Etsy tips for new shops to help improve visibility.

If you’re wondering, “How do I make my Etsy shop more visible?” Then you’ve come to the right place.

It can be heart-breaking when you put in the time to set up your new Etsy shop, you carefully photograph your creations, write your product descriptions, tell everyone you know about your new shop and…nothing.

Getting found on Etsy can be a slow process. It takes time to increase your visibility on the site. With over 9 million Etsy sellers worldwide, there is a lot of competition. Many categories are oversaturated, and with increasing numbers of AI generated artwork and side-hustles, it’s only getting busier. Building a successful Etsy shop is certainly not for the faint hearted.

The good news is that there are things you can do to help increase your visibility and start getting traffic to your Etsy shop.

How to get more views on Etsy

1. Ensure that you have filled in all the blanks for your shop. That means your shop policies, your bio, a profile picture that shows your lovely face, all of it- fill it all in with the relevant information.
2. Create your Etsy shop for your ideal customer, not for the Etsy algorithm. Think about what your ideal audience wants, what they are searching for, any questions they may have. Remember, they are the ones that decide whether to buy or not, so make sure they are at the heart of your listing.
3. Create high quality products that your perfect customer really wants. Quality is key. Make sure that your products are as perfect as possible. Use the best materials, make sure things are central if they are supposed to be central. Refine your processes and become a master of your craft. Shoddy work won’t sell. I look back and cringe at some of our earliest products- they were pretty ropey to say the least.
4. Do your research. Get to know what your perfect customer is searching for. You can do this by searching for your products in your niche on Etsy and seeing what else comes up. Check out competitors’ listings and see what they are doing well. Analyse, read, study and critique. You can also use Etsy SEO tools like Erank for keyword suggestions.
5. Use high quality photographs in your listings. Go for 8-10 photographs for each listing and add alt text. You want lots of natural daylight, interesting composition and non-blurry photographs.
6. Optimise your Etsy listings. Use all 13 product tags, add the attributes, materials and a clear title. Include your most important product tags in your item description and one in your title.
7. Add to your Etsy shop regularly. New listings tell the algorithm that you are an engaged and active seller. It loves it when you add new things to your shop. Especially when you optimise your listings (see point 3).
8. Write well-crafted product descriptions. You can read more on this here.
9. Use storytelling. Tell your customers about your processes, your motivations, the story behind your products. People go to Etsy for handmade, crafted items, so show them that your items are handmade by a real human. This is especially important if you are selling paintings or prints because Etsy is filling up with AI generated artwork.
10. Offer excellent customer service. Follow up with customers after their purchases to check that they are happy with their orders. Just sending a friendly message to check in can be the gentle nudge they need to write you a review.
11. Encourage reviews. You could always ask your customers to leave you a review, but do this in a friendly, polite and respectful way. Don’t be too pushy.
12. Reply to all reviews. When a customer leaves you a review, you have the opportunity to leave a public reply, not just for negative reviews. A friendly “Thank you so much” goes a long way.
13. Share reviews on social media. This is social proof for your followers, showing that others are buying and loving your products.
14. Update listings that aren’t successful. If, after several months, you have a listing that is just not performing, see if you can tweak it and bring it to life. Go through your tags and see if you can make them more relevant (see more on this here). Check your photos are bang-on. Look at your listing from the eyes of your ideal customer- does the listing appeal? Does it answer all possible questions they might have? Is there anything you could improve?
15. Don’t keep making lots of little tweaks. It takes up to 60 days for the Etsy algorithm to do its thing. If you make small changes every single day, the algorithm will never catch up with you. Make your changes, then leave it alone and see what happens.
16. Create bundles of products. If you have a few products that work well together, list them as a bundle. This gives you more content for your shop, and it also gives you a higher value listing and encourages larger purchases.
17. Share your shop on social media. Share the direct link to your Etsy shop on social media because it sends traffic straight to your products and you pay less in fees when customers use this link.
18. Get on Pinterest. Share your listing links on Pinterest- it’s basically a giant search engine, filled with audiences looking for gorgeous products like yours.
19. Run a promotion. Don’t do this too often, but you could run a sale or promotion to try to give your visibility a bit of a boost. Use caution with this one though, you don’t want to become the always-on-sale-brand.
20. Duplicate listings to test. you can copy a listing and test it with alternative product tags, keywords, target audiences etc. Just make sure the two listings have different titles and main images.
21. If a product has good visibility and is performing well, DON’T CHANGE IT! I cannot stress this enough. If it ain’t broke, please, don’t fix it. If you must tweak, then see the above step.
22. Be consistent. Show up consistently, list items regularly and answer all enquiries. Build trust by showing up.

Summing Up

It is completely possible to grow your Etsy visibility, but it takes time. None of the above suggestions are quick fixes. Stick with it, make your shop the best it can be and your visibility should improve over time.