image by Cathy Dailey on Etsy

Your Etsy shop isn’t the only thing you need to be concerned about when it comes to SEO {search engine optimization}. It’s a good idea to focus on your blog or website too. You want to have as many ways of being found online as possible. Yes your shop is one way, but by blogging or creating a website, you’re spreading more of yourself & your business around the web.

Here’s the deal though..iIt’s one thing to have more ways for people to find you, but it’s another to actually be found. So today’s guest post is by Mary Waliko & she’s going to give you 10 tips to optimize your website for SEO.

1. Plan the SEO of your website before starting the web design.  You will save a great deal of redesign time and /or money if you incorporate SEO into the initial design.

 2. Research the keywords that would be used to find exactly the products or services you will be selling. When researching keywords, use online databases that maintain a history of keywords used in actual Internet searches, such as Google’s free keyword research tool:

3. Use 3 – 4 unique but appropriate keyword phrases on each page of your website.  Add the keyword phrases to the meta tags and use these keywords in the visible text of the Web page.  The search engines may not index Web pages using the same keywords on every page but will index each page that uses unique keywords on each page

4. Do not go to extremes by using too many keywords on each page or using the same keywords excessively in the visible on-page text, i.e., using the same keyword phrase 10 times within 500 words of text.  Excessive keyword use sets off a “red flag” alert with the search engines and your website might be seen as spammy.

5. Use real text on every web page to let the search engines know exactly what each page is about.  Search engines need real text and cannot “see” what a web page is about from graphics alone.

6. Avoid Splash pages.  A Splash page is made up entirely of one graphic and is usually placed in front of the home page.  Splash pages cannot be SEOed and are usually a hindrance to SEO efforts.  In addition, many people find Splash pages pretentious and/or annoying.

7. Do not create a Web site completely enclosed in Flash.  Search engines do not read text embedded in Flash.  If you have a Flash Web site, include all the same information in text with a link to the text pages accessible from the Flash pages.

8. Include “Link Bait” on your Web site.  Link bait is content that compels other Web sites to link to your Web site, such as, free patterns, free recipes, downloadable PDFs, free graphics, useful online tools or wonderfully informative articles.  Building links like this, called backlinks, will move your Web site up higher in the search engine results for the products and services you are selling.

9. Keep a blog and post to it often.  Install a blog in a directory of your website or on it’s own domain name.  This type of blog has more link value than a free blog such as Google’s Blogger. Include links from your blog to your web site.

10. Use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for your business.  Include links to your web site from your Facebook and Twitter business profile pages. Using social networking sites adds worthwhile backlinks to your web site.

Bonus Tip:

Use unique content on every page, including very similar item descriptions, otherwise Google will treat each page as a duplicate and will not index each page. You can learn more about the duplicate content issue in the Etsy forums here.

Mary has worked as a professional Web designer and graphic designer for the past seven years. She has her own  SEO Web design company, www.wingsdove.com, that she runs from home as well as an SEO Web design shop on Etsy, seowebdesign.etsy.com and a graphic design shop on Etsy, wingsdove.etsy.com.

Search Engine Optimization is so important in getting your shop found on search engines, but it doesn’t stop with your shop. Your blog is important too. If you blog about your creative business {& I suggest you do so} then search engines are also looking at your blog & ranking it within search results.

Why is this important?

• It helps your creative business get out there & be found.
• It helps create inbound links to your online store front…your shop if you’re on Etsy or your e-commerce site if you have one.

Below is a video I came across that explains SEO for blogs & webpages so simply. It doesn’t really cover SEO for your Etsy shop. You’ll need my 5 Steps to Etsy Shop SEO & Relevancy program for that, but it will help you to understand how search engines work & what to focus on when making your blog or website SEO friendly.

Enjoy!

So how many of you saw the title to this post & thought, “Hallelujah! I don’t understand this junk at all! Please explain it to me!”? Probably a lot of you. Let me give you a little insight then.

SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization & every webpage has specific areas that you can “optimize” to help that page rank better in search engine results. Rank better? That means getting closer to the envious first page. It takes time & work, but it can be done.

Relevancy

Relevancy is they way Etsy is ranking all if its searches now & that just means that when someone types what they’re looking for into the search box on Etsy, the products that are the most similar or closest to what was typed will show up closer to the first page. For some SEO & this whole new relevancy thing is a breeze, but for others – a lot of others – it’s confusing & a pain.

