How to Promote Your Etsy Business (Etsy SEO, Pinterest & Instagram)

Starting an Etsy store is a fantastic way to sell handmade goods and downloadable content without having to start your own online storefront. In fact, it’s arguably the best way to sell these kinds of products if you know how to market them correctly! So then, that begs the question: how exactly do you promote an Etsy business?

Promoting your Etsy business on the platform is all about nailing SEO (search engine optimization). Off platform, it’s about building a loyal following & directing them to your storefront!

While this might sound intimidating, it’s actually far easier than you’d imagine Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest lend themselves perfectly to arts and craft content, while basic Etsy SEO principles are something you can learn and implement in a weekend. It’s all about understanding your buyer’s search intent, and creating your listings accordingly! 

For those of you wondering why you should be listening to my advice on this subject, it’s probably worth mentioning that I’ve been working as a Web Developer/Digital Marketer for more than 4 years! I  run an extremely successful online store that brings in upwards of $30,000 a week in sales a week (yes, you read that right!), and have built several other successful storefronts as a freelance developer. 

So, now that we’ve established that, let’s jump into how you can promote your Etsy store online!

Related Reading: 8 FREE Digital Marketing Tools

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How To Promote Your Business With Etsy SEO

What Is Etsy

Etsy is a global online marketplace specializing in handmade and second-hand/vintage goods. Some of the most common items sold on the platform include: handmade jewelry, bags, downloadable art, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, and crafts!

It’s important to note, that it actually behaves an awful lot like a search engine! So, you absolutely should be optimizing your storefront and listings accordingly.

What is Etsy SEO?

At its core, Etsy Search Engine Optimization is about improving the quality of your listings to increase page visits and sales. This involves optimizing your keywords to match buyer intent and conducting market research.

But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s go over the basics! In order to nail Etsy SEO, you first need to understand how Etsy’s search function works.

Search Queries and Query matching

The main purpose of Etsy’s search is to interpret a buyer’s search intent and match it to a product or storefront. This is done mostly through matching keywords, but also through ranking your store/item’s relevancy and reliability. This is done by considering factors such as your shop location, buyer habits, previous search history, and your shop’s reputation. Given that many of these are outside the scope of your control, it’s best to focus your time and energy on keyword research!

How To Optimise Your Etsy Storefront 

When you search for a product or service on Etsy, you’ll notice that in addition to providing product suggestions, the search will also return results for sellers and storefronts.  In order to rank for these search terms, you’ll need to optimize your account/profile, and ensure you’re listing relevant products in your store only, which we’ll cover in more detail below! 

For the sake of this example, let’s assume you’re starting a store that sells handmade soaps and bath bombs! 

Step One: Include Keywords In Your Shop Name and “About” Section 

There are two kinds of keywords you should include in your shop’s name and about section: head terms, and long tail keywords.

Head Terms / Broad Keywords

A head term, or short-tail keyword, is a broad key term or phrase between 1 & 3 words long. They return high search volumes, but tend to also be extremely competitive! As a new seller, you’re unlikely to rank for these phrases, but it’s still worth including them in your store description. Why? Because they tell your customers exactly who you are, what you stand for, and what you’re selling!

It’s also a good idea to include a head term in your shop name, as this will increase the chance of your products ranking higher for these search terms!

Some examples of head terms for our soap shop might include: handmade soap, bath bomb, bar of soap, or goat milk soaps.

Long-Tail Keywords

Conversely, long-tail keywords are less competitive phrases ranging between 4 & 8 words. They are more specific in nature and therefore tend to have a higher conversion rate. This is because the buyer intent is far clearer when lon-tail terms are used!

Some examples of long-tail keywords for our bath bomb/soap shop might include: surprise bath bombs, Australian Made goat milk soap bars, handmade glitter soaps, or soap wedding favors.

When choosing a long tail keyword for your shop, you need to be careful not to pigeonhole yourself. For instance, glittery pink handmade soap bars might make a better longtail keyword for a product than a storefront! After all, how many versions of the one product could you possibly make?

Step Two: Don’t Leave The Shop Policies Section Blank!

Not only will this kill your conversion rate, but it will also prevent you from ranking higher in the search! Etsy wants to know that it is referring customers to legitimate businesses, not scam artists! 

You’ll need to include information about your return/cancellation policies, payment policies, and delivery policies here.  Be honest about your delivery time frames, and reasonable when setting your policies, as this will help establish trust with your client base. In turn, it should reflect positively on your store when they go to give you a product rating/review! 

