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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Have you marked down your prices on Etsy for the Holiday Season?

"Feminine Mystique" 40% off until January!

You might notice that I did not use the word "sale" in my title.....it's because of this post I read yesterday in the Etsy forums:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6685824
which starts with a quote from one of the admins,
"We're making these changes to make it easier for sellers to use Etsy On Sale. However, yes, it appears that even having the word "Sale" in an item title may negatively affect Google Shopping search results. So, sellers should choose their titles wisely."

I scheduled a holiday sale on Etsy On Sale and the first thing it did was rename all my listings to begin with "Holiday Sale". At the time, I thought that was a good thing until I read this post and all of the comments that followed. I would have thought having the word "sale" in your title would HELP you........so I Googled myself with the terms "stefny68 holiday sale" and the only relevant results I got were from blog posts- mostly from LAST Christmas!

SO, I used Craftopolis' handy little bulk editing tool to remove those pesky terms from all of my titles and now, when I Google myself, it does pull them! I DO still have all my items tagged with Holiday Sale and Free Shipping which evidently is not problematic! I'm quite confused, but SO glad I ran across this, because I would really like to have a nice Etsy season like I did last year!
And just to warn you guys, I probably will be doing a posting featuring my holiday specials- I hate self promotion it feels all "look at me, look at me...." but, evidently, a lot of people find Etsy stuff through Google searches and I want to make sure that they are linked!
Cheers and some Wednesday love to all bloggy friends,
Stephanie







6 comments:

Maggie said...

Thanks for this great information, Stephanie. I haven't been in the Etsy forums lately ~ it really is a good idea to check it out once in a while! Google can really be a pain sometimes ~ what in the #%*@ is wrong with the word 'sale'? LOL. I love sales!

I love how your Midnight in the Garden is progressing! So beautiful!

Happy Wednesday!

Maggie xo

Felicia Kramer said...

I can relate, Stef. Just when you think you have it all figured out, somebody throws you a curve ball!

In my case, I just hate that I'm always playing catchup for every holiday. I just can't seem to get ahead of the game.

Good luck with your sale.

Regina said...

Great info Stephanie..thank you. I have my shop on vacation at the moment but I will put this info back for future use. I guess I need to read more..LOL!!! YOU should not feel that way about posting here about your wonderful sale. It's marketing my sweet gal...marketing!!!!

Hugs,
Regi

The Thumb Report said...

Great info. I just finished a 12 week Etsy bootcamp and they suggest you tag freeshippingetsy
and if you have a sale on black fri or cyber monday tag blackfridayetsy etc. Apparently Etsy needs to be at the end of the tag. I am going to google myself right now :-)

mermaiden said...

The other thing you don't want in your title or in your item description is the word FREE. SEO's consider this and Sale to be spammy. Also, putting your shop in vacation mode can dump you right off the SEO charts, unfortunately :(
Checking out the Etsy info about SEO's is amazingly helpful, though a lot of work to do it all it really made big changes for the good in my shop.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

This is very informative, Stephanie. I do know that picking the right keywords and tags is very important, especially when doing an internet search. Having said that, Google is in it for the money, just like many internet corporations. They want to discourage people who use their search engine from finding unpaid links. I never, ever use Google. If everyone would stop using them and use one of the other search engines, they would help put a stop to Google having a virtual monopoly over what is shown and how far down on the list your relevant link should be. However, until then, I know it's the "accepted" search engine for most people and they will continue to use it.