So when Etsy announced the new 2018 changes it felt like everybody and their mother started rushing towards Facebook groups to discuss how this very dramatic change can be the Apocalypse itself.

A lot of gossip, lots of rumours and anxiety was going on. It felt like checking out for news about Brexit, really.

Now, having an Etsy shop myself and experiencing this first hand I don’t feel that anything dramatic actually happened to my income, after all, this is what it all boils down to. So, no I didn’t notice a decrease in the number of views or sale and can still make a full-time income from my shop. Furthermore, my shop keeps growing and I noticed more activity in terms of favourites.

With every new change, Etsy is trying to get better and better every time. A lot of people might find that this platform is not right for them anymore as some of the changes like taking a percentage from the shipping fee created a lot of anger and resentment in the community.

So what do these changes really mean for us, the sellers?

Do we need to make some adjustments to be up to date?

Yes, but take your time…

It is by far more important to have a killer SEO that gives your shop a solid foundation rather than worry about tweaking you shop for the new changes.

Download below my guide on how to SEO your shop from top to bottom, if you are up to date with that, no new change will drastically affect your shop.

For my shop, I made one and only one change which I’m still testing it out to see if it’s worthy. ( more about it below )

Please don’t just go in and turn your shop upside down or start to panic that you’ve got a bazillion of listings that need to be modified. Find at the end of the post a checklist that you can go through and make sure you’re all up to date.

So one of the biggest change that happened in 2018 is the:

Content specific ranking (CSR)

What does it mean?

Well CSR helps the shoppers find relevant listings that Etsy believes they are going to like based on their previous purchases or their habits across the platform. So no two people will be able to see the same everytime they type in a search.

Because of the artificial intelligence that Etsy acquired it is possible now to tailor what the buyers see.

That also means that the “clumping” is back. Having multiple items from the same shop showing on the same page it is again possible. For you, it means that it’s best to use a variety of keywords and you don’t have to repeat the same ones in all your listings. Best to diversity to increase your chances to get found more frequently in searches.

Renewing listings

Recency is still there but probably is not going to be as important as it used to. Before, if your SEO was on point, renewing your listing would give them that bump and push it in front of more eyes.

In my experience, after the changes, I don’t see a big impact anymore and I definitely don’t rely on this as a marketing strategy.

Titles, Tags, Categories, Attributes

This is something that still stands strong and should be a priority in your SEO strategy. Etsy says:

When a customer enters a search query on Etsy, we look at the titles, tags, categories and attributes you’ve added to find matching keywords. Using all 13 tags, adding variety to your tags, adding all the relevant attribute options, and categorising your items as specifically as you may all help increase the chance that your listings will match with a query.

This is something that’s been the same for quite some time. About 1-2 times a year I like to go through all the listing and check it with Marmalead and make sure everything is looking good or swap some keywords for more seasonal ones.

Title length

Etsy gives you 140 characters for your titles but now, they don’t want you necessarily you to use all the characters. Titles should describe the item 100%, be effective and easy to read. Repeating a keyword in your title won’t increase your item’s visibility anymore. Instead of saying “A5 planner inserts, Budget Planner insert just say “A5 Budget planner inserts”.

Vacation

Going on holiday will hurt your ranking and will take some time until your views are back the same way as before you set it on vacation mode.

A better solution would be to increase your processing time and add a short note that the items will be dispatched promptly on a specific date so the customers know when to expect them.

Keyword strategy

This is still very much a thing and to get in front of more eyeballs you need to think like a buyer. The first 40 characters of your listing’s title are the most important. Creating a mixture of focus keyword that describes your item with a more general keyword is the sweet spot.

For example, focus keywords would be:

• Ice cream baby rattle
• Gemini star sign necklace
• Solid oak personalised bookend

And a general keyword:

• Gifts for her
• Baby shower gift
• Shelf decoration
• A4 prints

Use an SEO tool like Marmalead or Etsy Rank to check exactly which words to use and don’t pull them out of a hat.

Customer experience score

Now, your customer reviews will impact your search. Etsy is becoming picky about what shops are recommending to the buyers to make sure they’re getting a good experience with their online shopping. So getting great reviews can improve your score rating while the recent open cases and different infringements can hurt it.

Shipping prices

This is another thing that created a lot of discussions. Etsy started to charge 5% fee from the shipping cost encouraging you to ship your items free. Now we know that shipping isn’t free for anybody but it started to prioritise in the search results the shops that do that. Amazon brought the trend with fast and free and now people have different expectations from what they used to.

Etsy does mention that you could include the shipping price into the total of the item but that’s not always an option for many shops. If you sell something big and fragile it’s unrealistic to include the price of the shipping on top on the item itself as you’ll repel the customers before they even click through to see more.

