Etsy Search: Titles - Sending the Right Signals

Can you reach every buyer with one title?

Best practices for writing item titles

The new "machine learning" algorithms simulate how people look for things in real life. Think about it: they search for the few items that are tailored to a particular need.  

Buyers seek a specific item (not something that fits the needs of the entire vintage-buying population on earth...) 

Use your title to speak to the perfect buyer for that item. No need to worry about everyone else, as they are not buyers.

Speak to your target market

This goes back to basic marketing: who is your target market? You cannot reach everyone with one title. Narrow your target audience.

If you try to market your items  to everyone, you will hold back your shop. Besides, no one can afford to market to everyone. Not even huge companies.

Think about the commercials you see on sports events,  versus those you see on Saturday morning cartoons... Yes, different markets.

The importance of natural wording

Search engines prefer natural wording. But that is not the only reason to use it.

Consider the increasing importance of voice search. Many people now own and use Alexa or Google Voice.

(Indeed Artificial Intelligence is already in use, helping people to find what they are looking for online.)

Users of this technology speak their search terms. If necessary, they refine their search query. They tell the device what they want, using natural spoken English language. The words used are called "LSI keywords" in SEO-speak. (There will be more about LSI keywords in an upcoming post.)

Search engines look for topic and context rather than exact words. Real people do too. So write titles for real people. 

How do I reduce my bounce rate?

Make your listings appeal to the people your title is set up to attract. Use keywords and buyer phrases that are relevant to your target customers. 

Make shoppers comfortable. Convince them that you are knowledgeable and trustworthy. This is easier if you specialize in what you sell.

Here are more ideas for keeping buyers in your shop.

Why is it bad to use the same word combinations over and over in titles?

Some sellers get into the habit of using similar word combinations over and over again in their item titles. When you do that, you miss out on marketing to buyers who use different terms to search for your items.

Mix it up. I know it sounds crazy, but varying the wording of your titles could make a big difference in getting found. Change up your word combinations. What kinds of terms does your target audience use? Use a purchase phrase list.

One word that it is OK to have in every item title is the word "vintage." Do avoid placing the word "vintage" in the valuable real estate right at the beginning. Put it after the first five or so words.

What about "word salad" titles?

Avoid stuffing your titles with keywords. Although this may have been encouraged in the past, Etsy is switching over to artificial intelligence, or AI. "Stuffed" titles will no longer be rewarded in search.

AI is dealing with one searcher at a time. There is no benefit to stuff your titles with terms that make it unclear exactly what your product is. (An example is naming every possible holiday gift your item could be. Instead, aim for niche, long-tail searches.) 

Etsy's AI scours the site looking to match up searchers and the items they search for. When your title is unclear, AI will find lots of clear titles that do match what it is looking for. Those items get moved up in search. The “muddier” titles get pushed down in ranking.

Etsy admin answers questions about titles

Now let us look at some information from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Etsy has been moving toward AI for a couple of years now. 

In October of 2016 Etsy Administrators fielded many questions from sellers about getting items found in searches. Here are a few questions answered about titles:

Q: Is it acceptable to repeat a word in the title?

Admin: We don’t recommend repeating a word [the same word over and over] in the title.

Q: Must word phrases [keywords] within Titles and Tags match exactly?

Admin: Word phrases within titles and tags don’t need to match exactly. However, tagging your product for “red boots” and having “red boots” in your title will give you a better chance of ranking for “red boots”.

Q: If using commas within a title, is it recommended to put one space after the comma?

Admin: In general, we recommend making your titles as readable as possible while still being descriptive. This would usually involve putting a space after commas when appropriate. Google definitely rewards well crafted, easy to read titles.

Q: I would like to ask why is it SOOO important to use the same keywords and combinations in your title, in the description and again in the tags. .... We are constantly working to improve our internal search practices though and eventually we hope to not rely as much on the quantity of times you use a certain phrase when listing your product.

Interesting video about search says that Etsy is no longer weighting the beginning of the title more than the end. (Google still does, and the beginning is what buyers see, so do not discount the beginning of your titles altogether.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb-oZNJD-QI

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What signals are you sending with your titles? Are you reaching your target market? 

More on item descriptions next...