Some good news…

Now if you’ve checked out my service page you’ve seen my SEO service called “5 Steps to Shop SEO” which is for optimizing your Etsy shop. Well that it no more! It’s now new & improved! It’s in e-book format, it includes both SEO & relevancy how-tos, & it’s much more affordable! Click here to check it out! Awesome! It’s 5 easy to do, easy to understand steps to optimizing your Etsy shop & making your listings more relevant. It includes worksheets for you to use with each step, you can go at your own pace, & I’m hear to answer your questions if you have any. So now’s your chance to help your shop & products get found on & off Etsy. Let me tell you that I’ve optimized my shop this way & I’m on page 1 of Google for my Washcloth Bibs & on page 2 & page 3 for my new skin care products. I have several listings typically show up on the first page when I search for similar items on Etsy. Plus 1/4 of my shop visits are from search engines & that keeps growing. It works. It works for me & it can work for you! Click here to get it now!

Linked by Katie Brooks on Etsy

So after my last post on linkbuilding…5 Easy Ways to Build Inbound Links…I decided that I wanted to give you some more ideas on getting inbound links for your shop or blog. Why? Because it’s so important. You can market, advertise, & promote all you want, but if you want a way for some of the work to be done for you, then SEO is it. Sorry, but linkbuilding is a part of SEO. It’s the most time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be the most challenging thing you’ll ever do.

So here are 5 More Ways to Create Inbound Links for your shop or blog & get on track to movin’ up in search engine rankings.

1.   Create Link Sharing Groups

One easy way to increase you inbound links is to get a little group together to share links among. Your group should all have blogs & be using a few social media platforms. That way you can promote each other’s shops & blog posts when a new one is up. It will spread your links further than you can alone.

2.   Guest Post

If you have a blog, then you should be trying to nab some guest posts on other blogs. One, this creates links back to your shop. Two, it establishes you as an expert in your field, & everyone wants to buy from the best!

3.   Use Your Competition to Your Advantage

Have you Googled your shops keywords? You should…now. Go do it. It doesn’t take long. Just start with one. Now take a look at the first page, & copy the URLs of the top 10 results. This is your competition, & here’s how you’re gonna go get ‘em! You’re going to take the first URL & run it through this Top Pages Tool. {BTW…this only allows you to search 3 times. You’ll need to create a free account to search more.} Once the tool shows you the results you’ll see a number that says links. That’s your goal! Seriously! I know it’s a lot. That’s why they’re on the first page, but need something to strive for. Who says you can’t play with the big boys.

4.   Comment on Blogs

Remember how in the last link building article {5 Easy Ways to Build Inbound Links} I talked about building links within Etsy by leaving forum & blog comments. Well it’s the same outside of Etsy. When you comment on someone’s blog & you include your shops URL, it creates a link back to your shop. This is an easy way to catch up to your competition! Plus, here’s a great article on Problogger about using blog commenting to your advantage!

5.   List Your Shop in an Online Directory

An online directory {like www.dmoz.com} is one way for all the internet sites to be organized, & search engines like Google can rely on these for sites to define your ranking. You can search for online directories. Some are free & some are paid, but they will boost your page rank. *** Note: Online directories are different from link-building groups that plaster your links all over the internet as spam. Just don’t even go there.

If you don’t know anything about SEO & what it can do for your shop, click here to read about my great Etsy shop SEO program, “5 Steps To Shop SEO” & let me show you how to do it simply & efficiently!

Today I’m going to show you an easy way to keep customers in your shop or on your blog.

This one simple step will help do the following 3 things for you.

1. It will increase the number of pageviews on your site
2. It will increase the average time spent in your site
3. It will decrease the bounce rate on your site

So what is the simple step?

You’re going to create inbound links into your shop or blog. This will help with SEO & your sites search engine ranking.

Now the only way you’re going to be able to see if your links are working is if you have Google Analytics set up on your shop. Click here to learn how to easily set it up. Once you have that, here’s what you’re going to be looking for.

#1 – this is the averages number of pages per visit in your shop – you want to see this go up

#2 – this is the average bounce rate of your shop – you want to see this go down {you don’t want people “bouncing” away}

#3 – this is the average time spent in your shop – you want to see this go up

Here’s how you’re gonna do it!

Let’s say your putting up a new listing in your online shop. It doesn’t matter if you use Etsy, ArtFire,  iCraft, or any other marketplace to sell your products. I’m sure they all work the same.

