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Hey everyone and welcome back! In this video, we’re going to discuss my 3-point system that I use to optimize my item listings for free traffic on Etsy.

Plus, I’m also going to share with you how I use ChatGPT to massively speed up the process and make it much, much easier.

And if you don’t like using Ai, then don’t worry: you don’t have to use it. I just like to because as I said, it makes it faster to optimize my listings. And also, I just want to let you know that I don’t use, and won’t be using, any Etsy keyword research tools. 

No. I’m not against paid tools like Alura or eRank, I just don’t find I need them, and I’ll explain why. So, you can follow along with this video 100% for free.  If you want to truly understand this video, then I strongly recommend you watch my video, How I Get Free Traffic & Sales To A New Etsy Store.

Inside that video, I explain important information and changes to the Etsy algorithm, like the Test Impression feature that boosts niche products from brand new stores, that I’ll be referencing in this video.

So, if you don’t know what I mean when I say that phrase, “Test Impressions” then you’ll absolutely want to watch that previous video because I’ll be referencing it a LOT in this video.

But yes, with that all out of the way then – let’s begin! 

OK. So, my 3-Point Etsy Listing Optimization process is, as the name suggests, split into 3 points. Point 1 is Relevant Keywords. Point 2 is clickable photos. And Point 3 is Customer Experience. 

All 3 are important things I do to optimize my products to get free traffic, but they each have very different purposes.

So, let’s start then with Point 1: Relevant Keywords

So, when creating a listing, the first thing I’ll usually create is the title. And for the title, what I want is to make sure that I have as many RELEVANT keywords as possible.

So, this here for example is a listing for a t-shirt that has been a consistent seller on Etsy. Which makes sense: because as you can see, not only is it a good design, but the listing itself is well optimized for the Etsy algorithm. Because you think about it. While in their title, they do repeat the word shirt a lot, which is by the way, very unnecessary, you only need to include the word shirt once, pretty much all of these other keywords they include accurately describe the shirt. It’s about space, it is about raccoons, it is funny – all of these keywords are extremely relevant.

And this is because of that very important feature that is built into the Etsy algorithm

Which is Test Impressions – by having accurate keywords in your title, you are helping Etsy do this better for your listing.

Because remember, as we discussed in my previous video, when I release a product on Etsy, I have noticed that they will find a small group of test customers and place it on their discovery pages, like their homepage.

They do this to see if my product looks cool enough and interesting enough to them to get them to click on it. And if they click on it, Etsy’s algorithm will keep showing my product to more and more people until it makes a sale.

That was why recently, when I set up my brand new Etsy store, it was already getting traffic & sales for free in the first 2 weeks it was open. Because when Etsy showed my products to people on their homepage, they kept clicking on them, because they looked cool.

On the flipside though, if Etsy comes and tests your product with a test group of customers and nobody buys it, then your test fizzles.

So what I try to do is give Etsy as much accurate data as I can in my keywords on the Product Listing title to help them pick the BEST test customers to use for these Test Impressions. 

So this data here for this listing when you think about it is very good, thanks to these relevant keywords that have been included in the title. Etsy can see that this is a t-shirt that is aimed at people that like racoons, and space or galaxy designs, and that like to buy funny products. It can try and pick customers that fit this target market, making it much more likely for the test customers to be a successful pick. 

And this is also why I try to be careful. So, you see this mug here aimed at people that love coffee, and baristas? Well, some people might see this mug and go, OK, it features a skeleton, so in addition to keywords aimed at people who like coffee and are baristas, maybe I’ll also fit in some keywords about Halloween.

Afterall: Skeletons are a halloween icon, right? So, maybe somebody would like to buy this as a halloween gift for someone that loves coffee. 

But the problem is that, while that might be true for a few corner case sales, in general, that is unlikely going to be the target market for this mug.|

Instead, what we really want is for Etsy to instead show it to coffee snobs and to baristas passionate about coffee, since they are the more likely people to actually buy it.

So, if I muddy the title by just throwing in keywords like ‘Halloween’ which, technically while sort of true, are not truly accurate for my real target customer, I’ll risk making the Etsy algorithm confused and testing it on the wrong crowd.

Because now, instead of just testing my product on baristas, it might switch things up and start testing it on people wanting Halloween gifts, which will perform much worse, since this won’t convert anywhere near as well since they’re not my target audience.

And so that can be one of the downsides, in my personal opinion, of not being careful with Etsy keyword research tools, and just choosing keywords that have low competition.

