Welcome to another episode of “Is It Long Tail?” The Etsy keywords game show where we guess whether or not keywords are long tail on Etsy! Stick around to see if Richie knows his long tail keywords. If not, he’ll eat some pretty nasty stuff!
The rules of the game
Today on the Jam, we have another episode of our famous game show, “Is It Long Tail?” Where our contestant guesses whether a keyword is long tail or not based on just his gut. He has no information. Now, he does have three lifelines that he can use and we have ten keywords for him to guess. He can ask for the search, the engagement or the competition level for any of these keywords and he gets to use each of those just once.
Related: Check out our first episode of Is It Long Tail?
Now if he gets it correct, that’s awesome! If he gets it wrong, we have a plethora of delicious things in front of Richie for him to eat today.
The nastiness of it all
We’re sure you’re curious about what those “delicious” morsels might be that Richie will indulge in, should he get the wrong answer! Today we have some expired cottage cheese, a spoonful of warm mayonnaise, some olive juice, a jalapeno, and sardines. May the long tail gods be with you, Richie, and may you answer everything correctly and not have to eat any warm mayonnaise!
Richie: I’m super excited to be here… *sarcasm*…I feel like there should be rewards for me at some point!
Yeah, Richie, we’ve heard positive reinforcement actually works, but I don’t know. We’ll try that some other time.
As a reminder
Richie, before we jump in, do you want to remind people real quick why long tail keywords are important?
Richie: Long tail keywords are important because the shoppers using them have more intent to actually buy what they’re looking for. They’re being very specific in what they’re searching for at that point. A lot of people think (erroneously) that it has to do with the length of the word. It’s really about how specific the word is, meaning how much it’s narrowing down the choices. And it’s not always immediately apparent whether a keyword is long tail or not.
Etsy Keywords – No. 1
Without further ado, let’s jump into our first keyword of the day, which is “bridal shower games”. Do you think bridal shower games is a long tail keyword or not?
Richie’s first answer
Richie: Oooh, bridal shower games. I’m going to go with NOT a long tail keyword. I think there are too many variations. I think that it’s just an open-ended, kind of higher-level search term.
100% correct! Bridal shower games is NOT a long tail keyword. You nailed that one! It has searches of 6,600. It’s got an engagement of 26,000 and the competition is greater than 50,000 on Etsy. It’s a pretty big space.
Etsy Keywords – No. 2
Our second keyword for you is “baggy clothes”.
Richie’s second answer
Richie: Baggy clothes. I feel like you’re trying to trick me with this one. I want to say that it’s not a long tail keyword because it seems very broad, not very narrowed down, right? Are we talking pants? Jeans? Baggy sweatshirt? At the same time, doesn’t how baggy something is kind of depend on what size you’re wearing? I mean, if I put on a triple XL, it’d be baggy. If put on a medium, that would be up to my belly button…I’m going to go with NOT a long tail.
We’re sorry, Richie, but that’s incorrect! Baggy clothes is actually a long tail keyword on Etsy. Surprisingly, very little searches and engagement for that one and the competition is actually less than 3,000, so there’s not even a lot of things on Etsy that seem to be targeting that keyword. Your first thing to eat is…
You’re gonna want to watch this
Writing it out just doesn’t do it justice! Hop on over to this episode of the Jam on YouTube to see what delicious snack Richie gets to enjoy for that wrong answer!
Etsy Keywords – No. 3
The next keyword is “tortoiseshell earrings”.
Richie’s third answer
Richie: I’m going with long tail on that one… Wait a minute. I’m probably being tricked here. This is probably a thing that I’m not aware of and it’s probably more popular than I think. This product is probably not made with actual tortoise shells. It’s probably a style that looks like a tortoiseshell. That’d be my guess.
Yeah, so I’m gonna go with NOT long tail on this. I think it’s a style of earring and I think they’re gonna be a lot of like subsets below it.
But actual earrings made of tortoise shells, you would say that’s probably long tail?
Probably because that seems pretty niche. And you’re probably not allowed to do that now that I’m thinking about it…I wasn’t really thinking about it at first. But, to circle back around, I am going with NOT long tail!
Correct, sir. This is not a long tail keyword! It does have pretty good search and engagement. The engagement is 1,700, which is nice and strong and competition is below 20,000, so it’s a light green color inside of Marmalead. But it is in fact, not a long tail keyword. You are two and one!
Etsy Keywords – No. 4
Keyword #4 is “vintage wedding dress”.
Richie’s fourth answer
Richie: Vintage wedding dress. All right, so, I’m definitely gonna go with NOT long tail on that one. There’s probably a lot of searches for that, a lot of engagement and I expect there’s a lot of competition. ‘Vintage’ being just kind of a category, I think it’s just one step down from just putting in ‘wedding dress’ which is for sure not long tail.
And you are 100% correct on that. There are about 2,000 searches with about 9,000 engagement and over 50,000 competition for this keyword. Now again, keep in mind that as we’re pulling these stats from Marmalead this is as of the date of recording this episode. These stats will change over time, but it’s got very strong engagement in searches and a lot of competition on Etsy. That’s a big space!
Etsy Keywords – No. 5
Keyword #5 is “aquarium plants”.
Richie’s fifth answer
Richie: Aquarium plants. I am pretty confident that is going to be a long tail. I mean, I know there’s a lot of variety. I’ve had a saltwater tank before, but it wasn’t like a self-sustaining kind of like full ecosystem. I didn’t have a lot of live stuff in there. Except for the fish. They were alive… for a while.
