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Story by
contrary,
EtsyLabs,
HeyMichelle,
Vanessa
Published on January 1, 2008 in How-To |
Photo by |
What an incredible response we got on this Shop Makeover post from you sellers! Be part of our Shop Makeover series: document your "before" and "after" with screen shots and post them on flickr or your blogs or whatever works best for you. Then share the links in the comments below. As we go through the different steps of the makeover, we'll hold Online Workshops in the Virtual Labs where we'll highlight great ideas that come from you and discuss further questions and share examples of what people are doing. At the end of the month, we'll all pick the most radical makeovers!
We'll be staggering the posts throughout the month of January, hopefully giving people enough time to participate. There's so much work to do! We're kicking off the Shop Makeover series with the following post about tagging, a crucial step to a more successful shop.
Make a resolution this year: better tagging. Help shoppers find your items more easily when they search on Etsy. Using specific and intuitive tags during the item listing process will help shoppers, Treasury makers, and Admins quickly find, buy, and feature your items!
What are tags? How do they work? (from Etsy's general FAQ's)
Tags are keywords used to sort items on Etsy. The first tag on an item determines which top-level category it's listed under. Subcategories on Etsy are also based on tags. For example, the drawing subcategory inside the Art category shows items first tagged with "Art" and then with "drawing." A single tag can be comprised of multiple words, e.g. Bath and Beauty. You can have up to 14 tags per item.
What can you do now?
- First of all, when listing a new item, make sure you are tagging with the most obvious and descriptive terms. Look at the photo of your item and ask yourself the question: "What words would I type into a search bar to find this item?" Then start writing down the most obvious and relevant words you can think of as your first tags. When you start to get stumped, write down adjectives that describe your item as well as the materials you used to make your item. Try to use all 14 tags that are allotted for your listing; this will make your item show up in the most possible searches.
- Secondly, take the time to sit down and look over all the tags on items you currently have listed in your shop. Do they match the above criteria? If not, go ahead and edit your listings to add more tags and/or change the current tags you have. You can edit your listings at any time free of charge: Just make sure to click "Finish" to save your changes and reactivate your listing.
Top tips:
- When deciding what words to tag your items with, think about describing who the item is for (example: women, men, children, boy, girl, pets), and the major color(s) of the item. Both of these terms are frequently used in shopper's searches!
- One of my best tricks is thesaurus.com; this site is a great place to get new ideas for tags when you can't think of any more.
Here is a thorough Storque article with lots more tips and suggestions!
An Example:
One of the commenter's on our Shop Makeover intro, Chickibebe, has an adorable tiger costume listed in her shop. She's tagged it with "children" and "costume" and a few others, which is great. But we think she can be using a lot more tags: why not use all 14?! Chickibebe should think about what occasions kids would wear such a costume. What activities would kids be using this costume for? We suggest adding "Halloween," "dress-up," and even "costumecon," which is the tag Etsians used for the Halloween Costume Contest in October. Tiger-costume hunters on the prowl (rrrrearrrr!) or people who just have an interest in costuming probably were following the contest this past year, and might continue to search with that tag.
Post your most puzzling tagging questions below. Did you start using a different tag and start seeing results? Let us know. Happy tagging!
| Tags | HOW-TO, search, Seller Handbook, selling, Shop Makeover Series, tagging, Your Shop 101 |
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contrary
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EtsyLabs
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HeyMichelle
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Vanessa
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37 comments Login to add your own!
DreamON
How does one describe a print of a painting? Seems like um acid-free paper or card stock. BUT that's self-limiting and not one word descriptions.
alkemystic88
Is it uncool to add tags like soul or funky, should we stick with the examples provided ??
selflesh
I always try to come up with the full 14 tags.
In addition, I also include my shop name (selflesh) as a tag. I do this, just in case someone searches selflesh under items:tags,titles - instead of seller:usernames.
mosaicart
adorkable1
alkemystic88, I sometimes use the tag "cute" so I don't see why you shouldn't use the tags funky or soul. If someone searches with that word, then your item will show up, and thats what you want! lol.
cozycottagecreations
I have fun tagging - it's my favorite part of the listing process. I look at my item and ask myself "If I wanted to buy this but hadn't seen it yet, what words would I type into the search?" I come up with more words than I can use.
I often use "fuzzy", which seemed silly until someone did a treasury on fuzzy items and included my work!
contrary
DreamON I might try describing what the print is depicting or the subject matter. I just went to look at your shop for a good example and it looks like your items already have wonderful and descriptive tags!
Good luck,
Mary
SafetyThird
Well, in reponse to some forum fun "It's a teapot, not the antichrist", I got in some tagging fun. It didn't seem to help a whole lot, although it might have elicited more views. :-)
GuidingLightCandles
babaco
Thanks for the advice. I did not know you could add tags to show where the item might be used, like your costume example. So I guess I can tag my baby clothes with tags like 'baby shower present'? Is that the right idea?
