Tuesday Tips – Maximizing Etsy Keywords

Welcome to Tuesday Tips! These posts will be directed at fellow Etsy sellers and focus on ways you can improve your shop to make your small business thrive. One of the most important changes you can make to your Etsy shop is to revamp your keywords! It can be one of the most time consuming updates to your shop indeed, but in order to show up better in search results (and most likely get more sales in the end) it is well worth it!

But where, you ask, do we start?! I have put together a step-by-step guide to get you moving in the right direction.

1. Brainstorm a list of search terms that customers may use to find your item. Be sure to think outside the box and really think like a customer. You can also post in the Facebook group Etsy Gift Guide to have others give their input on how they would search for the item. Ask a friend, ask your mom, ask your significant other. Keep in mind, some other parts of the country may also have different names for things so be sure to include those if applicable! Once you have a list of search terms organized (aim for about 10-15 variations here), it is time to start actually putting those search terms to the test using Etsy.
2. Begin typing your first search term into Etsy. You will see suggested options from the Etsy algorithm. This is what we are looking for! Etsy is intuitive and will recommend search terms that it sees often. We want to start with the terms we believe to be relevant to our listings, and then see what Etsy thinks we should be searching for and marry the two. Now, it’s important to keep in mind we want the terms to relate to our listing, so don’t just use it because it showed up in the Etsy search.
3. Click on one of the suggested search terms. If multiple search terms come up that you feel to be relevant, jot them down to use as another search term. If none of the suggested search terms seem in line with your listing, try using a different one from your list.
4. You are now looking at the top listings from the Etsy suggested search term. Do you see any items that are similar to yours? Same niche? Same target audience? Perhaps one that just catches your eye? Click on it! Be sure to choose the most relevant one that is close to the top of the page. You can choose to skip over any advertised listings if you choose
5. Take a look at the other terms they used in their title as well as they tags listed at the bottom of the page. Do any stand out to you? Are there some that would also fit for your listing? Take note of them! We will use these to build your updated title and tags for your listing. The first few tags you will notice are generated from the section information you will put into Etsy when creating your listing, so those don’t need to be repeated.
6. Continue in this manner for the same listing until you have at least 15-20 keywords and search terms to pick through. Some may seem repetitive, so keep that in mind, but some differences can be the standing out point between getting found or getting buried on Etsy.

Okay, is your brain totally fried? Let’s take a look at a quick example to see how this all works. For this example, we are looking to update our title and tags for our Fuckoffee mug. Below is one of the listing photos, as well as the current title.

Following the steps above, this is how I would revamp this listing:

1. Brainstorm a list of search terms that customers may use to find your item. Fuckoffee mug, sweary mug, coffee lover gift, office gift, novelty coffee mug, offensive mug, coffee cup, etc.
2. Begin typing your first search term into Etsy. For this, we will start typing in fuckoffee and see what comes up.
3. Click on one of the suggested search terms. “Fuckoffee mug” is exactly what we are looking for, so we will click this term.

4. Click on an item that catches your eye or is similar to your listing.
   • The title for the listing I chose is: Nice Hot Cup Of Fuckoffee Funny Coffee Mug Novelty Mean Cup Gag Office Gifts Skinny Font 11oz 15oz White Black Rim
   • The tags for this listing are: Kitchen & Dining, Drink & Barware, Drinkware, Mugs, coffee mug, tea cup, funny coffee mugs, any occasion gifts, quality coffee mug, dishwasher safe, microwave safe, gag gifts, office gifts, fuckoffee mug, rude mugs, mean gifts, gag coffee mugs

5. Take note of any additional terms used in the title and tags of that listing. For this step, I chose a few terms, such as Novelty Mean Cup, funny coffee mugs, rude mugs, mean gifts, gag coffee mugs.
6. Gather 15-20 keywords and construct your new title and tags sections. After a few searches with the terms I gathered, I revamped my listing to:
   • Title: MATURE CONTENT Cup Of Fuckoffee, Magic Mug, Funny Office Gag Gift, Novelty Mean Mug, Coffee Lover Gift
   • Tags: funny gift, gag gift, coffee mug, mature fuckoffee mug, profanity mug, swear mug, sarcastic mug, mean mug, birthday gifts, fuck off, care package, fuck you

Phew! We made it through that listing. Once you get in a groove of searching and looking at keywords, you may find that some terms work for multiple listings in your shop, which will only help more of your items get found when that term is searched! Again, the most important thing is that the terms you are researching are relevant to your item. Have more questions? Drop them in the comments below and I would be more than happy to answer them for you.

When it comes to keywords and getting found on Etsy, everyone has their own strategies and tricks. Be sure to check out Teresa’s Tips for ramping up your listings! Julia also has some other ideas on how to get found! Can’t seem to get enough? Check out Donella’s approach to tags here!