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Lesson Info

How to List Titles Properly

We are going to move on to listing titles. Because this is the last thing that stands out to a customer visiting your online storefront, and that's the listing titles. So, if we walk through so far what they've experienced, they got there, they check out the brand, they trust the site, the product photography pulls them in, what happens next is they're gonna start to read. They're really invested in you at that point, and they want more details. So, I really cover this in depth in Copyrighting for Crafters, a one day workshop I did for CreativeLive. But a good rule of thumb is don't write it online, don't put it in your listing, if you wouldn't say it to a potential customer in person. This leads me to stuffed titles, and this is exactly what I mean. This is a very common mistake. It's an epidemic on Etsy. People on Etsy stuff their product titles, because they've been told that if they add more words to their listing, more people will find them in the Etsy marketplace. Like I just sai...

d, a rule of thumb, don't write it in your listing if you wouldn't say it in person, so this is like somebody walking to your store, love your boutique, love your little shop. Imagine you have an online storefront, and they pick this up, and they say, "I love that." And they're looking at it, and I'm behind the counter, 'cause I'm the maker of that product, and I say, "Oh, you love that? That's spiritual zen, "energy yoga, bead stretch, Mother's Day" and I just start rattling off all these words to you. That customer would run, screaming, because that's crazy. So you don't wanna write it if you wouldn't say it in person. Let's A/B test the room. Which do you prefer? Do you want a spiritual zen energy yoga bead stretch bracelet wrist malas for meditation Mother's Day pink opal gold brown coaster? Or, would you prefer a Pink Opal Energy Bracelet? There's a huge difference in what you're saying right there. And I feel like this is disheartening to me. This discourages me, on the right, this is desperate, it's confusing, and it makes me feel like, don't you love your product? Give your product a name! Name that product, let somebody bring that home. You worked hard, you worked hard, you created it, you took pictures of it, you talked about it, you wrote a listing online, I mean, take the time, take all those extra words out, and give that product a name, respect that product, especially if you want customers to respect that offer. So, you can, the reason people do this, and it's no fault to them and they see other people doing it so then they do it more, is that they're trying to get found in search, in some way, shape, or form. Trying to get found in search. But views are not currency. Views don't pay the bill. We want sales. So views are great, but if we're not getting sales, what do we have, we're not in business. We have people looking at a bunch of mismatch words and kind of being confused at our product. So, absolutely use keywords. Keywords are really important, we're gonna be talking about them today, absolutely use them in your tags, absolutely use them in your titles, but you can also mix them throughout, so as not to confuse the buyer. I love all of the words on the right, they're good keywords for me, I just don't love them all in one listing. I can call the next bracelet Aquamarine Mala for Meditation. I can call this Pink Opal Energy Bracelet, I can call the next one Yoga Bead Sunstone Stretch. I did it, I did it, that wasn't a-- take that back, I can call the next one Yoga Sunstone Bracelet. I can use all those words in different listings, but they just don't belong all together in one listing. It confuses the buyer, it smells desperate, and it's not gonna sell the product. In the next segment, we're really gonna be talking about keywords, and about how to gain traffic to your Etsy shop from within Etsy, and from outside of Etsy. But the major takeaway here is just don't stuff. Just don't stuff those titles, please, please, please, love your product, give it a name, respect it so that you can expect the customer to respect it as well. These are from the online audience, we have a couple comments and questions. So Red Scorpio says, "What she's saying is so great, "I should record myself describing the item." It's such, I mean if we don't think about it, so we should write the way we speak. And it's a great lesson. There are couple questions online. Green Work Handmaid asks, "Should you title "every same item the same title, or different titles?" I think it's a great place to mix in keywords, I think that if, like I said, let me go back here, like I said, if I called the next bracelet beside this one Aquamarine Mala for Meditation, that's not confusing a buyer. I'm just calling them, they see it's all energy bracelets, it all falls under the same umbrella, it's falling in line with my theme. It's my way of mixing in keywords without confusing anybody, and keeping them interested and keeping them engaged. I think if anything, it's just gonna attract more people, because if I called it an energy bracelet but you don't call it that, Lily, you call yours malas, then I've helped you, I've helped you as the shopper because I've showed you these are all malas, this is everything that you're looking for, you belong here. And that's ultimately what you're looking to do, is to use the language that you know your customers are using, to help them and make them understand that they belong there. Come on in, kick off your shoes and shop, we are made for each other. So you can do that with different titles to reach