Day 2 Assignment, SEO Bootcamp - What Happened?

[PillowThrowDecor]

Sorry for the delay in getting things posted today. Don't ya love holidays

This assignment has been a real eye opener for me.

What is so obvious to me now is why the Keywords that I thought would bring ME views didn't. Way too competitive keywords.

It is also making me really concentrate on how/what words a customer would use to search out a particular pillow.

Sometimes we forget how to think like a customer so maybe go ahead and ask someone how they might describe your product.

Kinda fun isn't it?

Cheers
Christine

[PetiteTuques]

It is fun! What I like about it is that you can search by website content, so you can put in any link. I put in a link to see what words some other store is getting views by. It gives more ideas. Also, I find that most of the keywords coming up in my website content doesn't really pertain to my product. People are searching for patterns, not actual hats to buy. So I'm still not really understanding how keywords work, where to put them etc, but from what you said in my other comment, its good because people are searching for other stuff, but find me instead.

[PillowThrowDecor]

I am not a hat wearer but I will have a look at your store and tell you how I would look for your item... this should be fun

Christine

[PillowThrowDecor]

Hey Tuques! Lots of good key words for you!

I want to give you some things to think about...
I am pretending to be a gramma buying a hat for my small grandson... I may not even remember how to spell tuque or worse I may spell it "toque" so I just may call it a hat because it is easier to spell. I'd like it to be blue to match his jacket. So I would search for " blue hat kids". I might search with the words in exactly that order because I first searched for blue hats and there were a gazillion search results, so I narrowed it down by adding "kids"... by the way there were 290 seachers in February looking for exactly that. It is with this thinking in mind that you should plan your keywords for this listing...

https://icraftgifts.com/handmade/20716/1-2years-blue-striped-classic-tuque.php

On some of your listings you have great views... but they are probably from "looky lues"... we want shoppers!!!

I AM SO GUILTY OF THIS TOO!!! I have fantastic views on some of my products but I have such a high "bounce rate" ... people that bounce in to my store to look at one item and then bounce out!

So back to picking the right keywords for this listing... using Google keyword tool her is how I narrowed it down...

1)tuques           way too many 200,000++
2)hat...                  still way too many
3)blue hat               201,000
4)blue knitted hat     590
5)blue hat kids          290
6)blue tuque            58
7)blue knitted tuque  not enough data

With this information I would  check to see how close to the top my listing is coming up using the information on line 5 and 6. I need to ask ADMIN how quickly Google recognizes a change to our keywords... I think it is when Google indexes our change which means it may be a day or several days instead of "real time".

I looked to see how your one listing called Acorn Tuque fared.  I don't think Acorn is a relevant keyword as I could not find any data on someone searching for an acorn hat.

You have some really cute product with really good views but again, like me, need some of the lookers to convert to buyers.

For all of you reading this you must be thinking..."does she practice what she preaches"? Ha ha... I too am just figuring this out and have so much work to do in my own store so rest assured we are all in this together!!!

This is a lot of work at first, but the more we think like our buyers and learn to use these keyword tools we will get smarter, better, faster!!!

Ok... lets hear how others are doing.
Does this help?

[Weezi]

Here is mine! I sell way too many things...I should narrow it down to one thing ...like blue pens. That would make this a lot easier!

Aprons:

Aprons  823,000
Vintage apron  40,500
kitchen apron  74,000
pinafore apron  4,400
novelty apron 22,200
designer apron 1,300
cook apron  8,100
apron dress  14,800


Dresses:
Vintage inspired dress
Wiggle dress   33,100
Retro dress  90,500
Retro style   165,000
women's dresses 7,480,00
cocktail dress 1,220,000
cheap dress 301,000
1960s dress/rockabilly dress  90,500
Vintage retro dress  4,400
 1950s dresses  22,200
Cotton dress  301,000
Retro outfits   4,400

Bags and Totes:

Tote bags  823,000
Tote bag  1,500,000
Large tote bag 74,000
Shoulder handbag 90,500
Women handbag  2,740,000
Women’s handbag  3,350,000
Shopper tote bag  14,800
Eco friendly tote bag  2,900

Key words:
Eco chic  33,100
Eco goods 1,900
Recycled   2,240,000
Upcycled  14,00
Recycled fabrics /recycled textiles  2,400


I also have a key word spread sheet that I did at Christmas time with EVERYTHING on it! I have over 200 key words on it..I can share that (somehow) if anyone wants to see it.

