Sunday, October 10, 2010

More on Tagging - What To Do When You Can't Decide

I know that many times I struggle to fill in my tags, but there are also a lot of times I must choose one tag over the other for lack of space. I have recently found two ways to solve this quandary.

First, a tip from my bag of tricks. If you have two words that will fit in one tag, use both, even if they are unrelated. Now, Etsy will tell you not to do this, but the truth is that the words will come up individually if searched. Thus, if you have 'blue' and 'peace' in the same tag space, they need not be searched together to come up in search results.  I have tested this over and over and it always works. You have a total of 18 characters/spaces available; use all you can! You can conceivably turn 14 tags into 28! Well, not quite that many, but you get the picture.

My next tip is to check out Tools For Etsy's 'Tag Wars.'

Tag Wars compares one tag against another and shows you the number of listings with each associated tag.  Below the results there is a Tag Summary Cloud and Materials Summary Cloud with tons of other suggestions! Ones in bold are main ones being used (the bigger the tag is the more it’s used on etsy). 

Use the tag with the most listings or not? That is a question of opinion and strategy and one I can't answer. On the one hand, you may get lost with the more popular tag, but you may not be found if the less popular tag is too specific or obscure.

Find out what tags you already use most frequently by looking at your shop'sown  tag summary cloud. On the Quick Menu at the top of the page, click Listings. Enter your shop name and up comes a bunch of info including your tag cloud. As for all of the other shop info...that's a post for another day.

12 comments:

Sarah B. said...

These are great tips I didn't know about! Thanks for sharing - I do struggle with tagging :)

Unknown said...

great things too, I have trouble with that too. Thanks for sharing I am off to tag some :)

Tina said...

Thanks for the tip on Tag Wars. I'll have to check that out pronto! :)

VeganCraftastic said...

Great tips!

Gallery32 said...

Excellent advice! I always use the most popular tags. Not sure if that is right or wrong. Thanks for sharing :)

Kathleen McGiveron said...

Fabtabulous advice. I do half my tags popular and the other half as descriptive then hope for the best.

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Kathryn Dyche said...

I often find myself agonizing over tags.

Annette said...

I'm constantly struggling with tags...thanks for the tips!

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Lacy said...

thanks for the tips! I will have to try these!

Unknown said...

Fabulous program. I am going to use the comparison tagging tool tonight.

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jcsvisuals said...

Thanks for the info. every little bit helps.

 
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