Etsy SEO means optimizing your listings so shoppers can find your products when searching for them online. And a solid SEO strategy is one of the most effective ways to bring more organic traffic to your Etsy shop. To improve your Etsy SEO in 2024, follow these 10 simple steps.
When your Etsy listings are optimized for search, more shoppers can find your products, giving you an opportunity to land more sales. Improving your Etsy SEO strategy in 2024 will set your listings up for success for the rest of the year.
Need another reason to focus on your Etsy SEO in 2024?
When you optimize your Etsy listings for search, you’ll benefit not only from search traffic on the Etsy marketplace, but you’ll also see an increase in Google search traffic as well!
So, let’s dive in.
Improve your Etsy SEO in 2024 with these 10 simple steps
- Research better Etsy keywords
- Drop your worst keywords
- Use long-tail keywords
- Use all 13 Etsy tags
- Use focus keywords
- Stop keyword stuffing
- Use your 14th tag
- Update your shop policies
- Get more 5-star reviews
- Promote your Etsy shop more
What is Etsy SEO?
Etsy SEO is the practice of optimizing your listings to tell the Etsy algorithm that your product is relevant for specific search terms, thus increasing your product’s visibility in Etsy’s search engine.
SEO stands for search engine optimization.
Like all social media channels, Etsy has its own algorithm. Simply put, when a shopper searches for something on Etsy, the algorithm attempts to put relevant listings in front of them.
But before the algorithm can put an Etsy listing in front of a shopper, it has to run a couple SEO checks on that listing. Part of what the algorithm looks for is a pattern of keywords.
These SEO checks include, but are not limited to:
- Listing Title
- Tags
- Category
- Attributes
- Description
Essentially, the keywords used in these areas help the algorithm determine whether your listing is relevant to an Etsy shopper’s search.
What is an Etsy listing quality score?
Well-optimized keywords aren’t the only thing the Etsy algorithm checks when showing your listing to shoppers.
While the algorithm will certainly check each shopper’s previous search history and engagement patterns, it will also check the history of your listing performance. And it’s your listing performance that helps determine your overall Etsy listing quality score.
Your Etsy listing quality score is directly and indirectly affected by its:
- Number of views
- Average time on a listing page
- Add to cart frequency
- Click through rate
- Favorites
- Completed purchases
- Positive Reviews
Positive interactions with your listing, like favorites and sales, will greatly improve your listing quality score. Negative interactions with your listing, like stale engagement or a high bounce rate, will decrease your listing quality score.
A high listing quality score not only brings more traffic to your shop but also has a direct correlation to improve your Etsy listing conversion rates.
Does Etsy SEO matter?
Etsy SEO is one of the most important ways to improve the overall performance of your Etsy shop. Because SEO literally means optimizing your listings to perform better in the eyes of Etsy’s algorithm. And if you can do that, you’ll get your listings in front of more buyers and make more sales.
But remember, Etsy’s algorithm looks at the overall performance of your listings, not just your keywords.
So not only do you need to target keywords with high search and engagement, but you also need to provide a quality product that people are eager to buy and will react to positively.
To do this, you must keep Etsy’s SEO and listing quality factors in mind.
Why is Etsy SEO so hard?
It doesn’t have to be. You’re just thinking about it the wrong way.
Using auto-complete in the Etsy search bar is a good way to find out what shoppers are searching for. But how are you supposed to know if those keywords are over-saturated with tons of competition? Or if you’re on the tail-end of a particular search trend that’s about to die out?
Using keywords with high search and engagement is ideal. But what if your listing isn’t optimized to compete in the same space as those highly competitive markets?
Getting Etsy shoppers to find your listing is one thing. But what happens when they find your listing and they’re put off by poor listing photos or a misleading description?
Sure, it’s not impossible to sell an item on Etsy. But what if you’re over-pricing your products, and multiple buyers feel like it’s cheaply made? Negative reviews and refund requests will do more harm to your Etsy shop than those sales will do good.
