You’ve probably heard it a hundred times: When it comes to selling handmade goods, SEOor search engine optimization is an important part in boosting your presence online.
The search world is continuously changing but one thing is constant: Websites with quality content that meet the needs of those searching for that content, and those that provide a user-friendly experience, will win in the search engine results page.
But for now, here are things that you should be checking… and it will only take 5 minutes of your time:
Keywords
Identity five keyword phrases you feel that your website should absolutely be found for other than branded terms like your handmade business’ name or product names. Be specific. If you sell regionally, include your region. If your product addresses a specific need, describe it. For example, “seed beads” is too general because it doesn’t describe the accessory. “Czech glass seed beads” would be much better, but one could even go further and add more descriptors such as the color, size, texture, etc.
5-Minute SEO Check
- Type the keywords in Google and look at the first page of the search results. Are you one of the top three search results? If not, are you elsewhere else in the search results?
- If your website is not on the first page, ask yourself if your website has content relevant to this search.
- Are your competitors doing better than you in the search results? If so, you’ll need to find out what they’re doing right so you can act to better compete against them.
- Does the search results page feature ads either above the normal results, or along the side? Are your competitors advertising there? If they are, they’ve likely done the math and consider it a good investment. You should consider throwing your hat in the ring as well; otherwise they’re getting visitors that you could be getting.
- Does the first page search results page feature any Google+ page results? If so, is your Google+ page listed there? Are your competitors? If you own a local business, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a properly setup Google+ for local business page so you can be featured prominently in this scenario.
Improving Your Result
If you are not happy with your website’s SEO performance, you need to think about your strategy or consider getting outside help. An SEO expert can look at your SEO, further develop the keyword list, conducting searches in a way that isn’t influenced by Google’s personalization of search results. This evaluation will provide you with a much better idea of your website’s SEO performance, and from there you can create a roadmap to get to where you want to be.
If you have the time, you might be interested to read more on the basics of keyword research, how to sell your craft online, and free ways to promote online. If you’re on Etsy, learn how to improve your Etsy Relevance Search.
While you’ll never get a look behind the Google curtain to learn everything they know (or don’t know) about your site, by leveraging SEO best practices, you can greatly increase the chances that your website will show up in response to the right search queries.
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