I find I want to be creative when describing but at the same time you need to as accurate as possible...not to mention simple and to the point.

Let me know if this is OK or if I need to change it.
thanx!!! Lisa
www.weezi.com

[Vintage Inspired Jewelry]

I did look at keywords,but not sure how it is all used by buyers. I only have 5 items of jewelry listed and change items every week or two. I also update them,but not sure what good it actually does. At one time I had 50 items  listed plus 50 on hold. All I did was pay the minimal fee which does add up. No sales,so I decided just to list the 5 free items.

[iCraft Admin]

Christine,

Your little experiment looking for a hat for your grandchild and thinking like a real buyer is an excellent example of how people choose keywords, and how right keywords could make a difference between people finding your products and not finding them at all. This would make for a great assignment. Each person could pretend to shop for someone else's products and then share their thought process and strategies for choosing certain keywords.

To answer your question regarding how soon Google will pick up on your content changes. Well, it can take somewhere from a few days to a few weeks for that to happen. So don’t make changes to your pages too often thinking they didn’t work. Instead, make copy tweaks, optimize for different keywords, wait and measure (using GA) to see if your efforts made any difference. To be sure Google made a note of your changes, search for your page in Google like this site:#page has been deleted# and see when each page was last cashed.  The date stamp on that product page is March 6th -  http://bit.ly/d1wZAp
When you look at the date of that page being last updated (Feb 11), it will give you an idea of how long it takes Google to index your pages after you make changes to them.

[Brilliant Beads]

I've obviously been selecting keywords wrong...I've been going with single words, and all my keywords are coming up as multiples.

Does Google combine single words in a string...like a Boolean search?

I'm still playing with this...I tried searching my iCraftGifts.com shop and it came up with totes and bags, but I don't sell those, so I'm confused where the info is coming from.

...I'll figure it out.

[PillowThrowDecor]

LOL...Hey admin... you must be reading my notebook as that is the next assignment!  I was going to be writing that up tonight but I still think we have to spend some more time on this as I don't see many of our bootcampers on this thread here.

Understanding this whole keyword concept is HARD. Once you get it, its a snap!!! It makes me wanna do a head smack and say "Dah... now I get it!"

The main thing that was screwing me up was using popular words.  I thought I should use popular words so that I had 100,000's of chances of getting views. What I didn't understand was the competition for those words would always bury me.

Now, every time I feel lazy and want to write "decorative pillows" (Over half a million searches monthly) I visualize having a whole football team dog-piled on top of me while I'm holding one of my "decorative pillows".

Now I understand it is better to pick less popular words that really specifically describe my pillow.... such as "blue striped pillow" (590) searches. That's when I visualize my self in the football field carrying my pillow/ball over the goal line, crowd cheers and I score! I look back and some other guy is getting dog-piled at the other end of the field by the football team.

How is that for a really good mind picture?!!!

[iCraft Admin]

Ha ha, well you've painted a pretty colourful picture. It's an interesting way of visualizing the data. 
Yes, it's better to rank #1 for a term that has only 590 monthly searches, than #1255 for a term that has 500000 monthly searches. You have a lot more chances of being found, if you are visible on the first page of Google search results.

[PillowThrowDecor]

Hey weezi!

To use your keywords as you have them listed there is still too broad.

I have taken some of your list and shown you how you can create a keyword phrase or keywords that will help buyers zero into your product.

Aprons  823,000               4 pocket apron  390
Vintage apron  40,500       vintage bib aprons 780

Oops... google is having a problem right now so I will have to quit

[Brilliant Beads]

OK, another question because I, too, have been thinking popular words and getting buried.

Are these keywords with <1000 hits going to be "Tags" or in our "Titles" or both?  Where do the bots come up with the keywords?

....great learning going on here, thanks Christine!!

[PillowThrowDecor]

Keywords should be everywhere but it starts with our titles and then in the first couple of lines in our descriptions  say 160 characters (not exactly sure on how many characters). I am not sure in what order thereafter the bots search our listings.

