Twinkly's Beginner SEO *day 1*

**My username on Etsy is now KatyClouds**

This is Etsy SEO for total beginners, Day 1. I will be your tutor, you can call me Miss Spangle, Or not. You know, whichever.

Hopefully after yesterday's post you are now staring at this post with a beautiful Google Toolbar hat. If not, you'll need to install the toolbar. Very simply, it allows you to view your PageRank

There are lots of complicated reasons to improve your PageRank. Being higher up Google Search inevitably will gain you more visitors. Gaining Google visitors who might not have meant to shop Handmade, but suddenly want to because they see your items, is the difference between a hobby and a quit-your-day-job.

Three important points:

• PageRank is named after Larry Page. Therefore, the 'page' refers not to your 'webpage' but to a guy's surname!
• I cannot tell you how PageRank is worked out. It's a long and complicated formulae that is based on incoming and outgoing links, and the importance of the pages those links come from. It's called a 'iterative eigenvector algorithm' I don't think any of us need one of those in our lives.
• This guide isn't really about your PageRank. The number is a vague representation of where you *might* appear. Don't get me wrong, a higher PageRank means more people will find your shop. But what I really want to do is help people find and love you.

So I'll get started...*nervous*

I assume you have Google Analytics set up for your shop. I also assume that you have either not looked at it because it's scary and confusing or just use the most basic of functions. You don't need it right away, but make a note of when you read this post. In exactly one month, you can check your GA and you should see a significant change in your stats. A few blue lines should start pointing their way *up* after that time.

Today's task is super simple!

You need to make a brainstorm of words to describe your shop. You need to be thinking, with every single word that you right down, "yes, I can imagine someone putting that in a search box if they were looking for me"

Brainstorming words is hard, especially if you overthink it. Here's a sneaky tip I've thought of to help you:

Go here: http://www.wordle.net/ and select the option to make a new Tag Cloud. You'll be presented with a large blank box to fill with words, and below that a smaller box to put a URL of any page with a RSS Feed. RSS is something that applies to websites that are frequently updated with new content, such as blogs or Etsy shops. Type your full Etsy shop address and hit Create.

You will then be presented with a 'cloud' of words, with ones you use most larger and generally more towards the centre. Here's mine:

Gosh, I must have used 'sweet' in near enough every description. So, it's likely to be applicable to my whole shop, would you agree? I also love how 'choose' and 'choice' are big words. Original! Fun! Sweet! Gift! A perfect four word sentence to describe my shop :-)

This will help you see what words you are using a lot of in your descriptions. It's not a complete brainstorm though, but it will help you when you are thinking of keywords for your shop. Pick out all the descriptive words you can. Put them into a thesaurus to find synonyms. Use them as prompts for more words. Fill your whole piece of paper with words that relate to your shop.

Come back with your list of words tomorrow. We are going to put them into action!

Katie x