Etsy SEO Cheat Sheet

There has been so much talk about SEO recently on Etsy. Many people understand why SEO is important, but the actual workings and mechanics are rather... fuzzy. Also, there is constant change - just this past weekend, Etsy announced changes to the way shop names and links will work in an effort to increase more visitors coming from search engines (read more here).

All this can be rather confusing. The Handmade Business blog summarizes the Etsy Guide to SEO in this compact summary that makes SEO easy to understand as well as helpful. Be sure to check out this awesome resource.

Martha Stewart Hearts Etsy

Martha Stewart Weddings is featuring a collection of Etsy shops. I love the fact that these independent shops are getting such exposure! If you are interested in gathering more wedding inspiration from from talented Etsy shops, be sure to check out Martha Stewart Weddings Summer 2009 issue.

Etsy and Facebook

Yesterday, Etsy made it possible to link your Etsy activities with your Facebook account. According the Storque article, "You can share your Etsy activity with your friends! When you list an item or heart an item (add an item to your Etsy Favorites) while connected with Facebook, you will see an option to share that action on Facebook in the form of a story published to your Facebook News Feed." The integration of a social networking site such as Facebook is a good promotion tool. The opportunity to showcase some of your most recent listings can definitely boost the number of viewings. While this was possible prior to yesterday by using the "link" option on Facebook, this new integration does make the entire process easier and more efficient.

Unfortunately, as of now, the "Facebook Connect" tool does not allow you to post Etsy activity to your business/fan pages. According to the Storque article, "This is not possible at this time because Facebook Pages are tied to Profiles, and you can't log in to a Facebook Page (only a Profile)." Perhaps in the future.

The accessibility of "Facebook Connect" seems to be great. The overall practicality as of now is questionable. I would like to see a more options on how Etsy can integrate in the world of cloud computing.

The Etsy SEO Problem

Number Pipeline Print by ModernPop

If you've been around Etsy's Forums lately, you have probably noticed the outrage over the change in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I thought it might be helpful to have a little summary of what has been going on so far. 

Many sellers on Etsy have worked hard to insure that their shop (or listing) is ranked high in Google searches for particular keywords. Etsy reformatted  their SEO by inserting their own (very broad) meta keywords in front of the seller's. In some cases, the keyword was completely inappropriate such as "handmade" being listed under vintage items and supplies. All of the changes in the SEO have resulted in many shops getting low views and less buyers.

Etsy administrator Saralouhicks responded to the outcry with this message, promising that "We understand the urgency around this issue and will provide updates on our plans and progress in the next week or two." Sara also links back to the Storque article that originally outlined "Optimizing for Search Engines." Sara informed the Forum that Etsy has changed the meta data for craft supplies and vintage items so that the keywords do not include "handmade." However, there is still much work left to be done.

I really appreciated the post by Timothy Adam of TimothyAdamDesigns, the technological guru and Etsy seller extraordinaire. Timothy writes, "You have to adapt with the changes that are happening. That is what owning your own business is all about. Your business's success is in your hands.. You make it happen not the selling venue you have your shop on." In short, stay positive. Contact Etsy administration and politely voice your opinion. Then work on promoting your shop and craft independent of Etsy by using blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks, Timothy for the inspirational advice.

Edit: So as to be absolutely clear, the reason that the extra meta data is a problem is that Google only looks at a specific number of keywords. Those are taken up by Etsy's filler keywords, not the more specific, unique ones created by the seller. 

We Interrupt This Broadcast...

(Image courtesy of of Etsy's Storque)

I would be completely remiss if I did not notify you of the Second Annual Etsy Yart sale that is taking place between June 10-14, 2009. So, I will take a break from "Handmade Wedding week" for a minute. "What is a Yart Sale?" you may ask (with good reason - I was originally thinking of a mixture of yak and yogurt). The Storque defines the Yart as 

Art + Yard Sale = Yart!

Basically, this is a Etsy-wide sale that includes all "departments" of Etsy: handmade, vintage, and supplies. The sale can include, but is not limited to, free shipping, discounted prices, free promotional gifts, etc. If you are an Etsy seller, this a great way to promote your shop as well as publicizing other sellers of handmade goods.  Make sure that all items should be tagged or titled with the word "Yart" to signify your participation in the sale.  The Storque article has special Yart avatars for your enjoyment and promotional needs. This is an awesome opportunity for you to splurge on a little retail therapy. After all, it's on sale. So go Yart, everyone! 