Chickibebe
Thank you! thank you! thank you!
I'm close to cracking the code; brill suggestion!
PicturesofLily
EtsyLabs
babaco, that's a great idea to tag your items for a baby shower if they would be relevant gifts for a baby shower...YES!
Good luck you guys!
Mary
kylieB
PamperingBeki
These are all such great tips! I do try to use as many tags as possible and frequently have descriptive words like "elegant" or "funky". I also include my user id PamperingBeki in a tag for those who are new to etsy but are looking for me to find me easily.
jakrandomart
Thanks for the tips. I am looking forward to the future posts in this series. I posted my before shot on my flickr page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakrando...
AngelKissesJewelry
Thank you for a fabtabulous article! I always try to use all 14 tags, but I didn't even think to tag my work to the intended customer (ie. women).
wunderbug
Seconding what Kibbles said waaay up there - wouldnt tagging something with all of the materials used just serve to clutter up the Search function? I hate it when i'm looking to buy jumprings and i find them, sure, but they're already used up in a piece. pet peeve!
i always use my shop name in my tags - in addition, i also use my city + province just in case a newbie wants to shop local and wants to run a simple search for local sellers. :)
meanbean
I somehow just discovered Storque, and WOW!! I definitely want to makeover my shop, so my before picture is on my flickr here:
SilverShadow
You would NOT want to include all of the components used (i.e. "yarn") as a tag. You WOULD want to use the end result (i.e. "felted"). With jewelry, it's a bit different, because people WILL look under "amethyst" for amethyst jewelry, etc.
SilverShadow
Great article, btw. However, with only 14 tags, if an item can be worn by either sex and you are not supposed to use multiple tags on a line, you end up with "woman", "man", "unisex" - taking up 3 of your precious tags :( Do wish we had a FEW more - and a few more characters per line.
vintageinspiration
I love tags and feel like that's what gets most of my sales. I have also list Etsy team names as tags when I can't come up with 14 obvious ones. For example. I use ACEO when listing paper items. And EclecticJewelry for - you guessed it - eclectic jewelry. Thank you for your reminder to go back and edit tags!
julie
craftwork
The article makes the following suggestion:
We suggest adding "Halloween," "dress-up," and even "costumecon,"
However, "dress-up" would be an invalid tag because punctuation is not allowed in tags.
Etsy, please allow us to use dashes and apostrophes in our tags and titles.
Thank you!
ingero
boy, that lip color sure is awesome.. thanks contrary!
I'm not sure if I've seen a difference with my tagging -- I've always tried to come up with relevant tags. I didn't think about tagging things for what kind of person they would before though -- thanks for the tip!
stylinbeadygirl
aBSOLUTELY a great article! Im new to selling here on etsy and needed that info. So now that i have changed things we will see if anything sells better! WHoo hoo!! Thanks,Kathy
suzanneally
THANK YOU so much for all the brilliant help. I am new to Etsy and absolutely LOVE it. Etsy has a certain atmosphere that makes you never want to leave.
WooHoo!
xo
Suzanne Ally
http://suzanneally.com
suzanneally.etsy.com
TwentySecondStreet
Great ideas!!I haven't been very creative in my tagging, so will get busy.The idea about putting shop names and locations is an excellent idea!!
Will try!!
MonasMane
secretartstudio
rejenerate
DianesSpace
14 tags?!! I never knew. I must get busy! A shop makeover sounds like a good idea, too. Thanks, Etsy and etsy members for all the help.
DragonfireBeads
I'm definitely going to re-do the tags on my stuff! I never thought to use all 14.
celestialfoundations
I didn't know the tags were "ranked". I do wish we could use a few more characters in the tag. Sometimes mine are just a couple letters short, so I use two tags instead of one.
LauraStaley
Great ideas. Every little bit helps. I also list the materials in my tags. I sold a few sets that way. So, "stone" and "bead" were not enough. I put "Labradorite" or sea glass in there and a whole world of opportunities opens up.
LauraStaley
Oh, and I have gotten into the habit of cross-promoting, if I don't have 5 flattering photos of the same set I'll include photos of sets with the same design or materials, or "I love custom orders" or some other graphic, like I would if I were holding a sale. Might as well use all five Etsy gives you, like all 14 tags.
nappingcat
thanks for the advice - not much happening for me - maybe a change is needed
Previous Page
Tags are the best way to help people find our items but they can be so hard! This is the perfect way to start the series.
One question though: If I were to tag my items with the materials I used to make them, wouldn't I be cluttering the supplies searches? If I put "yarn" or "wool" as a tag for my scarves, hats, and mittens then people searching for yarn would be seeing my finished goods for sale. Or would they be filtered out since I don't also tag finished goods as supplies?