Changes for 2017: What is in store for our Etsy stores?

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind for our Etsy shops as we start 2017:

US postal rate increase

US postal rates will go up on January 17, 2017. Here is a detailed chart. If you use Etsy's calculated shipping, you won't have to do anything. That's the true beauty of calculated shipping.

Avoid keyword stuffing

Etsy recently said that keyword stuffing will no longer be rewarded in search.  Here is more information about what it is and how to avoid it.

Look for more changes to search

Here is Etsy's January announcement about search enhancements they will be working on in 2017.

A search for "vintage photograph" yielded 44,425 results.

Etsy has purchased Blackbird Technologies, a company specializing in artificial intelligence. They will surely be tweaking search.

They already have, in fact. Here is Etsy's announcement about spelling improvements. There is no longer any reason to purposely misspell common words in order to get found.

More specialized terms like "enamelware" versus "enamel ware" you must still test to see. I just tested "wood" and "wooden" and still find differences at this point. There is no way to know which word our buyer will use while searching. So we must still include both words in order to be found.

Test searches are necessary.

How do you perform a test search? 

The same search with the word "photo" had 120,049 hits.

Using another example, search using the word "photo" and note the number of results. Then perform the exact same search, but use instead the word "photograph." Was there a different number of listings available for each? If so, then the words are not treated the same. Both must be included in your tags.

Only time will tell what changes will happen in Etsy land this year. Keep checking back for more help for your shop.

Thanks for your support for my blogging journey. Happy sales in 2017!

Etsy Search: what is keyword stuffing?

I've been stuffed after a big dinner. However, I keep hearing about keyword stuffing my Etsy titles and even descriptions. What is that all about?

Keyword stuffing is using many unnatural word combinations in our titles (and text). For years now, Google has been penalizing content with keyword stuffing. Yet many sellers still encourage using every space in our title that Etsy gives us. Why? Because Etsy search has been unintentionally rewarding such practices. The more exact search phrases you used, the more chances to be first in search results. 

How Do I Title This Listing?

Here is an example: I sell antique wooden things, including bobbins from Maine. How should I describe them in my description? 

"Primitive Bobbins - Antique Wooden Spindles - Weaving Spools"

Or "Antique Bobbins / Primitive Wood Bobbins / Rustic Wooden Bobbins from Maine / Antique Weaving Tool / Prim Quills with Wool / Old Bobbins / Etc Etc Etc."

Etsy admin has recently stated that the "search algorithm [will] no longer favor stuffed titles [in order] "to be more aligned with Google's best practices." Google search sees right through such practices, and already penalizes your search results in Google. However, Etsy will be cracking down on doing this as well.

This subject was directly addressed in Etsy's last SEO Admin Question and Answer seminar in October, 2016. Let's get the information right from the source.

Q: Listing titles: keyword stuffing or user friendly?

Some people recommend using every one of our 140 characters in the title and repeating phrases exactly the same as the tags, with the main word repeated multiple times eg:

Beaded Bracelet / Green Bracelet / Boho Bracelet / Handmade Bracelet (and so on.)

On the other hand, optimizing titles for Google Search is a little different:

We all want to direct traffic to our listings

(Taken from this article.)

No one wants to read a list of words. Write your <title> tag text in natural language, making it as compelling to the human reader as possible. 

• Use no more than 70 characters, including spaces

• Keep it unique between pages
• Avoid "keyword stuffing"

Is it possible to achieve a happy medium?

Admin: while we recognize that incentives do exist for sellers to stuff our titles for internal search purposes, they do not follow Google’s best practices. We are working to improve our internal search algorithm to no longer favor stuffed titles, to be more aligned with Google’s best practices. While there isn’t an immediate fix, this is on our radars and we will be communicating when we make the change. Thanks!

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Update on February 6, 2018:

Still wondering if keyword spamming is really a bad practice? 

CindyLou commented about the above post by Etsy admin: 

 "in October 2016, they wanted to improve Etsy search so that title stuffing was no longer beneficial [link]. As of Feb. 2018, we still aren't there yet, but I am seeing some signs of it heading in that direction."

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Update on June 16, 2018

More details about why title stuffing is no longer working.