As you're working on starting your online business selling digital planning products, chances are you've thought about where you're going to be selling your products. In your search for a place to sell your products, you've probably heard of Etsy. Maybe you've even placed orders from small businesses on Etsy before!

We think that Etsy is the perfect place for you to start selling digital products, and we want to help you be as successful as possible! One of the best ways to do that is through SEO, or search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is crucial on Etsy if you want your product listings to show up in the right search results for potential customers browsing through listings.

Let's dive into all the tips, tricks, and tools you can use to find the best keywords to skyrocket your shop traffic and sales!

What are SEO keywords?

Keywords are the little gold nuggets that your audience is looking up on search engines - Google, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go, or in this case, Etsy, that help them find what they're looking for. What people type into the search bar can also be added to your shop description, product titles, and product descriptions.

Specific keywords will help you rank much better than broad keywords that generate thousands of search results. So instead of using "planner", try "digital planner" or "digital planner for moms". There's a fine line here between too popular and too niche of keywords. You want words and phrases that are large enough for you to get your product in front of potential buyers but not so large that your listing gets lost between competitors.

There are two different kinds of keywords that you'll want to focus on: short and long-tail keywords.

Short-tail keywords are typically a single word that can be used to pull up search results within your niche.
Long-tail keywords are typically niche phrases that only a select group of people would be interested in.

A short-tail keyword would be "stickers" while a long-tail keyword would be "sticker pack for digital planners". Most of the time, a long-tail keyword is going to get more eyes on your shop than a more generic short-tail keyword. We suggest taking a look at your keyword strategy about once every 2-3 months so that your Etsy SEO stays up to date as seasons and trends come and go. But how can you find the perfect search terms to include in your listings to attract your potential customers?

What tools can you use to find keywords?

Marmalead

SEO can seem like a guessing game filled with trial and error, but using Marmalead can make things quite a bit easier! Marmalead is a tool for shop owners to increase their sales with keywords that will help you show up at the top of Etsy search results. There are over 110,000 users who trust Marmalead to get their products in front of potential buyers with ease. While it is a monthly subscription, they also have a free blog filled with helpful resources for those who don't have a large business budget.

We use Marmalead to...

Find any SEO errors on our Etsy listings that need to be improved
See what strategies we can implement for different listings so they rank better
Keep track of our competitors, listings, and keywords that are performing best

But Marmalead isn't the only tool we have up our sleeve...

Etsy Rank

Imagine a tool that's created specifically to help small shop owners get noticed through SEO. That's exactly what Etsy Rank does! This website helps you find keywords that your audience is guaranteed to be using, along with the most popular searches at any given time so that your Etsy shop can stay current.

There are paid versions of Etsy Rank, but with the free plan, you can...

Audit 25 of your product listings each day
Explore 50 keywords each day
See how well 10 of your products are ranking

How to improve your listings

Now that we know what keywords are and what tools we can use to create the perfect list of search terms, we need to know how to apply our findings to our shops and products so that we can sell digital products with ease.

Let's break it down into four steps:

Find the listings that need the most help - Use Marmalead or Etsy Rank to find the listings that need your attention, then implement any suggestions and your keyword research to improve your rankings.
Check up on your keywords - compare your listings to one another and see what the differences are between your listings that are doing good and the ones that need a bit of work. Now you know what keywords you need to focus on improving!
Target a high-level keyword - For each of your shop listings, have the goal of ranking for one high-quality keyword that’s ideally two to three words long. Include this keyword in your product title, the first line of the description, and your tags.
It's time to go live - now that you know what listings to improve and what keywords to swap out, you can hit publish and watch your listings climb up in the search results! Even if they aren't perfect, you can keep an eye on your listings and make any more needed changes.

Pro tip! Use all 13 tag opportunities with each of your listings. If Etsy gives you a chance to niche down with your product, take it! When you're listing a new product, you have the optional choice of using tags. Take full advantage of the tools Etsy has given you to extend the reach of your online business.

Optimizing Your Etsy Listing

You can use Marmalead to find the keywords that aren’t living up to their potential so you know what you need to optimize. Once you know what needs to be edited, you can use Marmalead and Etsy Rank to find new keywords to get your listings in front of your ideal customers. Don’t go through and change all your keywords, make sure you just change the ones you’ve noticed are underperforming! Now, where do you put these keywords you’ve found...

Product titles
Product descriptions
Product tags

Etsy Guide for 2022

Etsy can be a powerful platform for small business owners. You can learn even more about leveraging Etsy to build a successful business in our Etsy shop guide, which is a step-by-step guide + tool kit to start an Etsy shop selling Digital Products. This guide has six sections that take you from the research phase before launching your shop to learning to maintain your listings and keep making sales! You can purchase and read about it here!

Keywords can be challenging to master, but they can be super helpful for your Etsy business! We dive deep into the topic of keywords and provide 1:1 support and audit for your shop in our signature hybrid program, Digital Planner Academy®. You can learn more about the program and the areas of business we can help you with here.