In your product description it’s always a good idea to direct customers to important areas of your shop. Some of these areas would be to your shops policies, back to your main shop page, to your contact page, or to other sections. What you’re doing is creating a link that directs them somewhere else in your shop & that counts as an inbound link. You don’t want them to leave. You want them to keep looking around, right?

Search engines rank your site based on SEO keywords that you use & the number of links. The better your keywords are & the more links you have, the better your page ranks.

You can also do this within your blog pages too. If you write a post {like I am here} & it relates to another post you’ve written {as this one does with SEO Inbound Links & Google Analytics,} then you can link to your other post like I have been doing. This creates inbound links for me! Plus it gives readers a direct way to read more of my blog & stay here longer thus taking care of the 3 things above.

So here’s how to link within your pages.

1. First you need to go to the page you want to link to & copy the URL.
2. Then you need to go to the page you want to link from. Write a little heading & paste your link below it. — If you’re doing this in your blog you’ll use the hyperlink feature.
3. Update your page & your finished! Super simple!

Now you’ve added a link like this one.

Be sure to check back with your Google Analytics account in a week or so to see if your pageviews & average site time are increasing & if your bounce rate is decreasing.

Was this helpful? Let me know in the comments below & don’t forget to use the tweet button below to share it with your followers!

Linked Paper Chains by paperNplastic on Etsy

When it comes to SEO, finding keywords & putting them in all the right places isn’t the part that takes the most work. It’s the linkbuilding that’s an ongoing process.

What’s linkbuilding?

Linkbuilding is the process of increasing links from your site/shop on the web. For instance, any time you post one of your blog URLs on Twitter or Facebook, it creates an inbound link for you. Anytime someone links to your shop or blog from their blog it creates an inbound link for you. So this process of building links is reflected in how search engines rank your shop. The more inbound links your blog/shop has, the more search engines like you, the higher up they rank you, & the higher they rank you the more conversions {clicks to your site} you should get.

Now here’s the deal. These links can’t be crappy, spammy links. Search engines don’t like crappy & spammy. They need to be quality links…valuable links. Now I know you know the people on Twitter that post every listing in their shop everyday hoping to get some views to their products & hopefully make a sale. These are crap links. They may get some views & some sales, but they’re doing nothing for ranking their shop higher up on search engines. I hope this isn’t you. If it is…stop…please!

You need to post quality links & valuable links in order to move up in search engine rankings.

So how do you start building links for your shop? Well, here are 5 Easy Ways to Build Inbound Links for your shop/blog.

1.   Start a blog

Yes I said it. Start a blog. It’s not as hard as you think. You have two options here. You can either:

• purchase your domain name & get your website hosted
• use a free blogging service like Blogger or WordPress.com

Blogging is a learning experience plus it’s a great marketing tool. Post valuable content so that others will link back to your content. Make sure there’s an obvious way to get to your Etsy shop from your blog. The whole point of blogging is to market your shop, right?

2.   Advertise

I’m not a huge fan of advertising for the purpose of getting sales, but that’s a different topic all together & not what we’re here to talk about. I am a fan of advertising to build links though.

Search engines don’t recognize graphics, & that’s how most shops advertise…with a graphic. But, they do recognize hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are text links…like this. MeaganVisser.com So if you want to advertise to build links, use a graphic & text. Instead of the graphic linking back to your shop, have the text link back to your shop, & make sure your text uses your keywords so search engines know what your shop is about.

Here’s a little freebie for you too.

If you’re using hyperlinks in your blog posts…like linking to a new product in your shop from one of your blog posts, use the following HTML code for the link. Just replace “yourshopname” with your shop’s name & replace “your primary or secondary or any other keyword phrase inserted here” with your primary or secondary keywords. Then copy & paste this into the HTML code of your post where you want the link to go. It’s pretty simple. You’ll get the hang of it after a few times. If you would like to see exactly how this is done, I’ll make a video of it to show you. Just let me know in the comments below. So here’s the code:

<a href=”http://www.yourshopname.etsy.com” target=”_blank”>your primary or secondary or any other keyword phrase inserted here</a>

3.   Get your shop or products featured somewhere

Search Google for handmade blogs in your niche. Write up a pitch & email each blog to see if they would be interested in featuring you, your shop, or your products on their blog. Many times bloggers love to be contacted by shops or other bloggers because that makes their job much easier on them. They don’t have to go out looking for features. Plus it will link back to your shop = inbound link!

