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16 Jun 2019

SEO for Your Etsy Shop

by noneofyourbusiness | posted in: Small Business | 0

Do you have an Etsy shop and are you wondering how to demystify the best way to search engine optimize it? Etsy has a great many help topics on this subject, but it can become quite overwhelming, especially when you are trying to run your business plus be a marketing guru.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, encompasses many facets that come together under the SEO umbrella.

Etsy is similar in many ways to the other popular online marketplace venues such as Amazon and eBay. You’re playing in someone else’s sandbox so to speak and they all have their own rules and guidelines, perks and restrictions.

But one thing remains the same. If you are not making the most of the tools you’ve got available you won’t be getting the greatest exposure nor will you have a good chance at success in selling.

When we consult with our Etsy clients, we focus on these five major factors that WILL influence just how well your Etsy shop will be search engine optimized.

PRODUCTS –

We focus on Titles, Descriptions, Tags and Images. Titles are tricky on Etsy, and, dependent on what kind of product you sell, greatly influence how your target audience will or won’t find you.

Descriptions need to be as thoroughly detailed as possible. One well written paragraph description of the product is far better than a skimpy one liner or a description that resembles the Great American Novel. The skimpy product description tells the potential customer nothing, and the Great American Novel will put them to sleep and they will move on to a competitor.

Tags need to target your preferred buying audience as opposed to redundantly repeating what’s in the product description.

Images need to be clearly photographed, in good light, and sized at least 1500 x 1500 pixels for clarity. Good light does not mean you need to be a professional photographer. Some products photograph better outside, some inside. Outside you want to take the shots on a lightly cloudy day as bright sunlight will not be your friend, casting glares and shadows. Inside you want to have good light by a window OR two lamps with photography bulbs.

BLOGGING –

You may or may not blog for your Etsy shop, but if you do you need to have good content – not just blogging each product to sell it but telling your audience why it’s the perfect product for them. Why it’s a good gift idea, why it’s a good fit for them, etc. Not every Etsy shop owner blogs, but if you do, you’ll definitely need to come up with good content. And always link back to your product. Very important.

SOCIAL MEDIA –

Are you taking advantage of all the social media opportunities available to you? You need a business Instagram account and a business Facebook account. Once you have your Instagram account set up it can automatically post to your Facebook account, thereby concentrating two time consuming tasks into one.

You also need to know all of the appropriate Instagram hashtags as they pertain to your post, product, and target audience. Very much along the lines of the Etsy product tags, you need to utilize these to capture the correct target audience on social media.

Many likes on social media are just that, likes. They’re never going to be anything else. Some will be tire kickers who actually go to your shop but don’t buy. Realize that on the average a potential customer will visit your shop anywhere from 7 to 11 times before buying UNLESS they just have to have the item NOW. The point is you have to use your Instagram hashtags to build up a following in order to eventually reap sales.

BRANDING –

This is quite possibly the MOST IMPORTANT part of your game! You absolutely need an eye catching Etsy logo that you can incorporate into all of your paperwork, labels, your shop, business cards, brochures, even watermark your products with. Even if at first people do not remember your exact shop name, they will know you were the one with the snappy logo of whatever was created. Your brand is so very important because that is what sets you visually apart from your competition. This is true no matter where you sell, but especially when you sell on a marketplace venue.

EMAIL MARKETING –

This is another effective way of expanding your reach for potential customers. If you have a website or blog, put a signup button on it so people can sign up in one easy click. We personally recommend MailChimp but there are many other equally good email marketing providers out there.

Remember it’s against Etsy rules to harvest your customers email addresses without their explicit consent.

On Facebook utilize your call to action button with a link to your newsletter signup button on your website or blog. If you physically sell at trade shows or craft fairs, capture those email signups with the Mailchimp Subscribe app, available for both Android and iOS.

These topics above are the single most important SEO components you can possibly make use of to make your Etsy shop a success.

Call or text us today at 201.753.1677 if you would like to discuss our Etsy Shop SEO Consulting services! They are available as a one time shot in the arm or on a monthly retainer basis.

