Whether you should use the same listing titles and keywords on different online platforms is a question that really bothers ecommerce sellers. Whether you’re selling your items on Etsy, your own website, Amazon, eBay, or anywhere else, let’s address this common question.
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Do Search Engines Care About Duplicate Titles?
The short answer is no.
First things first, let’s clear up a common misconception about duplicate content. Search engines don’t care if you use the same title for your products on different platforms. Whether it’s Google, Etsy, or any other search engine, duplicate content is not their primary concern, especially if they recognize that you own the sites in question.
If you’re selling under the same business name in multiple places, search engines will figure out that it’s the same product being offered. You don’t need to worry that you’re going to be penalized for having the same listings in different places.
You might even show up more than one time in search results for different sites if you have the same products in multiple places. That happens for me a lot when the search result page shows my products on my website and Etsy at the same time.
Keep customers in mind.
Search engines may not be overly concerned about duplicate titles, but your potential customers might be. When crafting a product title, remember to place the most important and descriptive keywords at the front so that customers see those under the product image. It’s not about search engines, it’s about grabbing the customer’s attention.
When a customer views a product listing, especially when it’s displayed in search results, they want to see keywords that directly match their search query. Seeing a relevant phrase under the product image can help convince them that your listing is what they’re looking for.
So, while search engines don’t mind duplicate titles, crafting your titles with consumer psychology in mind is crucial. Take the opportunity to try out different keywords that people use to find your products to see if you get more traffic to the listings by changing it up.
Changing title length for search engines.
You don’t need to worry too much about how long your titles are, as far as writing them so that search engines can read them.
One common myth is that you need to keep your titles “short and sweet” to appeal to search engines. This misconception likely comes from people who say that your titles should be shorter for Google because they only show the first 60 characters (approximately) in search results..
However, here’s the reality: Google reads the entire title, even if it doesn’t show the full title in search results. So don’t worry about cramming keywords into a few characters. Instead, aim to fill your entire title space with relevant, natural language that accurately represents your product.
Put the most important part at the front so that it does show up in the search results if it’s shown on Google, and avoid being repetitive or redundant, since that’s not going to help, and it will read in a weird way for customers.
Use normal sentences with correct punctuation to create a title that’s informative and compelling. Your titles should be as long as they need to be, there’s no reason to force yourself to make them short, no matter how much Etsy harasses you to do it.
Creating titles for different platform SEO.
You can use the same keywords for the same listing on different platforms. When it comes to using the same titles across different platforms, you’ll likely find that the keywords that you research for each platform are pretty much the same.
Whether people are shopping on Etsy, your website, or Amazon, they tend to use similar search terms.
There might be slight variations, but long-tail keywords can usually bridge any gaps. Long-tail keywords are simply phrases made up of multiple words. They help you cover a broader range of search queries and improve your chances of being found by potential customers. When you use different long tail combinations you can use your same main keywords in each title but still avoid repetition if that still makes you nervous.
For example, you could write a title or part of a description for a vanilla-scented candle this way for two different platforms: “Vanilla-scented candle with a wood wick, made from natural soy wax.” And “Natural vanilla-scented candle, made from soy wax with a wooden wick.”
Those both put across the basic facts that the candle is a vanilla fragrance, is made from soy, and has a wooden wick. They both contain the exact word-order match “vanilla-scented candle” so you’re covered on that. And they’re a little different, so if you’re still worried about the duplicate question, you should feel better.
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Which search engine are you writing for?
Keep in mind that your title is for the customer to read, so that should be your primary concern. But you do need to think about which computer system is going to be reading and using the title to understand the listing.
If you sell on Etsy or any other platform, the title is usually the most important part of the listing as far as their search system understanding your listing. You should write the title for the platform’s search engine and the customer to read.
If the platform that you’re selling on advertises on outside search engines or social media, you might want to think about whether you want to try to add some Google-type keywords to the title to capture some of that traffic. But in general, if the platform doesn’t have listings show up in Google search results on a regular basis, don’t worry about that too much. Focus on the platform’s SEO instead.
If you sell on your own website, you’re probably going to want to frame titles for outside search engines like Google and Bing. They look at the title of the product and the description to see what the thing is, but the title is the most important piece of it.
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Should you use Etsy’s AI title suggestions?
The short answer is maybe, but probably not. Etsy’s AI isn’t aware of your products specifically, it’s just looking at patterns and guessing about which pattern makes sense.
A lot of the time their suggestions DON’T make sense for your listings, so don’t blindly assume that AI is smart, because it’s not. I’ve heard from people who changed their titles and tanked their shops, so use your brain to decide whether Etsy’s titles are better than yours are. If you think they are, use them. If they’re not, don’t.
Etsy says one thing and does something else, and that’s a lesson that I’ve learned over the past 18+ years. Don’t do what they tell you to without thinking it through. Ignoring Etsy is my usual move, so don’t feel that you have to change things based on an AI suggestion.
There’s no need to overcomplicate the process of creating product titles for your ecommerce listings across various platforms.
You can comfortably use the same titles if they work well and feature relevant keywords. Search engines won’t penalize you for this, so feel free to keep things consistent across platforms.
Remember, focus on optimizing your titles for your customers, since they’re are the ones who have the credit card to buy your products.