Building an Etsy store is not enough—it’s just the start.
You also need to drive traffic to your online store. One of the most effective ways to do that is to optimize your Etsy store for SEO.
In this complete guide to Etsy SEO, you’ll learn all you need to know about SEO for Etsy, driving organic traffic, and more.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is Etsy SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is the process of improving any website, webpage, profile, or listing, so it appears at the top of search results.
Proper SEO will allow your shop to appear in high-traffic and high-intent results on search engines like Etsy. Business owners and marketers often perform SEO to make sites and profiles more visible on significant search engines like Google.
However, you can also do SEO for your Etsy page to increase its visibility on Etsy searches. Your Etsy shop’s SEO strategy can influence your organic visits and sales figures.
Improving your Etsy visibility can be tricky, but SEO can help.
Here’s why SEO on Etsy is crucial.
- It helps increase your visibility.
SEO can improve your Etsy shop’s visibility. When your shop or listing appears in search results, it becomes more visible to potential buyers.
- It helps drive organic traffic.
Targeting high-volume keywords, queries, and phrases people use to search on Etsy is a great way to drive more organic traffic to your listings and products.
- It helps increase sales.
You’ll get more chances to convert visitors into buyers with more visibility and traffic.
Why Organic Traffic Matters
Organic traffic is traffic from visitors who land on your website organically or from an unpaid source. Organic traffic on Etsy comes directly from the Etsy platform and search engines like Google or Bing.
When you’re constantly using paid ads on Google, Facebook, or Etsy, that’s money coming out of your pocket and eating into your net profits. Generating more organic traffic allows you to get more visitors to your shop without constantly paying for ads.
Organic traffic leads to organic sales, which leads to more revenue and reduced expenses.
How Etsy Search Works
The key to deploying an effective Etsy SEO strategy and ranking high on Etsy is understanding how the Etsy algorithm works.
The shop’s search function gives shoppers better search engine results when they search for a specific product on the online marketplace.
There are generally two phases to how the Etsy algorithm operates:
1) Query matching
2) Ranking
Many factors come into play here, but learning how the algorithm works is beneficial if you want to gain more visitors and sales on their Etsy shops.
Let’s look at each phase individually.
Query matching refers to how well an Etsy user’s search term will match Etsy’s inventory listings. Etsy sorts through listings and looks at their page titles, tags, categories, attributes in each listing, and other attributes to find the best match.
The ranking is the process of arranging results based on ranking factors. The products appearing at the top of a search page tend to get more visitors. So your goal as an Etsy seller is to rank as high as possible.
Etsy SEO Ranking Factors
Learning how to rank higher on Etsy should be everyone’s goal. But with millions of products and over 7.5 million Etsy sellers, ranking high isn’t that simple.
What helps you rank higher than other Etsy sellers is understanding the SEO ranking factors that come into play when your search engine optimizes your listing. Here are the ranking factors you’ll need to consider.
- Relevance
Your categories, attributes, titles, and tags must closely match a user’s search term.
Creating more relevant listings increases the potential of those listings to rank higher on Etsy search results. Keywords that are an exact match to the query will appear higher on the search page ranking.
- Listing Quality Score
Your listing’s quality score also affects your ranking on Etsy. The number of views and sales of your listing are two top factors that affect your listing quality score.
- Recency
Newer posts tend to get more search results and rank higher on Etsy searches. That’s because Etsy boosts the listing to help get it in front of more potential customers.
- Customer or Market Experience Score
Etsy records each shop’s customer or market experience score. Factors like customer reviews, a complete About section, and negative feedback or complaints can affect your customer experience score.
- Shipping Price
Shipping fees are an essential factor in a buyer’s purchasing decision.
Etsy takes into account the shipping price of your listing. You’ll get a higher ranking on the Etsy marketplace if your listings offer free shipping.
- Translations and Language
The language of your Etsy shop also affects your rankings. Ideally, you should keep your shop information in the same language you selected when creating your Etsy account. This information includes titles, tags, and listing descriptions.