27 Nov 2018

10 Tips to Make Your Attorney Law Practice Successful

by noneofyourbusiness | posted in: Small Business | 0

An attorney law practice, like any other business in the world, is subject to the same set of rules as any other business – an extremely competitive environment. So how do you make your attorney law practice stand out from the competition?

Having worked with lawyers throughout Northern New Jersey for over 7 years as their Business Coach and Marketing Agency, we have some marketing tips that can help you IF you are willing to put in the extra hours and effort. If not, your law practice will just stagnate and go nowhere.

Tip #1 – Get yourself a customizable website that can grow and evolve with you and your business. Customizable means exactly that. No cookie cutter template nonsense just because it’s free. If you want to set yourself apart from the rest, you’ve got to walk the talk and look the look. Find out more here.

You think you’ll pass on having a website? Then you may as well pass on the business cards, and the overhead………. like the rent of your law office. And while you’re at it, figure out a different way to pay the bills.

Tip #2 – Figure out your niche target markets – what areas of law are you going to practice in. Understand that over time this may change and evolve. In order for you to become a successful law practice, you need to excel in a few areas and become the expert. If you feel like you’re just going to jump in and practice in all areas, you’re just branding yourself as a jack of all trades and a master of none.

Tip #3 – Populate your website with quality content, and lots of it. Each area of practice needs strong positive content, letting the public know what you can do for them. Potential clients are not interested in you patting yourself on the back. They are in trouble and need to see what you can do to get them out of said trouble. End of story. It’s not about you. It’s about your clients.

Tip #4 – Blog on a fairly consistent, constant basis. Your blog posts need to focus on your targeted niche markets. Your blog posts need to detail aspects of relevant cases, case outcomes, new laws and how they can and will affect various criminal court outcomes. The more information you make available in a professional helpful manner the more your law practice comes over as a leader and expert in the field.

Tip #5 – Make your branding consistent across the board – using the same handles and branding hashtags on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Your law office should be instantly recognizable by your consistent brand hashtag. Potential clients may not remember your name when they go looking for you, but your hashtag will be your saving grace as they very well may remember that and find you that way.

Tip #6 – Populate your website with meaningful informative videos. This also establishes you as the expert that people can turn to for their legal issues. Whether they video is a lecture you gave, part of a round table session, or a short video on your chosen niche areas of practice, this goes a long way in establishing you as the expert. Plus, people like the visual. They feel like you are talking to them and this makes you much more approachable and relatable.

Tip #7 – Get involved with your local Bar Association, get on some committees. This brings up your visibility within the law circle itself. No, it’s not just schmoozing and nonsense. It’s networking, gaining peer respect, and getting referrals from other attorneys.

Tip #8 – Populate your website with all of the professional memberships you belong to, speaking engagements, education, continuing education seminars you attend over the course of your career. This is another very valid tactic to establish yourself as the pre-eminent expert in your field. This goes a long way in gaining potential client’s trust because they feel you actually know what you are talking about. Remember, they don’t know you from the next attorney and they have many other potential choices to take their legal issues to.

Tip #9 – Hire yourself a good marketing agency that will work with you to either build your website for you, or do a complete audit of your current website. A reputable marketing agency will identify all issues and weaknesses with your website after a thorough audit. Your marketing agency will then work with you to implement all organic methods possible to establish your presence in the search engines through proper white hat SEO, organic marketing techniques, local geo targeted SEO, reputation management and responsible social media marketing.

Tip #10 – Take advantage of your free listing on law directories. Don’t spend thousands of dollars a year on paid listings. Even on paid listings there are still other attorneys appearing on your page. This leaves the door open for a potential client to still click on one of them. Take the free listings, encouraging your clients to leave reviews for you there as well as on Google, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Remember, people like 5 star ratings. The more legitimate 5 star ratings, the stronger your reputation will be without you breaking the piggy bank.

Maureen McCullough LLC is your Bergen County New Jersey website design, SEO and marketing agency. We care about your business and want you to succeed. Give us a call today at 201.753.1677 for a free 20 minute consultation.