4.   Use social media

You’ve seen it, the shops that tweet or post every single item in their shop every day hoping to get some views & maybe a sale or two. Yeah, I hope that’s not you. It’s spammy & annoying as heck. It makes me want to unfollow those shops except that Etsy shops are my target market so that would almost be counter-productive…almost.

Anyway, you can use social media to build inbound links. First off, if you have a blog & you post useful, helpful content then definitely post that. It will create a link for you, plus you have a chance for others to repost it therefore creating more links back to your blog.

You can do this with your shop too. I’m not saying NEVER link to a new item in your shop, I’m just saying don’t do it too much. Here’s a good rule to follow. One that I use & I know others who use social media platforms for marketing their businesses use too. It’s called the 80/20 rule. Post 80% useful, valuable, relationship building posts & the remaining 20% is for self-promotion. And, spread it out throughout the day. I love me some HootSuite. You can schedule posts for different times of the day to go out to all of your social media platforms at once.

5.   Build Links Inside of Etsy

The first step to this is to link your pages within your shop. In your profile bio, link to your policy page, your feedback, and your main shop page. In your product descriptions, link to your main shop page, other sections of your shop, your alchemy settings, coordinating product listings, and your policy page. All of this builds links to your shop within Etsy.

Another way is to comment on the Etsy forums & on Etsy’s blog posts. Each time you comment it leaves a link back to your shop. This isn’t the best way to build links up, but it doesn’t hurt.

Do you work at creating inbound links to your shop or blog? If so, let me know how you do it in the comments below!

Lost & Found by Eggman Studios on Etsy

Are you discouraged because you’re not getting many views in your shop? Would you like to come up with an inexpensive way to lead people right to your shops front door?

Well I have just the thing you need! SEO!

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Basically it’s how search engines categorize your shop, blog, or webpage among all the others out there. It’s how you’re ranked in search engine results.

Why you need SEO for your shop?

Having your shop set up for SEO is one of the best things you can do to increase your chances of being seen. When you’re looking for something online, what do you do? More than likely you go to a search engine, type in what you’re looking for, and hit search. Then you start on page 1 looking through the results. If you don’t find what you’re looking for there, you may venture over to page 2 and sometimes page 3, or you may try a different search phrase all together.

If you’re new to online selling, chances are you don’t know much about SEO and what it can do for your shop. If you have gone out and tried to find information on it, most of it has probably been confusing and over your head. A lot of sites that try to teach you about SEO use terms that the common person doesn’t know or understand, and they try to direct you to places you’re unfamiliar with.

How I can help you.

I’m now offering my new program – 5 Steps to Shop SEO – right here on my blog! I’ve worked really hard putting this awesome program together to help you get your shop and products seen by more people. It’s a simple, easy to follow and understand program that’s guaranteed to get you results. To learn more about my program, see what bonuses are included, and check out my generous money back guarantee, click here…5 Steps to Shop SEO.

Is this program for you?

• Are your product listing views lower than what you’d like?
• Is Google Analytics showing a low number of visits to your shop?
• Is it impossible to find your shop in a Google search without typing in the name of your shop or product?

If your answer was yes to these questions and you want to increase your chances of being found outside of Etsy, then click here to find out more!

So how much is this program anyway?

I understand that money is an issue when you’re trying to build a business. You want to invest in things that are going to give back to you. That’s why I’m offering this program to you for only $27 for the next 7 days. After that it will increase to $57.

I’m sure I could sell it for much more if I based the price on the time I’ve invested into it. Have you seen how much others are charging for shop SEO help? Yikes! I’ve created a program that is proven to increase your presence on search engines, therefore increasing your shop views which will hopefully lead to more sales for you.

It’s true that your shop will benefit from SEO optimization. The real question is, “Do you want the information you need to get it there?” If your answer is yes, then I’m here for you! Let me help you get started.

Don’t wait any longer letting your shop and your products remain unseen. Let me help you. Make an investment into your business that is sure to pay you back. The more visibility your shop has, the more views your products get, the more potential sales you have. It’s that simple! You’ll be glad you did!

Again, I’m offering this program at a discounted rate for 7 days only. A $30 discounted rate. After 7 days the program will go up to $57 dollars. Don’t miss your chance!

Investment:

$27.00

Intro pricing now discontinued! 5 Steps to Shop SEO now $57. Click here to learn more.