Etsy SEO: How to Get Noticed on Etsy in 2024 (Expert Tips) (2024)

Increasing your brand’s visibility on Etsy depends mostly on search engine optimization (SEO) and high-quality images.

Good SEO means your products will appear more frequently, boosting your brand visibility and increasing sales.

Learn how to improve Etsy SEO for 2024 with valuable insights and clear steps to increase your store reach and, consequently, profit.

Etsy SEO is a set of techniques and processes for improving your store and product rankings on the Etsy platform and external search engines.

Etsy is a closed marketplace with specific parameters controlling an internal ranking system.

The platform also has an excellent PageRank on Google and search engines like Bing and Yahoo, which puts you in a position to intercept even more users from these search engines.

We’ll cover in detail several factors that influence your Etsy listing’s SEO rankings.

We’ve also compiled a short snippet of them:

• Relevancy. Query matching is Etsy's top priority. How similar your Etsy listing's tags, attributes, product descriptions, and titles are to people's search queries, the higher your ranking will be.
• Listing quality score. If your product matches a customer's search intent, and they stay on your product page for an extended period, this boosts your listing quality score.
  However, if someone quickly clicks on and off your listing, it suggests your items match the terms but fail at search intent. This could mean they’re irrelevant to the Etsy shopper.
• Recency. Etsy gives a search boost to every new listing, and its algorithm measures how customers interact with them. After a few days, the platform will rank the product accordingly. The same applies to new shops.
• Shipping price. High shipping costs discourage purchases. Everyone loves free shipping, and Etsy reflects this by boosting listings that include it. Consider adding shipping costs to the price of your products to improve your ranking.
• Personalized search. Etsy tailors its search engine results to consumer interests, so your products may rank higher for some customers than others.
• Language. Always use your shop's language in listings since Etsy automatically translates the title and labels into the prospective buyers' language. If you’re fluent in multiple, Etsy recommends creating multilingual shops, as human translations are more accurate than automated ones.

Your shop’s name is crucial for Etsy SEO as it determines your store’s visibility. Ensure you’re familiar with the mandatory and recommended name parameters, and discover more SEO practices to help your shop stand out in search engines.

Mandatory requirements:

• An Etsy shop name can have up to 20 characters.
• Etsy doesn’t allow punctuation, symbols, unique characters, or words divided by spaces.
• Shop names shouldn’t be trademarked by third parties. Google your name, and see if a domain is available on Namecheap before using it.

Recommended characteristics:

• Good shop names are informative and clearly indicate what products the shop sells.
• The best names are memorable and reflect the brand’s tone – this helps to captivate your niche and keeps the brand in customers’ minds.

SEO recommendations:

• Insert a primary keyword in your shop name if possible – only if you can do it naturally.
• Create an external site, like on Pattern or WordPress, and use the same shop name for your domain. Remember to trademark it.

Other tips for picking the perfect Etsy shop name:

• Use a name generator like Namelix or Shopify’s Business Name Generator, or ask Chat GPT for suggestions.
• Test your shop name for some time and check your Etsy performance with Etsy analytics and Google Search Console before fully committing to it.
• Also, check within your social media channels to see if the name resonates with your audience. If so, trademark it and get a domain name.

Whether you compare Etsy vs eBay, Etsy vs Shopify, or any other platform and marketplace, keyword research is the foundation of SEO and will impact your visibility and sales.

Using relevant keywords in the right places determines if your products and store match search results. Incorporate them in tags, page titles, categories, and attributes to improve your Etsy SEO.

To ensure a keyword or phrase corresponds with potential customers’ search terms, try these techniques and platforms for your research.

• First, consider the features that make your product unique and make a list of them. Use both single words and short phrases.
• Put yourself in the shopper’s shoes. If you were to purchase an item similar to what your shop offers, how would you find them? Which terms would you type in the Etsy search bar to find the perfect match? Make a list of these terms.
• Research competitors. Look for best-selling products similar to yours or related to your niche. Take note of descriptions and hashtags. Check reviews and find what customers love about these products and why they’re best-sellers. Also, find what could be improved. Write down your findings.

Put these three lists together. Check if they overlap – give preference to the terms you found in competitors’ well-succeded shops that describe your own products well.

Now that you have a list of keywords, it’s time to test them on various platforms.

Where do you look for these keywords?

• Etsy search.
• Social media.
• Google, Bing, and other search engines.
• Use akeyword search toollikeeRank,Alura, orMarmalead.
• Broad-range SEO tools, like Semrush, Google Ads Keyword Planner, and Google Trends.

