Etsy Product Titles

Etsy titles serve so many purposes.  They are absolutely vital to Etsy SEO, they tell the buyer what it is they are looking at and they are a buyer’s first look at your writing.  First impressions are important so crafting the perfect Etsy title should be a priority for your Etsy shop.

Trying to create a title that fits the bill for all of these purposes can be really daunting.  There’s a fine line between pleasing the search engine and your buyers.  When I first started my Etsy store in April of 2016 my titles were so short and just horrible.  I had no clue what I was doing and didn’t get many sales.  Updating my titles (as well as tags) has been one of the most helpful things I’ve done to get the sales I needed to quit my corporate job and focus on my handmade shop full time.

Tip # 1:  Use clear and concise titles that aren’t too long

Etsy allows up to 140 characters for your title.  As I mentioned in my Etsy SEO post you want to a variety of keyword phrases in your title but you don’t want the title to be too long.  Etsy says that shorter titles convert into sales better because they are easier for the buyer to read and understand.

I recommend creating a title that is between 75 and 120 characters long.  This gives you plenty of room to get in keyword phrases but ensures the title isn’t too long that it’s tough for buyers to read.

Tip # 2: Use keyword phrases and separate them for readability

Etsy SEO relies on your title to determine which keyword phrases you should rank for.  This means you want to fill your title with as many keywords as possible.  You want to make sure they are readable, though.

One way to do this is to separate keyword phrases with commas, dashes, slashes or the pipe symbol.  I personally prefer dashes with a space before and after the dash.  Here is an example of a title for a wood sign that says Uncork & Unwind:

Wine Wood Sign – Uncork and Unwind Wine Gift – Rustic Kitchen Decor – Bar Sign

Tip # 3: Use title case in your title for a professional look

I’ve seen a lot of Etsy titles with all caps or all lowercase letters. While I think that can have its place I really love the look of title case within a title.  I’m not great at explaining grammar but click here to read more about what title case is and how to use it.

Tip # 4: Put the most relevant keyword phrase at the front of the title

When your listings are viewed from the search results only the first 20-40 characters will appear.  The rest of the title will be truncated and will only be visible if the buyer clicks on your listing.  For this reason the first few words need to be the most relevant words that accurately tell the buyer what it is they’re looking at.

Takeaways for Etsy Titles:

• Use about 75-120 characters of your title and make sure it’s clear and easy to read
• Separate your keyword phrases for readability.  I recommend commas or dashes.
• Use title case for a professional look
• Put the phrase that best describes your product at the front of the title

P.S. – I know all of this can seem overwhelming and overly complicated.  Take it one step at a time and just work on a few listings per day.  Also, check out this post where I explain why Etsy SEO is so complicated and the factors that impact the search ranking.

Ready to take your Etsy SEO to the next level?

Fall is my absolute favorite season.  Pumpkin spice everything, sweaters, and no more humidity!  It’s time to start putting fall keyword phrases into relevant listings.  To help get you started making over your listings for fall, I’ve created an Etsy fall keyword list for you.

1. Fall
2. Autumn
3. Thanksgiving
4. Autumn Centerpiece
5. Fall Mantel Decor
6. Thanksgiving Table
7. Harvest Decor
8. Cold Weather Gear
9. First Thanksgiving
10. Thanksgiving Outfit
11. Fall Planner Stickers
12. Fall Themed Party
13. Give Thanks
14. Fall Banner
15. Pumpkin Spice

If you’re still struggling to come up with keyword phrases, you’ll love the resources inside the Handmade Journey Academy.  Our members receive extensive SEO training, longer keyword phrase lists for every season and holiday, access to Etsy experts to get all of their questions answered, plus a whole lot more.  The doors are opening again soon!  Click here to be notified when the doors reopen.