more people-- Yes. Who might have an affinity for a certain item in a different way. Yes, this is gonna come up again because I used to call my bracelets something nobody else was calling, and I called them that consistently across the page. You don't wanna do that, because what you wanna do is mix it up to find what the customer is searching, what they're looking for. If you are consistent with one name, and there's a variation, then you might lose them that way. And one other question from The Ruthless Crafter. (chuckles) Love that. "Should we duplicate listings but have different keywords "in the title to attract different viewers "and show up on other search results?" I would feel like I wanna see that in action before understanding. I have an Etsy shop for my blog products that is very slim. There's not that many, there's like four products, and so I duplicate the listings to fill storefront a little bit, and for that same reason I'm on Etsy and I'm selling to Etsy sellers. However, I've gotten, people don't like to see a duplicate listing. And if it's that noticeable, then I've decided to stop doing that. If you have a big storefront, and you're trying to fill in, make a, maybe it's just me, maybe I'm like OCD about it, but I like all of the rows to be complete. I don't like, so if a row is four listings, I don't like six, because then it just like, what happens to the consistency there? So if I'm trying to, if I were trying to fill in page three to make sure all of the rows were nice and neat, I would do it, but I wouldn't do it as a strategy. I don't see the value in it of a strategy. I would prefer the strategy focus be about getting people to a storefront, and then getting them to shop inside the storefront, versus getting people to this listing, and getting people to that listing. No, this is a one business, this is a cohesive thing, this is a brand storefront. So we wanna get people there, versus the product listings. So, good idea, maybe just shift the focus to getting them to the storefront. Okay, and a couple more questions came in while you were answering that. Potite Photo asks, "With shorter titles, "I'm concerned my products won't be found in search. "With Etsy's search algorithm, "how do we optimize for shorter titles, "for the shorter titles?" My thing with the Etsy search algorithm is that nobody can claim to know what the Etsy search algorithm is. It's frightening to me that people do or try. Etsy has a huge, Etsy can change code at any time on the website, they're changing things all the time. So, to go with the idea that those keywords are helping you get found on search, if that's working, if the views, if you're getting the views, how are they converting? That would be my next question. Because, it's not always going to be working, Etsy's always going to change its search. They're like any other tool we use online. If we get to know them too well, they mix it up on us, and if anybody is dominating it, they're going to mix it up on us. So I'm always thinking from the buyer's perspective. I'm not worried about getting found in Etsy's search, I pay no attention to Etsy's search algorithm, and the reason is is because I don't see myself as one in a million in a marketplace, I see myself with a product that millions have yet to see yet. So I wanna always take the focus outside of Etsy, and what Etsy's doing, and always look outside to the world, to the broader market. So do you mean like Google search, and concentrating on that search optimization, or...? No, I don't see how stuffing keywords would help you on Google. If anything, it's gonna confuse Google, it's gonna hurt how you show up in Google. When I have a listing that's popular, this, I don't think this is active in my shop, but if you search pink opal energy bracelet, mine would be the number one result. Because I have built a shop about getting found online and getting a lot of clicks from outside Etsy to my storefront. So, that would be my test of how well your theory is working. I would take this stuffed title and see what comes up on Google and it's not pretty. It's just not pretty. So the strategy is to go bigger, it's to go broader. I didn't sell out on Etsy from focusing on Etsy. Again, I sold out by focusing on the millions of people that have yet to see my product, using Etsy as a tool that would help me brand, and assure the customer that shopping with me was a good idea. See, there's a difference. Right. And then Jill Simons, her question is, "How do you recommend that we help people "looking for event-specific items? "Like if I name my products just what they are, "I know no one will ever search for that." Oh, okay, so she's saying, like if we're, I don't not like that idea. I shouted Mother's Day because Mother's Day is sometimes shot in the middle of a stuffed title and not meaning anything else. Sometimes, like I have a client who has a product that's beautiful for First Communions, she should absolutely put First Communion bracelet, 'cause she makes gorgeous pearl bracelets. She actually came up today, little girls pearls, and her name's Julie, and she should use First Communion, because it's the event, and it's what her product is basically made for, where it sells the best. So, that isn't a terrible idea. Or a Mother's Day basket, I would never ask you to take Mother's Day out of the fact that you're making a gift for that special occasion. It just doesn't belong, so if I'm saying I have a gift here, and I'm just typing in Christmas into the search 'cause I think that's part of the stuffing and I think people are gonna be looking for Christmas that day, it's irrelevant. Just keep it relevant.