Tags: a primer for newbies and a refresher for others

submitted by Cathy of JustJaynes

When I opened my second shop on Etsy, JustJaynes, I was coming off a 6-month hiatus from selling. There were a few changes.

What are these things called treasuries? What are all these funky applications on the sidebar of the front page? What are TAGS?

Not the lovely tags made by our own Celene from MariaSoleil, but the tags used to describe our items.

Tags actually do much more than describe our items. Tags put our items into the Etsy search engine for buyers and treasury curators. We all have the same goal: Sell. But when our stuff’s not selling, the secondary goal: Be on the Front Page! Being on the front page will bring lots of views and new shoppers into your shop.

First tag: Your main category
All other tags: Subcategories and descriptions

You’ll see that the tag system will automatically make suggestions. If your items fit into those suggestions, use ‘em! If not, and it runs out of suggestions, don’t stop! Time to get creative. How will buyers and curators search for your item? Color, shape, theme.

COLOR: Treasury curators especially will not search for something “blue” because there will be too many results, so they search for a certain shade of blue, such as aqua blue, teal, baby blue. Think soft pink, cream, coffee.

SHAPE: Swirls, circles, squares, flowers, they’ll search ‘em ALL.

THEME: Smoky, mystical, gothic, romantic, ghostly, winter, shiny, use your imagination!

But there are only 14 tags! Plus I have team tags! Well, yes, but you can combine some tags. Such as “sterling silver,” “silver plated,” etc. They have to be words that go together.

But I still have a few tags left! Do you ship internationally? Do you accept RME? Will anyone search by your shop name? Your real name? These can also be tags.

Thanks to Kara from lhsblack for volunteering for a tag critique! I selected these earrings partly because they are my favorite, but also because these earrings should be selling or on the front page or in treasuries or all the above!

Here are the current tags: jewelry, earrings, dangle, glass, wire wrapped, bead, green, river, sterling, silver, etsywmi team, wire wrapped

Tag makeover: jewelry, earrings, dangle, glass, wire wrapped, faceted, seafoam, green, sterling silver, etsywmi team, tear drop, briolette, opaque, international ship


So go check your tags. Are you using the search engine to your best advantage? Do you ever search for your items to make sure they are showing up? And if they are not showing up, why not?

Reference:
Storque articles: http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/shop-makeover-series-tagging-for-success-877/