Oftentimes, those low-competition keywords, while they might be adjacent to your product,  aren’t really your true target customer and so you make it harder for Etsy to find your ideal customers by including them.

This is also why sometimes, when it comes to keywords, less can be more. So this is one of the top selling funny cat mugs. It has had over 200 reviews, and customers love it. Interestingly, as you can see, the title is tiny, it is very short and it only features a few keywords. But really, this is fine, because this is actually a lot of great data for Etsy to work with, because if you think about it, these keywords do very accurately describe who would want to buy this mug. So when Etsy places this mug on someone’s homepage, it can use this data to quite accurately guess who to try it with. And so yes, while this is a very short title, it is actually optimized quite well.

And so even though technically, you can use 140 characters for your title, you don’t have to use all 140 characters at all. Instead, you can just use as many characters as you need, to add in the best relevant keywords.

So then, how do you do that? Well honestly, in my experience, ChatGPT has been a great resource for me.

And for me, what I like to do is I like to explain to ChatGPT what my product is, and what the design of the product will be about, and also explain the niche and explain any types of target customers I think would like to buy it. And then I ask ChatGPT to think about what types of customers might be interested in purchasing my product, and I also ask it to create different customer profiles about each of these customers, so I can better understand who they are and their motivations.

And don’t forget that you can always ask ChatGPT to come up with more ideas for you even after it has finished generating some, to get even more.

Plus you also also use a different Ai Chatbot if you prefer too. So you could use Google’s or Microsoft’s, they all are great at doing this. You don’t just have to use ChatGPT.

But yes, by doing that, ChatGPT made a pretty good observation that for the funny “Houston I Have So Many Problems” t-shirt design, that a good target customer could be someone that works in or is studying aerospace. That is a very highly targeted customer who could find the throw back to the phrase, Houston We Have A Problem quite funny. And also keep in mind I just used the free version of ChatGPT here, I didn’t use the paid version.

And well, if we come back to the listing, you’ll see that they didn’t actually include any keywords like that in the title. So this could be one that I’d tell them to consider adding. So, in my experience, thanks to chatbot apps like ChatGPT, I haven’t needed to purchase any paid apps like Alura or eRank to come up with ideas. I find that ChatGPT does a great job at helping me brainstorm these for free. Of course, if you do want to use those apps, you absolutely can.

There is nothing wrong with using a paid app. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use them, or it is bad to use them. I have just found that I don’t need to use them. So I don’t. But if you find that they help you, then yes absolutely, you can choose to use them. And when it comes to your product tags, it’s the same. The keywords you use in your title will match up well in my experience with the keywords to include in your tags. 

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So then, let’s now discuss Point 2: Clickable Photos

Yes, it’s hard to say what is more important: is a listing with accurate keywords most important, or are clickable photos more important? And, well, honestly? I’d say that out of the two that Clickable Photos are probably THE most important, crucial point, when it comes to optimizing your item listings on Etsy.

Because here is the thing. When Etsy chooses a small group of customers to place your product on the homepage for, to test whether it’s good or not, as you can see, the only information the customer truly has is the photo and the product price. That is it.

So, while it’s crucial to provide Etsy with accurate information on who your product is for, it’s just as crucial to give those customers an amazing, clickable photo because that photo is THE reason customers will click on your listing.

And that is what Etsy wants to see. They want to see that your item is engaging enough to get clicks and engagement, so that they can keep showing it to more and more people. So spending time creating and choosing a clickable photo is going to pay off.

And something that can help a lot is contrast. So, here is the photo for that raccoon t-shirt in its full size.

Well, if you take a look at the thumbnail for that same photo here, which is what the customer sees while scrolling on Etsy before clicking on it, you’ll see that the thumbnail taken from it actually has quite a lot of contrast, thanks to the golden hair in the shot, and the black text on a light colored t-shirt. That color contrast means then that when the customer is scrolling through Etsy’s recommendations, that your photo is more likely to pop, because it will stand out more, thanks to that contrast.

Plus, the photo itself is a great photo. It looks really engaging, and it has a great aesthetic that Etsy customers like. A photo like this is going to really help make your listing clickable. 

Now, depending on the product you’re selling, your Print On Demand app, such as Printify or Printful, might have a great photo that you can use for free.

Like, take that funny cat mug. I think that this is just a Printify mockup photo that has had the background swapped to a contrasting color, which you can do within the Printify mockup editor. So, you might be able to just use a mockup for the thumbnail for free.

