Where are your buyers coming from? What are they searching for? Who is referring people to your shop? I'm always wondering if all the social networking, "youtwitterfacing" is really working. I mean all the work we put into our shop marketing because "everyone" says it's the thing to do. But there is one way to be sure what your doing is working.
No more putting yourself out there on blind faith. These mysteries can be solved simply by setting up your Google Analytics via your Etsy shop. If you go to the "your etsy" section on Etsy, and look under Shop Setup, you will see link called Web Analytics. Here Etsy will walk you through step-by-step, how to set up Google Analytics so you can really see what, how and who have been visting you shop. Etsy will give you a Tracking ID, then you go to Google Analytic http://www.google.com/analytics/ (you need to have a Google account for this, which you should have anyway because of all the other cool tools they have) and set up a web tracking profile. Once you do this, Google Analytics will start tracking things like visits per day, referrals, and all kinds of stuff. This is powerful info for you as a shop owner. You can now see exactly how people are coming to your site, whether your facebook time and effort are paying off, if your twittering is making a difference, and if your tags are working.
CASE IN POINT: A very nice D Lister named Sharon, (mycrochetgarden.etsy.com ) was checking out my site and mentioned that I had a lot of items that I described as Aqua Blue, and she suggested that I also call those items "Tiffany" Blue as she had noticed a lot of people are looking for that type of color (tags are important). I thought that made sense so I went in to my shop descriptions and added Tiffany Blue as well as added that to my tags. Not more than 3 hours later someone bought 3 of my "Tiffany Blue" items! I checked my Google Analytics a few days later and saw that Tiffany Blue was a search term that someone used to find my site! CRAZY COOL!!! I have featured mycrochetgard on this blog as a thank you to Sharon. She rocks!
Now, you should know that setting up the keyword search is another step in the web analytics process. I found a cool article on Etsy on how to do this.. here it is... http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/tech-update-etsy-web-analytics-enhancements-3350/ and it works!
Here is a great resource for Google Analytics, thanks Charissa! http://www.etsy.com/storque/media/bunker/2009/03/GoogleAnalyticsForSellers.pdf
Also check out Search Engine Optimization (SEO) info here http://www.scribd.com/doc/20168031/Etsy-Sellers-Guide-to-SEO-Version-10?secret_password=2dxawwiq8pqgl2jq3h1g as recommended by stitchesintime (http://stichesintime.etsy.com/) on a prior D Lister thread. And the Keyword Analyzer Tool is cool too.. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Oh, and one more thing... ask your customers. Whenever I have a sale, I always ask how they found my shop in a convo. And they always answer me.
So, if you really want to feel like your efforts are paying off, or if you want to make sure your putting your efforts in the right place... try Google Analytics and shift your marketing strategy according to what is real, web stats!
Anyone else have an interesting story about web analytics? Do tell....
Great article. I think many of us don't understand how people get to our shops.
ReplyDeleteLove the graphics! And the idea of asking people about how they found your shop!
ReplyDeleteYeah.. it's funny, when I ask my buyers how they found me, almost all of them say they are are searching on Etsy. My Google Analytics says that the highest referral is direct access.. which means someone puts my etsy url in and the second highest referer is google search. I'm wondering if the Etsy search uses a google server (that is what we do at my work) which would mean the second ranking google search referral could be the Etsy search. I need to investigate further. Either way, my keywords (tags) and wording in my title and descriptions are apparently very important.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas...thank you so much! I had not been able to get my brain around google analytics before. I just tweeted about your article.
ReplyDeleteyour welcome, and thank you. I've never been tweeted about before ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've ben reading many aritcles lately (non-Etsy) about the validity of the whole SEO thing, about how it changes from month to month, and even when you reconfigure info and submit, it's only gonna give you valid info for a month...don't believe it? Read the whining in Etsy Forums about dropping views...
ReplyDeleteBeing technically challenged, i never worked it out, or listed my stuff on GA...but really, how important is it? Every time we list something we are "submitted" via
google-so what? Does your shop or item at the top of the list mean you will or won't sell?
I used to have an Artfire shop-no sales, but they do include GA-and because i thought i'd try being religious about what would come up on top, I had lots of stuff on "first pages" with tons of views-still didn't sell...
now on Etsy I've noticed in the last 24 hours my views on my mizdarlin shop have really increased on many items-magic? Submission to google for inclusion? Treasury, FP? None of the above!
My hats are obvously seasonal, so now is when people start looking for headgear...simple as that.
I don't have the time or the inclination to stress myself over GA...but certainly, if folks need something to be esoteric about, fill yer boots...
I hear ya Miz, nothing is an exact science with this stuff. I don't think GA is about getting ranked high as much as it is really knowing where your traffic is coming from. I'm a web designer and work for an IT Web department, and I can tell you that analyzing web stats is very useful in knowing what might be working or not working. It certainly doesn't mean you will get sales from eyes on your shop, but if you spend a lot of time on your twitter account, and you see from GA that you don't get many referrals from Twitter, maybe you dont' spend so much time on twitter and concentrate on something else. It really is all a big game though, it's just in how much you are willing to play it. I personally like GA. But again, I'm a web person, so take it with a grain of salt ;-)
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I never thought to ask my buyers where they found me! great idea!
ReplyDeleteDarlene
http://www.DoBatsEatCats.etsy.com