I see a lot of talk on Etsy sellers forums about getting views. Your goal should not be to get views, but to get relevant views that will lead to sales. Getting relevant views on Etsy requires relevant keywords and tags. You get relevant keywords and tags by thinking like a buyer, and doing your research on EtsyRank.

A case study: Let’s say you’re trying to sell a green purse with a blue zipper from the 1950s on Etsy. You have 13 tags available. I often see many tags wasted on terms that would be absolutely irrelevant to the buyer. For the purse, bad tags would look a little like this:

• blue zipper
• 1950s, or ’50s
• Vintage accessories
• Green accessories

Good tags for the purse would look like this:

• Green purse
• Green handbag
• Vintage purse
• Emerald purse

See the difference?

Good Etsy SEO targets potential buyers of the item. Bad Etsy SEO may lead to clicks, but how many people searching for “blue zipper” are actually thinking of buying a purse? The majority of people searching “green purse” are in the market–you guessed it–a green purse. A click from a “green purse” searcher is therefore much, much more valuable than a click from the “blue zipper” person.

And, of course, a shameless plug! As always check out my Etsy shop, Ravelry or Instagram pages, and pick up a great knit or crochet pattern.