A key component of getting your handmade items in front of a worldwide audience is actually getting them into a search engine index so people searching can find you.

Here is what you should know and what you should avoid

Why would someone want to submit their site to a search engine? - The idea of submitting a site was for newly registered domains. If you just purchased a domain name and put your shop online you used to submit your url to each search engine so they could “crawl” it and then hopefully put it into their index so searchers could find it. That is how search engines used to become aware of new sites. You had to tell them.

Can you manually submit your site? – You still can and here is where Google lets you do so:

Submit Your Site to Google

Click on “Add Your Url” to submit your site.

You can still find submission forms for other search engines as well.

Should you pay someone to submit your site? - You should definitely NOT and here’s why. The first reason is that it is very easy. If you really wanted to manually submit your site to Google for instance, it would only take 2 seconds to do it yourself. The second reason is that submission is really not necessary anymore. You can still find the submission pages, like the one above, but using them will probably not make a difference. Give it a little time and the search engines will find you on their own.

What if a service offers to submit your site to 100+ search engines? - This is a pitch that can sound appealing. Who has the time to manually submit their site to over 100 search engines? You probably don’t even know of 100 search engines to submit to.

There are lesser known search engines around but you really only need to be concerned with Google, Yahoo, and Bing, and they will find your site on their own. If you want to do something you can submit your site to Google and Bing. Yahoo and Bing work together.

How long does it take to get your site indexed? - It usually only takes a couple weeks at most to get indexed naturally.

What can get you indexed faster? – The easiest thing is to just put up a couple links to your new site. If you are on Twitter, Facebook, or have any other website or blog, place a link directing to your new site. When the search bots scan your Facebook Page and follow that link they will become aware of your new site.

How do you know if your site is indexed? – Go to a search engine, www.google.com for example, and type in site:yourdomain.com and hit search. Obviously replace yourdomain.com with your own domain and just add site: to the front. If your site shows up in the results you are indexed.

Once you are indexed the search engines will periodically scan your site looking for new pages or items and will ultimately add those to their index as well.

What if you sell on a marketplace? – If you set up shop on a site like Etsy or Ebay and start filling it up with your handmade items or artwork, the marketplace itself will be linking to your shop. The search engines are frequently scanning these sites for updates so it should not take long for them to notice your new shop. You will probably be posting links to your items on your Facebook Page as well so you can also get indexed that way.

Search engines may also index your individual item pages so people may be able to find a particular item from a search on a search engine.

Just be aware that getting indexed is the first step. It does not mean that your site or one of your particular items will show up in the top 10 results when someone types in your keywords. Getting higher placement in the search results has to with factors such as SEO, backlinks, and competition.

Richard Walker

While it is not always easy, marketing is a pretty simple concept. It is just getting your handmade items, crafts, or artwork in front of the people who are interested in buying them. There are so many way to get in front of them that it can be daunting to choose, especially when you are a one person operation or have limited time or a limited budget. You really want to focus your efforts on the sites that stand the greatest chance of getting results.

Social Media – Social media is really big right now. The top sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Why does everyone recommend having a Facebook Page? When you decide to spend your time using social media, and there is only so much of it when you do everything yourself, you go with the most popular site. Facebook is where everyone is these days, and some of those everyones are people who would be interested in your products.

Marketplaces – When you think of marketplaces to sell your handmade items, who comes to mind? Two that always come to mind are Etsy and Ebay. One may work better than the other for your particular items, but both have huge audiences.

The odds of your potential customers browsing one or both of these sites at least every once in a while is very high. You can ask just about anyone, at any age if they have heard of Ebay, and usually they have. It is usually the place people go when they cannot find what they are looking for in stores.

While Etsy is not as well know, it is still probably many times more popular than any other marketplace focusing on handmade items. In most cases it just makes sense to try and have a presence there with your items when you are starting out and deciding where to devote your energy to.

When it comes to using search engines to find specific handmade items for sale it is very hard to miss listings for Etsy. They show up as the number one result for most searches. How many other marketplaces show up when you search for handmade items similar to what you make? Not many.

Your customers see the same results and while they may not always end up checking out Etsy, they probably see listings for them. The sites that show up most frequently in searches tend to get the most traffic and if you happen you have your items listed there, you stand a better chance of getting views versus being on a marketplace that cannot easily be found in search.

Search engines – Right now when you think of search engines or plan on searching for something, where do you go? You will either go to Google, Yahoo, or Bing. You probably use one site more than the others and your potential customers do as well.

Google controls about 66% of the search engine market and chances are, the majority of your customers that come to you from search originated on Google. When it comes to optimizing your shop or website by doing SEO, you are usually optimizing for Google.

The same goes for spending money on advertising. Yahoo, Bing, and Google allow you to do PPC ads, those little ads either at the very top or on the right side of your screen. Yahoo and Bing are actually partners now. If you have a limited budget and see that roughly 30% of people use Yahoo and Bing to search, compared to Google’s 66% market share, would they be your number one choice?

There definitely can be benefits to trying Yahoo/Bing because 30% of searches is still an enormous amount of searches. You may also find fewer competitors buying ads there and you may not have to pay as much per click.

Often times people start out on Google and then try Yahoo/Bing to see if they get results. For just starting out though, it is hard to not go with the leader in the market if you want to have the best chance of getting in front of as many potential customers as possible.

Selling Locally – There are a lot of sellers of handmade items that do very well and focus solely on selling at craft shows. I had a discussion recently with a friend that sells at some local shows and he was able to ask questions to a very successful seller in our area.

What he found out is that their success was not random. Through years of trying different items at different shows, and then documenting their results, they basically formulated a plan that has allowed them to sell out wherever they go.

They have enough experience to know the audience at each show and cater their offerings accordingly. They know what items sell, how many to bring, and what price points work best at each particular show. They also create items specifically for each local market. They have a system and have refined it over time.

I thought that was very interesting because the show where he was able to talk to them was not successful for too many sellers. It was a great example of someone really knowing their market and getting in front of them with exactly what they wanted.

Local Stores – Stores may be in the perfect location for your demographic. While the internet really has allowed the modern artist in Tennessee to connect with his or her audience in Miami, California, and New York, stores still have their place.

I was reading an article on handmade furniture a while back and it was about people making “cottage style” pieces. After taking a look at the style and the location of the galleries, it looked like an excellent example of having brick and mortar locations in a perfect demographic.

The style just makes you think of the coast, and many of these stores are right on the east coast. While these businesses also sell online, their target market is probably right around where their stores are, not to mention the fact that shipping larger pieces of furniture can be very expensive. For these businesses with this type of handmade item, selling in local stores right around where their target market is located is probably the best way for them to market.

Keeping Records – If you keep track of where you ship your items you will eventually start to see definite patterns. You cannot always predict who your primary customers will be and where they live, but your sales records can paint the picture.

There are definitely going to be certain states that account for a larger percentage of sales. For one reason or another, that is your demographic. When you sell online, this information may just be interesting to see, but it could be helpful if you did decide to purchase local forms of advertising. In some cases you can also purchase online ads that only show to people in areas you choose. This data could definitely help you narrow down where to start.

What has been your most effective way of getting in front of your customers?

Richard

A lot of people effectively use blogs and they have probably recommended that you start one. Is a blog right for you and should you start one to promote your Etsy shop or personal website? Here are some ways you can use a blog along with information about setting one up.

Should you start a blog to promote your shop? Yes. A blog provides another platform for potential customers to find you, connect with you, and it can also be a place where you can sell your handmade items.

Why would you want a blog for your shop? The most common reason is promotion. Usually people start off with making items and sell in marketplaces like Etsy. Once they get set up and have their items online, they want to start doing off-site promotion and marketing. Blogs are one way of gaining exposure and increasing traffic to your shop.

How does a blog help with marketing your handmade items? Google loves content and content is what blogs are all about. Blogs tend to show up really well in search engines which means your blog can ultimately drive traffic to your store and help you sell your items. Your blog, like your Etsy shop, personal website, Facebook page, etc, will give you another way for people to find you online.

Communication – Your blog will allow you to receive comments from your customers and fans. You can also connect on a personal level by writing about your other interests and passions. Your customers can get to know the person behind the items.

