The art of Sue Griffiths at MessieJessie

Sue and I have always tried to apply SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to her Etsy listings, in particular using Keywords.

Well, a few of weeks ago I wrote a post entitled “If you run a blog to support your Etsy shop”, which received a comment from Mandi of  DIYCraftPhotography. Visiting Mandi’s web site I came across a great article “ Get Discovered with Search Friendly Etsy Listing Titles”. In essence, the article describes using longer listing titles to draw more views. Not unlike using long tail keywords as part of your SEO strategy to draw more site visitors.

What is a keyword?

A keyword is a word used to help search engines, including Etsy and Google, deliver appropriate pages when people conduct searches.

1. What Is a Long Tail Keyword?

Long-tail keywords are phrases rather than individual words; they have less search volume and less competition to rank for. Take a look at the following example “Assemblage Art Dress Little Women” This is a long tail keyword as opposed to the single keyword “Assemblage”

The difference between “Assemblage” and “Assemblage Art Dress Little Women” is this:

• When a person searches for “Assemblage” you’ve little idea what that person has in mind.
• When a person searches for “Assemblage Art Dress Little Women,” that person’s intent is much clearer.

.

2. Relevancy

Keyword searches with single words will always return many and varied results because a single word can cover such a broad spectrum of subjects – it is not accurately relevant.

Long-tail keywords are more targeted and the results are highly relevant. This means the people who click through are more likely to purchase your item.

3. Competition

Because there are a limited number of results on the first page of a search, competition for ranking with a single keywords is high. Because of their relevancy long tail keyword searches have less competition. But, as long tail keywords can often result in a higher conversion rate, it follows that it is more profitable to get ranked for long tail keywords than getting ranked for a difficult single keyword.

4. Long Tail Keywords Are Old Hat

Some people would say long tail keywords are and old method of SEO and no longer works. But, theses days more and more people are using long tail keywords when searching on line.

5. How so?

Both Apple and Google, leaders in mobile device operating systems, are moving forward with natural language technologies – iPhone’s Siri and Android’s Google Now.

The way we interact with mobile devices favours long tail keywords.

More and more users are using a mobile device to surf the internet and, to search on Etsy! People pull out their mobiles and “talk” to their phone to get answers. Search is becoming more like a conversation with the search engine. And even when they can’t talk to their device, they are still typing out their search as a question.

Here are some samples:

• “Where’s the nearest Tesco store?”
• “How do I get rid of toothache fast?”
• “Which essential oils affect mood?”

Searches on Google, likewise Etsy, are now more of a long tail question than a single keyword. That means more than ever long tail keywords are important in good SEO.

6. So What Next

I read Mandi’s article and decided to give it a go. I changed the titles of Sue’s Etsy listings on 9^th June. As you can see from the graph below, although listing views both before and after 9^th June could exceed 50, overall they have seem to have exceeded 50 on more days after 9^th June than before.

Changing the titles appears to have had an affect.

The change in listing title does seem to have an effect. I’ll continue to watch the listing views over the coming weeks and see if the numbers continue to increase. Of course I may need to improve my titles but hey, there’s nothing to lose. If you fancy having a go at this yourself why not pop over to Mandi’s site and read the full article, you can find it here “Get Discovered with Search Friendly Etsy Listing Titles” by Mandi Grant of DIYCraftPhotography.com .

Seems that all we have time for these days is to post a new desktop wallpaper. Hopefully Sue will have some time later this week to post some photos of the completed Wedding Lilly and also about a masterclass she recently attended. Me? Of course I’ll find something. In fact its already 90% done; I still need to confirm some numbers but, if they’re good, I’ll be passing on some advice on another way to increase your Etsy views. Hold tight for that one!

Meanwhile, back to the here and now. Here is the July wallpaper

Free July calendar desktop wallpaper. To make it your desktop wallpaper, left click the image to see a larger version, then right click that image and choose “SET AS DESKTOP BACKGROUND”.

To make it your desktop wallpaper, left click the image to see a larger version, then right click that image and choose “SET AS DESKTOP BACKGROUND”.

If you would like to purchase any of Sue’s work, please visit  Our Etsy Shop. Our Etsy shop also has several other art dress assemblages for sale, we hope you enjoy viewing them. If you have any queries about this piece or any of the other pieces in our Etsy shop or, would like further information about Messie Jessie, please feel free to contact us via a “convo” through our Etsy shop or via e-mail at info@messiejessie.co.uk .

Just updating you with a few more pics of my sisters wedding bouquet. It needs to be finished tonight as the wedding is on Saturday. Really looking forward to it. Will share with some photos later.

.

.

.

My sister is getting married in a couple of weeks, I’m really excited for her and, so looking forward to the wedding. Last year I made a bouquet for my friend’s daughter, so my sister wondered if I would do one for her. Of course I said yes and of course I’ve left it to the last moment.

.

It’s different to Cassie’s bouquet. This one is just going to be a couple of lilies. My sister lost her fifteen year old daughter Jade to cancer six years ago, and her favourite flowers were lilies, so these need to be special.