17 Oct 2017

10 Tips For More Traffic To Your Etsy Shop

by noneofyourbusiness | posted in: Small Business | 0

I’ve been asked by quite a few Etsy shop owners for tips and critiques of their shops so they can at least get more traffic if not more sales. Happy to oblige!

Here are my quick Top Ten Tips for exactly this purpose below. For some points of reference I have used my own e-commerce store and my own Etsy shop as examples. It’s one thing to talk about something and quite another to actually SHOW you what I mean.

Here we go!

1 – Establish your BRAND IDENTITY.

What do I mean by that? Brand Identity is something that sets you apart from everyone else, enables you to be found quickly over a variety of venues, regardless of actual website addresses, or shop URL’s.

For example. I thought long and hard about my own Brand Identity before I established it. I eventually came up with mmdesignsnj – perfectly good with a hashtag – #mmdesignsnj – or @mmdesignsnj. If you simply Google my Brand Identity – mmdesignsnj – you can find my website, my Facebook business page, my Instagram business account, my Pinterest business account, my Twitter posts, and since I’ve just started including it in my Etsy product tags, right at this moment not so much on Etsy. A few things are popping up though.

Everything is always evolving and is a work in progress to improve and market better across platforms. A never ending task.

It’s highly advisable to make your Brand Identity a “handle” you can use across the board – even put it on your business cards. Easy for people to find you without remembering longer website URL’s.

2 – Make your PRODUCT TITLES relevant, descriptive and keyword rich.

Etsy product titles are no different than your website product titles. They will be indexed by Google. If they are not relevant, descriptive and keyword rich, you may find yourself somewhere on page 268 of Google search instead of on page 1 or 2.

So, no matter what it is you sell on Etsy, you need to pay attention to that product title. Target your audience – baby, jewelry, home decor, – with a title that does the product justice and is what people are searching for.

Baby Shower Gift Basket, Handmade Wooden Home Decor, Bridal Wedding Pearl Bracelet. The more descriptive you get, the more you are targeting your audience.

Owl Theme Girl Baby Shower Gift Basket, Rustic Country Cow Handmade Wooden Home Decor, Blush Pink Bridal Wedding Pearl Bracelet.

3 – Make your PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS relevant, descriptive and keyword rich.

Keeping in the same spirit as the TITLES above, you need to be as detailed as possible with your product descriptions. For example, the following example below is taken directly from our Etsy listing for our Golden Topaz Crystal Bangle Style Bracelet – you can see the actual listing HERE.

—————————–

Our Golden Topaz Crystal Bangle Style Bracelet is an elegant sparkling bangle style bracelet where less is more. Created from golden topaz Preciosa crystals with AB finish, sterling silver filigree beads, antique silver bumpy spacer beads, and sterling silver curved tube beads. Sterling silver swivel lobster claw clasp and one inch hand linked chain extender.

Fits ladies wrist sizes from 6 1/2 inches to 7 1/2 inches. This bracelet is custom made at the time of order.

Handmade for you in our jewelry studio. Custom orders are always welcome.

—————————–

As you can see, we mention the NAME of our product in the opening sentence. This reinforces the product, albeit subconsciously, with the potential customer.

Then we describe what the product is made of, colors, clasp, the fact that is is adjustable because it has an extender chain. Remember, people cannot play touchy feely with your product like they could in a brick and mortar retail store. So you need to create a well worded description that is accurate, and detailed enough.

Next we talk size, that is is custom made, we reinforce that it is HANDMADE, and that we LOVE custom orders.

This sort of Product Description makes you approachable and gives a personal feel to the product. It also gives the search engines, such as Google, plenty of solid meat and potato keywords to feed upon and index.

4 – Product Tags – Do Your Due Diligence.

Jewelry, Bracelets, Bangles – again, these tags are taken directly from our listing as noted above. These first three represent the category (categories) we listed the item in on Etsy.

