Etsy SEO For Beginners: How To Improve Your Store’s Rankings Fast

Want to learn the secret to effective Etsy SEO? You’re in the right place.

To sell products on Etsy, you need your target customers to be able to find them. 

But unfortunately, even with a fantastic product catalog, a lot of new sellers struggle to get their listings to show up in the search results—and that limits their ability to make sales.

In this beginner’s guide to Etsy SEO, I’ll share 25 ways to improve your rankings fast and drive more organic traffic to your store, so you can start getting the sales you deserve.

But first, let’s start with the basics…

What is Etsy SEO?

Etsy SEO (search engine optimization) is the practice of taking steps to improve the visibility of your Etsy shop and products so that customers can discover them more easily.

The goal is to increase the chance of your listings showing up at the top of the organic results (pointed out in the image below) when potential customers search for products like yours.

That’ll require you to optimize your listings for both Etsy itself—which has its own internal search engine—and for web search engines like Google, which often surface Etsy stores in internet searches.

Later, I’ll reveal 25 things you can do to optimize your Etsy store for both Etsy and Google.

However, to make sense of those strategies, you’re first going to need a basic understanding of how Etsy’s ranking algorithm works.

How Etsy ranks product listings

When a shopper enters a search query on Etsy, the first thing Etsy does is crawl through all the products in its marketplace to pick out all the listings that match that query.

It does this by looking at things like the words and phrases (i.e. keywords) that are included in each product page’s title, description, tags, categories, attributes, etc. 

Next, Etsy’s algorithm looks at a bunch of different ranking factors to figure out which order it should show these matched products in the search results, with the goal of placing items that the customer is more likely to purchase closer to the top of the page.

Etsy is pretty transparent about the way its ranking algorithm works. The main ranking factors it considers are:

• Shop Quality. The quality of your shop impacts your rankings. Etsy looks at factors like your Shop title, description, policies, sections, icons, visuals, and announcements. The more relevant, trustworthy, and authoritative your shop is, the higher you’ll rank.
• Listing Quality. The quality of each of your product listings also impacts your rankings. Including things like high-quality photos, a clear and fair return policy, a detailed description, fair postage prices, etc. will all help you to rank.
• Customer Service History. Etsy ranks listings from sellers with a good track record of customer service higher. It looks at your average review rating, message response rate, case rate, and on-time dispatches from the past 3 months to evaluate your customer service history.
• Relevance. The more relevant your products are to the search query, the higher they rank. To determine relevancy, Etsy looks for keywords in places like your title, descriptions, image alt-text, etc. as well as your product tags, categories, and attributions.
• Engagement Score. Etsy uses clues from shoppers to give each product listings an ‘engagement score’. The higher your engagement score, the higher you’ll rank. Factors that impact your engagement score include your conversion rate and how often shoppers click, favorite, or purchase your products.
• Postage Prices. Etsy knows that high postage prices discourage buyers, so it prioritizes listings with low postage prices in the search results. This is especially important for US domestic sellers.
• Recency. Newer listings receive small, temporary boosts in the search results to give Etsy a chance to gather data about how buyers interact with them. As such, the date you published your listing will have a slight impact on your rankings. 
• User Behaviors. Etsy personalizes the order of listings on the results page for each shopper based on factors like their previous purchases and other on-site behaviors, their location, etc. 

25 Etsy SEO tips to help you rank

Next, I’m going to share a ton of Etsy SEO strategies you can use to optimize your store and product listings around those ranking factors so that the algorithm pushes you up the search results.

You don’t have to do everything in this guide. But the more steps you take, the better your chances of ranking will be.

I’d recommend treating this like an Etsy SEO checklist. Bookmark this page so that you can keep coming back whenever you have time to work on your SEO.

#1 – Always target long-tail keywords

There are over 7.5 million active sellers on Etsy, and you’re competing with all of them in the search results.

As a result, it’s extremely difficult for new sellers to rank for short keywords (broad search queries with just 1-3 words).

For example, if we look at the results on Etsy for the query digital planners, we can see that they’re dominated by established stores with thousands of positive reviews.