Stop thinking about Etsy SEO the wrong way. Keep reading to find out how to optimize your Etsy listings for 2024:
10 Steps to Improve Your Etsy SEO in 2024
Follow these 10 steps to improve your listing performance and reach more Etsy buyers in 2024.
Step 1. Researching the best Etsy keywords for your products
Product trends come and go. And so do the top-performing keywords for your market. So, if you want to find the best keywords for your products at any given time, one of the easiest ways to do it is with Marmalead.
Once you link your Etsy shop to your Marmalead account, you can see exactly which keywords are expected to outperform the rest. You can even add hundreds of keywords for your product market to a list, then check back throughout the year to find out when search and engagement are about to spike.
Ready to improve your Etsy SEO and give Marmaelad a shot? Try it for yourself.
Keeping an eye on keywords is one thing. But researching the best keywords for your product market is entirely different. Because if you don’t know how to find effective keywords, your SEO strategy won’t be off to a great start.
This is exactly why we wrote a full tutorial on researching the best Etsy keywords to keep your listings on point.
How to research Etsy keywords in 2024:
One of the easiest ways to improve your Etsy SEO strategy and bring more traffic to your Etsy listings is by optimizing your keywords from search terms buyers already use to find your products. To do this, simply follow these steps:
- Use Etsy shop stats to see which search terms buyers already use to find your products.
- Plug those search terms into Marmalead to find related keywords and how well they’re expected to perform.
- Look for keywords with high search and engagement but low competition.
- Save the keywords you like to a keyword list.
- Check your lists throughout the year to stay on top of each keyword’s expected performance.
- Repeat for each Etsy listing on a seasonal basis.
Not sure where to start? Watch the video above for a detailed tutorial on one of the ways Marmalead helps with Etsy SEO and keyword research.
Are your products in style, or are they old news? Stay ahead of the competition with active trends from Marmalead. Subscribe to The Squeeze for new trends delivered to your inbox every week.
Additional Tips to Expand Your Keyword Strategy
Long-Tail Keywords
After identifying the best initial keywords for your products, diving deeper into advanced keyword strategies is crucial. This involves understanding the power of long-tail keywords — these are longer, more specific phrases that shoppers are likely to use when they are closer to a point of purchase. For instance, instead of “handmade candles,” a long-tail keyword might be “handmade soy-scented candles.”
- Identify specific phrases your customers might use.
- Use phrases that describe your product in detail.
- Incorporate these into your titles and descriptions.
Local SEO
Another critical aspect is local SEO. If your products have a local appeal or you target customers in a specific area, incorporate location-based keywords into your listings. Local SEO taps into a nearby market for products with regional appeal, but the only way to bring local traffic to your listings is by incorporating location-based keywords or by ensuring your location details are completed in your shop details.
- Add location-based terms if targeting a local market.
- Include city names or local landmarks if relevant.
- Update your shop’s location details.
Competitor Keyword Analysis
Competitor keyword analysis is also invaluable. Look at successful competitors’ shops and notice their keywords, especially those they repeat from their tags to their product titles and descriptions. Using a keyword research tool like Marmalead can help identify these keywords and analyze their effectiveness.
- Research keywords used by top-performing competitors.
- Observe their titles and tags for inspiration.
- Use tools to analyze keyword effectiveness and adapt them for your listings.
By incorporating these advanced strategies into your Etsy SEO approach, you can enhance your visibility and reach potential customers searching for the exact products you offer.
Step 2. Leveraging Etsy analytics tools to improve search engine optimization
Understanding and utilizing Etsy’s analytics tools is essential to improve your Etsy SEO in 2024. Etsy provides a wealth of data that can help you make informed decisions about your keywords and overall shop performance.
This data has many advantages for Etsy sellers, as long as you know how to use it. Pay attention to these Etsy traffic stats:
Analyzing Etsy Shop Traffic
Start by examining where your traffic is coming from. Etsy’s analytics can show you whether visitors find your shop through Etsy search, external search engines, social media, or direct links. This insight helps you understand which of your SEO efforts are most effective.
Monitoring Etsy Keyword Performance
Etsy analytics also lets you see which keywords drive traffic to your shop. Pay attention to high-performing keywords and consider how to incorporate them into your listings. Conversely, identify underperforming keywords and consider replacing them with more effective ones.