Step Three: Select your shop’s language, country, currency, and time commitment

Accurately filling out all of the above information (language, country, currency, and time commitment) will help Etsy properly match you with buyers. We mentioned earlier that location was one of the factors Etsy took into consideration when compiling search results – so it’s super important to provide them with this information.

Everything else is about establishing authority and trustworthiness- which will (inadvertently) also affect your search ranking!

How To OptimiZe Your Etsy Product Listings

Optimizing your product listing on Etsy works similarly to optimizing your storefront. You Should be focusing the majority of your time and energy on keyword research! Similar to setting up your store front, you’ll need to focus on including long tail keywords in your product titles and description.

Step One: Include Long-Tail Keywords In Your Product Title and Description

We covered what head term, and long-tail keywords were above – so feel free to go back and re-read our definitions if you need a refresher!

Long-term keywords are absolutely key in optimizing your products for the Etsy search. It’s next to impossible to break into the market with product titles like “White Bath Bomb” Or “Goats Milk Soap”. These search terms are simply far too competitive for new sellers, and will result in extremely low sales numbers!

Instead, you need to find a niche! Tell us what is special about your product specifically & work it into your product title. A good example of this is a listing by SleepySoak:

With a title like “Mixed Natural Small Bath Bomb Gift Set Pack Of 10”, they’re successfully targeting a few different long-tail keywords:

• Natural bath bombs;
• Small bath bombs;
• Bath Bomb Gift Set;
• Pack of 10 Bath Bombs.

Notably, they’re also targeting any combination of the key terms!

This is how you should be looking at including keywords in your product title. You want the title to read properly, but you also want to make sure to include a few descriptive long-tail keywords at the same time!

Now… when it comes to product descriptions, you need to be doing the same. Use AS MUCH of the allocated word count to include keywords as possible. Tell us about the ingredients, who they’re designed for, and what kind of scents or flavors the customer can expect!

Step Two: Take High-Quality Photos And Videos

Etsy is an extremely visual search engine, so it’s important to take the time to photograph your products properly. While it won’t impact on your search rating directly, it will certainly impact your click-through rate.

Click-through rate is the percentage of visitors that follow a listing through to your etsy store. It’s one of the many metrics Etsy (and other search engines) use to determine how relevant your product is to the search query. If nobody is clicking through to your product listings, Etsy will eventually stop recommending them to buyers… even if the product is exactly what they’re looking for!

This is why it’s so important to take well-lit, visually appealing photos of your products! It doesn’t need to be anything spectacular, but it does need to entice buyers to click through to your store.

We also recommend taking photos of any size/color variations of your products and uploading these as separate images. This increases the chance of somebody purchasing these different variations. Customers want certainty in what they’re buying after all- and understandably so!

How To Use Use The Etsy Search To Come Up With Product Ideas

Another hugely important factor in the success of your Etsy business is search volume.

You could create the greatest product of all time, and still fall flat on your face! It’s a sad but true reality, because Etsy functions primarily as a search engine (as we mentioned earlier). You absolutely need to keep search intent at the forefront of your marketing tactics to be a successful seller on the platform! It’s not the place to be marketing discovery-based goods.

If you want to know whether you’re selling a need or discovery-based product, ask yourself (theoretically) whether it would sell better on an infomercial, or an online store. If it’s the former- you need to rethink your marketing plan! Etsy is not the place to be selling these kinds of goods.

In our experience, the best way to find ideas for new products (with decent search volume), is by using Etsy’s autofill suggestions.

Using our example of soaps/bath bombs from earlier, you might start out by typing “bath bombs” into the search engine. This may then lead you to “bath bomb surprise”, or “bath bombs for kids”- both of which are fantastic long tail keywords. Ideally, you would want to follow this rabbit hole even further though. We’ve given a few examples below:

• Bath Bomb → Bath Bomb Favor → Bridesmaid Bath Bomb Favors
• Handmade Soap → Handmade Soap Bar → Handmade Clay Soap Bar
• Galaxy Bath Bomb → Pink Glitter Galaxy Bath Bomb

How To Promote Your Etsy Business Using Pinterest

While you’re here, I’d appreciate it if you could check out my Pinterest account!

Once you’ve got your Etsy shop set up and optimized, it’s time to start thinking about how to market it off-platform.

When it comes to marketing, you should never put all your eggs in one basket. There’ll always be somebody gunning for your top search position, so it’s a good idea to diversify your user acquisition sources!

When it comes to diversifying your buyer acquisition sources, there’s no better place to start than Pinterest. I’ll get into exactly why this is in a moment!

What Is Pinterest?