New sellers aren’t going to be able to compete with that. So instead, it’s a better idea to target long-tail keywords. 

These are more specific search queries that include more words. While they’re searched less frequently, they tend to be much less competitive. Plus, buy intent tends to be much higher with long-string queries.

So instead of digital planners, we could target a keyword like digital planners for college students, or retro blue undated digital planner. 

You’re better off ranking on the first page for a niche keyword like this that’s searched <1000 times a month than on page 50 for a broad competitive keyword that’s searched 100k times a month.

To find relevant, long-string keywords that your target customers are searching for, you’ll need to do some keyword research.

One method you can try is to use Google or Etsy autocomplete. 

Simply type in a broad keyword that describes your product followed by any letter (e.g. digital planners a…) and look at the suggestions to gather ideas. 

You can also try placing the letter on the other side…

An even better option is to use dedicated Etsy keyword research tools like eRank or Marmalead.

eRank can generate hundreds of long-string keyword ideas from any seed keyword and give you the metrics you need to validate them, like their average search volume, clicks & CTR, and competition rating.

#2 – Optimize your Etsy Shop

Etsy looks at the quality of your Etsy shop when deciding how to rank your listings, so it has to be good.

Here’s what you need to do…

Optimize your shop title

Your shop title should describe your shop niche and the items you sell, and include your priority keywords. You only have 55 characters to work with—make them count!

Optimize your shop description

This appears beneath your shop name.

EEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) is an important consideration for both Google and Etsy, and your shop description is your opportunity to demonstrate that EEAT. 

Discuss your expertise and trustworthiness as a seller by explaining your background, creative process, years of experience, and anything else you think will promote trust and make you seem like an expert in your niche.

Note: EEAT isn’t a ranking factor. However, it is still extremely important. All of these factors create a better experience for users and encourage them to trust you. This is critical for any business.

Add a shop icon

Etsy has made it clear that they specifically look for a shop icon when deciding which products to prioritize in the SERPs, so make sure you have one. 

Organize your inventory into categories

Once you have enough listings, you can use the categories option to group them into organized sections.

This helps with your SEO as Etsy loves it when sellers utilize their tools to make their shops look the part. Plus, it makes it easier for customers browsing your store to find products, which could help boost your conversion rate (another important ranking factor).

Add keywords everywhere

Include the target keywords you’re trying to rank for wherever possible across your Etsy shop (as long as it sounds natural!). 

For example, that might include in your shop story, categories, announcements, etc. 

Fill out your shop policies

Sellers who have completely filled out their shop policies get a bump in the search results, so make sure you’ve done this.

You can do so by going to Your Shop > Shop Settings > Shop policies. 

Add information about delivery timescales, payment options, returns and exchange policies, etc.

Add visuals

Google and Etsy both love visuals, so use them. 

You can add up to 5 images and 1 video in the About section of your shop, which you could use to highlight your product range or creative process.

Don’t forget to optimize their meta descriptions and alt-text with relevant keywords.

#3 – Optimize your product listing title

The title of your product listing has arguably the biggest impact on your rankings. Why? Two reasons:

1. Etsy and Google look at your listing title to determine its relevance to search queries, making it an important ranking factor.
2. Many customers browsing Etsy will decide whether to click on your listing based on the title, and CTR (click-through rate) is another important ranking factor.

As such, it’s important not just to optimize your product listing title for keywords, but also for maximum clicks and conversions.

Here are some tips.

Front-load your primary target keyword 

Try to include the keyword you’re trying to rank at the start of the listing title, as that’s what shoppers see first when browsing. It’s also important because search engines only show the first 50 to 60 characters of your title.

Include other related and long-string keywords that shoppers might search for

After your primary keyword, try to fit in any other related keywords your target shoppers might search for—but avoid keyword stuffing (repeating the same words over and over again).

You should use punctuation marks or symbols to separate each keyword. This makes it easier for Etsy search algorithms to understand each phrase, and it also makes it easier on the eyes.

For example, if you search for ‘Passport wedding invitation’ on Etsy, you’ll see that all the top-ranking listings follow a similar title layout.