To find out which keywords are driving traffic to your Etsy listings, follow our lead:
- In Etsy, go into your Etsy Shop Manager.
- Navigate to your Stats on the sidebar.
- Scroll down, and you’ll see your Etsy Listings. Choose whichever listing you intend to optimize.
- Scroll down to see a list of Search Terms buyers already use to find your products.
These search terms will tell you exactly which keywords are performing well for that particular Etsy listing and which keywords aren’t. The keywords with the least number of visits bring less organic traffic to that listing.
If some of your keywords aren’t on this list at all, they’re not bringing any organic traffic to that listing. Find out which keywords aren’t performing and drop them. But make sure you replace them with keywords that are expected to perform better!
Understanding Customer Behavior
Look at how customers interact with your shop. Which listings get the most views? How long do visitors stay on your pages? This information can guide you in optimizing your listings for better engagement and conversion.
Tracking Conversion Rates
Finally, monitor your conversion rates – the percentage of visits that turn into sales. High traffic with low conversion might indicate a need to refine your keywords or improve the quality of your listings.
Regularly reviewing and acting on your Etsy analytics data is critical to a continuously evolving and effective Etsy SEO strategy. It empowers you to make data-driven decisions, ultimately enhancing your shop’s visibility and sales.
Step 3. Use long-tail keywords to improve Etsy SEO in 2024
Long-tail keywords for Etsy are an important part of your SEO strategy. And we never miss an opportunity to talk about them.
And although we bring up the importance of long-tail keywords from time to time, many Etsy sellers simply aren’t using them.
What is a long-tail keyword for Etsy?
Long-tail keywords are specific search phrases that combine multiple keywords and attributes for an identified target audience.
They focus on a particular niche that will admittedly have smaller demand but, most importantly, less competition.
Long-tail keywords are great at dialing in your Etsy SEO strategy to a specific keyword phrase that’s extremely relevant to your product. The result of using effective long-tail keywords means that any buyer who finds your listing is already intent on making a purchase.
Why are long-tail keywords important for Etsy SEO?
Ranking in Etsy search results is easier with long-tail keywords than with common search terms. This is because there’s less competition for long-tail keywords, which means fewer Etsy listings battling for placement.
When you use long-tail keywords on your Etsy listings, you increase the opportunity to achieve a high conversion rate. While specific long-tail keywords are used less often in search, Etsy shoppers who use these search terms have narrowed their product hunt to exactly what they want to buy.
As a result, when they find your listing, there’s a higher chance they’ll purchase from your shop rather than the few remaining competitors in search results.
Marmalead is a great keyword tool to help Etsy sellers find long-tail keywords and improve their Etsy SEO strategy in 2024. Give it a shot and start searching for long-tail keywords with Marmalead.
Step 4. Use all 13 Etsy tags to improve your Etsy SEO in 2024
This is a no-brainer. Etsy allows you to upload 13 tags for each of your listings. So don’t publish your Etsy listing without using all 13 of them!
If you’ve racked your brain to think of more tags to include on your Etsy listing, it’s time to use a keyword tool for help. That’s where Marmalead comes in.
Are tags important for Etsy SEO?
Yes. Your tags are the most straightforward way to attach effective keywords to your Etsy listings. With each tag you include on your listing, you’re telling Etsy’s algorithm that you want to rank for that search term.
The best listings use all 13 of their Etsy tags. And you should, too.
With Marmalead, it’s easy to find out how many tags your competitors are using and how those keywords are expected to perform. Once you know this, you can brainstorm your own tags that are projected to bring more search and engagement.
How to brainstorm better Etsy keywords
- Use Marmalead to search for one of your products
- Scroll down to find a table of Sample Listings
- Hover over the Tags column to see each tag your competitors are using
- Plug those tags into Marmalead individually and save them to a list
- Go through your list of competitor tags and plug those keywords into Marmalead’s Storm tool
- Use Storm to brainstorm keywords that are projected to perform better than the keywords your competitors are using
- Now you can keep track of the tags your competitors are using and monitor their search and engagement performance over time
Try this experiment during your next brainstorming session to help fill all 13 of your tag slots.