I get this question a lot from Etsy sellers.  Why does Etsy SEO which stands for search engine optimization have to be so complicated? (If you’re not sure what SEO is, click here to learn the basics.)  I also see a lot of veteran Etsy sellers talk about the good ol’ days when it didn’t take so much effort to generate sales.  I want to try to explain why it needs to be so complicated.  This is a lot of info but hang with me and at the bottom you’ll be able to grab a free Etsy SEO Checklist. First, some stats on Etsy as of the end of 2016:

Number of Active Etsy Sellers – 1,748,000

Number of active Etsy buyers – 28,566,000

Those numbers are super high.  Etsy is growing at lightning speed.  Almost 200,000 active sellers joined Etsy in 2016.  That’s over 500 new Etsy sellers signing up every day.  Buyers are becoming more aware every day of how corporations are taking over and they’re making a bigger effort to spend their money supporting small businesses.  Also, when people are buying gifts, it’s harder than ever to find something unique that the recipient doesn’t already have.  What better way to solve that problem than with a unique handmade gift?

What does this have to do with Etsy SEO?

All this means that Etsy needs to help buyers zero in on what they’re looking for.  The number of products currently appearing on Etsy is staggeringly large.  In May of 2016, there were over 35 million active product listings.

Etsy is working to make a sale, otherwise, the buyer will leave unhappy and shop somewhere else.  This means they need to present Etsy shoppers with products that are most likely to result in a sale.  How do they do this?  With a complex set of rules called an algorithm.  These rules help determine where Etsy products will appear in the Etsy search results.

Which factors make up the Etsy SEO algorithm?

Etsy updated the search algorithm in September of 2018.  The info below has been updated to include these changes.  To learn more check out this page from the Etsy seller handbook.

Tag and Title Relevancy

• The words that a buyer uses to search on Etsy must be in the title and/or the tags or a listing won’t appear.  If you have the phrase ‘blue necklace’ in your title or tags and a buyer searches for the phrase ‘blue star necklace’ your listing won’t appear if you don’t have the word star within your title or tags.  This helps the buyer view only items that contain exactly what they’re looking for.

Item Attribute Relevancy

• Keywords entered in the attribute section of a listing are considered in the Etsy search results in a similar way to the keyword phrases in the titles and tags.  These attributes are just another way to describe your items and will help buyers search in a different way in the future when Etsy adds search filters based on these attributes.  Try to fill in as many attributes that are relevant as possible per listing and don’t use the exact phrase you’ve used in an attribute in your tags because you’ll already be appearing for that phrase.

Category Relevancy

• Keywords that appear in the category names of a listing are considered in the Etsy search results in a similar way to the keyword phrases in the titles and tags.  Try to choose the lowest level category possible so that your listing will appear in that category and all above it and don’t use the exact phrase you’ve used in the category name in your tags because you’ll already be appearing for that phrase.

Listing Quality Score

• Etsy looks at how well a listing converts—how many people view it and then make a purchase—to determine whether buyers are interested in it, which boosts that listing’s quality score and placement in search results.
• If you get a lot of views but not a lot of sales Etsy will see that people aren’t interested in your product.  For this reason, I don’t recommend playing favorite games that are popular on Facebook or sharing your product with groups that likely aren’t your target market because they result in empty views.

Customer & Market Experience Score

• Reviews have an impact on the search results.  Great reviews will give you a boost in the search and negative reviews will hurt your shop’s ranking.  This helps reward shops that are delighting their customers.
• Having a completed about section and a completed shop policies section using Etsy’s provided template will give you a slight boost in the search results. This helps reward shops who have taken the time to properly set up their shop.
• Recent cases opened against your shop or any past reported intellectual property infringement listings will have a negative impact on your search engine ranking.  This discourages poor customer service and the trademark or copyright infringement.  (Things like using words or phrases from a movie, tv show, sports team, song lyric or directly copying another seller’s work).

Recency

• To help keep the search results fresh and to give new products a chance, recently listed or renewed products will be given a small temporary boost in the search results.  This temporary boost can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on how often people are searching for a particular item.
• Regularly renewing your items or creating new listings just to get this small boost isn’t an effective search optimization strategy.

Shipping Price

• To encourage Etsy sellers to keep shipping prices as low as possible Etsy search factors shipping price into search ranking to make it easier for shoppers to find listings with competitive shipping prices. Listings with lower shipping prices are more likely to rank higher in search.

Translations and language

• When you set up your shop on Etsy, you choose a shop language. The titles and tags you add to your listings should be in the language you choose during setup. Etsy will translate your keywords and show shoppers results that match their query and language settings.

