Most people have found out the hard way that you can’t set up a website or Etsy shop, list a few products, and automatically have Google or Etsy bring shoppers to you. When people do set up an Etsy shop, wait for shoppers, and go weeks or months without any sales, it has them wondering if Etsy is even worth it. I was becoming frustrated and was almost giving up on my Etsy shop until I found out this Gigthen my story changed, I was able to generate lots of traffic to my site and I made lots of sales.
To increase traffic to your Etsy shop, you must research which keywords your target market is typing into search engines and where to use those keywords in your Etsy shop. It’s important to find high volume, low competition keywords so your listings will get found over your competitors. Follow the steps in this article to discover hidden gems of keyword phrases that will increase traffic to your Etsy shop when implemented.
When you’re trying to attract shoppers to your online store, there’s one thing that impacts everything: KEYWORDS
Every online shopping venture starts with a keyword, or a string of keywords.
Your future customers are typing words into search bars and discovering new businesses.
You must figure out what those keywords are so your website/online shop, product names, product descriptions, tags, etc. can also use those keywords and appear in shopper’s search results.
Unless someone knows the URL of your website or and they jump directly to your online shop, they’re using keywords when shopping online.
People who enter your website’s URL are familiar with your business.
We do want repeat visitors, but we also want your shop to attract new visitors; ones who have never heard of your business.
People discover new businesses when they’re shopping for an item but aren’t quite sure what they want yet.
>> Maybe they know they want a piece of art for their mid-century modern home but aren’t sure who makes mid-century modern art or what kind of options are out there. They may type in the keywords: mid-century modern art
>> Or perhaps someone is searching for a black and white polka dot scarf because they saw a photo of their favorite celebrity, Ariana Grande, wearing one in her hair. They don’t know who makes polka dot scarves, but they’re on the hunt for one similar to Ariana’s. They may type in the keywords: black and white polka dot headscarf
>> Or maybe someone is going to their nephew’s birthday party, who’s 2, and they need to find a gift, but they have no idea what that gift is yet. They may search: toys to buy for a 2-year-old boy
Their searches always start with keywords.
Consumer searches may be:
- For a specific product (e.g. toys for toddlers)
- Under a specific category (e.g. Toys -> Baby & Toddler Toys)
- To gather more information (e.g. what are the best educational toys for a toddler)
The closer the keywords in your content match the keywords used in shoppers’ searches, the more likely your online shop and its products are to show up.
*Online content refers to any words you put online. That may be product titles, product descriptions, shop descriptions, categories, blog articles, etc.
It may seem as simple as: if someone searches a set of keywords, and my online shop uses those keywords, it will show up as a result.
However, there are thousands, maybe even millions of businesses using the same keywords as your business. So it requires more than the keyword or keywords showing up occasionally in your online content.
The more the content of your online shop matches or relates to the keywords a consumer is searching, the more likely your online shop is to show up in the top search results.
Which is what you want.
If I create a product and title it “toy for toddler”, it may appear on Etsy when someone searches “toys for toddlers”, or when they look under the subcategory of Toys -> Baby & Toddler, but I want my listing to appear on the first pagenot page 219.
The same applies to Google. 75% of people won’t look past the first page of Google results (source) so you need to work to get your online shop as high up in search results as possible.
When someone searches “toys for toddlers” on Google, I want my website, product listing, blog article that features my products, etc. to appear on the first page of results.
Your Etsy listing/shop may also be discovered through Google if Etsy appears in Google’s search results, like this: