How do I know if my keywords are actually working?
I've been optimizing my listings for about 3 months now — changed all my titles to include more specific phrases, filled all 13 tags, and rewrote my descriptions. But my views are still pretty flat. Is there any way to actually tell which keywords are bringing people in, or is it basically a guessing game? I feel like I'm just making changes without knowing if they help.
3 Replies
eRank has a tool called "Listing Audit" that shows how each listing ranks for specific search terms. It's not perfect but it's the closest thing we have to keyword-level data on Etsy. Run your top listings through it and compare the keyword grades before and after changes. That's how I started measuring whether my optimizations actually did anything.
Etsy doesn't give us keyword-level analytics, so it's always a bit indirect. What I do: pick one listing, change only the title and tags, then check views week over week. If views improve over 2–3 weeks, the change helped. If not, I revert. It's slow but it's the only real way to A/B test on Etsy. Flat views after 3 months though — have you checked whether your listing quality score (CTR and conversion) might be the bigger issue?
One thing that helped me was checking what search terms buyers are actually using in the Etsy Shop Manager under Stats. It's limited but you can see search terms that led to your shop. If you're ranking for those terms but not converting, the issue might be photos or pricing rather than keywords.