Back in October, 2020, Etsy started to hint at upcoming fundamental changes in the Etsy search algorithm. We had about 3 months to see how these changes impact traffic, and, boy did they! We have a handful of critical points to extend our Etsy SEO recommendations for 2021.
So far, it was enough to focus on the right keywords. Now Etsy is adding a bit of a spice to the game and considers other aspects in deciding your rankings. The goal is clear: Etsy wants to make sure that people who shop on the platform are happy. Happy people return and spend some more – and some more again. This translates into a new emphasis on the customer experience, and you need to put this emphasis into the focus of your thinking from now on to rank better.
One of my recommendations have always been focusing on gaining 5 star reviews. Two tools to get them is with the help of great customer service and also, well, simply asking for it (you’d be surprised how much it means if you simply ASK for a 5 star review, but that’s another blog post). From now on, this is on the top three recommendations list from ANI NEMES.
The good news is that great customer service is not a rocket science, but care, attention and above all: speed. You can increase your sales volume by simply responding within a couple hours, but definitely within a day.
Other aspects can easily be managed. And this is all heavily linked with the new recommendations.
New gamechangers
Etsy started to put a lot of the collateral information in focus, and the way you provide this. What does that mean? To guarantee a great customer experience, they want you not only to serve your customers better, but to inform them better:
- Fill in the “About us” section completely and with attention.
- Write a proper “Shop Story”. This also gives you a fantastic opportunity to use your most important keywords. If writing is not your strong suite, I’d be happy to help with keyword research and copywriting.
- Have immaculate policies in place that includes Etsy Shop Policy, Etsy Delivery Policy and Etsy Privacy Policy. Two important bits: Make sure you don’t go against Etsy’s own policies and make sure that you comply with GDPR. If this is the first time you see this acronym, you need to take action quick.
- Speed up your processing time. The quicker you can put your product in the mail, the happier your customers will be. Aim for a single day, but if you can keep it under 3 days, you are still good. Keep your customers waiting and they will never even look back. You don’t have control over shipping time, but you can shorten the delivery time by quick processing of your orders, so do your best.
- Take your review management serious. Your goal is to collect 5 star reviews and a lot of it, while keeping negative reviews low. There is a lot to say about this – in our next post.
- Improve your case management. Receiving a case is not the end of the world, but you must resolve it quick, because Etsy favours the customer. The best is to avoid the cases by providing great customer service and clear, up-to-date information about processing and shipping time to manage expectations. You will always have some nut cases, but handle them with grace and understanding.
Keywords are still important
Keywords are your chance to follow the interest and intention of your customers and lead them to your shop. People change, their interest shifts, new things pop up, seasons come and go and this all influences what your most successful keywords will be. What does this mean? Keyword update on a regular bases. This may seem like a lot of hassle but keywords are your agents that help you 24/7, so they deserve some attention. Here is how:
- Know your best keywords that bring in the most traffic. They may change, so it’s worth checking on them. The “Search analytics” under your Shop Manager: Stats tab will tell you all you need to know about your keywords.
- Use your best keywords. Pick the best performing ones from the search analytics list and use them in your titles, tags and shop sections.
- Use niche keywords, too. These may not be the most popular ones, but competition is low on niche keywords, so they may bring in some serious income at the end of the day.
- Start your titles with your strongest Etsy keywords and repeat them in the listing copy in various forms. Chances are people will only read your title, and you miss the chance to grab their attention if your important keywords appear further down.
- Update your listing copy with seasonal keywords to rank higher around the holidays.
- Forget about copy-paste in your listings. Make the effort to write a unique listing copy for each and every product to clearly differentiate them in the eye of your customer.
Tags became more important
We wrote about the role of tags a little while ago more in detail, but here is the most critical:
- Use all 13 tags. Include your best keywords first, but play with the rest by thinking about synonyms and make sure you use the maximum amount you can.
- Don’t use category names as tag.
- Plural and singular are the same for Etsy because it goes for the stem, so this will not save you finding more tags to make up the 13.
- Use the keywords of your titles as tags, they need to be in perfect harmony.
Link all external channels with Etsy
Make every effort to lead people to your Etsy shop from any channel where you connect with them, may it be Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram or your own blog, just to mention a few. The more links pointing at your shop, the better your ranking in Etsy – and as a bonus for all your efforts – in Google, too.
Use the Sell on Etsy to post in social media and you remove the slightest barrier from the way of people spending money in your shop when they see something great on your social media feed.
Happy selling on Etsy, and as always: if you need any help, I’m here for you. Let’s talk!