Or, like this t-shirt here, you might want to find an external mockup photo, and create your own mockup outside of the Print On Demand app, if a good one doesn’t exist in your print on demand app because yes, this was not a photo provided by Printify, they purchased this mockup photo specifically to use for this listing.

And there are multiple ways that you can find and create these. One way is to come to Placeit. They do have a paid account with access to all of their mockup photos. But they have a free account with some free mockup photos too. And creating mockups with Placeit is very easy.

You just choose the photo you want to edit, and choose what the product color will be. Then you upload your product design onto it, and place it on the product. And that is it: you have created your mockup photo. I’ll have my affiliate link to Placeit above if you’d like to use it.

And another place you can get free mockups is Creative Fabrica. This is a place for graphic designers & creators to sell their digital art products, such as mockup photos. Many of the most popular, trendy mockup photo packs are sold here.

You can then add your own design onto them using an image editing app like Photopea or Photoshop. Creative Fabrica has a free account which will give you 10 free downloads. After that, you do need to pay. But you can use the 10 free downloads they give you to choose some aesthetic mockups if you like. 

I’ll also have my affiliate link to Creative Fabrica above if you’d like to use it but don’t forget: using affiliate links is optional so please don’t feel like you need to use them. But it is always appreciated so if you do choose to use them, so if you do, thank you.

And something else that is important when choosing photos for a listing, is to include at least 1 photo of the product in a lifestyle context, not just a mockup of an item on a plain background.

So here you can see that they have included multiple photos with this. They have included 2 photos of someone wearing the shirt, which is important because psychological studies have shown that lifestyle photos like this help customers to imagine themselves using the time, by seeing it be used.

And, once people start imagining themselves using an item they are looking at, they are much, much more likely to buy it. 

Plus, something else that is good to keep in mind is that if your item comes in multiple sizes, like clothing, including some sort of sizing chart as a photo will drastically reduce both the emails you get from people asking which size they should buy, and also drastically reduce people purchasing the wrong size for themselves.

And if you want to find some great sizing charts to use, again, Creative Fabrica has some that you can download as part of your 10 free downloads.

So, these 2 points are important for optimizing and maximizing our chances of getting clicks and sales. 

But there is something else I do when optimizing an Etsy listing.

And that is Point 3: Customer Experience – yes, I optimize the customer experience.

Because here is the thing right. When a customer buys from you, you want to ensure that their experience is positive.

Since, well, you want them to leave you a 5-star review. And, if they have a bad experience from you, not only will they not leave you a 5 star review, but they might actually leave you a bad review. Which is VERY bad! 

So it is crucial that you set the expectations for the customer. You want to make sure they know all important information about your product, and your shipping times, before they purchase. 

And so I think that this listing does this very well. Now, I’ll be honest with you. In their description they repeat their keywords which, frankly, I wouldn’t do. Etsy already knows your keywords from your title and tags. 

So repeating them in your description won’t help, in my experience. But, I do include sections like they do here, explaining all important information. And they do something crucial here. Here, they clearly set expectations around returns. As you can see, they don’t allow returns for their print on demand shirts. Now, here is where a lot of beginners make a mistake.

They would think of this as a negative thing: after all, if you don’t let customers return products, then that is something a customer won’t like. Which is sort of true: customers do prefer, obviously, to have the option to return products. But the mistake they make is that because they think it is bad, they instead try to hide that information, or avoid it.

Whereas instead, like this store here, I am upfront with it. Any “negative” information I include very blatantly, and like them, I do something else. I EXPLAIN it. And you can see they did that here too. They EXPLAIN here why they don’t offer returns. It is because items are made to order for customers. They are effectively custom made just for the customer. Therefore, since it is custom, they can’t offer returns. 

In my experience, explaining to customers WHY there is something they may not like – such as no returns, or a longer production time, is often enough to get them to decide to purchase from you regardless. 

Plus, they also include in here all other important information a customer might want to know: such as what material the shirts are made from, and the shipping and processing times. This means that the customer knows exactly what they are getting when they buy. 

And so this is how I use my description: I don’t use it as a way to stuff in more keywords. I, instead, use it as a way to set fair and reasonable expectations for my customers. 

So then: that is my 3-point system! I pick relevant keywords. I create clickable photos. And I try to create a great customer experience.

I hope that my strategies can help you as well. And I’ll see you in the next video.