The solution?

There’s no one size fits all.

In my shop, I started doing free shipping and I haven’t seen any massive change in the number of sales I get but I know some shops have noticed a difference. You can always give it a go for a couple of months and see if it’s right for your shop and if not you can always go back. That’s the best way to test this out.

And now, for the most important pieces of the puzzle, to get found on Etsy that is:

List more items

There are over 50 million items on Etsy. The chances to get found when you have 16 items in your shop? Minuscule.

Just adding more listings is one of the most effective strategies to grow your shop. Now, don’t expect an instant boost everytime you add an item. For the Etsy bots to find your item can take any time between 4-6 weeks but once it’s picked up and start getting some sales you will see a boost in your views and favourites which can result in more sales. To carry on that cycle make adding items to your shop regularly a priority.

The minimum number of items any shop should have is no less than 50 before expecting some significant activity.

I remember when I decided to get serious about Etsy I committed that by the end of next month to have 50 items in my shop and my revenue went from 0 to $499 straightaway.

Fo’real.

By adding more items in your shop your exposure will increase, you’ll get more clicks and Etsy will start to see some activity and will send traffic your way. But you need to put in the time and effort before you see the results.

So moving forward:

• Titles and tags still need to match
• Your best/focus keywords at the beginning of the titles
• Attributes that describe your item 110%
• Polish your about me page
• Don’t fiddle with your announcement section but add SEO in
• If you’re going for holidays increase the dispatch time  rather than setting your shop on holiday mode
• Make sure your customers are happy, more positive reviews more chachings
• Check if it’s worth decreasing your shipping prices and including it in the price of the item
• List more items to increase your exposure

Do you have any further tips that helped you keep up with the new 2018 changes? Share them in the comments below so we can all learn from each other.

Let’s ask ourselves this. Why did we start Etsy?

For many of us was the time flexibility around the kids, a creative outlet that can bring us some side money. You see for most of us Etsy is a way to create an income from our passions. Our hobby gets validated when somebody buys something that you created and leaves you a positive feedback. But soon after you start you realise that it takes a lot more time and effort to get it off the ground and your lovely items aren’t getting in front of many eyes.

So you start to question maybe your product is not good enough otherwise why people wouldn’t buy.

I know I did.

I thought maybe the style is not right for this market, maybe people love more neutrals and was trying to fit in too many categories slowly stripping it off any personality and corkiness that my items initially had.

You see you can’t appeal to everybody.

You just need to find your people.

Those people who fall in love with your products and can’t wait for you to upload another item to snag it right away.  Those people who enjoy your items because it helps them solve that small problem that might have. Either making their baby look cute for the christening day with a lovely outfit or finding a great gift to offer to that somebody special in their life.

Once I realised that I had a massive weight off my shoulders, and I could get to work in the right direction rather than frantically worry about everything and making useless changes that weren’t bringing me any results.

I still remember that month.

Was the month when my shop went from making $0 to $440.73 (£344) and five months later I was making over $6900 (£5400).

That was last year.

Since then my shop only continued to grow in 2018. So I finished 2017 with a revenue of just over $20.000 that was generated between the months of July to December and today I’ll teach you all the methods I’ve been using to make my shop take off and make it worth my time almost overnight.

 1. Know who your buyer is

You hear it everywhere, who is your target audience but can’t emphasise enough about the importance of this crucial step because the reality your products can’t appeal to everybody and that’s a great thing! You need to ask yourself:

• Who will buy my products?
• What problem can my product solve for them?
• Can it fill up a need that they might have?

When you try to answer these questions I want you to think about specific needs. Yes, your product might not end poverty in Africa but for sure can put a smile on somebody’s face when that person received it as the 30th-anniversary gift and is everything they wanted for that special moment in their life. Handmade with care with unique features that no high street product can compete with.

2. Your shop profile matters

You’ll want to get in there and populate the heck out of this place with keywords. This will help your shop become more visible on Etsy as well as on Google’s search. Long tail keywords that describe your item 100% should be used in a natural conversational way in your:

• Shop title. This is a way of telling Google and Etsy what your shop is all about. When you decide on this title you must include your focus keyword here as well as any additional keywords for the remaining of the character space left. I used “A5 planner inserts” ( my focus keyword) and “personal planner refills” because that’s the only two things that I sell in my shop. Very clear, very specific.

• Shop announcement – Contrary to popular believe this is one place that you shouldn’t keep tweaking. The keywords that you use in the shop announcement must include again your focus keyword and an additional short description that is relevant to your items. This place is also great for adding your social media handles.
• Shop sections – Make it easy for people to find you items and navigate through your shop. Tell them exactly what you are selling by using longtail keywords that describe your products perfectly in a specific way.

