Recently, I received a comment on one of my videos, and this question from our viewer inspired me to create this material. So today, I will talk about SEO optimization, as well as what I would never advise you to do.
I have selected the top 5 worst SEO tips on Etsy, some of which are even dangerous and could literally destroy your shop. My name is Victoria Zhidoк, and I represent Western Bid in the city of Chernihiv. Our company opens the world of international sales for you, delivers your products anywhere in the world, and provides pre-center and fulfillment-center services in the USA.
This is a question left by our subscriber. Well, to put it briefly, the question is: Should I close my shop and open a new one if there are no sales?
Bad advice #1: Closing your shop and opening a new one
Well, I’ll start by saying that this is not a very good idea. At least because Etsy is very particular about sales for new shops, especially lately, and there’s a high likelihood of getting banned immediately. I know this from the experience of our clients.
I always say that any shop can be boosted regardless of its age. Even if you have few sales, your shop already has a history — views, adding items to favorites. All of this signals Etsy about your activity. And opening a new shop resets everything. Sometimes, starting over turns out to be more difficult than continuing to grow the existing shop. Moreover, Etsy doesn’t have any timeline for your first sales.
Starting on Etsy has at least two options: the first is a quick start when you introduce a popular, in-demand product, and you get sales immediately. Or it can be a longer process where you achieve success through trial and error, gaining experience along the way, and start selling. The second option was my personal story. Over time, with the knowledge I gained, I looked at things differently, and it was much easier to launch a new shop and start selling right away.
Thus, my advice to this viewer and to all sellers with few sales is to try to analyze:
- Whether your product is in demand
- Check if the photos of your products are appealing
- Compare prices with those offered by competitors
- Work on optimizing existing listings
- Plan to add new products to attract a new target audience
And I am confident that any shop can be rehabilitated.
Bad advice #2: Constantly editing listings and checking keywords daily
Another harmful tip is constantly editing listings and checking keywords every day. Not only does this waste your time, but it can also worsen your results. SEO works slowly. Changing keywords won’t give immediate results. If you’ve added a new product, you don’t need to review statistics every day.
Allow listings to run their course — at least for two weeks — to draw preliminary conclusions, and only after about a month, if you see that SEO isn’t working, you can try to make some changes. Here I mean main photo, title, and tags. Everything else can be changed at any time.
Constantly changing keywords in your products hampers Etsy’s ability to index them properly. The algorithm simply doesn’t have time to understand which category to assign your products to. But don’t forget the main rule: if a product sells well, don’t change anything. This listing already has gained trust and the green light from Etsy.
Bad advice #3: SEO on Etsy doesn’t work now
The next anti-advice is that SEO on Etsy doesn’t work now, so there’s no point in worrying about it. Actually, this is a very false statement. Do you know when it might work? When, for example, you drive all traffic from social media or other channels and get sales from that.
However, if you want to rely on internal Etsy traffic, then search optimization is necessary because, unfortunately, you can’t do without it. Despite the increased competition making it harder to rank organically, SEO provides steady traffic through organic search. But if, as I mentioned earlier, you develop your social media and generate traffic from there, it’s a perfect scenario where both internal and external traffic combine for success.
Bad advice #4: Don’t share the shop link
Another tip I personally gave to clients was never sharing the link to your shop or listing to avoid attracting non-targeted traffic, which might lower your listing’s search ranking.
This is also my personal history, but it was a long time ago. I also listened to advice from various coaches and advanced sellers, and at that moment, it seemed very effective. I found Facebook groups where sellers and buyers, mostly foreign, interacted, to attract additional traffic to my shop. When I posted a new listing, I shared it in all those groups. For a while, this significantly increased my traffic. I was initially so happy. For the first 3-4 days, I saw my statistics grow.
But the key was, the statistics only increased — not improved. It turned out that people viewed and liked the listing, but it was non-targeted traffic — no sales resulted, and the conversion was zero. After that, the listing disappeared from Etsy search. About a month passed, and I didn’t see any more activity with this listing.
On the other hand, sharing your shop link on your own active social networks or website is very effective. You generate targeted traffic directly to your shop. This not only improves your overall ranking but also increases brand awareness. This way, you can attract more buyers yourself instead of relying solely on Etsy’s internal traffic. It also doubles your sources of traffic.
And Etsy benefits from this too. The more people you attract to your shop, the more Etsy earns. That’s why they created the Share&Save program, which encourages sharing shop links and rewards 4% of the total order amount if the buyer makes a purchase using your unique link.
Bad advice #5: The overall conversion rate affects the shop’s ranking
The last controversial advice for today is that the overall conversion rate in Etsy statistics influences the shop’s ranking in search. But this is false.
What really influences ranking is — conversion from organic search for individual listings. Let me explain with an example. My shop’s overall conversion rate is 1.8%. That’s the total indicator. But if I analyze the statistics for individual listings and calculate their conversion rates, I’ll see quite different results. Do you see the difference?
Therefore, we need to analyze conversion rates for each listing. Where the indicators are good — say 2.5, 2.8, or higher — then that listing works well. And if the rate is below one, then it’s worth analyzing what can be improved. That’s the first point.
Secondly, a low conversion rate for an individual listing can affect its ranking in search results for a specific query. For example, a buyer clicks on your listing but doesn’t buy. This might not seem significant, but it can lower its ranking. Of course, if a sale happens, the ranking will improve. So, when talking about SEO, it’s important to focus on the conversion rate of each individual listing, not the overall shop conversion rate.
Conclusions
So, your success is in your hands. The main thing is not to follow harmful advice but to apply proven strategies.
Therefore:
- Experiment
- Analyze
- And don’t be afraid to take steps toward your goals.
