Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Are You Relevant? Am I?

These beads are not relevant to this blog post. They are a gratuitous splash of colour and texture.

Of course we are all relevant just because of the beautiful, lovely people we are. But are you Etsy relevant? This is a new concept to me. I kind of stumbled across this when I noticed all of the changes to how you list items. Thought it might be time to do a little investigation of what that was all about.

Now I will be the first to admit that I am not all au courant Etsy. I spend zero time over there except to mind my own business, so to speak. I am not an Etsy team player. I dislike the forums and  all things SEO make me yawn.  In fact I am so so Etsy lazy that I didn't even know they had changed the way searches are made until a month later. But if you sell online and on Etsy in particular, you do need to pay the tiniest bit of attention to what is happening.

Remember all of that re-listing to get to the top of a search? Not anymore. Which is really good for me, since I didn't do all of that re-listing anyway, lazy, slothful, Etsian that I am. Remember trying to come up with arty, witty, eye catching titles? Nope, not anymore. Which is also good for me because I tend to be completely uninspired when it comes to titles. In fact my titles are down right boring. Bronze Dragonfly Pendant ---boring.

Now you may know all of this already. It would not be the first time that I was the last to pick up on something worthwhile knowing. But if you didn't know, in essence, Etsy has changed the way items come up when shoppers search so as to provide the best match to their keywords. They've aligned it more with how other search engines like Google work. Nifty. Personally, I think this is a great idea and think that it ultimately will make everybody happier. Because, really, who likes wading through all of that other stuff when all you really want is to choose from a selection, of say Bronze Dragonfly Pendants. And if you are selling stuff do you really want your shoppers wading through masses of Etsy items?

But its a bit of a mind shift when it comes to how you list your Etsy items and all of that old Etsy listing wisdom. I'm not going to go into all of that. Others have done that for you. If you google Etsy Relevancy, you will find a mind boggling list of links to discussions, strategies, rants, raves, and that sort of thing. Fascinating that this change could generate so many ways to spend your time on the internet.

Anyhoo, just in case you haven't whiled away the hours browsing all of the links out there, here's a list of three that I found to be pretty good.  ( I whiled away some hours for you :-)

1) First up there's the Etsy Blog link. Good to go to the source first, right?


2) Over at Handmadeology, they've got a nice 12 page PDF explaining the changes to Etsy's search engine and some pretty good suggestions for how to change up your listings so that your shop items have a better chance of being found among the gazillion sellers on Etsy. Warning though, you'll be asked to give up your email and this might get you subscribed to Handmadeology. I don't actualy now if that's what happens. If that's not your thing, you can easily unsubscribe if you get more emails from them. They are also selling stuff here like an Etsy Relevancy Strategy e-book. Good purchase? Don't know. But the free PDF is a good summary. BTW, they have all sorts of quite good information and you can spend quite a lot of time there absorbing all sorts of stuff related to selling online and on Etsy in particular.


3) Saving the best for last, my favourite link of all from Sparrow Salvage. Read this one if for no other reason than you would like a bit of wit and humour. It's also got some really useful advice in it.


So are you relevant?
Have you looked into the flutter around the Etsy search changes?
Am I truly the last one to know about any of this? (I'm OK with that) 

17 comments:

Kathleen Lange Klik said...

Great post! Thanks for explaining because I too have been a bit out of touch with the whirlwind of new selling tactics on Etsy. So much to do, so little time!

Kathy Van Kleeck said...

Wow, I am so in the middle of all this!

I'm very much like you about being an Etsy Team player. Not one of my strengths by a long shot. I've tried joining a team, but really stink at being an active participant. I've been wading through Handmadeology & Pro for the last week and haven't even started in at Etsy.

Re-doing my website, I figured out that all my keywords were virtually useless. Only people who knew me were going to my site - not ideal.

Thanks for all the excellent links. I am determined to be found and 'relevant'!

Unknown said...

Uninspired titles are good...cause that's how most people search...yes? At least, I do!
I knew about the changes on Etsy, which works well for me too (the whole lazy thing). But it seems that my shop is still irrelevent but I'm working on it, slowly but surely. Thanks for sharing the links!

Laura Twiford said...

Hey now, i bought that bronze dragonfly pendant from you, not boring at all! As for etsy, just getting going and i came in at the start of the relevancy thing so am not quite up to speed yet but getting there. thanks for the links

mairedodd said...

nope, not the last to know... i am running up behind you! i just know that i got to pick some cool words for a category or something - like 'zen' and 'rustic'... will have to take a look... i like the layout in terms of listing... all on one page, nice!
thank you for bringing this up!
very very relevant... as are you...

Judy said...

Miss Relevant many thanks for all of that great info! I heard about it just a few days ago but was too lazy to finish reading some of the info...yawn. I pretty much stopped naming my new pieces as (more laziness) it took too much time to come up with a name and just started saying what the item is. But I shall look into your links.

Babs said...

Thanks so much for the info. I pay even less attention than most people. Guess I need to stop being lazy and get up to speed. BTW, love your blog

TesoriTrovati said...

Thank you for this Miss LeAnn! I am a bit of an Etsy Slacker as well. I never saw the value in relisting all the time. But making myself more relevant, now that I can get into! I will have to come back to this post to check out the links when I can. Thanks! Enjoy the day!
Erin

sharon said...

Interesting stuff. I spent a lot of time on this earlier in the year and actually invested money for someone to help me......BUT, was not aware of all the changes. Nevertheless, if you are like me, I figure if it was meant to be, so be it! I do my best!
And you are soooo relevant !!!!!

Unknown said...

I only heard about this change last week, but did not start renaming bead sets in Etsy until this week. I expect I will be able to finish renaming next week. Thanks for the links!

stregata said...

What I find most surprising is how much dust gets stirred up, every time Etsy makes a change - so much ranting... Where do they find the time?

Gardanne said...

Thanks so much for this post, especially the link to
Sparrow Salvage.

Juliette said...

Thanks so much for sharing what you've learned! As a new shop owner, I'm struggling to learn as much as I can, as quickly as I can (but learning that 'quickly' isn't really as important as 'thoroughly'). I'm new to your post, having found you through Gardanne's Beads - hello! :)

My Life Under the Bus said...

Oh I barely get to go to the bathroom now I'm supposed to be relevant? UGH The work is endless isn't it?

Sharon said...

Call me clueless because I am...huh?...wha?...really?

Thanks for doing all the "fingerwork" for us, the internet is such a time stealer but we would be lost without it now, right? :)

Lori P said...

Me? Relevant? Er... honestly, I think all of the changes have hurt me. Maybe I just haven't figured it out yet. :/

Shoshana from The Art Corner said...

Thanks for all the great insights. What a wonderful neckless and those beads are yummy relevant or not:)