Taking Gutenberg editor for a spin

His first name was Johann and he was a German inventor. He was born about 1398 and reportedly died in 1468. His name was changed at some time as he was actually born as Johann Gensfeisch our Laden in Mainz Germany, the same area our ancestors came from. We like Gutenberg!

This is what Gutenberg was supposed to look like. Kind of funny looking by todays standards if you ask me. Well maybe not too different looking than today no?

WordPress has taken the namesake of Johann Gutenberg, shortened it to just “Gutenberg” and placed it on their new block editor for the WordPress content management system.

First we installed the Classic text editor

Initially we did not want to look at the Gutenberg Editor. So many people were saying it was a bad move on WordPresses part to put the new editor into core so we installed the Classic Text Editor Plugin.

The Classic Editor allowed us to continue using the method of post writing that we were used to. We avoided the Gutenberg plugin and the Gutenberg Editor for a number of revisions. We even looked at installing the Elementor Page Builder plugin to help us avoid coding and just publish.

We love the Elementor Page builder but we did not wish to purchase the professional version nor did we really want to learn a new method for page building. We started to think that we could spend the time fighting Gutenberg or just start using it. We checked to make certain that our WordPress Theme was compatible.

Our First Gutenberg Post

This is our first actual Gutenberg post. It took a pretty long time to build as we had to read a number of instructional blog articles to get our bearings. First we had to change a setting in the Classic Editor to allow users to switch between editors. See the circled text for what settings need to be changed to allow Block editing. You can also address the editor selection in the WordPress user area.

We will be looking at SEO statistics for the post

With sales in our Etsy Shop a bit off, we are focusing on the web site. We plan to use the Gutenberg editor for all future posts from now forward. This post was written using Desktop Server on our iMac. We took it by cutting and pasting from the desktop server instance to the server were we host our site.

Our Google Analytics page has been copied to set a bench mark for the performance of this post over posts written in the Classic Editor. We will also monitor the Google tags in our Etsy shop for any deviation in performance. We will follow up with a post detailing our results.

eRank and Etsy SEO – Boosting Etsy Sales with SEO

Etsy Seo Improvements with eRank (that you can do today)

We have seen a tremendous drop in visits to our Etsy shop since we were taken off of Google Shopping . Etsy decided to insource the Google shopping ads a few weeks ago. Learning this we shut off ads in the Etsy provided marketing drop down menu in Etsy Shop manager. We started our search in Google for eRank and Etsy SEO.

We decided that we needed to try eRank in our little Etsy Shop which you can find here Hyperantique. Our statistics have been getting hammered into the wrong direction. The attached graphic showing the weekly trend of users looks like a ski slope in the wrong direction.

eRank to the Etsy SEO rescue (we hope)

eRank is one of the tools that are touted for their ability to assist you in fashioning SEO worthy Etsy listings. When we tried to register with eRank, we noticed that we had already registered for the product but we had not stored the password. We had to reset our passwords and refresh our listings. That said, you will not benefit from eRank unless you are actively using it. You must go in and audit your listings on a regular basis with a refresh to bring in new listings since your last visit to eRank.

We are not experts with the eRank product so we are using the free version which you can find here is eRank . So far we have re-loaded all of our listings and we are using eRank to examine each of the listings for good structure and then we will monitor the traffic. Fun is!

Our session traffic appears to be flattening out as well. This was happening before we installed eRank. We will continue to monitor the traffic and session data using our Google Analytics page. Follow the instructions and you will be able to track you traffic outside of Etsy too. Here is the link to the Etsy article that will guide your install of Google Analytics – for Etsy

Session Status before leveraging eRank

The Etsy Sessions trend is pretty dismal. While the trend is ok (wider base) the drop is coming unless we do something to enhance our SEO rankings inside of Etsy and outside of Etsy (from our website, Pinterest account and Google Search).

Our eRank starting point

We ran a refresh and eRank pulled in our 145 plus listings and presented us with a report card. eRank allows us to drill down on every listing. We are then presented with a list of deficits in each of our listings.

By drilling down on each item we were able to see that our biggest issues were with keywords. Second we never have enough pictures. We also noticed that the photos we put up were not all optimized for the majority of listings.

eRank is allowing us to focus on the mechanics of our listings. It will ensure that we are alerted to the missing information as well as spelling errors and a number of other quick fixes. We will check back in a few weeks to see if the numbers change dramatically.

We hope that you will visit our Etsy Shop to follow our progress. We will be updating this article with our findings in less than a month. See you on the internet!

Etsy Shopping is Eye-popping

Etsy Shopping – How not to list an item

Great photos and a well constructed description is not enough to get your items noticed and to turbocharge your Etsy shopping. You can do everything “right” and still not get any conversions in your Etsy shop. What can one do to increase the odds that your items will get picked up by search engines or at lease float to the top of the Etsy search algorithm?

We covered the proper way to make a listing according to what we have read in the Etsy support documents. Here is a link back to that article. It discusses many of the technical aspects of making a listing inside of Etsy’s own ecosystem. Here is a link to that article Get Google Analytics Working for Your Etsy Shop

After following their own recommendations for listing construction and even trying to use Google ads for some of the more expensive items we still see little upward trends in site traffic or conversions.

Trying something different to fix your Etsy Shopping experience

We have spent a good deal of time to set up the following accounts: Twitter @hyperantique , Pinterest Hyperantique, a facebook page called Hyperantique and an instagram account called Hyperantique. Still no noticeable increases in visits from outside of Etsy.

We also have this website www.hyperantique.com. The site uses WordPress and a number of plugins that we use to tailor the user experience. We are going to see if we can drive traffic from the website to our Etsy shop.

Here is a sample listing photo that was badly done:

Here is the actual listing with a better photo at our etsy shop Seat Belt Safety Award

Several things should come to mind when looking at the listing. First and foremost – what the heck is it and why do I want it. The description:

“A very cool 1988 award or sales display for seatbelt gear
From the time before airbags and when the only thing between you and the front window was a seat belt in your car.
Nice to put on your desk or trophy shelf.
Show the kids you are safety minded and hip to car stuff.”

Not an extremely compelling listing but it does cover all of the necessary Etsy requirements. It is fairly priced but it still does not rank. Let’s see if this article improves the views.