You can also add what are called “widgets” to the sidebar, which are basically apps. These widgets remain on the screen regardless of what page of your blog your customer is on. You can add in Facebook or Twitter widgets so people can connect with you. Comments left on your Facebook page can automatically be shown on your blog as well. Blogs can allow you to create your own audience on a platform that you own.

What would you write about? You do not have to write specifically about your handmade items all the time and you do not always have to be selling something. Your blog is not simply for direct promotion. You can show and talk about your items though.

Think about who buys what you make and what they do with your items. If you sell jewelry you could “talk around” your handmade jewelry by providing articles on fashion. If you are an artist you could use your blog to talk about decorating. The key is to pick topics that interest you and your customer. Since adding content to a blog is an ongoing process it is good to write about topics you are knowledgeable and passionate about.

Do I have to write about how to make my handmade items? No, you can “sell around” your products. Keep in mind who your customers are. They are interested in how they will look when wearing your items or how their house will look when they display your artwork or handmade pieces. You do not have to get technical with construction methods because that is more of your interest.

An example would be an auto repair shop. If they chose to add a blog to promote their business they could write about tips for increasing gas mileage, what grade of gas to use, when to check tire pressure, etc. These tips would be helpful to their customers and would be things they could use. If the shop wrote articles about how to rebuild a transmission they would be focusing on their interests rather than their customer’s.

What can you add to your blog? Blogs are not simply articles, they are totally configurable. You can incorporate slideshows, photos, inbed videos, and include links to all your other sites like your Facebook Page, Etsy store, personal website, etc.

How often do you have to update it? Once a week is a good start. The key is consistency rather than quantity. Often times your blog posts will have dates and if a customer sees that your blog has not been updated in months it is possible they will think you are out of business. It is a good habit to get on a regular schedule of updating.

Does the blog have to be a separate website? If you own your own website already you can have your blog on what is called a sub-domain. The address for your blog could then be amyswidgets.com/blog. The benefit of adding a blog to your existing personal website is for SEO. Blogs allow you to add real “content” to your site. There is only so much content you can add to product descriptions in an online store. Websites that are set up as stores are also not as user friendly as blogs are for adding content and articles.

Can your blog be your website? Yes, and you can also convert a blog into a regular looking site by using templates. WordPress is a blogging platform but it can be reconfigured in so many ways. You have probably seen quite a few websites that were powered by WordPress and didn’t even realize it.

In addition to having traditional blog pages, where you see lists of articles or posts, you can also create static pages which can be made to look like traditional website pages. If you notice the top of this website for example, you see links to my about page, contact page, and submit a topic page. These are static pages while the rest of the site is set up in a blog format. If you want, your home page can be static and people can click a link to go to your blog area.

Can you sell directly on your blog? You can. A lot of people do this by adding Paypal buttons. That is an easy and free way to get started and over time you can always upgrade the template of your blog to be more like an ecommerce site so you can more easily manage it.

Where would you go to set up your blog? WordPress and Blogger are the two of the most most popular places. I am personally a big fan of WordPress. WordPress and Blogger are both platforms. They are the software or structure that runs your blog behind the scenes. I would recommend thinking long term and would go with one of these two companies. They have an enormous amount of templates, plugins, and support.

How much do blogs cost? On WordPress you can start with a free blog and then convert it over to paid in the future. Paid blogs that are hosted on WordPress are $18 per year. The benefit of spending the $18 is you get your own personalized domain name. Hosting through WordPress does come with certain limitations though.

For full control, have your own separate hosting.  You can install WordPress on your domain and have separate hosting. If you use a company like Hostgator for example, this can cost about $8 per month.

What are the downsides to free blogs? The two big issues are the domain name and the fact that you do not own it. Free blogs do not have yourname.com addresses. They would be yourname.wordpress.com. That is less professional and harder to remember.

If you went to a place like Godaddy.com and purchased yourname.com you could install your blog there and you would own that name.

If you can, own your blog – So much of what we put online these days we do not have full control over. Sure, you own your photos and descriptions, but you do not have full control over the platform where they are displayed. This is true for Etsy, Facebook, Ebay, or any other marketplace. Putting your blog on your own domain gives you full control.

Continue the theme – Try and make your blog as similar as possible to your existing website or store from a visual standpoint. Make it look like an extension of, rather than a totally separate site.