Areas that we can optimize our store are:
NEW LISTINGS, NEW LISTINGS, NEW LISTINGS
Effective keywords in our title (3 or 4)
Same keywords effectively used in the first160 characters of our description
Same keywords "peppered" but not heavily "salted" throughout the balance of the description
Good content in our description (not too short)
Our Profile
Product Tags
Picture names
Picture captions

It is better to get your listing all tweaked before you publish it then to refurbish it with proper words after the fact. That does not preclude you from making changes anytime, it just takes Google longer to "notice" your changes. 

Admin... correct me if I am wrong on any of this as I am new at this too and I know it may be different for every site.

Also take note... a list that you generated at Christmas may not be as effective as it today as there are some Keywords that are "time sensitive" as in popular this month but not next.

Once you get used to thinking in terms of using keywords and their proper placement it will become second nature to you... its just brain jarring at the beginning

Cheers
Christine

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

Just popping in to say that I'm behind, but still alive.  I didn't have time to do day 2 assignment yesterday (had planned to do Monday, but hey, holidays happen ), but hope to do it this evening.  I think day 2 and day 3 assignments are really good ones, even if they are some work to get them done.

[PillowThrowDecor]

No worries... we'll watch for ya.

[BoutiqueKarma]

I still haven't peeled myself off the floor from my findings with this assignment. I am getting little or no hits using keywords. I think I'm being buried.

I've been trying to do product branding using the same item names 'Mug Huggers' 'Coffee Cuff' 'Eye Pillow' and using the fabric names as the descriptive element separating this items. TOTALLY WRONG! Lol

Obviously different titles/names will bring more observers, shoppers, etc to my shop and they will see all my items at this point. I've got to revamp.

I hate going into a shop and seeing their item title to have 15 different words, does this work? Is it recommended? I think its tacky and annoying- but am I just saying this because I'm a seller who finds this spammy?

[Sirocco]

I don’t quite understand this assignment but here is what I did. I went to google keywords and typed in a single keyword and let the google keyword utility give me phrases using that word. I did this for all of the key words that I could think of. I sell only one product. It is a stretchy men’s beaded bracelet so I don’t have a lot of keywords. I picked out the phrases that had local search volume of less than 2500. Here are my results.

Gold stretch bracelet 2400
Peyote bracelet 2900
Beaded bracelet 90500
Stretch beaded bracelet 6600
Handmade beaded bracelet 1900
Hand beaded bracelet 590
Male bracelet 2900
Beaded cuff bracelet 2900
Beaded cuff 880

Paul
https://icraftgifts.com/sirocco
http://twitter.com/DanSirocco
http://siroccostradingpost.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/pages/Siroccos-Trading-Post/37126109207?ref=share

[wabibrookstudio]

My gosh, I find this so overwhelming, but I think it is slowly starting to sink into my SEO challenged brain!
If I am understanding this correctly, we should be looking for keywords that score lower for ad competition, and monthly search volume?  Sort of trying to be a big fish in a smaller sea?

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

My results...

I can find keywords that describe my jewelry that have low numbers, but if I google those, I don't come anywhere close to the beginning in the results.

I can search for my products using very specific words and show up in the first couple of results pages on google, but those keywords give result of Not Enough Data for global market place...

So, this means I'm using crappy keywords if I hope to be found and I need to really think about this a lot and come up with a strategy.

Thanks Christine for doing this and explaning it so well.  Anytime I've tried to read about SEO in the past, my eyes have glazed over, and the info has gone right over my head.  This is the best explanation I've seen.  Great job!   

Julie

[wabibrookstudio]

Julie, I'm finding out the same thing.  Very specific keywords will put me on the first page, but they don't even show up in the keyword tool.  Using suggested keywords with low search volumes, I don't appear after 5 pages.  So now what?

[Zeba]

I did two expermiments and now I am confused as to what to do.  The first experiment, I picked a product with a lot of competion.

My Title is "Contemporary Natural Pearls in Copper and Brown Earrings" -
1) did a keyword search on the full title.  I guess no one searches on this long title
2) Alternative keywords:
     a) natural pearls - medium competition, global search 12,100
     b) brown pearl earrings, less competiotion, global search 2,900
     c) Pearl deop earrings, high competition, global search 49,500
Should I change my title to say "Natural Brown Pearl Drop Earrings " and add the words, contemporary and copper in my my definition?

