Treat my articles as inspiration. Think about how my suggestions might work in your context. The handicraft market is very wide. My observations are generalized and will not necessarily be true in every case.
This time we will deal with the topic of SEO in more detail. The request came from our European Handmade Crafters group from Simona, after an inspiring webinar with Zuza from Xuxa Handmade. I am very happy that you want to delve into other areas that can help us all stand out with our offer! ?
I run the marketplace HANDIEU. I don’t want to overwhelm you with all details about SEO and its algoritms. To be searched online, by search engines like Google, we need remember some most important rules and try to avoid some mistakes.
During this podcast I will answer e.g. the following questions:
- What is SEO and why is it important?
- Make it efficient: How to avoid the most common mistakes?
- How to prepare your product descriptions on platforms?
- What about the photos and SEO?
Listen to “Jak tworzyΔ treΕci pod SEO w rΔkodziele? [ HANDIEU PRO ]” on Spreaker.
What do we actually know about SEO?
Most often we refer to “something with Google that helps us be found on the Internet.” Truth. “SEO sounds complicated, and companies even create separate positions of SEO Specialists, so the topic is certainly very difficult.” Nothing could be more wrong!
The topic of SEO, or precisely – Search Engine Optimization, is not so difficult (at least for our needs, without digging into the programing part :)), but it requires constant work, adjusting texts on each of our subpages, and as we know, it takes a lot of time. Hence, it is good to have a dedicated person who will deal with such things on a regular basis. However, many of us cannot afford such assistance. But does this cut us off from searches?
I will try to explain the topic without going into too much detail, so as not to alienate anyone from the topic. Yes, we can do something better, but it also comes with time as we get into practice. It is certainly not a critical enough topic to decide whether to be or not to be. But it’s worth knowing how it works and, for example, avoiding at least some mistakes.
How do search engines work?
We have several search engines on the market. The most popular are of course Google, but also Yahoo, Bing or DuckDuckGo. They are used to find the right pages when looking for something on the Internet. Therefore, the priority for each search engine will be the satisfaction of the “seeker”-customer and matching the results to his preferences, for which Google already uses artificial intelligence.
Given that we now have millions of pages on the Internet, simply sorting pages by “newest” or “by name” would not be enough. Hence, each of these search engines has their own algorithms that take various factors into account to present the best results to users. We don’t know exactly these algorithms, but some factors are publicly known, so we take them into consideration in our marketing efforts to be positioned at the top of searches.
Each page consists of what is visible to users and what is hidden in it, programmed. Here, too, search engines have their preferences, for example regarding the programming language that was used or the size of photos, and thus the speed of page loading – and this is why we apply some restrictions on the size of photos that you can add ?.
To analyze websites, they send their bots (such robots scanning websites) and collect various data, which they put into the search engine’s algorithm and thus position the pages. Without going into details of the algorithms, from the SEO point of view that you have available on HANDIEU, we will focus today on content, because it is the most important here!
The content is the most important!
What I have already mentioned in the article about creating proper communication is included in the topic of SEO, but I did not create this article around it, but around our customer.
Why? I believe that by throwing such specialized phrases, one can scare someone. We know that something like this exists, that there are specialists for it, how will I be able to grasp something so complicated when I work alone?
And yes, if we were to break down such an algorithm into prime factors, refine each of them in the smallest detail, we would probably have much better results. But is it really worth considering absolutely everything?
We must finally calculate the time spent on such detailed analyzes against the results. And these will be the best if our content is tailored to what the client is looking for and this way it becomes “SEO-friendly”. As I wrote above – search engines want to meet the expectations of their users! Our communication tailored to our client will do just that, and since you have already covered this topic before, discussing SEO will be much easier ?
What can I do on HANDIEU or my website regarding SEO?
Focus on good descriptions of your products, as I wrote about in the previous article. We discussed the photos recently – they will be important for customers who are already on our website and search, for example, in particular categories. But if the customer searches for us on Google (I refer to this search engine, because 97% of people still use it), they will see the text itself. This text should reflect your product or profile.
Importantly, we should not copy texts from different products, let alone someone else’s. Each product, even if it is based on the same, should have slightly different content. We can simply change the order of the sentence a bit, replace individual words, add some phrases. The most important thing is that they should be different, because search engines do not like copied content! All the more, pay attention if you have profiles on different marketplaces – unfortunately, on each platform you should have them a bit adjusted to be able to be searched better on each of them. Otherwise, Google will treat your next profile as a duplicate π
A good product description should:
1. Include keywords that the customer may be looking for – that is, if it is handmade jewelry, eg a necklace, then both the words “necklace”, “handmade” and “jewelry” should be included there.
And a big “BUT”. We know very well that we have a small chance of “breaking out” when searching for mass terms. Hence, we must emphasize the unique value of our products. I inspired you to search for niches also because of this. If we aim at “mass” slogans, we have practically no chance to break through. So what if they have millions of searches. If we choose something very unique for our target, e.g. handmade jewelry made of recycled paper, even though the number of searches will be much smaller, we will have a better chance to actually attract such a customer! What will zero chances out of a million give us, if we can have, for example, 50% out of a dozen or so searches?
