Happy New Year! 2013 rolled in a little over a week ago, and now that the Holiday season shopping rush is over ... it really is a great time to get your shop in order. And as we all know, there is no such thing as a perfect shop. Things can ALWAYS be improved!
In 2012, our shop saw a BIG increase in sales. No, our shop NOT what you would call a huge success on Etsy, but sales did increase and I believe it is due to some of the steps I took to improve our listings. Most of these things are simple changes that are easy to make in just a few minutes.
For those of you who don't know, our shop is:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Jewelry24Seven
I shortened my shop title. Kept it right on target:
Silver Jewelry - Silver Jewellery
I shortened the announcment also. Google wants to see a message here that is 160 characters:
Handmade silver jewelry - earrings, pendants, gemstone rings and more.
All items arrive in a box. We're Jewelry on Etsy Team members. Thanks
for visiting!
I wanted to go for a consistent look, so I decided most of my primary pictures would be on a white background. Over the last several months, I took new photos of almost everything to achieve this goal. I still have some to do, but it's looking pretty good so far.
Listing titles have been stripped of extra language. A laser - focus on what you are selling makes Google happy, and that's what you need for the Etsy search too! an example is:
No adjectives like beautiful, glorious, sparkling ... No names like Ocean Blue, just ... what it is.
In the listings, I'm relying on the new features Etsy has added in the last year, and the old favorites, too. No more terms in the listing; instead, a line asking customers to visit our Store Policy page. I used to include shipping info in the listing; no more. I rely on the shipping info at the bottom of every product page. These steps have shortened my descriptions. Customers don't have to read the shipping stuff twice, and ... it doesn't add non relevant text, which decreased the keyword density of the description, making the item pages weaker.
The Etsy Shoptimizer
Our shops are an investment. Many of us have thousands of dollars in product sitting there, waiting for the right customer to come along. Sometimes it takes a little money to make money, and if you are a serious Etsy seller, you know this. So now I'm going to recommend a tool I believe you should all have - the Etsy Shoptimizer. This cool app makes Etsy SEO an easy process. The Shoptimizer gives you step by step advice on what you need to do in order to get your shop search ready!
The free version is basically a tease that won't tell you what to do to fix problems ... it just points them out. To get the benefits, you need to subscribe. For some, the monthly subscription is enough. Use it to whip your shop into shape, then drop the subscription. For others - like me - the annual plan is the way to go. It saves money over the monthly option and if you have a large inventory it will help. I would like to see it expanded to optimize single item pages, not just the main shop page.
Still, it is a very useful tool that I highly recommend. I plan on adding a lot of inventory this year, and feel this will help me keep the shop search - friendly. You can find it in the Etsy Apps section of your shop, or just visit the page here:
Incoming Links
Having outside links pointing to your shop and category pages will help. I'm working on a program for JET member shops right now that will work very well and require very little effort. Coming soon!
6 comments :
Very interesting points Bob, I'm always trying ways to improve, I can say I did see an increase this year also. I'm sure with the team efforts promos have alot to do with it.
Thanks for the post Bob! Great tips!
Awesome post, Bob!
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