SEO & Etsy

It seems like whenever I'm in the Etsy forums, I'm always trying to explain to sellers how to optimize their SEO (i.e., Search Engine Optimization). Here's a quick review I just did this morning. I chose one item at random from Alyssa's shop, AlyssaScarfer:

These are the tags she was using:

• Accessories
• Scarf
• Knit
• scarf
• scarves
• infinity scarf
• infinity scarves
• arm knit scarf
• arm knitting
• knit
• tan infinity scarf
• tan scarf
• chunky knit scarf
• chunky knit infinity
• chunky knit scarves
• soft scarf

My initial response to Alyssa was that she is wasting several tag slots. Etsy provides up to 3 categories and sub-categories for each item; these are the three capitalized words at the top of the list which serve double-duty as tags, so there's no need to waste a tag slot by repeating these words on their own! 2 tag slots saved!

Next, I explained how, when a seller is using a multiple word phrase, they don't need to repeat any of those words (in the same order) as separate tags. Since this seller has "tan infinity scarf," she didn't also need "infinity scarf" as a separate tag. 1 tag slot saved!

"Scarf" and "Scarves" show the exact same number of search results on Etsy; this means it's likely that shoppers are seeing the exact same items, so that's another tag slot which could be put to better use. I told Alyssa that I would use "scarf" since she's selling a single scarf, but it would seem not to matter. The same is true for "infinity scarf" and "infinity scarves" and, although this search result was actually off by ONE, it's still likely showing the same exact items (except for one!) since the number of search results is nearly identical. 2 tag slots saved!

Now, of course, comes the challenge of trying to think of five new tags to replace the ones which were just deleted. I have enough of a challenge trying to think of tags for my own items, so I ended my tag review at this point. :-)