Step 5. Optimizing your Etsy product listings more maximum results
A well-optimized product listing is key to Etsy SEO success. Each element of your listing should be carefully crafted to attract and engage potential buyers, using focus keywords effectively.
As of May 2022, Etsy’s algorithm now considers keywords and phrases within your listing descriptions when ranking your listings on Etsy.
In other words, the keywords you use across your listing titles, tags, categories, and attributes have all been essential when it comes to matching your listings to the right buyers. And now, the keywords you use in your descriptions are just as important.
What are focus keywords on Etsy?
Focus keywords are Etsy keywords that are used in your title, tags, and description. This helps let Etsy’s algorithm know that your listing is extremely relevant for whichever keyword appears in these three areas.
So pick the most important keyword you’d like to rank for your Etsy listing and make this your focus keyword.
Basically, you’re letting Etsy’s algorithm know you want it to pay special attention to this search term when it’s scanning your listing and running its SEO checks.
Ideally, your focus keyword should be one that gives you the best opportunity to perform extremely well while remaining hyper-relevant to your product. So, you shouldn’t waste your focus keyword on an irrelevant one or one that lacks promising stats.
How to use focus keywords for Etsy
Once you know which keyword you’d like to target as your main focus keyword, you should use it as early as possible in your product title and description.
This is known as frontloading. Frontloading keywords helps grab your buyer’s attention immediately. After all, this will be one of the first things they see when scanning through listing titles in search results.
Alternatively, when you use your focus keyword as soon as possible in your listing description, you’re immediately confirming to your potential customer that your listing matches their search intentions.
Focus keywords are especially important for Google SEO. This helps the search engine identify which keyword to rank your listing in Google search results.
Where to use focus keywords in your Etsy listings
Title Optimization: Your title should be clear, descriptive, and keyword-rich. Start with your primary keyword, followed by secondary keywords, and ensure it reads naturally. For example, “Handmade Woolen Scarf – Winter Knitted Accessories, Cozy Neckwear.”
Tag Optimization: Utilize all available tag spaces. Include a mix of broad and specific keywords, variations, and synonyms. Think about what your potential customers might search for – including colors, styles, and uses.
Description Optimization: Your description should be detailed and informative, embedding keywords naturally throughout. Begin with the most important information and include dimensions, materials, usage instructions, or any unique features of the product.
Optimizing Categories and Attributes: Choose the most relevant category for your product. Fill out as many attributes as possible – like color, size, and material – as these contribute to Etsy’s search filters and help customers find your product.
Remember, the goal of your listing is to convert traffic into sales. A well-optimized listing improves search visibility and can significantly enhance the buyer’s experience, leading to better reviews and more sales over time.
Step 6. Stop keyword stuffing to improve your Etsy SEO in 2024
It’s time you stop stuffing your Etsy listing’s titles and descriptions with keyword nonsense. Not all of your Etsy tags will appear in your listing title, and they shouldn’t.
Etsy doesn’t want you to keyword stuff your titles and tags, nor do we. Because it’s not very helpful to the buyer experience when browsing products on the marketplace.
You’ve seen this before. A listing title that is nothing but a stream of keywords stuffed together in seemingly random order. Any shopper who looks at this will be put off, and if your listing photo doesn’t completely “wow” them, they’ll keep scrolling.
Your titles should be clear and concise to make it easier for buyers to understand what it is they’re looking at. If a buyer has to think hard about what you’re selling, you’ve already lost them.
If you’re having trouble writing a listing description that sounds like a human wrote it, follow these 5 tips to improve your writing.
Step 7. Stop repeating categories and attributes in your Etsy tags
You may not realize this, but your listing category is essentially your 14th tag. Because Etsy’s algorithm already factors in your categories and attributes when it runs its SEO checks on your listing.
So, if any of your current tags include an exact copy of your listing category or attribute, you’re just wasting space.