Pinterest is yet another image-based search platform. It lives in a gray area somewhere between a traditional search engine and social media platform – which is what makes it perfect for e-commerce vendors! The search engine aspects of the site make it easy for new users to find your page, while the social media aspects allow you to build a dedicated following.

You can post ALL sorts of visual content to Pinterest: from product images to videos and GIFS! It even has its own version of Instagram stories/reels called Idea Pins!

Overall, it’s a great way to drive traffic to your etsy store. Especially considering Pinterest starts ranking content MONTHS before other search engines like Google and Bing.

How To Optimize Your Pinterest Account

By now, I’m sure you’re sick to death of hearing me talk about search engine optimization- but unfortunately, it’s just as important for your Pinterest account as it is for your Etsy store!

Step One: Include Keywords In Your Account Name, About Section, and Pins!

Use the same keywords you discovered in your Etsy SEO research phase in your Pinterest name and about section! Generally speaking, you’ll want to rank for the same keywords across all social media/search engine platforms.

Pinterest is unique in that it allows you to include up to 65 characters in your account name- so make sure to use as many of them as you can! Similarly, make sure to use as many keywords as possible in your about section. This way, your account will show up in the search for even more long-tail keywords- which is exactly what you want!

Step Two: Claim Your Domain Name

If you have an online storefront or landing page in addition to an etsy store, it’s important to claim your URL. Not only does this tell Pinterest more about your business, but it also gives you access to Pinterest Analytics & puts a direct link to your site at the top of your account.

Pinterest no longer allows you to link directly to your Etsy store, so if you haven’t set up a website already, it might be worthwhile setting up a landing page site that links back to your Etsy storefront. You can actually do this using Canva if you’re familiar with the platform. Otherwise, website builders like Wix and Squarespace work fantastically for this purpose!

Related Reading: How to Design A Logo For Your Small Business Using Canva

Step Three: Set Up Rich Pins

If you plan on posting additional content (such as blog posts, product pins or articles) to your Pinterest account, it’s worthwhile setting up Rich Pins. Exactly why and how this helps with Pinterest optimization isn’t really important- just know that it is! If you’re interested in reading about the benefits, you can check out Pinterest’s article here. Otherwise you cab just go ahead and set up rich pins here.

Best Pin Types For E-Commerce Stores

One: Idea Pins

Idea pins are a fantastic way to gain traction when you first start a Pinterest account, as they generally have much higher view counts, and interactions than other pin types.

There are two downsides to creating idea pins however. The first being that you cannot link back to your Esty store from an idea pin – meaning, you’re mostly making this content for exposure (as opposed to sales). Secondly, they generally take a much longer time to film, edit and create than run-of the mill image pins.

Here’s an example of what an Idea Pin looks like!

Two: Standard Image Pins

Image pins are the heart and soul of Pinterest: the “OG” pin!

Image pins are just that… images! You can either pin product photos directly from your Esty store, or edit them in a Canva/Photoshop to match Pinterest’s preferred size & orientation suggestions! Ideally, you want to create pins that are 1000 × 1500 pixels.

The best part about standard image pins is that you can embed a link directly to your storefront, product of category- which will hopefully lead to an increase in sales.

An example of a standard image pin can be found here.

How To Promote Your Etsy Business Instagram

What Is Instagram 

While I’m sure most of you are familiar with Instagram already, for those who are unaware: Instagram is an extremely popular photo-sharing social media app owned by meta (Facebook). Any photo/video content you post to the platform appears on your followers newsfeeds, and under the “recent” tab of any hashtags you ‘ve used.

Instagram also allows you to edit photos and videos inside of the app by applying filters, adding text etc.

Best Kind Of Content To Create For Instagram

Reels

If you want to to grow your following on Instagram, the quickest and easiest way to go so is by posting Reels. Being such a new feature to Instagram, the platform seems to be promoting them more strongly than traditional feed posts. This creates a unique opportunity for small business owners to market their small businesses!

Instagram reels are reminiscent of a TikTok video (in fact, many creators choose to post their videos on both social media platforms). They are short, vertical format videos between 5 and 90 seconds long, and often feature trending sounds or songs as soundtracks!

Stories

Instagram stories are one of my favorite ways to drive traffic to e-commerce sites, as currently this is the only place (aside from your profile bio) where you can embed links!

While you will need to post a few reels to build a following first – once you’ve started developing a following, stories are a fantastic way to drive them to your website. Which, ultimately is the goal.

From experience, you can expect a 5-10% click through rate from Instagram stories with an engaged audience. If you’ve bought followers, or are appealing to the wrong target market, you may experience click through rates lower than this!