Second experiment - my title is "Wire Crochet Colorful Howlite Beaded Bracelet" - nobody does a search on the full title
2) Alternative keywords:
     a) wire crochet bracelet - little competition, global search 720
     b) crocheted wire jewelry, medium competiotion, global search 1900
     c) crochet beaded bracelet, medium competition, global search 390
One observation - colorful does not add value to the search, no one uses it. 
If I do a search on "wire crochet bracelet" , this listing is on page 2 "Beaded Crochet Copper Wire Bracelet by spinnerin on Etsy" my listing shows up on page 8.
If I do a search on "crocheted wire jewelry" my lilsting does not show up (didn't go past page 13)
If I do a search on "crochet beaded bracelet" my listing does not show up.
Does this mean that my only choice in keyworkds is wire crochet howlite bracelet?  Also, I noticed the top finds were instructions, how tos, tutorials, patterns and jewelry magazines.  Does this mean that probably a lot of people are making their own and may be this is not a good product to pursue?

Using these two examples, I have to say I don't think I know any more about keywords, than when I started.  Or perhaps, I misunderstood the whole assignment, which is quite possible.    HELP!!!!

[PillowThrowDecor]

Hey Paul... have a look at this...

black bead bracelet  9900
black bead bracelets  590  *
black beaded bracelet 3600
black beaded bracelets  880  *

orange beaded bracelet - not enough info
orange bead bracelet - 720

male bracelet 12,100
male bracelets 5,400

stretchy bracelets 3600
stretchy bracelet  6600
stretch bracelets 27100
stretch bracelet  90500

I don’t quite understand this assignment but here is what I did. I went to google keywords and typed in a single keyword and let the google keyword utility give me phrases using that word. I did this for all of the key words that I could think of. I sell only one product. It is a stretchy men’s beaded bracelet so I don’t have a lot of keywords. I picked out the phrases that had local search volume of less than 2500. Here are my results.

Gold stretch bracelet 2400
Peyote bracelet 2900
Beaded bracelet 90500
Stretch beaded bracelet 6600
Handmade beaded bracelet 1900
Hand beaded bracelet 590
Male bracelet 2900
Beaded cuff bracelet 2900
Beaded cuff 880

Paul
https://icraftgifts.com/sirocco
http://twitter.com/DanSirocco
http://siroccostradingpost.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/pages/Siroccos-Trading-Post/37126109207?ref=share

[PillowThrowDecor]

Very pretty earrings!!! And I like your write-up too #page has been deleted#

copper pearls 880
copper pearl earrings 260

If I saw a lady in an elevator wearing these I would go home and search the net for copper pearl earrings... period!!!

So your title here might be "Copper pearl earrings for a Modern chic look!

Don't try and stuff too many different keywords in your titles because it dilutes the power of your main keywords which in this case is  "copper pearl earrings" and by the way they are gorgeous! never knew clams made pearls in copper

Look at your product like a buyer would.  If you aren't able to do that easily ask a friend or a past client and offer them a small gifty for helping you out.  Our customers are our best source of "consumer research"!!!

I did two expermiments and now I am confused as to what to do.  The first experiment, I picked a product with a lot of competion.

My Title is "Contemporary Natural Pearls in Copper and Brown Earrings" -
1) did a keyword search on the full title.  I guess no one searches on this long title
2) Alternative keywords:
     a) natural pearls - medium competition, global search 12,100
     b) brown pearl earrings, less competiotion, global search 2,900
     c) Pearl deop earrings, high competition, global search 49,500
Should I change my title to say "Natural Brown Pearl Drop Earrings " and add the words, contemporary and copper in my my definition?

[PillowThrowDecor]

I looked at your site and actually your keywords are quite giood.

here's some more good suggestions...

hot cup sleeve 720
coffe ecup sleeve 73
paper cup sleeve 590

Mug Hugger 110
Coffee Cuff 590
Coffee cuffs
coffee collars 140
tea sleeve  5400

[caralyn forstar]

Cry Wolf My daughter has been selling on eBay and amazon for years she just told me that every time you use the word cute you should include cutie and consider Lolita Cry Wolf if you do a search on Lolita ( blocking porn) there is a growing group of women who wear little girl(another she said works with things like your Rain t shirt)they wear little girl style to show the world you can be young at heart, and wear what you want no matter how old you are, many of your shirts fit this, also unique, and different may help. Will do 2 others later. Smiles, Caralyn

[PillowThrowDecor]

Make your changes to the better keywords now... it will take several days or even weeks before the change will show up in google searches.  the good news is that the enhance keywords will help you show up internally on icraft and also likely in other search engines.

