Here are four simple steps for increasing your chances of being found in search engine results pages.
Search engines love unique content - they use it to determine what a web page is about and then match up a page to a search query. As an Etsy seller, there are several main content components areas you need to concentrate on:
Because search engines use links to determine ranking order, links have always been one of the most important elements of SEO. There's no rule on how many links will help, as each link will have a different value. For example, a link from CNN to your Etsy shop might be worth more than 10 (or 100) small blog links. But all links (big and small) help. Here are some simple tips to help draw in links:
Social media's not just great for being social; it's a great way to showcase your shop listings. Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ are great ways to show search engines that people are talking about your shop or listings. Yahoo and Bing particularly use social signals as a ranking signal, so if you have one of these channels running, use them to promote yourself. The other secondary bonus is people may link to you from your social promotion.
SEO can take time to take effect, so be patient. Also, you're not the only Etsy seller tweaking pages, so you might see your pages start to rank slowly and see some ups and downs. While search engines like fresher content, don't think this means you should tweak your pages each day. Keep pages reasonably static (for example, no changing unless you have to). Also, try to use pages several times; if your listing sells out and you're able to restock, try to reuse this page when it's back.
Importantly, don't stress about Google's PageRank value. This is a rather old way of viewing pages and is too generic to mean much in today's SEO. PageRank is often misunderstood and not necessarily accurate now.