Etsy SEO changes in 2018 The ultimate guide to SEO

So Etsy released a document 'The ultimate guide to SEO' in September 2018 and this had people freaking out everywhere

'Etsy has changed'

'Its not fair'

'I cant do that'

So lets deep dive the document and see what actual SEO changes there have been and how this will affect our ability to rank in 2018, 2019 and beyond

Firstly lets have a look at what they actually said

Here is my very first look at the document

The first thing to take from this document is
Its not really a document telling us things have suddenly changed - its telling us the best practises for just now taking into account the constant changes that ALWAYS happen on the platform
Good SEO is still good SEO - in fact more so they are making sure to point out practises we have been talking about for years

Short concise titles

Not only does a buyer only see the first few words of the title when they search but also you are sending the strongest signal to Etsy what you thing the term your item should rank for is (more about ranking later)

Exact matches still get a boost

Baby wool hat would get more 'ranking power' for a search of 'Baby Wool Hat' than a tag of 'Wool hat baby' because the term is exactly what a buyer is searching for
also having your most important keyword in the title and also repeated in the tag

But there are also the 'new' things - or the things that SEEM new

Free Shipping

More about this later but in the document Etsy is talking about the fact they have discovered that BUYERS respond better to items with cheep shipping - even if the item is more expensive - so they are giving a slight boost to items with free shipping

Repeating words

This is the most missunderstood item in the document with people now thinking you might be penalised for having the same word more than once in the tags of your item
'Baby hat' 'Baby headgear' 'Blue hat'    - would this be a problem (short answer - nope, not at all - long answer in a future post'

 So overall the advice is

DONT PANIC 

This is not a document saying you have to get out there and change all your Etsy SEO right now. If your listings are working and driving views and sales then leave them exactly as they are - just when you are creating new listings or changing failing listings this might be something to consider
If you want more ideas on Boosting your Etsy sales check out my latest Etsy SEO advice article