Creating a successful Etsy shop involves many factors, one of the most important being your ranking compared to your Etsy competition.
When shoppers search for items on Etsy, they generally look at only the first few pages of results before making a decision. That means if you want your Etsy shop to be successful, it’s important to make your shop stand out and rank as high as possible in the search results.
If you want to outrank your competition and make more sales on Etsy, keep reading below as I share five tips about how you can accomplish these goals.
Let’s take a look…
1. Research your competition
The first step to outranking your competition is understanding who they are, what they sell, and how they price their items. This information gives you a good starting point for developing your own competitive strategy.
To start, search on Etsy for the types of products found in your store. For example, if one of the main items you sell is coffee mugs featuring dog designs, you would put “dog coffee mug” into Etsy’s search bar. These results will show you of all the people selling dog-related coffee mugs on Etsy.
Click on the shops that come up on the first page of the results and take note of the following:
- The number of sales they have
- The average price of their items
- What other types of products they sell
- What their reviewers have said (you can see what customers liked and didn’t like and then apply that information to your own business)
- The keywords they use in their titles and descriptions along with the actual content
NOTE: When looking at another shop’s product titles and descriptions you never want to lift this information directly. Rather, you can use this intel as inspiration.
You can also use keyword tools such as Erank and SpotNiches to scope out what you competition is doing with regard to niche ideas and keywords. Doing research upfront is important if you want to list items that shoppers are actively searching for.
Once you have a good understanding of your competition, you can start thinking about ways to not only improve your shop’s rank but also how to differentiate your shop and make it more appealing to buyers.
2. Make your shop stand out and create buyer trust
One of the best ways to outrank your competition on Etsy is to make your shop more visible and attractive to buyers. Here are some suggestions for how you can do this:
Create a relevant shop name
First, be sure you have a relevant, keyword-rich, and attention-grabbing shop name. This is the first thing buyers see when they find your shop, so make the name count.
A fun technique that I like to use is to use an Etsy searched keyword in my shop title. This has helped tremendously with my shop’s search traffic. For example, if you sell “best friend” bracelets, you could name your shop something like “FriendshipBraceletIdeas” or “TheFriendshipBraceletShop.”
Make a strong, trustworthy impression with your shop’s visuals
You should also take advantage of the visuals associated with your Etsy shop to establish buyer trust. You have an opportunity to do this through your shop’s icon and banner. These two elements should work together to create a cohesive visual representation of your shop and convey what it is all about.
Your Etsy shop icon
Your shop’s icon is the image that appears next to your shop name. It may be small but it should still illustrate something meaningful about your shop. A good icon typically involves a simple graphic and minimal text. You can use a free tool like Canva to create a great icon for your shop.
Here are some tips from Etsy about creating your shop’s icon:
- “Is it easily understood? If you decide to use a graphic, make sure buyers understand what it depicts and how it relates to your shop. For example, greeting card seller Surfing Sloth uses a sloth character from her illustrations as a shop icon.
- Is it memorable? ‘Simple, minimal logos and icons are more recognizable,’ says Samuel Sherman, a senior art director on Etsy’s brand design team. Customers who have favorited your shop or purchased from you before should be able to quickly recognize your shop icon.
- Can it scale down? While your shop icon displays at full size (500 x 500 pixels) on your shop home, it will appear much smaller on activity feeds, receipts, and in the Etsy app. Preview your design in a variety of sizes to ensure your final selection resonates even when it’s scaled down. It’s also best to avoid using too much text, which becomes illegible at small sizes.”
Your Etsy shop’s banner
Your shop’s banner is much larger, spanning the top of your shop’s homepage. And like your shop’s icon, your banner should hold meaning for your shop. You can once again use a tool like Canva to create your shop’s banner.
Here are some tips from Etsy about creating high-quality shop banners:
- “Design for the correct dimensions. Images that display clearly signal to buyers that your business is polished and professional. You have two standard size options: Big banners make a splash across the top of your shop home. They should be 3360 x 840 pixels for optimal performance, and a minimum of 1200 x 300 pixels. Mini banners are best if you’d rather your shop icon and listings take primary focus. At 1200 x 160 pixels, mini banners will shift your listings higher up when viewing your shop home on desktop, and do not appear on mobile devices.
