“Cha-CHING” You made a sale on Etsy and you hear that magical little sound. But what if you could hear that sound 5+ times a day? 10+? 20!?
Well here’s a secret: it’s totally possible for you. You just have to take advantage of what Etsy has to offer – it’s traffic.
In order to harness the amazing power of Etsy traffic, crafting great listings is very important. That’s how you’re going to make sales if you don’t have a huge audience, social media prowess, or family and friends that will keep purchasing from you until all your listings sell out.
Crafting the perfect listing on Etsy is a skill that will prove so valuable to you on your Etsy shop journey because the better your listings are the more they will rank in Etsy search results. Ranking is just a fancy word for showing up in the first couple pages of a search. And when you don’t have your own audience knocking down your door to get their hands on your products, ranking on Etsy will bring that traffic and (hopefully) more sales!
Here are my six favorite tips for making Etsy listings so rank-worthy that you’ll be hitting your sales goals in no time!
1: Photos
First of all, we need to make sure we are capitalizing on the 10 photos Etsy allows you to have. No, that doesn’t mean you have to have 10 pictures of your product. Actually, I like to have pictures of:
- The product the listing is for
- other matching products from my shop (think add-ons or products of the same theme)
- informational graphics about how to place an order (outlining variations, options, and operating procedures from your shop)
- past customer testimonials and reviews
- an informational graphic about signing up for my email list so I can continue to sell to them in the future
These photo slots are valuable because, in some cases, customers will only look at your photos to decide if they want to purchase from you and get all the details about their purchase. Convince them they want to buy from the start with great quality listing photos that not only showcase your product, but give them that extra push they may need to make a purchase.
Pro-tip: I always make my photo list before taking product photos. That way I know exactly what shots of my product I need before I start photographing!
2: Keyword Research
Key words are, well.. key.
Keywords help you get found by not just people in general, but the *right* people. You want to make sure you’re getting in front of eyes that want to buy your product. Because views don’t mean anything unless those views are converting into paying customers.
The best way to do that is through keyword research. Putting time, thought, and intention into your keyword strategy will payoff for you in leaps and bounds with Etsy search. And there are several ways I like to accomplish this:
- I start my process by brainstorming a list of 5-10 keywords that I think people will search when they are seeking out my product.
- Then, I use those words in the Etsy search bar to find more words that work well for my product.
- I move on to looking at what keywords other best-selling listings are using in their title for a very similar product. Bonus points if you can find a product very similar to yours that has a “best-seller” badge. (Hooray for product idea validation!).
- Once I have a nice little list going, I use E-rank to prioritize keywords and make my title and tags.
3: Title
Your keywords, tags, and title go hand-in-hand. Once you’ve done your keyword research, the rest is easy!
Your title needs, first and foremost, to be readable. Etsy doesn’t appreciate keyword stuffing and it allows for your customer to better understand your product. Of course, include as many keywords as you can and use as much space in your title as possible, but try to have it make sense to your potential buyers.
Pro-tip: Use as much space in your title as Etsy allows.
4: Tags
Once my title is done and looks great, I add the tags exactly as the title appears. This has always helped my rank in Etsy search as well.
This means I just enter my tags in as my title. I start at the beginning and use the keywords in order as they appear in my title. Then I always have 4-5 spaces leftover for more tags, so I use some more keywords from my keyword research here.
5: Description
For a long time when I started my shop wondering how to get more etsy sales, I made my descriptions way too long. My thought was always, the more descriptive the better, right? But I’ve come to learn that the shorter the description, the more likely people are to read the entire thing before they purchase.
This is why I think there isn’t a ton of necessary information that needs to go into your description. One introduction sentence with a few of your keywords in there for good SEO, any necessary product details, and some links to similar products/categories in your shop to encourage more purchases and you are good to go!
6: A Marketing Plan
Hope marketing isn’t a marketing plan.
What’s hope marketing? It’s where you post your listing and hope for sales instead of actively making it happen! You should always have a plan for how you’re going to hit the ground running and get your listings some love as soon as possible – which will help with Etsy SEO and will help you make sales.
You don’t have to implement every marketing tactic out there: pinterest, instagram, email, facebook, etc etc etc… All I suggest is having one, solid marketing platform that you are so skilled at that you don’t even need a second one.
My platform of choice: pinterest. It’s so great for marketing yourself in a way that is pretty low effort/high reward.
Now that you know all about how to craft great listings on Etsy, all that’s left to do is take action! Download my free Etsy listing planner and get to work brainstorming tags, pictures, and titles. It’ll help your organize your thoughts when making a listing & show you how to get more etsy sales.
Want free, live video-trainings weekly on all things selling on Etsy? Join my close friends list over on Instagram and get access to my weekly trainings!