- Shop Location
The location of your Etsy store also affects search ranking because Etsy tends to show results closer to the potential customer. That way, you know that people searching for your products won’t have to wait long for products to reach them.
- Shopper Habits
Etsy tracks an individual shopper’s search and buying habits. What products do they buy? How much do they spend? Etsy matches the search results closest to the shopper’s buying habits.
Improving your SEO is much easier when you understand how the Etsy search algorithm works.
Etsy SEO Tips to Rank Better
Now you know how Etsy search and Etsy search engine optimization work.
Here are Etsy SEO tips to help you rank higher for competitive keywords, when buyers search listings.
Describe Your Products and Store on Your Etsy Shop Title.
Your shop title is one of the first things buyers look at when searching for an item on Etsy.
Your shop title must describe what your store offers. A clear shop title helps increase the likelihood that your shop ranks high in specific search queries.
Craft a title that talks about what products you sell.
If you sell handmade jewelry, create a name like Mandala Handmade Jewelry or Zen Handmade Jewelry. Spell your product in your title like how shoppers would spell it when searching. Use “Paintings” instead of “Paintingz” in your title.
The title of your shop will also become the shop page title. Take advantage of that opportunity by communicating your offering clearly from the onset.
A page title can have up to 55 characters. When you create or edit your shop name, you’ll be able to preview how it looks if it appears on Google search results.
Select Strategic Keywords.
Keyword research is the foundation of your Etsy SEO strategy.
The best route is to reverse engineer your target customer’s search process and consider the terms and relevant keywords they would enter into the Etsy search bar when searching for products in your category.
If a user searches for a “flannel scarf,” Etsy’s search algorithm will start looking for all items that match “flannel” and “scarf.” Etsy then ranks results according to the factors mentioned earlier in the article.
Here are some of Etsy’s considerations when ranking existing Etsy listings on the search results.
- Etsy tends to match phrases more than individual words. So an item with a “flannel scarf” tag will have a higher ranking than an item with just a “flannel” or “scarf” tag.
- An Etsy listing page with the search words on both the titles and tags will appear higher on search results.
- Titles with the keyword at the start will rank higher. A listing with the title “Flannel scarf with embroidered name” will rank higher than “Chicago-based artist’s flannel scarf.”
Think like your potential customer when deciding on keywords for your Etsy listings. What would shoppers type into the Etsy search bar when looking for a product? What phrases would they use?
Try using long-tail keywords or long phrases that describe your product and give more information about your offer. Search for long-tail keywords that not many Etsy sellers are targeting.
Test out your longtail keywords to see if there are products already ranking for them.
I recommend using the best Etsy seo tools to help you with your keyword research.
Use Search Terms Aside from Descriptions.
Many sellers use a product’s physical attributes when considering keywords for a listing description and title, including the item’s size or color. Avoid being like other Etsy shop owners—there are different ways to add search terms to your products.
Try using keywords that might use occasions, style, or use cases.
- Occasion: Try using keywords like “bucks party,” “anniversary,” “birthday,” “Halloween,” or “Christmas,” among many other occasions that people might type on Etsy’s search.
- Style: Buyers often look for a specific type of artwork, handicraft, or other handmade items. Use terms like “vintage,” “rustic,” “minimalistic,” or “modern,” depending on what fits the style of your product.
- Use Case: Include keywords for how a customer might use your product. Good examples include “desktop wallpapers” or “planners for couples.”
Don’t Overuse Keywords.
Don’t stuff your listing title, listing description, and tags with keywords. Overusing keywords can ruin the shopper’s experience.
However, the first few words of the title and description are always the most important to help Etsy assign the correct categories and attributes.
Note that Etsy’s search results follow a de-clumping structure, avoiding the overuse of the same primary keyword. By bombarding Etsy search with the exact keywords, you’ll compete against yourself in search results.
Limit your keyword density to 10% and 20% of your item’s copy. Try using an online thesaurus to find other synonyms for your primary keywords so you don’t use the same keyword repeatedly.