If you have an Etsy shop, look into Etsy Mini – Etsy mini is basically a plugin or widget that allows you to “feed” some of the items from your Etsy store directly into your blog. It is an easy way to automatically showcase the items from your Etsy store on the sidebar of your blog.

Should you have multiple blogs? Blogs are a lot of work and I relate having multiple blogs to having multiple stores. It is better to have fewer sites that are regularly updated. There are only so many things you can do, and actually do well at the same time.

Do you have a blog and has it helped with selling your handmade items?

Richard

Everyone talks about SEO and tells you that you need to work on it, but what is it and why is it important? Here is a general overview to get you pointed in the right direction.

What does SEO stand for? Search Engine Optimization

What is it? It is the act of optimizing your online store and product pages for specific terms and keywords related to what you are making and selling.

How can it help you get more sales? The key with selling handmade items online is having people find you. If you optimize your store for keywords that relate to what you sell, people will be able to find you when they search. The goal of optimizing is to drive targeted traffic to your store through organic search. More targeted traffic means more sales.

What if your store is not optimized? You will be missing out on a huge amount of traffic. On a site like Etsy, people can browse categories and possibly find you, but that is not possible with regular search engines like Google. People will be searching with specific words looking for something specific to buy so you will need to have the correct keywords for your store if you want to be found. The majority of traffic on the internet comes from the search engines.

SEO on Etsy vs Personal Website – SEO is SEO and the same general guidelines apply to any website on the internet. Etsy has designed their site to allow you to easily optimize your store and listings.

Many people use templates or WordPress to set up their personal websites and most of these are also set up to make optimization easy with fill in the blank boxes to put all your important text.

Is SEO hard to do? It can involve research to find the ideal keywords, but the process of optimizing is not too difficult. It used to be more difficult when you had to edit the code of your website but now you usually just have to enter text into boxes. If you optimize each new page or product listing as you go along, it doesn’t really take too much time either.

Do you have to hire someone to do your SEO? It is usually better to do it yourself. Not only is it important to learn but you know more about your specific handmade items than anyone else. You know what they are, what they can be called, and the terms that relate to them. There are often multiple terms associated with each item and you would be more aware of what those are and which are most commonly used. The key is to use the keywords that the vast majority of customers would use when searching for your items.

Is it a one time event? SEO is also an ongoing process. You will want to optimize each new page or item that you add to your store.

What are you optimizing? When you work on your SEO you are writing good titles for your pages, adding description paragraphs, naming your images, putting keywords into your url’s, and adding good written content to your site. You will also be giving proper names to each of the categories on your store.

What about off site optimization? SEO is not only about what you do ON your website. The key element of OFF site optimization is backlinks, or links on other websites that direct people to your store or specific items. Search engines like to see that others have considered your store or items important enough for them to link to you. Links from Social Media are very important right now. That would be links from sites like Facebook and Twitter.

SEO and content – Content is the text on a page, usually paragraphs. Blogs for instance have a lot of content. Because of that they rank for a variety of keywords. On your store you may have a couple paragraphs on the home page that describe what you make. Be sure to use some keywords that describe your items but make sure that the text reads normally. You do not want to add keywords just for SEO sake. As Google recommends, write for people, not search engines.

How long after optimizing will you see results? It depends on how frequently search engines scan your store or website to look for changes. Very popular sites are checked multiple times per day while others may be checked every few days. You may not see instant results after optimizing.

Things to avoid – Only use terms that closely relate to your handmade items. You may have seen sites that have paragraphs of unrelated words, usually at the end of the page. This is called stuffing. Some people fill their pages with as many words as possibly thinking they will rank for everything. That does not work and is frowned upon by the search engines.

Images including text – Search engines read text to know what your website is about. If you put all your text in images, it is not readable. A rule of thumb is if you can use your cursor to highlight your text, the search engine can read it. A banner, like the one at the top of your store is an example is an image. You cannot highlight any of the words. It is perfectly fine to use banners, just don’t use images like this all over your site instead of regular text.

What you ultimately want – Targeted traffic. You want people to search for something specific that they want to purchase and you want your specific handmade items to show up. When a person clicks to view your store you want them to find exactly what they were searching for so you stand the best chance of getting a sale.

What are you struggling with in regards to SEO? Let me know.

