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Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2009
What are meta tags? Text placed in the computer code that make up a web page that you can’t see when looking at the web page.
A lot of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) info talks about having good meta tags because that’s part of what search engines use to decide your placement in search results. While you can’t control what Etsy uses in the way of meta tags, you can control what some of the meta tags say. Here’s how:
| For your shop homepage | |
|---|---|
| meta name= | Where it comes from in your listing |
| “keywords” | Comes from your shop section names: Use keywords that folks looking for your items will use when they search. |
| “description” | Comes from your shop announcement: The first 160 characters are key so don’t waste them with info or characters that don’t describe what you sell. |
| “author” | Your Etsy ID |
| For your item listings | |
|---|---|
| meta name= | Where it comes from in your listing |
| “keywords” | Your tags |
| “description” | The start of your item description: The first 160 characters need to describe your item for search purposes. This is what will be displayed about your item in search results, so don’t waste them with info or characters that don’t describe the item. |
| Not meta tags, but still very important: | |
| Page Title–Shop Home The text in the blue bar at the top of your browser when viewing a webpage. |
On your shop homepage: Shop Title by UserName on Etsy The first 30 characters you use in your “Shop Title” on your shop’s appearance page followed by your user name, and then on Etsy if there’s room (download Etsy’s SEO PDF document for a more precise description). If your business name is different than your Etsy ID this is a great place to put it, describe what you sell, your business’ tag line…. |
| Page Title–Item Pages The text in the blue bar at the top of your browser when viewing a webpage. |
On your listing pages: Item Title by UserName on Etsy The first 60 characters you use as the title of the listing followed by your user name and on Etsy if there’s room (download Etsy’s SEO PDF document for a more precise description). Describe the item a little if you can, limit the title to about 60 characters. Anything over 70 characters is definitely too long for Google’s taste. |
| Alternate Text for Images (also referred to as alt text) |
Your listing title is used here again: But only for the thumbnail of the first image. When your items get picked up for Google image search, it will use this info to define the photo. It’s also the text that shows when a mouse hovers over the image. |
| Web Page Address (also referred to as URL)  |
Your listing title is used here again: The first 40 characters of your listing title will be added to the web page address to increase search engine friendliness. For example, my happy little screenbug has the title: Screenbug – Cobalt Blue Screen Bug – protect your screens from walk throughs The URL will be: http://www.etsy.com/listing/28606003/screenbug-cobalt-blue-screen-bug-protect |
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7 Comments | Add your own
Very useful info! Thank you for the details!
Fantastic information for newbies like me. Thank you so much!
If there were a vote for a CEO for Etsy I would pick you. Always helpful with great information, freely shared. You are awesome in my book and you return sanity to the crazy etsy world. Thanks. Janice
You’re welcome!
(Janice–you make me blush!)
I’m with Janice!!! Thank you,
Nancy
SEO is so confusing and this makes it a bit easier to grasp. Thanks so much.
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