Use All 13 Tags in Each Listing.
As an Etsy seller, you can use thirteen tags on your listings.
Tags aren’t mandatory, but you should maximize them by adding all 13 tags that Etsy allows for each product listing. Think of keywords a user would search for when looking for products in your category.
Don’t use the same word or phrase repeatedly in multiple tags. Consider synonyms people might use, like “cap” and “hat” or “slippers” and “flip-flops.” You can also add phrases to your tags.
Renew Your Listings.
Etsy considers a listing’s recency when ranking search results, so it’s a good idea to renew your listings as often as possible. Etsy tends to temporarily boost new listings to favor more recent products over older ones.
Renew your listings to get the same boost, albeit less potent. It can last from a few hours to a few days depending on the listing’s search query volume.
However, note that Etsy cautions against consistently renewing or relisting items, so it’s not a long-term SEO strategy.
But renewing your listings can help you stay above the competition. Renew your listings at higher traffic times—you’ll have a better boost at 6 PM than at 4 AM.
Gain Inbound Links by Promoting Your Shop
Link building is another effective SEO strategy that gets you more organic traffic. It’s also a great way to increase search engine confidence. By creating more links, you’ll be able to direct visitors from other platforms and websites.
The number of links also plays a role in Google’s search rankings. You’ll increase your chances of ranking for particular search terms if you get more links that lead to your shop or listings.
Some places you can promote your shop include:
- Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.)
- Your blog
- Your own landing page
- Other blogs and websites that can promote your product
- Quora forums
- Other marketplaces
You can also create an affiliate program to get affiliate partners to promote your shop on their channels.
Moreover, it’s a great way to generate additional revenue. Up to 73% of merchants believe that affiliate marketing efforts met their revenue expectations.
Remember that getting inbound links is only one of the many ways to promote your Etsy shop.
Provide a Great Customer Experience.
Customer feedback and reviews play a crucial role in your Etsy search ranking.
Your store will achieve a higher ranking on Etsy if customers give it positive feedback.
Provide excellent customer service to ensure your store gets positive feedback. Delight your customers, so they’ll have a reason to leave a positive review.
Some of the things you should do to improve your customer service include:
- Answer customer queries promptly.
- Be polite with your responses.
- Process returns and exchanges as quickly as possible.
- Provide updates on issues such as delayed shipping.
- Reply to negative feedback and use that feedback to improve your store.
Add Relevant Attributes.
The Attributes field is another area where you can add strategic keywords.
Include attributes relevant to your product, but avoid using those already in your tags. If you indicated that your product is a “still life of a flower vase” in the attributes, you no longer have to put that in the tags.
Offer Competitive Shipping Prices
Shipping costs play a role in your Etsy SEO rankings, so offer competitive shipping prices as much as possible. Provide free shipping for minimum orders or basket sizes.
You increase your ranking and improve your chances of selling when you offer competitive shipping rates.
Free shipping is the best incentive an online shop can give, according to 9 out of 10 shoppers.
Great Etsy SEO Tools to Try
There are a lot of great resources and tools that can help improve your SEO research and execution. Here’s a quick list of tools that you can start using.
SEMRush
This can help you in keyword research and competitor analysis.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an excellent tool for keyword research and competitor analysis. You can also use it to track the keyword difficulty of specific keywords so you can target the easiest ones to rank for.
SurferSEO
This tool helps you determine keywords, article length, number of headings, and other factors that could affect your rankings.
Dashword
Like SurferSEO, this tool helps determine keywords and article length. It also has a traffic monitor and AI to help create content briefs.
The Bottom Line
Hopefully, my ultimate guide to Etsy SEO has made it easier for you to implement an SEO strategy that brings you more organic traffic.
Don’t hesitate to use the strategies I outlined in this guide. Consider which methods will make it easy to improve your Etsy SEO and drive traffic and sales to your store.
You can also visit my blog for more Etsy selling tips.
