With 2024 right around the corner, I'd like to take this moment to look back on all of the times when I saw terrible Etsy SEO advice given. Because seriously, there are a ton of crazy theories and conspiracies out there that random Etsy gurus preach about. And some of them? Some of them are just plain dumb.
So today, we're putting the top myths, fails, and bad practices to rest in 2023. That way, you can strategize for success in 2024. For anyone who may be new here, my name is Starla Moore, founder of the Handmade Alpha Academy for Etsy sellers and manager at erank.com, Etsy's most popular SEO tool. And if you've been selling on Etsy for a while, you've probably noticed a lot of conflicting advice about Etsy SEO and best practices. Especially here on YouTube.
As a manager of Etsy's largest keyword research company, I can't tell you how many Etsy SEO mistakes my team and I see every single day. And a lot of the time, these mistakes were made due to the ill guidance of fellow Etsy YouTubers. Between us, I've been accumulating this list all year.
So let's jump right into what you're all here for. My annual list of the top Etsy SEO mistakes to avoid in 2024. Etsy SEO mistake number one, you guessed it, editing the keywords of listings that are already performing well. Over the years, people have asked me to define what I mean by performing well, which is subjective. Performing well will mean different things to different sellers.
If you make no sales on Etsy, your best performer might be the listing that gets the most views. Or it might be the one listing that sells occasionally when nothing else does. Or if you make consistent sales, it may be your best seller. Bottom line, if you begin tinkering with the tags and titles of a listing that's already performing well, you risk removing terms that you could have been exact matching or broad matching for in search, which could tank the listing. Photos, listing videos, processing times and prices, have no weight in search, and even your descriptions aren't used for query matching.
You can learn more about that in this video up here. So just like in years past, it's the tags and titles of performing listings that you don't want to touch. No matter what. Etsy SEO mistake number two? Not waiting 60 to 90 days before tweaking your keywords again.
It's been an ongoing rumor that if you touch your Etsy SEO, it resets your listing and you'll have to wait 60 to 90 days to be re-indexed. I don't know where this rumor came from, but it's a big fat myth. 60 to 90 days isn't an indexing period.
It's the average amount of time that Etsy boosts your new listings in search so that they can observe how shoppers interact with them. During this period, Etsy is basically deciding if people like what you're offering, and after they observe shopper interactions for this average time frame, they assign you a listing quality score, which also gives you a more permanent placement in search. Now if all of this sounds super confusing, be sure to click up here to grab my free SEO toolbox where I explain a bit more about how listing quality works.
In summary, when making changes to your tags and titles, you want to make sure Etsy has enough time to observe how shoppers interact with that listing in search. Based on the keywords you've placed in your tags and titles. Tweaking your SEO every day can interrupt this process, so give those listings time to settle in. Etsy SEO Mistake Number 3. Not Refreshing Your E-Rank Data For anyone who uses erank.com for your keyword research, you've probably noticed this pop-up window which jumps in your face right when you log in.
I swear, this pop-up isn't here to annoy you. It's here to help you. E-Rank couldn't possibly pull every single user's data in real time.
It would make the website run too slow. So if the stats that you're seeing in E-Rank aren't accurate for your listings, be sure to refresh that data every time you see the pop-up or click this orange button up here. Etsy SEO Mistake Number 4 Only using one tool when performing research There are so many awesome E-Rank tools that can streamline your keyword research process and save you a bit of sanity as well.
If you want to compare the stats and search data of several keywords, check out the Compare Keywords tool. If you want to see what's trending on Etsy right now, check out the Trend Buzz tool. If you want to save your keywords so that you can monitor their search trends as the months go by, create a keyword list from this blue box down here, and add search terms to that list by clicking the star icons next to each keyword.
There are tons of amazing tools to help you with keyword research, and though the Keyword tool is my personal favorite. You can discover even more data by exploring some of the other tools as well. Etsy SEO mistake number five, relying too much on grades.
If you rely too much on grades, Mrs. Moore will issue you a detention. That's because grades on eRank do not determine the success of your SEO or the keywords that you use. The short answer is, E-Rank's grading system within the listing audit tool is a checklist that reviews your listing to determine if the listing follows Etsy's best practices.