If you’re correctly filling out your attributes and picking the right category, Etsy already uses this information to help place your listing in search results.
Instead of duplicating your listing category and wasting a tag space, try using Marmalead to brainstorm more keywords that show a pattern of high search and engagement.
Step 8. Update your Etsy shop policies and About section
Etsy wants to know that you’re a serious seller. And part of being a serious seller is treating your Etsy shop like a legitimate business.
One easy but often overlooked way to improve your Etsy SEO is to complete your shop policies and About section. This includes updating all the necessary information available in your Shop Manager. You may not think this is important for Etsy’s search results, but it definitely is.
Improving your customer & market experience score
Part of Etsy’s listing quality score includes another score that Etsy likes to keep tabs on for its sellers: Your “customer and market experience score.”
Essentially, Etsy wants to give its shoppers the best possible buying experience. So it will provide more traffic to stores that have completed their:
- Return policy
- About section
- Privacy policy
- Payment options, etc.
Additional ways to enhance Your Etsy shop’s visibility
Remember, the goal is to provide clarity to your customers while strategically using keywords to improve your shop’s Etsy SEO. Regularly revisiting and updating your Etsy shop elements can significantly enhance your shop’s overall visibility and attractiveness to potential buyers.
Optimizing Your Shop Title: Your shop title is more than just a name for your storefront; it’s a key SEO element, especially for Google traffic. It should reflect your brand and include primary keywords describing your product range. For example, “Handmade Vegan Skincare and Natural Beauty Products” immediately tells customers what your shop offers and includes relevant keywords.
Crafting Effective Announcements: Your shop announcement section is the perfect place to highlight special information such as promotions, new product launches, or important updates. Use engaging language and include keywords relevant to your promotions or new products.
Streamlining Shop Sections: Shop sections are not only organizational tools but also SEO opportunities. Name your sections with clear, descriptive, and keyword-rich titles. For instance, instead of just “Jewelry,” use “Handmade Silver Jewelry” This helps customers find exactly what they’re looking for and improves your shop’s searchability.
Step 9. Get more 5-star reviews to improve your Etsy SEO in 2024
Remember your Etsy listing quality score? It’s that secret number Etsy doesn’t tell you about. Well, a big factor for placing your Etsy listing in search results is determined by the number of positive reviews on your listing.
Positive reviews are arguably one of the most important factors for your Etsy shop. This shows potential customers that you have a history of providing a quality product that accurately reflects your listing photos and description.
Improve your chances of getting that 5-star review by simply thanking your customer for their purchase.
Step 10. Promote your Etsy shop externally
If you’re a new Etsy shop, one of the best things you can do to improve your Etsy SEO is to promote it to your friends and family on social media. They’ll immediately be excited about the idea of your Etsy shop, which should lead to more than a handful of sales and some potential positive reviews.
Not only will this start your Etsy experience on a high note, but this should also lead to some more word-of-mouth sales between acquaintances and other social circles.
If you’re following all of the other steps in this list appropriately, the handful of initial sales you can gain from your social media followers will give you a much-needed boost to your overall shop performance.
Invest in social media marketing for Etsy
Once your Etsy shop is underway, it’s time to invest in external traffic sources, like Pinterest, blogs, and other social media platforms that link to your Etsy shop.
An easy and fun place to start is through Instagram Reels and TikTok. Not only is Etsy investing in short-form video content through the use of their new Etsy Explore feature, but this type of marketing strategy has proved helpful for countless Etsy shops and handmade businesses like yours.
Ready to invest more time and money in your marketing strategy? Here’s how to leverage social media to sell more Etsy products.
Over to you
A good Etsy SEO strategy starts with the right product and a mindset for great customer service. Throw in a handful of solid Etsy keywords, outstanding product photos, and a well-optimized listing, and your sales will continue to rise in 2024.
If you’re a seasoned veteran, use the tips in this article as a little refresher to get your Etsy SEO back on the right track. If you’re a newbie selling on Etsy for the first time, follow this guide to build a solid foundation for your business!
Have any burning questions about Etsy SEO and other ways to improve your shop in 2024? Ask away down in the comments!