Shoppers’ habits

• Etsy also customizes the search results to specific shoppers. Their Context Specific Ranking technology learns what buyers are interested to show them the items they’re most likely to purchase.
• When you search on Etsy, what you see isn’t always what another buyer might be seeing. Searching for your own listings and comparing the results over time or across devices isn’t an effective way to determine where your listings are appearing in search, since the results you see are just a small slice of a much bigger picture.

But why does ETSY SEO need to be so complicated?

Etsy truly is doing their best to help buyers find products they are looking for and to capture a sale.  I think all handmade sellers would agree that it’s important that buyers are presented with items that they are most likely to purchase.  This means that a fellow Etsy seller has a better chance of receiving a sale.

The alternative is that the buyer getting frustrated and leaving Etsy to shop on a site where a corporation will receive all the profits.  The Etsy SEO search algorithm helps ensure the future of all of our handmade businesses by giving the Etsy buyer a great experience that ends in a sale.

So how can I get my products to appear in the search results?

I know all the factors above can be extremely overwhelming and seem unnecessarily complicated. It would be so amazing if we could join Etsy, quickly add a few listings and make some sales.  But rarely in life is something worth doing so easy.  It requires research and effort to succeed in an ever expanding online retail space.

The competition is intense!  Hundreds of new Etsy sellers are signing up every day.  It’s possible to stand out among the competition but you have to put some work in.  Fortunately, this blog, as well as the Handmade Journey Academy will save you time and effort by giving you my tested Etsy SEO tips and tricks.

The first place I recommend that you start working on SEO is in your titles.  It’s the most efficient and effective way to start seeing results in your Etsy shop.  Check out this blog article that has all the tips you need to construct Etsy product titles that will help you get found in the Etsy results.

Once you’ve worked on your titles and your tags, the next area to focus on is your photos.  Having great photos is the key to getting views and sales.

Want even more help optimizing your listings for Etsy SEO?

Disclaimer:  The above info is what has worked really well for me in my experience of running a successful Etsy shop.  While it has worked for me, you may experience a different result.  Make changes slowly and be sure to save any previous information you are replacing in case you find that your previous choices worked better for you.

#1: What is a long tail keyword?

A long tail keyword is a keyword phrase that contains three or more words (although some consider 2 or more words to be long tail).  This type of keyword is usually very specific and therefore often less competitive.  Here are a few examples of long tail keywords:  blue starfish necklace, pink striped hair bow, embroidered bear shirt

#2: Should I be using long tail keywords within my Etsy shop?

Long tail keywords are amazing for standing out amongst your competition, especially if you are just getting established.  You will have a better chance at ranking (go here to learn about SEO and ranking) for a long tail keyword because they often are specific enough that you will have less competition in the search results.  This is really important to ensure that your product is found and not lost in a search that is too competitive.

As your shop grows you can work toward ranking for shorter and more competitive keywords.  I’ve been able to rank on the first page for really competitive keywords like housewarming gift and Christmas gift but only after my products received a lot of favorites and sales.  You’ll want to stick with long tail keywords when you are starting out.

#3: How do I incorporate long tail keywords into my tags and title?

You can add your long tail keywords to your titles using the tips found in my Top 6 Tips for Constructing the Perfect Etsy Title post. Make sure that you are using keyword phrases that are appropriate for your product and make sure your title looks as professional as possible.

Long tail keywords can be a bit tricky to add to tags because they can often be longer than 20 characters which is the limit for tags.  To get around this, split your keyword phrases up if needed.  An example of this is ‘green striped hair bow’ which is 22 characters.  You could split this into two tags, ‘green striped hair’ and ‘striped hair bow’.  This helps cover the phrase even though it is too long to fit into one tag.

#4: How do I know which long tail keywords to use?

Knowing which keyword phrases to use is the trickiest part of SEO.  I like to sit down with my product in front of me and write out all the words I would use to describe the product.  Think of color, texture, materials used, size, shape, and so on.  Then go back and add a star beside the ones that you think describe your product best.  You can then combine those words into long tail keywords.

I also like to get the opinions of others to help create my long tail keyword phrases.  Show people your product either online or in person and ask them which terms they would use to describe the product or find it if they were looking for it on google.  Look for any trends to help you identify which keyword phrases would be best to use.