Anyways, aquarium plants. I think that’s pretty specific. Getting much more specific than that. I think you’re down to where people really know they want. So my final answer is that this IS long tail!
Correct! This is another long tail keyword and this is a solid example of a keyword inside Marmalead that is green all the way around. We’ve got long tail status. We’ve got green on searches and engagement and competition. This is an awesome keyword to target if that happens to be your market.
Half-way done
We’re about halfway done! We did five keywords and we’ve got 5 left to go. Richie, you’ve only missed one. That’s good.
Richie: I’ve gotten better at this game!
You are doing much better this time around. Did you practice?
I did not [laughter].
Etsy Keywords – No. 6
Our next keyword is “botanical wallpaper”.
Richie’s sixth answer
Richie: Man. I feel like this is a tricky one because I don’t know a lot about wallpaper or how “in” it is right now.
You do also have your three unused life.
I probably should use a lifeline here. Let me get some competition on this wallpaper. This botanical wallpaper for that matter.
Competition on the botanical wallpaper is 12,402 which is light green inside of Marmalead.
I’m gonna go with long tail on this one — kind of like aquarium plants. I think this one IS gonna be a long tail.
And you’re correct again! Botanical wallpaper is another long tail keyword. You are nailing these things!
Etsy Keywords – No. 7
Next up, keyword #7 is “garden ornament”.
Richie’s seventh answer
Richie: Let me grab searches on that one. I’m going to start using these lifelines, because garden ornament’s a little tricky.
Searches on garden ornament is 633.
Oh. OK, I’m going to go WITH long tail. It’s somewhat specific, I mean….I don’t know, we’ve got some things I would maybe consider garden ornaments. There’s a little glass butterfly that hangs from a tree, which is somewhat specific though. There’s a variety. I go to a certain nursery and you see a lot of variety of garden ornaments. Yeah, I’m thinking it IS going to be long tail.
We are sorry that is incorrect. Garden ornament is in fact, NOT a long tail. The search level on this one is very misleading. There are over 50,000 results that come back on Etsy for this keyword. For as many results as are out there, you don’t see a lot of searches. The engagement is pretty strong on it.
Just based on searches alone, we probably would have made the same guess as you that it was a long tail when it is in fact not.
You’re gonna want to watch this one too!
What are you waiting for? Head over to this episode of the Jam on YouTube to see what unpleasant thing Richie has to eat for his incorrect guess!
Gross. I go right to the cottage cheese, huh?
Etsy Keywords – No. 8
Moving right along, keyword #8 is “white unisex t-shirt”.
Richie’s eighth answer
Richie: I don’t think that’s worth using lifeline on, but it is getting trickier. I mean, it seems pretty general. Just a white t-shirt, but it’s also pretty specific because you can’t get much more specific than that. Unless it’s like white unisex t-shirt, cotton or polyester or something like that, but it’s pretty specific.
I imagine there’s a lot of competition though. Imagine search and engagement is pretty high. I’m gonna go with NOT a long tail. Final answer.
Yes, correct! This is not a longtail keyword. It actually has super low search and engagement, but the competition (you’re correct, Richie) is over 50,000. So competition for this is huge. But, I’m guessing that when people are searching, they’re probably not just saying white unisex t-shirt. They’re probably throwing something else in there like “for a teacher” or a “joke t-shirt.” They probably have some kind of content that they’re looking for or style, something a bit more specific than just a white unisex t-shirt.
Etsy Keywords – No. 9
Our next keyword for you, Richie, is “custom mousepad”.
Richie’s ninth answer
Richie: I don’t know the last time I had a mouse pad because laptops have the trackpad. I’m gonna use my engagement lifeline on this one.
Engagement on custom mouse pad is 141.
I’m going long tail on this one.
You are correct! Custom mouse pad IS a long tail keyword. 71 search, 141 engagement, not a whole lot of shopper interest there, but there are over 15,000 results that come back on Etsy for this keyword. So if you are in the market for one, there are options on Etsy for you.
How’s he doing?
Alright, Richie, you’ve been through nine of these. You’ve only missed two, so you’ve already beaten your record from our last game. You were six out of ten last time.
If you get this correct, you will definitely beat your score from last time!
Etsy Keywords – No. 10
Your last keyword is “leather dog collar”.
Richie’s tenth answer
Richie: I’m going to go with NOT a long tail because I feel like there’s a lot of choices in dog collars including leather dog collars. Different types of leather, different colors of leather. You got studded non studded. Yeah, I’m gonna go with NOT a long tail.
100% correct! It is not a long tail keyword on Etsy. It does have very good search and competition. It’s got about 5,000 searches and almost 16,000 engagement. The competition is 30,000, so there are a lot of things out there for this. Like you said, Richie, we think there are a whole lot of other more niche markets underneath this that people are interested in.
Once they get closer to making that purchase. They might already know they want a leather dog collar of some sort. Maybe they even start their search there and then once they see what’s out there, they must be honing it into something more specific before going through and making their purchase.
The final score
Richie, you finished eight for ten, only missing two! Which means that you might as well save that olive juice, the jalapeno, and sardines for next time so you can enjoy some expired olive juice, expired jalapeno, and do the sardines expire? Probably not, they’re probably good forever!
Wrapping up
There you guys go! Another solid edition of the “Is It Long Tail?” game show. Hopefully, you guys had fun playing along at home too.
Did you get any of those keywords correct yourselves? If so, let us know how many you got right in the comments below! Thanks for being a good contestant again, Richie, we’ll have you again next time.
Happy selling, everyone!
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