SEO for your Etsy Shop

That’s right- Search Engine Optimization. Don’t let your eyes gloss over! If you can upload a photo to Etsy without making a piece of jewelry resemble a squid, then you have the capacity to make Google results work for you. Or you can ask Cindy of cindylouwho2. She has researched Etsy and SEO, and I will be a customer of hers when her SEO shop opens, because Google changes the rules more often than the ref at your daughter’s soccer game.
The last big change was in late February, when Google demoted “content farms”- which have content that was copied from other sources. In articles across the web, Etsy was consistently named as a winner in this new shift! My views from Google, and consequently my sales, have benefitted from this! If yours have not, read this! I asked Cindy for practical changes we all can make to use Etsy’s higher ranking for own own shops.
Lee: Why did Etsy come out as one of the 5 top winners from Google's recent decision to penalize the content farms?
Cindy: Legitimate shopping sites did well overall with the changes, & Etsy was one of the top in that group.
If you are putting your Etsy content anywhere else online, make sure you change the titles & descriptions at least a bit to avoid this duplicate content problem.
Lee: Does the new motivation to make and click links in treasuries boost Etsy's SEO overall? Does it boost the SEO of often featured shops who get clickthroughs from the treasuries?
Cindy: Yes, in general, having pages well-linked internally is good for SEO, so if one of your listings is in a lot of treasuries, that definitely helps! Any internal link back to your shop – in a treasury, in the forum, comments in the Storque, on public team threads – is helping the page linked & helping Etsy overall. It takes a lot of these little internal links to make a real difference. However, it is usually easier than getting the higher-value external links, so internal links are an SEO tactic that should not be ignored.
Lee: One of my teams has a blog with static pages that are the copy and pasted bios of team members. Are these duplications of content hurting the blog's ranking and/ or authority? Should we all be looking to reduce duplicate content on our promotional sites across the web?
Cindy:
Those sorts of cut & paste pages might hurt in at least two different ways.
1) There is the possibility that Google will consider the copies to be the authoritative page, & give the copies a higher ranking than the originals.
2) If you have links on many pages that are of low value in Google’s eyes, it can actually hurt the original page.
It doesn’t usually hurt you, especially if there is unique content on the page with the copies, & the pieces copied are a small part of the original pages. Be careful to link back to the original pages on the copied page! Teams often include links directly to the shops, rather than the links to the page where the bio came from (usually the profile page). Including the link to the original tells Google that the content had another source. Additionally, you can link to the shop, for extra SEO benefits.
Here is a level-headed discussion of duplicate content, although most readers will find it more relevant for blogs & free-standing websites than for Etsy:
www.searchenginejournal.com/duplicate-content-phantom-dont-be-duped-be-inform...
Lee: Is there a different formula to come up in Google images search?
Cindy: Yes, the search algorithm for each part of Google is different. There’s not a lot we can do on Etsy to make our pics rank on Google Images, other than what we already do to help the rank of the listing page itself.
Lee: Is it good or bad to put  links (to our own shop) in our shop listings? How about outbound links to another shop?
Cindy: Linking to a shop section or your shop home page is good for those pages, in terms of SEO.
Linking to another shop helps out that other shop. It is not entirely clear to me that linking within Etsy is good for the page with the links on it, but the scant evidence I have seen points to “Yes!
Additionally, Kathy of OhYum advises us to use the renew/sold option rather than creating a new listing each time when we can.

Kathy:The more often a specific page (ie: URL) is looked at,  the higher Google wants to display the page.
Here’s one more tip from me: Google rewards new content. I make incremental changes in my shop announcement and listing copy weekly. Two years ago I didn’t know the difference between a keyword and a corkscrew, and here I am giving sage advice and selling like I actually understand anything on the internet!

How to ride the trend wave in 2011

The global financial crisis was a game changer in how we spend our money. Before November of 2008, advertising was all about “more, newer, and different” without looking at the substance or deeper significance of what was being sold. Tips and trends were about how to ride a tsunami. That it would inevitably crash and devastate  lives was not part of the advertising conversation.

We were supposed to market our work to consumers with disposable income, who were assumedly seeking satisfaction by having more of what they had, or a newer version, or a different kind of it, or more of a newer thing… you get the picture. It was pretty shallow.

By the end of 2010, we can’t read any substantial forecast for 2011 that doesn’t mention values such as sustainability, simplicity, and the human connection. The very good news for artisans is that we no longer have to find a surfboard to ride the trend wave. This year we are the wave! The trend gurus are predicting that artisan, handmade goods made with sustainability and lasting quality by humans with a story to tell are It. All you have to do to market your work now is to show who you are and what you do. Make a cohesive statement in your presentation; your photos and shop copy, if you sell on Etsy.

Through ArtisansGalleryTeam, we are carefully selecting works from the pool of Etsy shops that are legitimately handmade in an artisan studio by those who bring individual vision and advanced skills to their works. Joining with others who are the real deal is going to make riding the wave easier.

Here are some trend reports worth noting:

I have been working in "ethical" for a long time, because I find humanitarian principles very important, and I hated big fashion's disregard for them. Having said that, I think the global economic crisis has made people re think how things are made, where they come from, and has led to an appreciation of small-scale, handcrafted, tangible, home-made etc.. The human stories behind the products are interesting, the big manufacturing model had become boring, impersonal & mechanical.

Ann McCreath from Kiko Romeo

 

 Organic Waldorf Doll By SewnNatural

IMM Cologne believes that as a result of the financial crisis people are questioning what it is they need to live well. This is leading to the emergence of simplistic, formal or severe designs that combine the basic and old with the modern and the high-tech.

Interior Trends 2011 was recently released by IMM Cologne

Natural Gemstone Cluster by ThePeachTree

Whenever we feel as consumers that the time is right for paring down, we focus on simple designs and simple, warm colors. Plain metals and eco friendly materials: wood, bone, simple and soft semi- precious stones with Earth colors and a simple palette will prevail for 2011.

Lisa Jesse (Lisa Jesse has the #1 website on Google for trend prediction)

home business on steroids

What you see here is one day’s sales from OneClayBead and MarciG on Etsy! It’s freaking awesome and out of control! This is where we eat dinner generally. You can see the menorah and the flowers left from Thanksgiving, which are lost in the jumble. I print orders as things sell, and put them, with the correct piece, on my long table. There is typically lots of room for the 3 of us to eat, but it’s getting harder to sit down to a quiet meal. We have to push the sales down in order to set the table.

My friend Natalie has been coming over in the evenings to help with the packing. Here she is with my husband, Ken, as they make PayPal labels. Today the packages wouldn’t all fit in the car and we have to make 2 runs to the post office. This is my computer room but it now looks like UPS has set up an annex with board games, books, and a drum circle.
I’ve lost my zen a few times just living in this much activity every day. What brings me back is the feedback and notes from my buyers :
Beautiful! Gorgeous! Even better in real life! I am so happy with this and will be back to buy more! Oh and insanely fast shipping too... OneClayBead is awesome!
This is truly one of the cutest things. Thanks so much! I can't wait to give this to my friend for Christmas!
These are such beautiful ornaments. My infant daughter died two weeks after Christmas nearly 4 years ago, and each Christmas her brothers and I pick out a special ornament for her. Your doves are perfect.
The emotional connections made through buying and selling my handmade pottery are truly moving. It makes the chaos of my home a worthy price to pay.
Wishing you some joyful chaos today!