Etsy search, social media, and search engines will show if people are using these keywords and if pages and stores respond to the demand. But, it’s the keyword research tools that will narrow them down, helping you improve your Etsy SEO.

Etsy’s search engine suggests keywords based on previous shoppers’ searches and current trends.

These suggestions determine what people are interested in buying within the platform, making the Etsy search engine a powerful tool.

Follow these steps to do keyword research inside Etsy:

1. Find the Etsy platform search engine on www.etsy.com.

2. In the search bar, type the main product of your Etsy store. For example, if you sell custom posters – write posters. When you finish typing the word, you’ll notice that the Etsy search engine offers a list of terms related to your search.

3. Add for, and you’ll see another variety of keywords.

4. Try adding with, and you’ll see even more options.

These are the places where you must insert keywords to rank high – we’ll explain a few of them in detail later:

• Product titles and descriptions.
• Meta titles and descriptions and images alt text.
• The domain name and blog posts (if you have an external site connected with Etsy via Pattern).
• Feedback and reviews.

To improve your Etsy SEO, place the most relevant keywords at the beginning of the item title.

This will quickly let potential buyers know what the product is, resulting in more clicks and sales.

However, that doesn’t mean piling up a lot of keywords in the title – they must be readable. The search system on Etsy recognizes unnaturally incorporated keywords and can negatively impact your listing’s ranking.

Use phrases that shoppers would write in their search engines, trying to get as close as possible to an exact match.

Aim for unique titles for each of your listings – that way, Etsy can distinguish your product from the competitor’s items.

Product titles must be concise yet informative – titles that are too long won’t display in full on Etsy’s search, Google, or other platforms. Remember, the maximum length for a title is 140 characters.

Etsy also advertises products with offsite ads, so you should also consider Google SEO and how your product titles and descriptions appear in external search engines. We’ll cover more on this later.

Check out this video to learn more about keyword identification:

Etsy allows up to 13 tags, each with up to 20 characters – use them all. The more keywords you list, the more often your products appear in Etsy search results.

Target long-tail keywords and multi-word phrases rather than single words. These more complex keywords contain two or more search terms and are better at describing an attribute than simple keywords.

Etsy has thorough categories and subcategories, including ones suitable for items from art and collectibles, woven baskets to chairs, and digital prints.

You cannot add your own categories since they’re predetermined. Still, their structure is ever-evolving, and you’ll probably never need to add another category to the list.

Etsy categories function like keywords and help the marketplace showcase and match products according to buyers’ searches and preferences.

Selecting the precise category for your listing creates more opportunities for your items to be exhibited in the results.

Etsy provides an extensive list of predetermined attributes to add to listings, making it easier for customers to find the exact item.

They also act as tags and keywords and help your products stand out in Etsy search engine results.

Attributes describe what a product is – not how it’s used. They vary according to the category – for instance, t-shirt and hoodie categories have attributes that include colors or sizes, whereas totes include material and style.

Relevant attributes for ranking include:

• Size
• Color
• Product purpose
• Material
• Manufacturing information
• Bulk or individual purchase
• Optional customization
• Unique features

High shipping costs discourage buyers and prevent them from completing a purchase.

Etsy has established shipping costs as a ranking factor and actively pushes stores – especially from the United States – to offer free shipping.

This strategy materializes from features like the free shipping guarantee for US buyers. See how to offer free delivery in the Etsy Help Center.

This will give your listings a mini boost in the rankings for a short time.

Constantly renewing your listing isn’t a viable Etsy SEO strategy, but doing so during busy periods may help increase your brand visibility. Renew your listings during high-traffic hours. Use tools like Google Trends or social media polls to discover when your potential buyers are most likely to shop. Then, publish your listings accordingly.

Start your Etsy print on demand business today!

Each listing has room for ten photos and one video. Place the best photo first to gain positive Etsy SEO results since it’s the first one buyers will see.

90% of Etsy shoppers say picture quality is important when purchasing a product.

So, it’s no surprise that Etsy’s algorithm gives preference in the results to stores with high-quality banners and product pictures.

As well as adding images, improve your listing quality by adding a video of up to 100MB.

Videos are more accurate than still images. Show your customers you care about honesty and transparency by adding a short, high-quality video showcasing the unpacking or the item’s features.

Also, look critically at other Etsy sellers with similar products to yours who utilize videos – observe what works well and what doesn’t and gain inspiration.

