The 6 Surprising factors that dont help you rank on Etsy. Etsy SEO Rank

 

When you are selling on Etsy it can be confusing to know where to spend your time, what things actually HELP you rank higher in Etsy and even more importantly what things do not help you? In this video I cover some of the factors that do not help your Etsy SEO at all, not saying they are not useful, but they dont directly help you rank

Etsy Descriptions

Descriptions are for your customer, all the things they need to know to be able to buy your items so make sure and add any useful information and descriptions of sizes, care instructions and uses here 
Google does read your descriptions but its so hard to rank for google its really not worth stressing about  

The Number of your Etsy Listing Photos

Again photos are for your customer, the Etsy algorithm will not favour a listing with 10 photos over a listing with 9 photos, the number of images you need for your buyer to understand your item is the number of images you need

Etsy listing videos 

Can you guess what Im going to say here? yup these are for your customers. You wont rank higher by adding a video but if a video helps customers be more likely to buy your item then in the long run this will improve your listing 

Using ALL 13 tags 

Etsy tags are part of the metadata, that is how we explain to Etsy what our item is, but so long as you have the keywords the buyer is searching for the other words wont help you rank higher for that one keyword 

BUT they give you the chance of ranking for MORE keywords so get more views and chances of sales so it is worth using all your tags

Multi word tags 

If you can fit the full keyword phrase in one tag then that is great and will help you rank higher by being an 'exact match' but if the keyword is too long for one tag then it does not matter for ranking if you split them up into single word tags or multi word phrases in the tag. One word tags tho means you can just have less words in your tag spaces so you have less chance of ranking for OTHER keywords 

Klicks and Hearts from Etsy Team games

This is a thing that used to work on Etsy but as it is not helping customers in any way and it does not tell Etsy your listing is good this no longer impacts how you rank. Do not try and game the algorithm, make great listings 

What Crafts should we Make and Sell in 2021

 

If you are looking to Craft your Career as an artist in 2021 it can really help to get an idea of what things are likely to be popular this year. 

Of course we cant just jump onto every trend if what we make does not fit, but it is possible to gain some inspiration about styles and it may even change how we photograph our items for the year. For example one trend this year is still cottagecore - could our items be photographed in a room that has more of a nod to that style rather than a minimalist themed space. Or even being aware and sensitive to the world situation could mean that just now photographs of big gatherings of people might not be very good lifestyle images and it may be better to have singles or couples. 

Hobbycraft and Etsy both released style guides recently and looking at this and using a little common sense we might be able to get an idea of what the trends for 2021 may be 

Of course there are always things in the future that we cannot predict but we can make educated guesses 

And of course Hobbycraft and Etsy both have the power to make the trends become a reality as they can feature items and listings that follow these trends and as people see a similar style more often they start to love it and are more likely to buy it. 

eRanks trend buzz is a good way to time travel to past months to see what buyers were searching for in any given month and the Keyword Explorer shows us the search trend over time for any keyword phrase, did you know for example that even though Christmas obviously has a peak in searches at the end of the year but all through the year it has thousands of searches and Etsy tell us that last year sales for Christmas gifts actually started in April!

Looking at Etsy and Hobbycraft reports I can clearly see some ideas that we can think about.

Firstly thinking of styles Etsy has mentioned that its colour of the year will be sky blue. They say the feeling is to evoke freedom, health, vitality and hope. Something I think we can all get behind. 

Looking at the reports I think we can break it into 4 trends

Fabric

Home

Care

Handmade to last 

and as a bonus

Carer Change

Fabric

Fabric trends for 2021 are in 3 themes really, cozy nesting, handmade and make do and mend - but also luxury fabrics are showing more and more as people want to buy a quality item once rather than cheep items again and again

Both hobbycraft and Etsy mention Macramé and on eRank we have been seeing a steady 11k searches a month so this is a very popular style. Other top mentions are weaving, crotchet, dressmaking, knitting and embroidery 

Home

 New home, improved home, work from home, home schooling, inside activities and nesting with fabrics 

Also with this cooking and baking along with anything personalised especially to do with this - think personalised wooden spoons or chopping boards. Cake decorating was in Hobbycrafts top 3 crafts 

Care

Showing people you care with care packages, cards and luxury gifts. Of course these trends all overlap with the styles so the gifts could be kits or personalised baking goods for people who have just started cooking in the past year. 

Also Etsy is planning to start promoting Valentines day around now, and that is not just gifts for partners but can be for friends or even pets! 

Handmade to Last 

This trend is about personalised luxury and most importantly who the maker is. Think of yourself as a master craftsman and show yourself making the items. The minor imperfections but greater quality of handmade over mass produced 

In Etsy your about me section is a great place to add more about you as the maker and you can include in your listing photographs or even listing videos

Carer Change 

Sadly this next year is still likely to be difficult with people losing jobs and some perhaps wanting to start selling arts and crafts. 

This is not a bad thing and can actually have us in a positive place as we could sell supplies, kits or monetise tutorials. 

Also crafters are way more likely to be buyers and understand the quality of the work - and of course their friends might buy crafty gifts for them 

I hope this has inspired some ideas for the year ahead. We cant and should not put them all into practise but what things can you take away from this?