Hey, hey! It’s {Day 19} of the Build Your Own Creative Business 31 Day Series. We’re getting close to the finish line! If you’re just joining me, you can click here to catch up from Day 1. Today we’ll talk about keyword usage, and how to effectively use traffic-boosting descriptions to help your customers find you.
Let me start by saying that I get asked a lot of questions about Etsy-related tags and materials, as in, “How do I get found through Etsy’s search?” If there was an effective method for doing so, I would share it freely. But the truth is, Etsy changes its algorithms and code regularly. (If you want proof, just read this interview from Etsy CEO, Chad Dickerson where he jokes about “blameless postmortems” for “spectacular mistakes.”)
I don’t rely on Etsy for traffic, and I won’t advise anyone else to do it either. You’re in a marketplace that now has more than 1,000,000 sellers. The advice I give is about being found outside of Etsy through search engines, and pulling the traffic onto your site. You should absolutely use keywords in tags and materials, but at the same time, it’s important that you learn to stop relying on Etsy for the results you want.
Speak The Customer’s Language
Product understand if my buy, you can’t using the language can I’m how?
Which clearly proves my point:
If you can’t understand the language I’m using, how can you buy my product?
Take the time to learn the language your customers are speaking. For example, I called the jewelry in my shop “spiritual bracelets” for more than a year … until I realized I was the only one calling them that. My customers call my products “energy” or “yoga” bracelets, and when I learned their language, I could alter the keywords in my shop so that more potential buyers could find me.
A better way for me to explain this point is with Marketing Creativity. I only speak handmade to you, dear reader, and I know that you’re largely a community of Etsy sellers like me. Even if you’re not, I trust that you’ve been around long enough to know what a “convo” is. Too often, I read this terminology in listings, when sellers tell potential buyers to convo them. That’s probably not the customer’s language; that’s Etsy-speak. It would be more appropriate to invite them to send you a message or use the “contact” button, as there’s a contact button on every page of your Etsy shop.
To improve your understanding of the language even further, visit Google’s Keyword Tool. Type in a word or phrase (what you call your product is a great place to start), and a page of suggested similar terms or phrases will appear. Next to each similar term, Google’s Keyword Tool displays the number of global monthly searches received for it. The higher the monthly searches, the more popular the term.
This will not only help you find new keywords, it will also help to refine the language you’re using and attract more buyers to your shop.
Keep it Simple
One of a kind handmade jewelry gemstone beaded bracelet for spiritual enlightenment, meditation, and trendy stacking arm candy
We’ve all seen titles like this, or tried to post something like it at one time or another. 
I understand why people use so many keywords in their listing titles (we all want to get picked up by a customer’s search). However, when visitors enter your online storefront to shop, all of those keywords confuse the buying mind. If you don’t know what you’re selling, how can you expect the customer to decide what to buy?
You can still catch a great number of search results by mixing and matching keywords throughout all of the titles in your shop … you just don’t need to use every keyword in each listing. For example at the Energy Shop, I’ll call one bracelet “Zen”, the next one “Yoga”, the next one “Energy”, and the next one “Spiritual”, etc. My shop is full of keywords to attract those who are looking, but my titles are clear and concise for the buyers who are shopping.
If you were a paying customer, would you be more interested in a:
Spiritual Zen Energy Yoga Beaded Stretch Bracelet Wrist Malas for Meditation in Pink Opal with Gold Lotus Charm
-or a:
Pink Opal Yoga Bracelet with Gold Lotus
You see, I’m using all of my favorite 50 keywords throughout my shop, just not all in the same title. My customers probably don’t even notice that they’re there, and that’s the way it should be! To use your keywords effectively, spread them throughout your shop while keeping the message clear for the buyer.
Test Your Keyword Effectiveness
This is a great way to test if what you’re doing with keywords is working: Google search your exact listing title and see where you come up in the results.
Here I’ve searched one of my listings: Carnelian and Pave Bracelet. My bracelet came up as the second result, and you can see the portion of the description that matters to search: the first 2-3 sentences should be filled with keywords.