- Highlight your best photography. Your banner is the perfect spot to show products in action or feature a styled shot that highlights the range of your collection. ‘This is one area where you can see all the products in your shop come together,’ Samuel says.
- Use text sparingly. If you want to include your shop name in your banner, make it big enough to read on mobile devices and keep text to the center of the photo so it’s legible when the image is scaled down.
- Add links. If you’re using a big banner, you have the option to link your image to a specific listing or an entire section of your shop. Customize your link text with a call to action such as ‘See more colors’ or ‘Shop our sale’ to help guide buyers.
- Get creative. ‘Your banner is like a large canvas,’ says Lyanne Dubon, a creative director on Etsy’s brand design team. ‘Experiment with repeating patterns, fields of color, unique textures, or photos of your workspace.’ Lisa Rupp of Arizona-based Etsy shop Lisa Rupp Design welcomes shoppers with a colorful graphic that showcases the details of her gouache paintings.
- Reflect major milestones. Over the course of the year, your banner is a good space to reflect seasonal changes, gift-giving holidays, milestones, and special occasions. Avoid changing the graphic too frequently, though; showing some consistency is critical to building a recognizable brand.”
Additionally, anytime you run a sale, you can add promotional text to your banner, such as “15% OFF SALE” or “Buy one, get one 50% OFF.” This can help you outrank your competition, get more sales, and increase your average order value.
Share your shop’s story
Next, take some time to fill out your shop’s “About” section and share your story with buyers. This is a great opportunity to show some personality and let buyers know what makes your shop special.
Add lifestyle mockups to your listings
Finally, in addition to your listings’ main photos, try adding 1-2 lifestyle images (images that show your items in use). Lifestyle images help shoppers envision what it would be like to own your items, making them more likely to want to purchase.
Over the years, I’ve had my designers create some really awesome lifestyle mockups for a variety of products, some of which you can download here for free. To find more mockups, just run a search on my site for “mockups.”
3. Make your listings keyword-rich and optimize your product information
When shoppers search for items on Etsy, the Etsy search engine looks through all of the listings’ titles, descriptions, and tags to find matches. Therefore, it’s important to use relevant keywords in your listings so buyers can easily find your products.
To figure out which keywords to use, start by brainstorming a list of words and phrases that describe your product. Then, use a keyword research tool, such as the Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Keywords Everywhere, to figure out which of those keywords are being searched for the most.
Once you have a list of relevant keywords, incorporate them into your listings’ titles and descriptions. Just be careful not to stuff your listings with too many keywords, as this will make your content difficult to read and could get you penalized by Etsy.
Additionally, to get great tag ideas for your Etsy listings, you can enter the list of keywords you come up with into a tool called Too Easy Tags, which also shows you the tags your competitors are using. You can gain access to Too Easy Tags when you sign up for the Low Hanging Mastermind.
4. Market your shop to outrank your Etsy competition
In addition to optimizing your Etsy shop, it’s also important to market your shop via social media and other channels. This helps you reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your shop.
You can go about marketing your Etsy shop in a few different ways.
First, you can create social media accounts for your shop on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok. Then, you can share your listings and promote your shop by sharing engaging content and images and linking to your shop’s URL.
Additionally, you can market your Etsy shop by writing blog posts about your products, guest posting on other blogs in your industry, and participating in online forums or Facebook groups related to your niche.
5. Stay up-to-date on Etsy’s changes and new developments
Lastly, staying up-to-date on Etsy’s changes and new developments is important if you want to outrank your competition. This way, you’re ahead of the curve and will know about any new features or changes that could impact your shop.
One of the best ways to stay up-to-date on Etsy’s changes is to review the Etsy Seller Handbook. The handbook is filled with useful articles related to a variety of topics, including the following:
- Photography
- Shipping
- Legal
- Productivity
- Community
- Getting found
- Branding and marketing
- Pricing, taxes, and finance
- Growth strategies
- Seasonal tips
By following these tips, you should be able to outrank your competition on Etsy and start getting more sales. Just remember to stay focused and keep working hard, and you’ll be successful in no time.
I hope you find this post useful! If you have any other tips you can share about outranking your Etsy competition, please leave a comment below. And if you enjoyed this post, please share it with your friends and followers.
