Google PageRank Boost (inside and out side your Etsy shop)

Google PageRank Boost

inside and outside your Etsy shop

Google Page Rank, Etsy and You (main article submitted by April )

I've seen the question so many times on the Etsy forums, "Why isn't my Etsy shop showing up in Google when I search for XYZ?"

While that is actually a very complex question, in a nutshell -- you need PageRank.

How do you get this PageRank? You need to optimize your website. This is SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Google's PageRank is the results from 1 - 10 of an algorithm that assesses how important your website is on a generally monthly basis. The kicker is that its machines making this determination. You may have heard these machines referred to as "spiders" or "robots". I prefer to think of them as spider robots merely because it amuses me. These robot spiders crawl the web hunting for in and bring it back to the Googleplex. This is known as indexing. If your information is good and full of SEO, the robot spiders will come back often and give you a higher PageRank.

If you search the web for SEO techniques you'll find plenty of them -- too many. Unfortunately, a lot of the information you'll find is either not applicable to current versions of the algorithm, spam techniques, or not applicable to Etsy. Etsy is not the same as your regular personal website and I'm not going to suggest you obtain a personal website today either. Baby steps.

Since you don't have access to the source code of your Etsy store, your SEO Options are limited. Let's make the best of what's available to you without manipulating source code.

INSIDE YOUR ETSY STORE

Frankly, the most you can do here is provide good titles and descriptions and use all of your tags. When writing your titles and descriptions, think of key terms. “Key terms” in this sense simply means that you are using descriptive language.

If you were searching for items such as yours in Google, what kind of language would you use? Put yourself in the mindset of the searcher and write accordingly.

Keep in mind that Google likes change. If you relist,or renew the same items again and again, change your titles and descriptions up every once in a while. Try some slightly different verbiage and new key terms each time.

OUTSIDE OF YOUR ESTY STORE

Link, link, link! As in, get people to link to you (inbound links/ IBL). To start, use links to your Etsy store in your signature on any blogs , forums or message boards you belong to.

One of the biggest factors in boosting your rank is inbound links from sites with a high PageRank. Not only is Google more likely to index these high ranked sites quickly and repeatedly, but you're more likely to get click though traffic to your site and more people linking to you. Site click through rates (CTR), are another important factor to determining your PageRank. Inbound links from a low ranked site won't necessarily hurt you, so don’t don’t freak out on your friend for linking you from his low ranked site . Ignore reciprocal link services and engines that litter the web. These are spam and Google hates spam.

Timothy says:

A great way to boost your rank is to leave comments with your link on higher ranking blogs.

Here are a few blogs that worth commenting on:

Do not visit these blogs to SPAM! Most of their comments are checked so your comments (SPAMS) will not be approved. so don't waste your time. Try to contribute something in their posts, react on their main ideas or add your own. (LIST brought to you by whydowork.com)

WEBSITE	GOOGLE PAGE RANK
Computer Science Canada Blog	5
aaronroselo.net	5
Instigartor Blog	5
Dawud Miracle	5
Successcreeations	5
Randa Clay Designs	5
Andy Beard	5
I Saw Your Nanny	5
Talk, Don’t Run - Credit Cards	5
3 Minutes - Real Estate Blog	5
eMoms at Home	5
A Simple Kind Of Life	5

WEBSITE	GOOGLE PAGE RANK
David Airey : Creative Design	4
Mom Gadget	4
Meikai - Bargain hunters	4
Essential Keystrokes	4
Geeky Speaky	4
Nimble Theory	4
Smart Divas	4
Pony Tail Club	4
Personal Development	4
What is? What!	4
Jon Lee Dot See Eh	4
Web Design and Development Tips	4
3 Day Mom	4
Self-Defense Blog	4
Brigid’s Blog	4
Medical Spa MD	4

WEBSITE	GOOGLE PAGE RANK
Timothyadamdesigns Critiques and Reviews Spoken Word Blog	3
My Garden : House And Style	3
Web Business Resource	3
Wtricks.com - The Blog	3
Rob Cubbon Freelance Graphic Desinger	3
Two Dog Zoo	3
Exploring Classical Chinese Medicine	3
Body Mind and Solar	3
TEFLWatch	3
Clement Nyirenda’s Blog	3

RELATIVE LINKS

Some will argue that any links anywhere are a good thing, but most agree that your IBL should be “Relative”. Relative refers to the relevancy of the IBL referring you.

An example of relative IBL I used in the Etsy forums…

If you Etsy shop containing crocheted face scrubbies is linked to by a cage fighting website, Google is going to see that and be all “WTF?”

If you Etsy shop containing crocheted face scrubbies is linked to by Martha Stewart, Google is going to see that and be all “WORD!”

Consider how relative IBLs are before perusing them or paying to advertise.

HYPERLINKS

A hyperlink (How to video) is when you use words to link instead of graphics, or in addition to graphics. Remember, the spider robots can’t see pictures, so do not rely solely on graphics when you link to your shop. Use descriptive key terms in your hyperlinks. Creating a link to your shop that says “buy handmade crocheted face scrubbies” is going to be more valuable than a link that‘s your shop name. “Daisydoodle’s Boutique” might be the perfect shop name for you, but how the heck is Google supposed to figure out that has anything to do with handmade crocheted face scrubbies?

DON’T TRY TO TRICK GOOGLE

Google’s main purpose is to weed out spam and garbage content and organize legitimate content. Google also carries a grudge. Even though we’re dealing with spider robots here, they’re a lot smarter than you may think. Filling descriptions and links with nothing but irrelevant key words and trash can get you on the blacklist or “sandboxed”.

BE REALISTIC AND DON’T OBSESS

Get this through your head right now. Say it out loud… “I WILL NEVER RANK A 10”. Say it again and believe it.
You have to remember that PageRank is global compared to all other websites in the world. Etsy’s homepage has a PageRank of 6 , Ebay ranks in at 8 and Amazon has a 9. Google itself has a PageRank of 8. Those would have to be some magical face scrubbies to get results like that.

Find another shop that is doing very well and compare yourself to that. Figure out what it is that their doing right. Your ultimate goal might be a 4. That’s completely OK and likely very appropriate. In my business, I run very popular statewide real estate websites -- if I can rank a 5 I’m over the moon.

Be patient. New shops might take a while to be indexed at all and jumping and entire number is an enormous job.

Keep up with ethical SEO: write organically, be thoughtful, network for relevant IBL , DO NOT SPAM, and in time you’ll get there.

The cream always rises to the top.

(Thanks again April.....check out her website and etsy shop)

This is the most effective way to boost your page rank

dmoz

The Open Directory Project (ODP) is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web, with more than 4 million listings in over 590,000 categories. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.

Instead of fighting the explosive growth of the Internet, the Open Directory provides the means for the Internet to organize itself. As the Internet grows, so do the number of net-citizens. These citizens can each organize a small portion of the web and present it back to the rest of the population, culling out the bad and useless and keeping only the best content.

The last way to boost your google page rank it to list your blog and etsy shop on www.dmoz.org
Google relies on this site a ton to define your page rank....check out the site and follow the steps!