Grab yourself the ultimate SEO checklist and see exaclty where SEO matters in your Etsy shop.

3. Name your items profitable keywords

One of my problem with the low sales was simply because of the low number of views and that was consequently because people weren’t searching for the words that I named my products.

Allow me to introduce you to Marmalead. This Etsy SEO tool was a total game changer for me. I could find out what keywords people type when searching for an item and use those exact one rather than keep throwing spaghetti at the wall hoping something will stick.

Start by typing in Marmalead’s search the very basic keyword that describes your item 100%. Marmalead will generate a report showing the engagement over time, the number of searches that were made for that word and your competition.  It will also show you the different tags that are relevant to that word. This is the best and most efficient way to search for the right keywords for your products and get in front of more eyeballs.

4. Your product description matters.

I see a lot of shops not taking enough advantage of this section which can be key to sealing a deal. Let’s say that I’m looking for some baby blankets. I make a quick search and I find something that I like so I click on it. I scroll through the pictures and I’m just not convinced about the fabric, to me, it looks a bit scratchy so I check out the description and there’s nothing that can assure me that will be soft on my baby’s skins so I go back to my search.

The description box in an opportunity to tell a story about your product and make it relatable to your customer. It is the place to show all the characteristics and the benefits that can offer. Talk about the materials that you used and where you sourced them from if relevant, tell us about the way it’s made, basically help your customer imagine using it and how it will fit with their lifestyle making sure you answer any potential buyer’s questions as possible.

5. Add related products

This goes hand in hand with your product description. If you have any relevant products that your buyer might be interested, make sure you add them in the item’s description. To prevent looking spammy and desperate just add 2-3 items. Because an Etsy link will be clickable this will encourage the buyer to check further some more of your listings and keep them for longer in your shop.

6. I provided a great customer service

I noticed that a lot of the questions that I was receiving were from people who were not sure about certain things related to a product. They needed reassurance somehow and they were with the mouse hovering over buy it now button.

Most of the questions that I was getting were related with:

• the size and fit of the item
• materials
• unsure about what will work best for them
• shipping time

I took every bit of advantage of this opportunity and to answer these questions quickly, professionally and friendly which lead to a purchase almost straight away, positive feedbacks and repeat purchases.

I know that some people can ask beyond silly questions or have certain expectations about the item that are unrealistic and the first instinct is to become defensive and take things personally.

One great example would be one of my recent conversation with a customer being extremely disappointed and leaving me a 1-star review expressing their discuss with the fact that she paid $5.40 including the international shipping (must highlight this) and all she received were planner inserts. Because she didn’t read the 3 places where is mentioned that the binder is for display purposes or the 4 places in the title that clearly mention planner refill only she expected a full leather Filofax Binder currently priced at $60 with the inserts, of course.

So please please, if you sell baby headbands and it happens to show a picture with a baby wearing them make sure you mention in the description that the baby is not included with this purchase to avoid further disappointments. Just saying…

Now I left the last BONUS tip for the last because is that special and require a section of their own. This step I can confidently say that it put my shop on the map.

7. Use better photography.

Yes! Really. If you have a good quality camera on your smartphone you might be able to get away with that but since the images are the first impression and there’s no other way people can check out your product this step should be a top priority. I started taking photos with my iPhone but I realised that the big money is in the photography and once I started taking myself seriously I invested in a camera and in photo editing course that gave me the confidence to move further with my shop.

Here is an image from one of my listings before.

The reality is if you want to make money you need to invest money. Either in your skills or in tools to help you get the professional look that other shop. Your products might even be better but if you don’t make that obvious you tank the sale.

The camera that I moved to is a Canon 6D with a Tamron AF 28-75 f/2.8. this is a zoom lens and can cover a wide range of shots wheater you are doing a close-up or full room.

Adobe Lightroom is a must have tool for me as it saves me hours on editing. The course that taught me everything I know about it The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Lightroom. No bulk of fluff, just action pack with great results.

Here is an image that I shot with my Canon and had it adjusted in Lightroom.

Final thoughts

Investing money or just time in your shop is a detrimental point in advancing your career. There isn’t just one magic change that you’ll have to make to generate a full-time income from your shop but a multitude of one right step after another after another checking out constantly on how it performs.

Implementing at least some of the strategies discussed in this post will get you closer to creating a strong brand and an identity to your shop because after all you guys we work hard on it and we deserve some recognition to boost our confidence that yes! This is working and is going somewhere.

What is your current struggle with your Etsy shop? The views, the photography, SEO? Share it in the comment below.