Today we’re playing by different rules on the Jam! Stick around for the hot new game show for Etsy long tail keywords, where contestants try to answer the question, “Is It Long Tail?” 

Something special

Today on the Jam we have a special episode. We’re playing a little bit of a game show here! 

We’re going to be playing “Is It Long Tail” and our contestant today is Mr. Richie Peplin! The importance of putting Etsy long tail keywords on your listings, as everybody knows, is that you’re going to get fewer searches from those keywords, but they’re going to be better customers coming to see your listings. You’re going to have a higher conversion rate. This is why it’s so important to be using long tails on your listings.

Identifying long tail keywords

Now, it’s not always obvious when you look at a keyword, whether or not it’s long tail. Marmalead uses machine learning and dozens of different factors to try to figure out if we think a keyword is long tail or not. Richie isn’t going to have Marmalead in front of him today. Instead, he’s going to only be using his brain and his gut. And Speaking of his gut, every wrong answer that he gives is going to result in Richie eating or drinking something unpleasant. 

Richie also has three lifelines. He’s got a search, engagement, and competition lifeline, so we’re hoping Richie uses them wisely!  

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 1

The first keyword for Richie is something he’s familiar with. Richie used this keyword or a variation of it a lot early on when he was talking about keywords in Marmalead, and that was “silver starfish necklace.” 

Now, he probably already knows that “silver starfish necklace” is an Etsy long tail keyword. So we’re switching it up a little bit today, and we’re going to go with “starfish necklace.” 

Richie’s first answer

Richie: OK, so silver starfish necklace not surprised it’s long tail and starfish necklace, I mean, necklace for sure is way too vague. Definitely not long tail. Starfish, though? Starfish isn’t super popular, but it’s popular enough, but is it descriptive enough, right? Putting silver in there really narrows it down. I’m gonna say that starfish necklace is NOT a long tail! 

And he’s correct! Winner, winner! Richie’s coming out of the gate strong here with his first Etsy long tail keyword correct!

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 2

We’ve talked before about the Etsy long tail keyword “gnome house,” and that’s kind of a fun long tail to throw around at people. But we’re going to take a variation on that, and this keyword is “terrarium.” Does Richie think “terrarium” is long tail or not long tail?

Richie’s second answer

Richie: Terrarium, oh man! How many people even own a terrarium?! That’s the start of my thought process. How many people are familiar with this word and what it even is? I can’t imagine that most people know what a terrarium is. I could be wrong. Maybe I need better friends…It’s fairly specific, but then again, I don’t know enough about ’em to know what kind of variety goes in them, right?

A reminder for Richie

At this point, we reminded Richie that he does have his lifelines too, so if he’s curious about how many people on Etsy might be looking for this, he can use one of his lifelines. After this reminder, Richie decides to use his competition lifeline! And the competition for this one is greater than 50,000. 

Richie’s second answer continued

Richie: That is a little surprising! So more people know about terrariums than I thought. I’m gonna go with it NOT being a long tail. 

And he’s correct! Two for two so far!

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 3

Next up we have “baby shower gift basket.”

Richie’s third answer

Richie: I mean occasion wise its pretty specific. Gift basket, I don’t know, a lot of different stuff can go into the gift basket. I’m gonna say NOT a long tail. 

And this is Richie’s first incorrect answer so far! “Baby shower gift basket” actually is an Etsy long tail keyword. We played with some other variations of this. “Baby shower” was not long tail, unsurprisingly. That’s a pretty vague term. As we started adding extra words in there, “baby shower gift basket” got it just enough to the point where that was considered a long tail keyword.  

You’re gonna wanna watch this

Hop on over to the Jam on YouTube to see what unpleasant thing Richie has to eat for his incorrect answer! You know it’s bound to be highly entertaining!

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 4

Alright, so Richie’s next keyword is “prayer plant.”

Richie’s fourth answer

Richie: Prayer plant. Oh boy. Plant is very vague. Not super familiar with this trend. Man, I wish I still had my competition lifeline on that. I mean, it could be pretty specific simply because it’s not all that popular. But I’m going to have to use a lifeline on this one, cause I’m just walking in the dark. I want to know about engagement on this. 

Engagement on prayer plant: You’re looking at 931 and that’s our current forecast value for the month of March. 

Richie’s answer continued: It’s not bad. It’s not bad at all…man, it’s just a guess… I’m going with long tail on this one. 

And he’s correct! The relief is palpable after what he just had to eat, folks! He’s got three out of four. This Etsy long tail keyword is a good one too because it’s all green inside of Marmalead. So they do exist! This is proof to anyone out there who said they’ve never found a keyword that’s long tail and all green for the other three things. Here you go! Start selling your prayer plants today! 😏

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 5

The next thing we’ve got for Richie is “embroidered sweater.”

Richie’s fifth answer

Richie: I think that’s just too vague. I’m not even gonna use a lifeline on that one. I think it’s just too, too vague. Embroidered sweater on Etsy just sounds very common to me. I’m going to (maybe too confidently) say NOT a long tail. 

And he’s got two in a row correct now! This is not a long tail keyword.