These next tags are relevant to the actual product, and are how people will find it. I did a great deal of research as to what tags were working well for other jewelry designers on Instagram, believe it or not. Instagram is SO visual that I always research my tags based upon that venue.

antique silver, bangle bracelet, beaded bracelet, crystals, custom made bracelet, golden topaz, handmade, sparkling, sterling silver, silver filigree, gift for her, fashion jewelry, arm candy

This item was listed on Etsy before I decided to incorporate my Brand Identity into the tags – mmdesignsnj – which is fine – however, moving forward I am including mmdesignsnj on my product tags. I may even go back and tweak the older listings. When I have spare time. Whenever that may be.

But I highly recommend that you start out including YOUR Brand Identity as one of your product tags.

5 – Blogging

Most e-commerce websites come with a built in blog, if yours does, USE IT! If you have an e-commerce website AND an Etsy Shop, and sell the same products on both, make sure you blog consistently and highlight your new products, new creations, seasonal products, etc. in your blog posts. Always include a link back to the product on your website as well as to the listing on Etsy.

You can say something like:

“You can find this gorgeous home decor accent on our website HERE! (HERE will be the link back to the listing on your website.) If you prefer to shop on Etsy, click HERE to see it in our Etsy Shop! Thanks for visiting!” (Again, HERE will be the link to the listing in your Etsy Shop.)

6 – We Love Pinterest

Assuming you have the e-commerce website and an Etsy Shop, you can promote both through your Pinterest Business Page. Simply create a board on Pinterest called Our Etsy Shop Favorites, or something similar, and pin your products directly to that board. You can even create several boards like this on Pinterest. We are assuming that your main e-commerce website will be the focus of your Pinterest Business Page.

Draw attention and traffic to your Etsy Shop by creating boards as noted above. Use the word Etsy in the board name, of course. You are not allowed to use hashtags on Pinterest, so write a good title and a good description for your Etsy boards.

This showcases your Etsy products on Pinterest. Give it time. People who favor shopping on Etsy will find you.

7 – Back to Etsy – List your products in the most relevant categories possible

This one can be tough. What we did was what we always do…………. our due diligence by researching our competition. We singled out similar products that we really liked, that were classy, well made and might even be something we ourselves would purchase. We took note of what categories these items were listed in.

One of our steno pads really took a beating because we made copious notes but this served us well in the end.

Our products are listed in the most absolutely relevant categories humanly possible. No fishing expedition as to Oh Gosh where should I put this? No Way! Do your research first. Relevancy means so much.

8 – Etsy Shop Sections – Fill them out, tell your story, show your passion for what you do

So many Etsy sellers have really crappy shop sections, simply because they don’t want to put the time into getting creative and spinning a good story about themselves and their craft.

Store description – that one liner underneath your store name – that’s what Google indexes as your store title.

mmdesignsnj – (click HERE to visit our Etsy Shop)

Handmade Must Have Beaded Fashion Jewelry Trendy Style

We changed our store description several times until we were pleased with it. You only have so many characters to play with, choose your words wisely. Make them on point, keyword rich and of course they have to read well and make sense.

Our ANNOUNCEMENT Section tells our story to the point, briefly, but hits all the important points.

Our ABOUT Section is our combination Bio plus tells a good bit about the artistic end of things. Do people read these sections?

Who knows? But you cannot afford to skimp on these two sections, if for nothing else than to attract the sort of customer who reads, appreciates, and moves on to buy something.

Next as you scroll down the home page you will see AROUND THE WEB – which has a list of links –

This is mission critical to fill out – add your links to your website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

9 – Your Website and Your Etsy Shop – Cross Marketing

As noted above, you can add your website link to your Etsy Shop. And, on your website, you should make a note, preferably on your home page, that “For those of you who love shopping on Etsy, we have a shop there too! Come visit us HERE!” (HERE being a link to your Etsy shop that preferably opens up in a new tab, so the shopper is never disconnected from your website.)

The link opening up in a new tab is very, very important.

10 – Consistent Constant Posting on Instagram and Facebook

We personally prefer to do our posting on our Instagram Business Page, which is connected to our Facebook Business Page. We do our posting, complete with all relevant hashtags, then we “SHARE” that post on our Facebook page. If you don’t have it set up correctly, things can go a bit south.

Then once we share on our Facebook Business Page, we share again on our personal page. Not every time. But at least once or twice a week, just to keep the friends up to date on new offerings without being sales pushy.