.

I’ve shaped them using wire, and I’m covering them with fabrics that belonged to Jade, emotional but, I’m glad I can do this for my sister.

Pop back soon to see how they come on.

Sharing is caring

If you run a blog to support your Etsy shop, a blog in which you tell your audience about yourself and your work, in which you try to include some useful and interesting posts about other artists, ideas or techniques; would you rather…

• one post attract many visitors once a year?

• or posts grow traffic month to month?

Having lots of people visit your website is great, it means you’re doing something right. It means you’re posting articles people find enjoyable or informative and it means you’re on the right track. Having these visitors share your post will bring more visitors.

However, many blog owners find it difficult to get their post shared. I don’t mean getting posts to go viral, I mean getting visitors to Tweet, Facebook share or Stumble what you post.

How do you get visitors to share your posts? Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. Sharing buttons

Make it easier for your readers to share your content by including “sharing buttons” on your site. Whatever blogging platform you use there are bound to be free plugin “sharing buttons” available. The plugin we use is Shareaholic, get it here

2. The point

Don’t waste your readers’ visit. Think about what your post is going to convey, make sure the post is relevant to them. Will they have learned something new? whether it be about you, your work or another artist. If not, is it really worth posting?

3. Ideas worth sharing

I’m sure you’ll have many ideas about what to post but are they all good? When you get an idea for a post, can you make it even better? Include links to other resources enabling your reader to research further. Try to find ways to make your post different.

4. Research

You will need to do this! How much depends on the depth of your intended post. Never start without doing at least a little; even if it’s just a simple Google search or visiting a few relevant blogs to affirm thoughts and information.

5. Make it different

Whether you search with Google or Bing you’ll find plenty of links to pages about your chosen subject. So, how do you get your post shared? Make it different!

How? Make it personal; put as much of yourself in it as you can. This is possibly the easiest and hardest of things to do. On the one hand we’re all unique and after all, your blog is about you but, on the other hand, how many of us find it that easy to reveal our inner selves. Instill as much of yourself into your posts as you can but, stay within your comfort zone.

6. How long should my post be?

What we want is for our posts to be shared. We’re looking to gather people who will come back again and again not one off’s. So, forget what Google wants and focus on your reader.

Some people enjoy reading long articles that go into great detail whilst others prefer a summary or even skim. So write until you’ve said what it is you want to say. Our blog even has regular wordless posts.

Knowing your audience will help you determine how long your posts should be. Take a look at this article from Heather Lloyd Martin – Whats the best word count for google

7. Visual elements

The niche which this blog forms part of is highly dependent on imagery, and we do our best to provide as much as we can without slowing page loading times. We aim to share imagery which is compelling, with each post including a suitable number. For instance when posting about a new piece we include 4-5 images (hopefully different than those in the Etsy Shop ) ; posting about another artist such as on a Wordless Wednesday contains about 8 images; whilst this post contains few if any.

Images are probably the most shared content on the internet, Pinterest is a major sharing network. Make sure to include some, and as mentioned earlier in this article, make sure you have social share buttons on your site Link here-

8. Beyond the written word

Multimedia elements aren’t just images, they include audio and video, too. We experimented with video a while ago and found it most useful. However, videos are not as easily shared as still images and not always easy to make. Another drawback is storage; but you can get around this by having a YouTube account and hosting your videos there. Then it’s a simple matter to embed the YouTube code into your post in order to share your content.

They say a picture paints a thousand words. Smooth animation or video takes around 24 frames per second. Therefore, a 30 second video is 24 x 30 x 1000 = 720000 words

9. Share your own posts

Don’t expect people to share your content if you don’t share it yourself. Here are a few things you can do to start sharing.

Email list – give your readers a chance to subscribe to your blog and receive posts by email..

• Tweet it – and if you can include an image. Images stand out more in a Twitter timeline.

• Facebook share it – again include an image if you can.

• Pin It – pin the leading image to your board

• Share it more than once – Your readers are online at different times in the day, so share your content more than once.

Wow! what a month May has been, over in a flash. Not sure what we got up to but, right now I’m feeling rather tired. Roll on August – that’s when I hope I’ll be able to take more or less the whole month off

So next is June and here she is. June’s free desktop wallpaper calendar is ready. Hope you like it. To make it your desktop wallpaper, left click the image to see a larger version, then right click that image and choose “SET AS DESKTOP BACKGROUND”.

Free June calendar desktop wallpaper. To make it your desktop wallpaper, left click the image to see a larger version, then right click that image and choose “SET AS DESKTOP BACKGROUND”.

If you would like to purchase any of Sue’s work, please visit  Our Etsy Shop. Our Etsy shop also has several other art dress assemblages for sale, we hope you enjoy viewing them. If you have any queries about this piece or any of the other pieces in our Etsy shop or, would like further information about Messie Jessie, please feel free to contact us via a “convo” through our Etsy shop or via e-mail at info@messiejessie.co.uk .