Explore these quick tips to produce high-quality photos that reinforce your brand, increase its visibility on Etsy, and capture the attention of more customers:

• Keep your brand identity on every picture, video, and product design, from color palettes to typography, illumination, tone, and mood.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest color trends.
• Make the most of our ever-expanding Printify Product Creator (formerly known as Mockup Generator) to give your customers a clear image of what you’re selling.
• Creating your own product mockups with Placeit or other alternatives can help your product stand out compared to other Etsy listings.
• Order product samples and take your own pictures.
• Check out creative product photography ideas to boost your sales on our blog.

Completing the About section of your store can help increase your customer and market experience score and improve your SEO for Etsy and your listings’ ranking in the search results.

By sharing their story in the About section, Etsy shop owners can create a special connection with customers and build trust.

Having Etsy shop policies is optional, but they impact your ranking. Etsy increases the customer and market experience score of shops with complete policies.

In turn, this score affects the listings’ rankings on Etsy search engines.

Additionally, there are other benefits for defining your policies:

• Clear policies ensure sellers and buyers are on the same page regarding potential issues like returns, refunds, or cancellations.
• Shops with clear policies display credibility and professionalism while increasing customer trust.
• Europe-based sellers or shops selling to customers in the EU must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires a privacy policy. However, countries worldwide also pose similar legal requirements.

Try these additional strategies to improve your shop’s SEO and get a better placement in search results:

Guest blogging is an excellent way to get more exposure. Connect with bloggers and write a guest post on other sites – this will help you build a network, publicize products, and create links to your store, which is excellent for SEO. In addition to increasing your visibility, guest blogging helps you develop authority and be perceived as an expert in your field.

Create social media accounts to develop a loyal base and drive traffic to your Etsy shop. There are infinite possibilities – create a brand Instagram account, show people behind the scenes of your business on TikTok, or create interest and discussion groups on Facebook.

Pinterest is more than a social media platform – it’s an image search engine where people seek ideas for projects, crafts, DIYs, or purchases. Promote your products and link a new listing or even invest in a Pinterest affiliate marketing strategy. Similarly to your Etsy store, you need to optimize your account using Pinterest SEO.

Add pins relating to your product and include the same primary keyword from your Etsy listings and tags section to get your content seen by Pinterest users. Viewers who enjoy your content are more likely to click on your pin and purchase your products.

Test new strategies regularly and review your statistics. As Etsy’s search algorithm changes, you must be familiar with its developments and how that affects your listings’ performance.

You have two Etsy native tools for these purposes:

• Etsy search analytics – available in the Marketing section of the Shop Manager, the tool gives insights into keywords, traffic, and conversions. Use it also to track these KPIs over a specific period.
• The Etsy Stats, also known as Store Statistics, are placed in the Shop Manager main menu. The tool displays traffic sources, conversions, and ads performance. It lets you identify what’s working well in your store and what you should change.

Not only is it good for your business and brand image, but the Etsy algorithm also loves stores with recurring customers.

Explore these ideas for creating a loyal customer base:

• Answer customer messages promptly and professionally.
• Use social media to build relationships by participating in groups, creating polls, and publishing regularly.
• Send discount coupons for future purchases and to attract potential buyers.
• Email special offers to customers.
• Add small presents like badges or custom stickers to orders.
• Prepare personalized thank you cards.
• Keep strict business ethics. That includes avoiding copyright infringement and not using photos deceptively to represent measures or results you do not really have.
• Have clear policies.

You can add a shop announcement and alert buyers of store events, such as a sale, new products, a cross-promotion, or if you’re going in vacation mode.

1. Open the Shop Manager.
2. Scroll down the left-hand menu and click on the pencil icon below Sales Channels, alongside your shop name.
3. Scroll down below your listings to the Announcement section.
4. Click on Add a shop announcement, below your shop banner, and just above your listings.
5. Add or edit an announcement and hit Save.

Be a part of the Promoted listings by using Etsy advertising to get a higher spot on Etsy search results. You can pay per click to improve a listing’s visibility, displaying the term ad to indicate that it is a paid campaign. This will cater to selected target demographics and search tags.

Aside from marketing on Etsy, try other strategies, like social media promotion and word-of-mouth advertising – those will help you create even more pathways to your shop.

We’ve covered how to get your Etsy shop noticed, and you’re now ready to utilize search engine optimization to the fullest.

Implement our Etsy SEO tips, analyze the results, and make any necessary changes to lead your Etsy store on the right path to increased traffic, sales, and profit.

We hope you make good use of these Etsy SEO tips and tricks, build a strong foundation for your store, and get on the road to success.

Do you have any other tips to share on how to increase Etsy traffic? Let us know in the comments!