We personally don’t use Twitter too much for business. And we pin to Pinterest every so often. Ideally it should be once a week. Sometimes life gets in the way. But we find when we are more or less consistent with Pinterest, we get sales on our website. This may also work with Etsy if you make the boards we suggested in Step 6.

Maureen McCullough LLC is your Bergen County New Jersey website design, SEO and marketing agency. We care about your business and want you to succeed. Give us a call today at 201.753.1677 for a free 20 minute consultation.

27 Sep 2016

The Blog. Still One of Your Most Powerful Tools

by noneofyourbusiness | posted in: Small Business | 0

Anyone who is running a presence online today, be it e-commerce or a business website, knows how difficult it is to first achieve and then maintain a strong presence on the internet.

With major search engines, one in particular who shall remain un-named in this article, it is difficult but never impossible to get and maintain an organic presence. It is difficult because search engines today are not about helping small businesses grow and thrive, as they were in days past.

Today, best and better placement is given to companies who pay for placement. That is no secret. And, for the small business who does not have a $10,000 advertising budget, makes life a wee bit difficult. And makes these businesses work harder to achieve their goal of good to decent placement in search engine results.

Another obstacle standing in the way is the use of search engine filters when displaying search results. What these search engines are doing is deciding to display only so many results for any given search term, dependent on what they consider to be “relevant”. They are omitting results that they consider to be too similar.

Which means, for the small business owner, they can submit a sitemap with 1000 url’s, be they products or pages, and the search engine will only choose to index just so many because the search engine decides what is too similar and filters the rest of the results out. So if you are selling ABC widgets and they have similar names because each widget is custom made, in reality very few of those are getting indexed.

What to do?

Fight back fire with fire. Make good use of your blogs. Yes, have more than one. Feature different product lines in each blog. This ends up working to your benefit because you will then have multiple sites linking back to your website or store, each blog will have it’s own set of tags that are independent of each other, and your search engine visibility is thus multiplied.

Post from your blogs to social media as well, not from your website. Why? You will be using subtle marketing tactics by attracting different segments of readers and eventual shoppers at your store or prospective clients to your business website. Different people are drawn to different things.

You will end up creating segmented, targeted traffic to particular blogs that have the information or products those targeted audiences are interested in. With interesting, visual posts, when they are ready to buy or touch base with you, it’s a much less stressful “sell” than one blog loaded with stuff or information that may actually turn potential customers away.

Content is still King; and the blog still reigns supreme even after all these years. A little extra blogging effort goes a long way and saves you valuable advertising pay per click dollars.

Do you need help to get your business found? Our agency specializes in websites that are under performing, not bringing in the foot traffic to your brick and mortar location or not bringing the website traffic you need to not only survive and prosper.

Do you have an Etsy shop and are you wondering how to demystify the best way to search engine optimize it? Etsy has a great many help topics on this subject, but it can become quite overwhelming, especially when you are trying to run your business plus be a marketing guru.

When we consult with our Etsy clients, we focus on these five major factors that WILL influence just how well your Etsy shop will be search engine optimized.

Call or text us today at 201.753.1677 if you would like to discuss our Etsy Shop SEO Consulting services! They are available as a one time shot in the arm or on a monthly retainer basis.

Maureen McCullough LLC is your Bergen County New Jersey website design, SEO and marketing agency. We care about your business and want you to succeed. Give us a call today at 201.753.1677 for a free 20 minute consultation.

I’ve been asked by quite a few Etsy shop owners for tips and critiques of their shops so they can at least get more traffic if not more sales. Happy to oblige!

mmdesignsnj – (click HERE to visit our Etsy Shop)

Maureen McCullough LLC is your Bergen County New Jersey website design, SEO and marketing agency. We care about your business and want you to succeed. Give us a call today at 201.753.1677 for a free 20 minute consultation.

Do you need help to get your business found? Our agency specializes in websites that are under performing, not bringing in the foot traffic to your brick and mortar location or not bringing the website traffic you need to not only survive and prosper.

Call or text us at 201.753.1677.

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