The only 5 ways to drive traffic on Etsy

Let's talk about traffic sources for your Etsy shop!

We all want more traffic, more visitors, to our business because it helps us get more sales, and I’m going to share with you the only 5 ways you can get traffic to your Etsy shop!

I’ll also share with you how to find your traffic sources, and then finally, which source is the easiest way to increase your traffic AKA which one you should focus on first.

You can listen here, or keep reading below:

Here are the only 5 ways to drive traffic on Etsy:

#1 Social Media

Social media is free, and a great way to reach new audiences.

One downside is the frequency you need to post on social media to regularly drive traffic. You have to create a lot of content for your products to get social media traffic, but it’s very important and can be a great, cost-effective way to get sales, especially when you are small.

Know your audience and figure out what social media channels they hang out and post their the most. That could be IG, it could be tiktok, maybe it’s Facebook. It only makes sense though to focus your efforts on the social media channels that your target customer is actually using.

And honestly, there's no better way to grow on social media right now than Instagram reels, and we can teach you more about that here!

#2 Direct traffic (Your website or email list)

You can also drive traffic directly to your shop or specific products with direct links.

This would be from your website or email list.

Maybe you have a link on your website that says “shop my new product launch here!” and someone clicks over and makes a purchase in your Etsy shop.

It's helpful to be growing your audience outside of Etsy, but this is a time consuming way to drive traffic.

#3 SEO from the internet

Another traffic source is people who find your Etsy shop from somewhere else on the internet, not from you directly but from a search engine like Google, Bing, or Pinterest.

So, let’s say someone searches “suncatcher sticker” and our listings come up because we use that keyword “suncatcher sticker” in our listings.

So, our stickers pop up on google when someone makes that search and they click over from Google to Etsy.

This is another way to gain shop traffic, and it's a relatively easy way if your SEO is good.

#4 Ads

You can get traffic both on site on Etsy and offsite from pages like google to Etsy with ads. Etsy has both promoted listings, or onsite ads, and offsite ads. 

PSA: I do not recommend ads for the majority of Etsy shops.

If you do not have products that are already ranking well in the search algorithm, then running ads will probably be a waste of money.

But, I do encourage people to experiment so if you feel comfortable spending a small amount of money on Etsy advertising, you could try something like $1/day on Etsy ads to promote your listings. 

#5 Etsy SEO

Finally, you can drive traffic to your shop directly on Etsy by using the platform’s search engine is the last way you can get traffic to your shop.

You use keywords that are high traffic, low competition in your listings and when a customer searches that keyword on etsy, your listings pop up and you get more traffic to your shop when customers click on your product from the search results.

So, those are the only 5 ways you can get traffic to your shop. Which one is the best, easiest, and fastest way to increase your traffic?

The best one is....

Etsy SEO

I say this because you don’t have to invest money into SEO and unlike social media, it doesn’t take daily posting and content creation to increase your traffic.

Etsy SEO is where I would focus for traffic because it’s really the first step in capturing customers who are already on Etsy.

There are around 90 million customers on Etsy and 86% of sales are made from the first page of search results when a customer searches a keyword.

So, it really is your best option to get more traffic and therefore more sales - Etsy SEO.

It’s also the way that Katie and I have grown our shop to 6 figures and we are ranked in the top 0.01% of etsy shops globally, and we’ve turned our SEO strategy into a step-by-step guide you can follow and it’s part of our course, Dream, Create, Sell.

Ready for the next step?

Learn the basics of Etsy SEO with our free worksheet!