend

This is my secret ninja hack that I haven’t seen anyone talk about in blog posts about Etsy SEO. In your description, include a section that says: People who have purchased this product have also liked this item: …insert link…

When you do this, it creates a web between your listings, making everything connected. You will also want to have a link to your Shop homepage in each listing. http://etsy.com/shop/YOURSHOPNAME

I get a lot of traffic from my own listings… people find one item in the search results, and then they decide to click to see what is similar… a lot of times, they like what they were linked to even better! Be sure to be thoughtful when using this tactic and don’t link to unrelated items.

6. Relevance & Recency

If you can’t find your product in Page 1 of the search results for your main key phrases, try Renewing your listing. This only works if you have closely followed each of the previous steps. Your keywords and research must be ON POINT in order for Renewing your listings to work. What this does: It shows Etsy that there is “movement” on your listing. It’s kind of like a refresh or a fake sale. Etsy sees that you renewed it and will decide that it needs to reconsider all of your information in the listing. While considering all things about it… it then compares your listing to what it’s around and may deem your product as more relevant than before based off how listings around yours are performing. If the spot ahead of you hasn’t sold a unit in 3 days and neither have you, try renewing your listing. Within about 15-30 minutes, you may be ranked a little higher than them. I’ve seen this happen almost like clockwork.

7. Use Tools to Measure (ABT)

Always be testing! There are so many valuable tools you can use to help you rank your products on Etsy. Here are a list of our favorites:

  • EtsyRank
  • Marmalead
  • Google Keyword Planner
  • Google Sheets / Excel
  • Google Trends

 

I hope you find these tips helpful. Please contact us if you have questions regarding Etsy SEO or How to Rank Your Products on Etsy. Hopefully, I’ll see you on Page 1 of the Search Results!

Here’s a recap:

  1. Do Your Keyword Research
  2. Optimize Your Product Listing Titles
  3. Use All 13 Keywords
  4. Write Good Descriptions
  5. Links are your best friend
  6. Relevance & Recency
  7. Use Tools to Measure Your Results (Before & After)