Don't expect to see immediate promotion to google's front page... it doesn't quite work that fast

Julie, I'm finding out the same thing.  Very specific keywords will put me on the first page, but they don't even show up in the keyword tool.  Using suggested keywords with low search volumes, I don't appear after 5 pages.  So now what?

[Beajoux]

Ok, so I'm a little behind on the assignments, but doing my best to catch up. 

I find that that I'm learning not only from the assignment itself, but also from the comments of others. Jewellery is tough; there are millions of listings out there and it appears I've been using way too many general terms. Things I've noticed is that it might help to add the colour to the title. For example, I have a ring called "Sunburst Crystal Wirewrapped Ring"; I guess no one is going to search that way, I'm probably better off using "orange".

It also appears I need to change "wirewrapped" to two words instead of one.

I think the key here is to list the same way you, as a consumer, would search. Seems like common sense...so I wonder why I never thought of it!   

[Brilliant Beads]

OK, slowly putting all this information together...

I made a list of keywords for both my lampwork beads (as jewellery supplies) and my finished jewellery

Beads:
boro lampwork beads   0.53   1000     590
lampworking beads   0.53   390     880
glass beads for jewelry   0.66   1000    1000
glass beads supplies   0.66   1000    1900
hand made glass beads   0.66   480     720    (I've been spelling it as one word)
                     
I'm still working on the jewellery one...so many keywords and phrases get WAY too many hits...gotta narrow it down

[PillowThrowDecor]

Try adding colour.  I know a lot of people search my pillows by colours! Or how about shape eg. round, cube...

Cheers

Christine

[Brilliant Beads]

Good idea, I'll do that.
Thanks Christine!

[Zeba]

Thanks for the suggestion, I made the title change.  By the way, Clams do not make copper pearls, those are dyed, the correct term for them is dyed cultured fresh water pearls.

Very pretty earrings!!! And I like your write-up too #page has been deleted#

copper pearls 880
copper pearl earrings 260

If I saw a lady in an elevator wearing these I would go home and search the net for copper pearl earrings... period!!!

So your title here might be "Copper pearl earrings for a Modern chic look!

Don't try and stuff too many different keywords in your titles because it dilutes the power of your main keywords which in this case is  "copper pearl earrings" and by the way they are gorgeous! never knew clams made pearls in copper

Look at your product like a buyer would.  If you aren't able to do that easily ask a friend or a past client and offer them a small gifty for helping you out.  Our customers are our best source of "consumer research"!!!

I did two expermiments and now I am confused as to what to do.  The first experiment, I picked a product with a lot of competion.

My Title is "Contemporary Natural Pearls in Copper and Brown Earrings" -
1) did a keyword search on the full title.  I guess no one searches on this long title
2) Alternative keywords:
     a) natural pearls - medium competition, global search 12,100
     b) brown pearl earrings, less competiotion, global search 2,900
     c) Pearl deop earrings, high competition, global search 49,500
Should I change my title to say "Natural Brown Pearl Drop Earrings " and add the words, contemporary and copper in my my definition?

[PillowThrowDecor]

Gottit Zebba... I am not very smart when it comes to jewelry

Oh by the way... someone was asking about misspellings as search words... go for it!

Here's an example of what should read pillow or pillows

pilows      9,900   
pilow                  27,100   
the pilow            1,000   
pilow block               210   
pilow talk               720   
pilow top               880   
pilow cases               390   
pilow case               590   

Cheers
Christine
   

[wabibrookstudio]

Christine, would we put the mis-spelled search words as tags?

Julie B.

[PillowThrowDecor]

I would!

I am amazed at how many people misspell words and it is not about spelling, it is more about poor typing skills ... like me.

I personally don't like putting misspellings in titles as it looks unprofessional. My sister is also a retired English teacher  and is quick to correct me.   

Cheers
Christine

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Christine,

I wouldn't put misspelled words into Product Title.
I agree with you, it will not look professional. But you can add those misspelled words as tags.