An advanced method for finding the best long tail keywords is to use an online tool such as EtsyRank or Marmalead.  They are Etsy SEO tools that helps you discover which keywords are working for similar products.

Takeaways for Long Tail Keywords:

• Long tail keywords are important to ensuring your products appear in the search results
• Do your research to determine which long tail keywords you should use
• Incorporate your long tail keywords into your titles and your tags

Ready to take your SEO to the next level?

Disclaimer:  The above info is what has worked really well for me in my experience of running a successful Etsy shop.  While it has worked for me, you may experience a different result.  Make changes slowly and be sure to save any previous information you are replacing in case you find that your previous choices worked better for you.

What is Etsy SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  Search engines, such as the product search within Etsy return results based on the keyword phrases users enter into the search bar. Etsy SEO refers to any of the work that you do to help improve where your products appear in the Etsy search results.  Where your products appear in the search is often called search ranking.

How does SEO work within Etsy?

Your title and tags within each Etsy product listing are the main two pieces of info that Etsy uses to determine which search results your listings will appear in and where they will appear.  When your product appears in the search results for a particular keyword phrase that is referred to as ranking for that keyword phrase.  To optimize your Etsy SEO, you will want to look at each product listing and determine which keywords your buyers are most likely to use when searching.  These are the words that you will use in your title and your tags.

Setting up your Etsy Title

Each product title can have up to 140 characters within it which includes spaces.  The length of the title won’t impact where you appear in the search results but Etsy has said that shorter titles convert better.  The reason they say this is because shorter titles are typically easier for the buyer to read.  To help make the title readable you can also separate your keyword phrases with commas or dashes.

Another important point is to make sure you use keywords that describe your product.  Showing up for the wrong search terms won’t generate sales, and you’ll be wasting valuable keyword space.

You want to put the keyword phrase that best describes your product at the front of the title.  Buyers need to understand at a quick glance what it is they’re looking at so focus on the most basic description of what your item is for the front of your title.

Here is an example of a title that I would use for a wood sign that says But First, Coffee.

But First Coffee Wood Sign – Rustic Wood Kitchen Decor – Housewarming Gift for Her

You also want to focus on finding good quality long tail keywords.  Click here to read a post all about what they are and how to select them.

Setting up your Etsy Tags

Tags are what Etsy calls the keywords for each listing.  You can have up to 13 tags for each of your products.  Each tag can have up to 20 characters including spaces.  Create your tags using a mix of the keyword phrases that you added in your title as well as other phrases that help describe the item (colors, sizes, shapes, who it would make a good gift for, where the item can be used, how the item is used, occasions the item would be used for, etc).  Also, if your keyword phrase is too long to fit in one tag break it up into two tags.

Here is an example of tags I would use for a wood sign that says But First, Coffee.

but first coffee, Coffee sign, coffee bar, coffee kitchen sign, housewarming gift, coffee gift, coffee, kitchen decor, birthday gift, gift for her, just because gift, christmas gift, gift for mom

I wanted to create a tag with the words “But First, Coffee Sign” but it wouldn’t fit so I split it into two (“But First, Coffee” and “Coffee Sign”).

Are there other things that impact SEO?

Yes.  Etsy has a complicated algorithm that they use to determine the order that product listings appear in the search results.  Some of these are last renewed date, the number of favorites and sales, reviews, your profile and whether you have any open cases against your shop.  All of this can be overwhelming.  When starting out, focus on making sure that you’ve accurately described your product using a variety of keyword phrases in your title and tags.

To learn more about the Etsy search click here to read the Ultimate Guide to Etsy Search.

Takeaways for Etsy SEO:

• Etsy SEO is the key to making sure your listings appear when buyers search within Etsy
• Use keyword phrases in your title that accurately describe your product
• Use all 13 tags for each listing
• Use a variety of keywords so you can appear in as many search results as possible

 Ready to take your Etsy SEO to the next level?

Disclaimer:  The above info is what has worked well for me in my experience of running a successful Etsy shop.  While it has worked for me, you may experience a different result.  Make changes slowly and be sure to save any previous information you are replacing in case you find that your previous choices worked better for you.