One of the questions I get asked the most frequently, is how to get better visibility on Etsy. And the answer I have for you - tags. You may think those thirteen little words are just more ways to describe your work, but they are each golden opportunities for your work to be found in the sea that is Etsy.
Etsy will suggest that you put your materials, a style, color, etc., but I'm here to tell you that people search on Etsy how they plan to use things, and they generally might have more than one definition of the thing that they're looking for. You may feel like you're being redundant when adding tags in the way that I'm about to explain, but by using synonyms in your tags, you will quadruple your chances that your art will get found.
On my most popular print to date, my tags are relatively simple, and only two of them are taken up by the subject. I'll give you a run down:
- What it is - a print
- What it could also be searched for as (here's where the redundancy comes in) - painting
- A popular search term - sale - I include this because I always offer free shipping on this print, and I often have discounts running to promote that impulse buy reflex that oh so many people shop by. This is something that people search for a LOT on Etsy.
- More redundancy (and a very broad term) next - home decor - Maybe someone is redecorating? They didn't know they needed your art for their amazing room design! Now they see you somewhere else that maybe they might not have found you before.
- You're gonna start to see the pattern here - illustration - it may be a painting, a drawing or whatever, but some people might use this word to describe what they're looking for. Just upped your chances of getting found.
- Medium - watercolor - (obvious)
- This one is a broad term that also might be slightly off for this piece, but some people might consider this painting - floral.
- Color - rainbow
- Subject - succulent
- Sort of the subject - cactus
- Now here's where we get into your ideal customer and styles. The next two tags are boho and bohemian - These types of 'style' terms are popular right now, and if someone pairs them with the other tags you have, you'll most likely show up higher in searches for this (like, 'bohemian painting', which, I just checked, my listing is the third one on the page for this - winning!)
- The last tag is also one that relates to style, but also kind of the subject, if we're getting really general here - desert.
As you'll see, the order of the tags does not matter. The key is to think how your buyer would think as they're shopping. What would you search for if you wanted to find your own painting? With this method, you'll also get lots of combinations for how you might get found in search. For instance:
- watercolor rainbow floral
- cactus desert painting
- home decor on sale
You get the idea. The key is not to be found in the huge search results, like such a broad term as "watercolor", but to be found in the niches that buyers are shopping in when they get an idea of what they want to purchase.
I hope this has been insightful in getting more traffic to your Etsy shop! Stay tuned for more business posts on the Art of Success, and be sure to join the free Facebook group of artists discovering more ways to grow their art careers - The Art of Success: Building Your Dream Career as an Artist