2. To have a clear structure, e.g. we do not throw in keywords (we use tags for this), but we compose sentences, slogans, point them out, distinguish subtitles if possible. This will not only be better received by the search engine, but also by the client, who will find it easier to read it later. All in all, logical, because search engines are designed to satisfy the “seeker” ?
3. Be your own, that is, as I mentioned above, we cannot copy other content. Now you probably understand why they created a separate position for this? ?
4. Be updated from time to time. Search engines like when something is happening on our website, when we update our content and add new ones. According to them, such a side is simply “alive” and not “asleep” or “dead”. It is worth remembering when creating even simple “business card” pages. It is assumed that it is best to do it at least once a week – I know a lot of trouble when you do it yourself. Remember that this is one of the factors and if you will do such updates, e.g. once a month, the world will not collapse either, and if you will, for example, add new products, you will also please such a search engine ? But it is also worth updating the content because simply, if we look at them after a while, we can notice something we haven’t seen before – e.g. spelling mistakes. Sometimes it is also worth asking someone for their opinion, checking someone who will edit the texts for us a bit. How many times have I been able to completely change the concept of communication after even a few days, do not be afraid of changes – there is no one perfect form of communication, and it is advisable to combine and adapt ?
Focus Keyword
The key word, or rather the phrase, does not matter that much anymore, especially if your content already contains words that the customer can search for. Search engines gave the opportunity to promote many keywords, but again there was some abuse and in the end they either do not take them into account at all or only take into account one phrase.
The keyword is supposed to reflect the customer’s search – this is the phrase that the customer enters into the search box. And here we have to remember that general phrases with many millions of pages will not clash. Niche entries will be best.
Importantly, if we decide to enter a keyword, it should then be in our Meta Description and content – according to the principle that everything must be consistent on our website.
SEO Title
The SEO title appears on HANDIEU in the settings of your stores. Again, it should be consistent with the content you have on your profile and it should also include your brand name. It will appear on the search list as the title of the linked page. This picture is best illustrated by an example search – here for HANDIEU.
By default, the search engine will create such a title based on the page settings, in the case of HANDIEU it will be the name of the page and the title of the subpage – in your case, the name of the store.
Meta Description
Meta Description is nothing else than a short description of a given subpage, which will be displayed under its title and link. If you do not enter any texts in your descriptions, the HANDIEU website will automatically assign you the main description or it will be taken from the content on a given subpage, and this may not be entirely consistent with your specific brand or not be so encouraging, so it is good to decide for yourself about this content and it is really a great solution that allows us to decide for ourselves how we want to introduce ourselves or our offer ?.
In the photo we can see where the Meta description will be visible in the search results:
What should I remember about when creating a Meta Description?
1. You can use about 155-160 characters (this may vary with time). However, remember that not everything can be displayed if we add too much text. It must be specific so that the customer does not have to guess anything and be convinced that after clicking, he will actually see what he wants. I suggest being inspired by your own searches – what encourages you to enter a given page?
2. The description must be consistent with your keyword and the content of the page. Before Google adjusted its algorithms, some abused his kindness and misled the customer by suggesting that, for example, they would find jewelry on the website, and in fact there were some special services on it. Therefore, the current algorithms analyze whether the content in the Meta Description actually corresponds to the content on the page.
3. It should encourage visitors to the site. On the one hand, you can of course use a call to action, for example, “come in and see more”, on the other hand, it can cost us a few characters, which can also be allocated to the description of the offer, which if it hits the customer, he will still look at our page. I believe there is no single rule of thumb for this. Just as we have many people, so have different preferences and other stimuli that will convince us to act. And here it is worth considering what our client is and what he focuses his attention on, what is most important to him when making a choice. Listing these points in our description might encourage him more than adding “check and buy”.
In summary, the most important thing in the subject of SEO is your own content tailored to the client’s needs, taking into account various words that he can use to search for your product, indicating the unique value of your works and updating this content.
I hope you will find the material useful and inspire you to modify the content further ?
Good luck and let me know if you need any support!
Have a wonderful day!
Aga
Important info:
Like what I create here? That is my free content and I appreciate if you leave a comment, follow my social media and give me some thumbs up to keep on writing! π pass the news on to other people who could benefit from it!
If you want to be up to date when I post new articles – join the newsletter. I do not spam, I only write when I have something valuable to share π
If you like what I create, you are at the stage of creating your brand and you are looking for a condensed knowledge of how to prepare for it, I recommend my eBook – in points, problem by problem, solution after solution π
You want to be part of our HandieU community – join us in the group, , suggest topics that I could discuss π
And when you are ready to sell in Europe – apply to HandieU!
Related Articles:
No responses yet