Day 7: Etsy Tags & Keyword Matching

Optimizing Your Etsy Tags

Happy Sunday!

Today, we are going to be talking about tags, one of the most important areas of an Etsy listing to optimize.

Why Tags Are Important

Second to listing titles, tags are the “prime real estate” space for your keywords. Tags tell Etsy what your product is and which queries to match it with. Etsy has two different methods of matching sellers’ listings to keywords in shoppers’ searches:

Broad Matching: This occurs when two or more terms are in a listing, but not next to each other. For example, if a tag is “cute cat mug”, broad matches would include “cute mug”.

Exact Matching: This occurs when two or more terms are within a listing in the same order that a shopper typed them into the search bar. For the tag “cute cat mug,” the exact matches would include “cute cat”, “cat mug”, and “cute cat mug”.

Having a wide variety of relevant keywords helps your listings reach a wider audience, potentially increasing your views and clicks.

How to Find the Best Tags

While it may seem overwhelming to brainstorm unique ideas to fill all 13 slots (which is best practice), there are many eRank tools to simplify the process for you! 

The Keyword Tool is a great place to start when researching tags for your listings. If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, eRank team member Patrick made a walkthrough on YouTube: How to Use eRank's Keyword Tool for Your Etsy Shop SEO. This quick video shows you how to perform keyword research and highlights features like filters and customization options so you can personalize the tool to best suit your workflow. If you’d prefer to read a walkthrough, check out our Use eRank to Find Tags for Your Etsy Listings blog post. 

If you need a refresher on how Etsy uses keywords, take some time to read Etsy’s Keywords 101 article. While the article does cover other aspects of a listing, the section about tags provides lists of “Dos” and “Don’ts,” making it perfect for those of you who are new to the platform and learning how to craft your listings.

Tagging Best Practices: The “Dos”

• Use all 13 tags: Leaving tag slots empty is a wasted opportunity
• Use multi-word phrases: Etsy looks at each term individually and also phrases when matching. So if you have “cat” and “mug” as their own tags, you could combine them into “cat mug”, which gives you the same broad matching opportunities, but also a bonus for exact matching for “cat mug”.
• Check your stats before making changes: Always take a look at what keywords bring traffic to your shop. You don’t want to accidentally remove one that brings traffic to your shop!

Tagging Mistakes to Avoid: The “Don’ts”

• Repetition: Etsy takes all the terms in your title, tags, categories, and attributes and mixes them up to match shoppers’  queries. Therefore, it isn’t necessary to repeat the same word multiple times.
• Redundant Tags: Avoid repeating the same phrase on its own as well as nested within another tag. As an example, pretend you have "cat mug" as its own tag, but then also have it nested in the tag "cute cat mug". Since “cute cat mug" is already an exact match for "cat mug,” having that as its own tag is unnecessary.
• Repeat Categories: Since Etsy uses your categories already, you don’t need to include them within your tags.

Tools to Improve Your Tags

To see which of your listings may have one-word tags or spelling issues, use eRank’s Health Check tool.
For a more comprehensive look at the tags in your shop, run a Tag Report to see how often you use certain keywords. For paid plans, you can also view the keyword statistics, including average searches and competition, for each keyword.

Day 7’s Assignments:

• Run eRank’s Tag Report on your shop
• Combine any one-word tags within your listings
• Consolidate redundant tags

Your Day 7 stories to share

• Choose one of the three story templates below. Click to open, download, or screenshot it.
• Share it on Instagram to show what you’re working on today. Add a personal touch: share who your shop is for or include a question box to connect with your audience.
• Tag @erankseo, and we’ll reshare your story and cheer you on!

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