There is no human looking at your listing to grade it, nor is E-Rank doing an in-depth analysis of the keywords that you're using in your listing. The grading system is great when you create a new listing and you want to make sure that it follows Etsy's best practices, or when you have a listing that isn't selling and you need quick ideas on how you could possibly improve it. But you should never tweak a listing that's already doing well, even if your grades are bad.
Etsy SEO Mistake Number 6 Assuming your rank is static Due to Etsy's personalized search algorithm that caters search pages based on a user's unique IP address and shopper habits, you cannot check your rank on Etsy by searching for your listings within the Etsy search bar. This basically means that what I see on Etsy and what you see on Etsy will be completely different. And no, logging out of your account or using an incognito window will not strip your personalization, since this data comes from your IP address.
And no, using a VPN also will not strip this data, because even if you set your location to a different country, you'll still be seeing a catered search for that specific area. The only way to check your rank stripped of all personalization is with the eRank Rank Checker tool. This tool comes directly from Etsy's API, and it will show your average position in search once personalization has been stripped. And this information is extremely useful because it gives you an idea of where the average shopper will see your listings in search. If you have listings ranking on pages one, two, or even three for your superstar keywords, it means that your SEO for those listings is probably okay.
And if they aren't selling, it may mean that something else is contributing to that lack of sales, like bad photos or even issues with your pricing. However, if you discover that your listings are ranking way back on page 19 for the primary keywords that you're targeting, these might be the listings that you want to work on first, assuming that they aren't selling, of course. Etsy SEO Mistake Number 7. Starting Your Keyword Research Too Narrow or Too Specific When performing keyword research using ERank's keyword tool, I always recommend starting as broad as possible, then refining your way down.
For example, if you're selling a beige wool chunky knit throw blanket, start by searching blanket in the keyword tool. Then scroll down to the list of keyword suggestions in order to discover stronger long-tail keyword phrases that will be easier to rank for in search. Remember, the more specific a keyword is, the more shopper intent that keyword has. Because typically, someone who is searching for a very specific type of item is ready to buy that specific type of item. Etsy SEO mistake number eight, guessing keywords rather than using a keyword research tool.
This goes without saying, but I still see this mistake all the time. You may think you know what people are searching for on Etsy, but without actual data behind your guess, there's no way to prove that your prediction is correct. By using a keyword research tool like eRank, you can check to see the monthly search volumes of the best keywords to use in your listing tags and titles.
And you can see which months you can expect the most people to search for those specific keywords. So no guessing your keywords. Those are Etsy stone age methods and we're living in the future, maybe.
Etsy SEO mistake number nine, using the Etsy search bar as your primary keyword research tool. Going right along with our last mistake, if you're utilizing the Etsy search bar for all your keyword research, you're basically taking shots in the dark. The Etsy search bar is a consumer.
centric tool designed to tell shoppers about available products in the marketplace in order to help them narrow down their searches. But though Etsy recommends these phrases, it doesn't necessarily mean that people are actually searching for them. So when using the Etsy search bar, I always recommend taking those terms and double checking them in E-Rank's keyword tool just to see how many people are actually searching for them. Plus, you can get a much clearer idea of the competition levels that you can expect for those terms.
as well as the clicks and click-through rates. This information can help you assess whether or not customers are typically satisfied with the results that they see once they've searched for this type of item. Etsy SEO mistake number 10, incorrectly filling out your attributes.
During the holidays, this is one of the most common mistakes that I see. Your attributes on Etsy are the collection of little drop-down menus that you can use to categorize your product when building a listing. And these attributes are great.
Etsy tells us that they're seen almost like bonus tags, and they allow you to incorporate details like style, colors, and sizing right into your listings. But every year around the holidays, I see sellers add the Christmas attribute to items that they believe would make great gifts for Christmas. Unfortunately, this isn't what these attributes are for. Attributes are meant to define what you're selling.
They help to bridge the gap between the item and the search query from your shopper. Which means that attributes pertaining to holidays and occasions should only be added to items that are actually themed for these holidays or occasions. For example, this mug is not a Christmas mug. Sure, it might be a great gift for Christmas, but because the mug is not themed in Christmas, it would not qualify for a Christmas attribute. Unlike this mug, which would totally qualify for a Christmas attribute because clearly, it is a Christmas mug.