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 6 

Next up for Richie we have “cacti.” Not cactus mind you, but cacti. This isn’t your typical plural either. Where a computer can say, “Oh, there’s an S on the end of it. It’s plural. I’ll just lump that in with cactus.” This is a whole completely different word to describe the plural of cactus.

Richie’s sixth answer

Richie: All right, so cactus I would say is broad. Cactus is pretty popular, right? It’s a cool, popular plant. Who hasn’t had one honestly, but cacti looks like a trick. A trick keyword! Alright, I’m going to grab my search lifeline on this. 

Search: On cacti, search is 215. Not a huge amount of search, it’s yellow.  
 
Richie’s answer continued: You know I’m going to go with long tail one. Final answer. Long tail for cacti. 

Sorry Richie! That is incorrect! One of the things probably contributing to this is that Etsy comes back with over 50,000 results for cacti. 

You’re gonna wanna watch this one too!

What are you waiting for? Hop on over to the Jam on YouTube to see what unpleasant thing Richie has to eat next for his incorrect answer! It’s not appetizing. 

The seventh challenge

The next keyword up for Richie is “gingham.”

Richie’s seventh answer

Richie: Ok, plaid…I’d definitely go with vague and not a long tail. That’s because everyone knows what plaid is and I had to ask what gingham was! I still don’t fully understand what gingham is. I feel like a picture is going to do it justice. But, it has a lot of applications so long tail or not long tail…and I have no other information. I’m still going to go with NOT a long tail.

You would be correct, Richie! Good gut call, right? There just ends up being too many results that come back on Etsy. Too many different markets that you’re looking at when you do a search for gingham, even though it is a pretty specific type of pattern to be seen on something. This is not a long tail keyword. 

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 8

The next keyword for you here is “fingerprint ring.”

Richie’s eighth answer

Richie: Alright, so ring is very vague. Fingerprint ring, I don’t know. Still sounds vague to me. I’m thinking of like compass bracelets and stuff like that, right? It’s a thing, but I also wouldn’t expect those to be long tail just because we’re not getting into materials. Now, if it was a silver fingerprint ring, I’d go right to long tail. I’m going to go with NOT a long tail on this one though. 

It is a toss-up. This was a tough one. But, you’re going to be enjoying some ****** juice here in a minute! Unfortunately for you, fingerprint ring is in fact a longtail keyword. It’s got 102 searches, 197 engagement, and only 1600 results coming back on Etsy. And so while there’s a whole bunch of other factors that go into whether or not a keyword is longtail or not, this paints a pretty good picture in explaining why we might not be surprised by the fact that this is indeed a long tail keyword. Now, Richie didn’t have those numbers in front of him, so he was just guessing obviously, and using his intuition on this one.

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 9

Richie’s next keyword is “dried flowers.”

Richie’s ninth answer

Richie: So dried flowers. Flowers are pretty vague. Dried flowers, I mean, still vague. There are a lot of varieties, many different types of dried flowers. I still think it’s too vague. I don’t think it’s specific enough to be long tail. I’m going with NOT a long tail on this one. 

Well done, Richie! You are correct. This is not a long tail keyword. There are, like you said, too many varieties of dried flowers out there for this to be specific enough. 

Etsy Long Tail Keywords – No. 10

Coming down to it here, the last keyword for Richie is “gold heart earrings.”

Richie’s tenth answer

Richie: Gold heart earrings. Ok, this is kind of like silver starfish necklace is what I’m thinking. I’m going to go with long tail because I think it’s specific enough. 

Incorrect! Yeah, unfortunately, “goldheart earrings” is still not specific enough to be a long tail. This is a tricky one! There are a whole lot of results that come back on Etsy for this one. It’s kind of a big space, but it’s not super high with the searches and engagement though. 

For sure watch The Jam for this one too!

Hop on over to the Jam on YouTube to see what Richie’s last unpleasant thing he has to eat is! There may have been coughing and sputtering involved! 

Great job!

Richie did pretty good! He worked his way through the field. He made some pretty good guesses about things. This helps to highlight the importance of using a tool to figure some of this stuff out because even when there’s a lot on the line (like your taste buds) it’s not always easy to just look at a keyword and decide whether or not it’s a long tail keyword. 

You can’t say, “Oh, it’s three words long. Clearly, it’s a long tail keyword since there are a lot of words in it.” It doesn’t always work that way. It’s not always easy to tell just by looking at the keywords, but Richie did a pretty good job wading through these today. 

Richie’s final thoughts

Richie: Yeah, it’s really hard! I mean, you heard my thought process going through those and without having the actual information for search, engagement and competition it’s hard. You’re guessing. And I look at this stuff a lot and still got some of them wrong, so yeah, it wasn’t pretty or tasty!

Our final thoughts

But it was fun to go through it! Hopefully, as we were going through, you guys were trying to make your own guesses as to what you thought for each of the keywords. Let us know if you enjoyed this in the comments, we might do more things like this. We might even get some guests on and have them drink some ****** juice! Or if you have suggestions for how we can switch it up, let us know that too.  

Happy selling, everyone! 

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