Richard

Online sellers love organic traffic and work very hard to get it, but what is it exactly and how can it help you sell more handmade items online? Here is what you need to know.

What does the term Organic mean? Organic results are the pages you see after you type a search term into a search engine and click “search.”

Where do organic searches come from? From the major search engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing. They also come from Google Images if you name your images correctly. Since Google dominates the search market by such a huge margin, most organic searches come from them.

Why do you want your store or website to be found in organic search? Organic traffic is targeted traffic. You are more likely to get a sale from someone that finds you organically versus them coming from clicking a banner ad or from browsing through categories. When people want a specific handmade item they ideally want to be taken to a page filled with those particular items and as a seller you want your handmade items to be on that page.

Do you have to buy organic traffic? That is why it is so great, organic traffic is FREE. It is the best kind of traffic to get and you do not have to pay for it.

Can you get organic traffic if you sell on Etsy? Yes but not always directly. If someone searches in a search engine for something very specific, your store or even one of your item listings may show up in the search results. A lot of times when you search for something handmade the results will show either an Etsy category, or they will take you to Etsy.com and will show you pages of listings that include the keywords you typed into search.

A lot of sellers use the same keywords in their descriptions so someone searching would end up browsing through a lot of items to find you. Your description, title, and tags will need to include the words that the person typed into search.

If someone knows your store name and they search for that, then you will probably show up near or at the top of the search results since you are the only store with that particular name.

How do you know if you are getting organic traffic? You can use Google Analytics and/or Etsy Stats. If you sell your handmade items any other place than Etsy, Google Analytics is your best option for viewing where your traffic is coming from. Google Analytics works with Etsy as well, but they also have “Etsy Stats” which gives you more detailed information.

Why does analytics show some search terms as “not provided?” – This is a fairly recent issue. People logged into Google get their searches encrypted so the keywords do not show up when you view your site stats. This is very frustrating as a seller because it is important to know what search terms you are ranking for and what people are actually searching for to find you. Google has been changing a lot of things lately and hopefully there will be a way around this in the near future.

Can you buy organic traffic if you want to? Sort of, you can use PPC, “pay-per-click” ads, or Google Adwords. Technically “pay-per-click” ads are considered non-organic because they do not show up in the normal search results. They are the ads that you see at the very top of a search results page or along the right side. Like regular search results, these ads only appear when a person searches for specific terms. If you do not show up “organically” in the search results for a certain term you can buy one of these ads so people can find you.

Why people finding you through organic search convert into buyers – They typed in what they were looking to buy and found exactly what they were looking for. They were not browsing through categories. They were specific. If someone wanted to buy a handmade rose as a give for mother’s day, they would not find what they were looking for by typing “rose” in the search engine search box. Now if they typed in “handmade red metal rose” and you happen to make those and your site shows up in the organic search results, you may have just gained a customer. For them to find you, you probably had those keywords in your title, description, and tags.

Etsy search versus Google Search – You can think of Etsy itself as being a sort of search engine for handmade items. Normally if you are searching for a specific handmade item online you would just go to Google and type in what you want. A lot of people know about Etsy though and know that that is where many handmade items are. Instead of starting at Google.com, a person may go straight to Etsy.com and search there for specifically what they are looking to buy.

Does organic traffic just happen? It can but you have to be doing the right things. It is also not instant and does take time. It is an ongoing process as well and does take a lot of work. You have to be consistently doing the right things and traffic will start to come over time. Do not expect instant gratification for your efforts.

What can you do to increase the organic traffic to your store? Have more specific item descriptions for less broad terms and have more items. The more competitors you have, the more specific and descriptive you need to be. Learn about SEO, keywords, tags, backlinks, image naming and text. The process is called “optimization” and the techniques work whether you have your own personal site, a blog, or sell your handmade items on Etsy or any other marketplace.

If you want more organic traffic for your handmade items, spread yourself out – There is no reason why you cannot show up multiple times in Google search results. There may be a result for an item you put on Etsy, one for your Facebook Page, another for your Blog, and even another for your Personal website. It is not uncommon to show up more than once in the results. All of your pages will need to be “optimized” for your target keywords if you want all of them to rank.

Good luck with your selling

Richard