Edit: if you twitter, make sure to use the #Yart to advertise.

Etsy News - The Etsy Voter

Etsy can be a strange place. As a seller it can be quite overwhelming to keep up on the features that keep rolling out, and there are even some *hidden places* like treasury west that still seem to befuddle me.

It was a recent storque article that turned me onto etsy voter , which rolled out sometime earlier this year. There doesn't seem to be a direct link in the "Buy" section to this little app - as far as I can tell you have to link to it directly like so .  Also, it seems for now that the votes are not user generated like the treasury, but created by admin.  Ah well.  But hey, who doesn't like to vote?  

(note from comments:  Etsy has users submit their items and the top(first) 60 are usually the ones that get listed so they are not always Etsy admin. picked.)

The "Get Down To Business" vote caught my attention, since I just moved into a new office. There was a nice mix of new shops and old ones, and a wonderful selection of items. Check the voter out here and get your mouse ready for some clickin.

Etsy Developer Community and public API is up!!

Today the etsy API went public at http://developer.etsy.com!  This is the most exciting feature, for me, that etsy has incorporated since I joined.  There is already a small list of available applications, including the ever beloved etsyhacks , plus some others you might not have heard of.  Check out the new apps here !

I heart Heartomatic

I hadn't been over to checkout the ol' Heart-o-matic in a while, and was pleasantly surprised when I found out it's now being hosted by the craft cult and has a pretty new interface. Those of us "seasoned" etsians will remember the heartomatic from the ill-fated EtsyTools site which went up in flames with all kinds of whispered about drama that reportedly included death threats on the creators. Needless to say, after that I didn't visit the heartomatic as much. It changed sites, and I kind of lost track of it for while.

But! It's back, and beautiful, and still as useful as ever. I personally don't keep track of my views on etsy at all, they don't seem to correlate much to sales and the only information I ever really gathered from them were what pictures on my site people seemed to like best. Hearts however, do seem to match up to sales a bit more than views, and can be insightful when thinking about which of my designs to renew, and which to drop.

Check out the heartomatic here and find out how your view to heart ratio on each listing in your shop, plus other fun and interesting stats.

New Etsy Category Pages

Ok, ok, so at first glance the new category pages don't look like anything special, but when you dig down into them you'll see they contain some subtle changes that are indeed helpful. The update includes a nested subcategory list, bigger better showcases, and a new area for that contains the category info plus a little illustration for all of us right brained visual thinkers out there. Huge changes? Nope. But useful? I think so.

Etsy also said that they are planning on utilizing the unused space below the subcategory list for content related to the category, which is exciting for me. How wonderful would it be to have the handmade wedding series actually ON the wedding category page? Ok, maybe that's one of those things only wedding sellers like me geek out about, but still, it's a wonderful idea, as the storque is a wonderful place that is a little out of the way on the site. Thanks etsy for the hard work, and obviously hard thought out, changes.

So, anyone tempted by the new larger showcases to try to snag a spot? I've still never tried the showcase myself, and the debate seems to rage on in the forums of whether they are worth it or not. hm. I think I sense a new topic for next weeks issue. . .

Do you Etsy Hack?

I am of the opinion that etsy on the whole is a beautiful and fairly functional site. The basics are all there, as in, it's easy enough to list something to sell for the first time. But as you go through the listing process again, and again (as your shop grows with wild success of course!) you start to realize that you are spending a lot of time on etsy doing the same repetive tasks, and that the interface that seemed so handy at first is really a little cluncky.

And enter etsy hacks into your life.

Etsy hacks is a FREE add-on to the firefox browser that drastically improves the workflow of an average etsy seller. It is easy enough to install. First install Greasemonkey which is the add-on program that lets etsy hacks do it's thing. Then choose from the list of hacks that you'd like to use. The list of hacks range from useful to everyone such as "Copy This Listing," a hack that lets you duplicate any listing with ONE CLICK, to "Forum Wrangler" a hack that adds little improvements for for those who troll the forums, such as a hack that lets you jump to the last read page of any thread, which is handy when you can't remember if you were on page 23 or 32 of the latest out of control thread that you can't stop reading even though you want to.

There are currently over 24 hacks up on the site, and that number is sure to grow now that the etsy API has been released. Follow the etsy hacks blog, dontate for all the hard work put into these lovely hacks, and give your mouse clicking finger a much needed rest!