So if an attribute doesn't fit your specific product, just leave it blank. Our last Etsy SEO mistake is the one that's gotten me into several comment battles with other YouTubers who claim that I'm wrong and they're right. I'll let you be the judge. But before we jump into what is probably our most controversial SEO mistake... I just want to take a moment to mention that I'll be accepting new students into my Etsy coaching program starting this Friday, December 1st through December 10th.
The Handmade Elf Academy is my nine-module guided training program that teaches Etsy sellers a foundational knowledge of brand psychology, marketing, and funnel building. The way you teach it, it's simple. It's down to earth.
I can comprehend it. That's one of the things I love about your teaching style. I don't think I ever could have done it without being in the HAA.
You're step by step. steps were fantastic. I don't know how you could not succeed by following the step-by-step really instruction of how you lead us through.
The Handmade Alpha Academy is currently the only Etsy course in the world built on a foundation of neuromarketing, teaching you the essential whys behind your decision-making in order to understand how those brand choices directly affect the emotions of the customers that you'd like to attract. Our armor was featured in Lucifer season five finale, and the main actor got to wore things that we created here. Part of the reason why we were able and ready to do such a thing was because of the alphas. And I'm so invested in your Etsy success that I personally buy each of my students a 12-month E-Rank Pro subscription. And I provide you with annual access to our yearly alpha holiday boot camp, as well as the product photography essentials workshop by coach Christina Nicole.
So if you dig my teaching style and this sounds like something that you may be interested in checking out for your own business, I've added a link up here somewhere and down below where you can learn more about the program, our success stories, and the class curriculum. Okay, let's give the people what they really want. Lastly, Etsy SEO mistake number 11. Not sharing your Etsy shop on social media.
I've had several Etsy YouTubers reach out to me this year to share how they disagree with this myth. But as I always say, singular cases and anecdotal evidence are not scientifically conclusive. And the idea that a shop would be penalized for bringing traffic to Etsy, you know, the thing that makes Etsy money and helps them to grow? It's totally nonsensical, especially now that Etsy is encouraging their new Share and Save program, which rewards sellers for doing this exact thing.
Sharing your Etsy shop link on social media and within your social bios is a good thing. Not only does encouraging external sales still help to build your overall listing quality scores, but it also helps to generate overall brand awareness, thus helping you to funnel more of your own traffic and relying less on your Etsy SEO alone. Think of it like doubling your traffic sources. And just so we're clear, since I can already sense that one of you just started angry typing the words CONVERSION right into my comments, ha ha, gotcha, didn't I?
The overall conversion rate you can view in your Etsy stats has no impact on your shop or search ranking. What does have an impact is conversion from organic search on individual listings. For example, if I search for gold necklace on Etsy and I click on your listing then click off that listing, basically it tells Etsy that your listing was not what I was looking for during my natural search. And this can have a slight negative impact on that specific listing in correlation to that specific keyword.
On the flip side, if I search gold necklace on Etsy, click your listing, then buy it, this sends positive signals to Etsy because the keyword you used is Your listing, a gold necklace, resulted in a sale of that gold necklace. This is one of the most common things that I see miscommunicated by Etsy coaches, influencers, and YouTubers. And sellers who refuse to advertise their shop because they believe that sharing their link on social media will hurt them are losing huge opportunities to market their brands.
As I always say, Etsy SEO isn't magic. It's a science. And like any good science experiment, We need time to form a hypothesis when it comes to our keywords, test our theories, analyze our results over time, come up with a conclusion based on the data that we've collected, and refine our testing if the experiment wasn't successful. There is no overnight success when it comes to Etsy SEO, but through keyword experimentation and testing, you can find success over time. The most important thing is to do your research, study your results, and don't get discouraged when an experiment fails.
Because in science, failed experiments are learning experiences, and experiences in SEO make all the difference. And with a little science, a lot of data, and some help from a trusted Etsy SEO expert, you'll be well on your way to Etsy success. Cue the funky lo-fi beat.