Canada’s Top Etsy Keywords: July 2024

Here at eRank, we’re back with Canada’s top Etsy keywords. Let us take the guesswork out of your Etsy SEO and product research. We’ll show you the most popular Canadian shopper searches. Then we’ll analyze what these trending keywords tell us about what’s selling best on Etsy in Canada now.

July’s Top 20 Etsy keywords 

1. bruno mars shirt
2. bruno mars merch
3. jewelry
4. 14k gold necklace
5. bruno mars
6. wall art
7. earrings
8. stickers
9. candle
10. trump
11. engagement ring
12. mens clothing
13. shirt
14. poster
15. 3d printed
16. shoes
17. necklace
18. tshirt
19. run the jewels hoodie
20. posters

Warning: Beware of trademarked terms. This report may contain keywords that are trademarked. USPTO Trademark Database

Okay now, this is just crazy, Canada! 

As always, we’ll base our analysis on the Top 20 keywords that weren’t on last month’s Top 20. These are the shopper searches that have been climbing highest the fastest. Benchmarks for Etsy: fewer than five new is stagnant. More than nine suggests volatility. Lots more shoppers suddenly searching for lots more stuff they weren’t as much just 30 days before.

Back in April, we were shocked. You had 14 climbers, four of which hadn’t made your previous month’s Top 1000. (We call those screamers because they seem to scream into the Top 20 out of nowhere.) May was less extreme: 11 climbers, three of which were screamers. But then in June you were right back up to 14 climbers and four screamers. What the heck?

Which brings us to July. And wearily we say unto you, just like the UK this month you have 15 climbers. And way more screamers: eight! That has to be some kind of record. Do we offer congrats or tear out our hair – but you know what? We think many of these are thanks to Etsy.

Top Etsy searches: July’s climbers and screamers

 Let’s get right to them; here they are, listed in order with their current rank first.

#1 bruno mars shirt (screamer: not in June’s Top 1000)

#2 bruno mars merch (screamer: not in June’s Top 1000)

#4 14k gold necklace (screamer: not in June’s Top 1000)

#5 bruno mars (screamer: not in June’s Top 1000)

#8 stickers, up from #22

#9 candle, up from #484

#10 trump (screamer: not in June’s Top 1000)

#11 engagement ring, up from #102

#12 mens clothing, up from #783

#13 shirt (screamer: not in June’s Top 1000)

#15 3d printed , up from #65

#16 shoes (screamer: not in June’s Top 1000)

#18 tshirt, up from #21

#19 run the jewels hoodie (screamer: not in June’s Top 1000)

#20 posters, up from #89

First, a few words about five of these screamers… 

The UK report ended up being a 16-min read. If we talked about all these, yours would be much longer. We don’t want to do that to you; we know you’re busy. So let’s just sweep a bunch of these out of the way. Want to read about the curious case of Bruno Mars (and hip hop duo Run the Jewels)? The long version is in our US report (their July Top 4 searches were all Bruno Mars).

The UK has the same three Bruno Mars screamers as you do. The tl;dr is that Bruno Mars still has lots of fans. And he’s currently on a three-continent tour supporting a new album expected out this month. As for Run the Jewels (your No. 19), it too has reason to be trending in 2024. As does of course No. 10 trump. However! That’s all moot.

As you know, we are data geeks. We are not attorneys. Let alone intellectual property attorneys. So we cannot advise you. However, a word to the wise: warning! (As in: “Warning: Beware of trademarked terms. This report may contain keywords that are trademarked. USPTO Trademark Database”). And that’s all we are going to say about these five screamers.

Let’s move on to your top Etsy searches you can actually do something with!

Ranking 4^th: 14k gold necklace

This one’s a screamer; it didn’t crack June’s Top 1000. But haven’t we seen this one in your Top 20 before?

Guess not. You need way more searches than February’s 1,550 to make your Top 20. Hmm. So, being data geeks lol, we had to go poke around a bit. This was what we were thinking of:

This is “14k gold chain necklace.” It made the US Top 20 in March. And as you can see, it was a single-month spike. We’d never seen that search before. And haven’t since.

You know how they talk about AI hallucinating at times? Given that this was a US screamer in March (zero searches in February despite Valentines shoppers), was this Etsy? Their machine-learning algorithm, um, learning?

And could that be true for your “14k gold necklace”? We aren’t as sure in your case. It’s had two previous months of activity: in February (likely for Valentine’s gifts). And also a year ago in July 2023, when it had 1,150 searches.

Another observation: compare its Keyword Statistics chart to the US one. The latter has an Average CTR (click-through rate) of only 47%. Abysmal for Etsy. Whereas yours is a fabulous 130%! We also calculated it just for July: it’s 132%. Substantial purchase intent!

(On the other hand…) 

Anyone happen to remember your June screamer “silver necklace”? It ranked 20^th. Let’s revisit it.

From 5,550 searches in June, it’s down to 50 now. That’s a 99% decrease.

And another keyword we viewed with some suspicion last month was your 15^th-ranked climber “laser engraving file,” up from #978. Here it is now.

Same story: down 99%. Could some of these just be Etsy’s algo tossing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks?

Ranking 8^th: stickers, up from #22

“Stickers” has been one of your Top 20 frequent flyers for years now. You don’t need us to tell you how huge a trend this has been. So, for the sake of time, we didn’t plan to spend much time on it here. Until we looked it up in Keyword Tool.

Are all of you sticker sellers aware that this search has been slipping since January? The same is true in the US (we just checked). And Australia. And in the UK too, apart from one little rise in April, after which it plummeted. Huh.

We’ll definitely be watching this one from now on. Meanwhile, those of you in stickers might want to nose around for another niche to take up the slack. Because Year on Year, from that 15mo high back in July 2023, stickers is down 75%. Ouch!

Ranking 9^th: candle, up from #484 

We analyze singular and plural forms of keywords separately, as they’re entered by shoppers in search. But if we don’t bear that in mind, it can be easy to think wow! this keyword really climbed! Well, in this case, it did but not by quite as much: candles plural ranked #323 last month. That’s still way up from there, though! Let’s have a look.

This keyword appears to just be more erratic than stickers. In 15 months, stickers never dropped below 12,000 searches/mo until June 2024. Whereas “candle” dropped to 150 in August 2023 and 250 that September. Then soared way up through the holidays. Dropped below 2,500 by February, then began to climb again, hitting 7,550 in July. And then down again, this time to 1,250 in June.

Now it’s popped back up to your Top 20, green banner waving that it’s popular with shoppers this week. It’s also got a terrific 12-mo CTR: 124%. So all in all, we’d say it’s just the nature of this product. It may well dim again before it climbs for the holidays, but we’re confident it will climb.

Ranking 11^th: engagement ring, up from #102 

Way up!

“Engagement ring” is now tied with its other two 15-mo highs a year ago in August and September. While it’s a bit up and down, it doesn’t drop below 1,200/mo. Enough to secure it a place in most of your Top 1000 lists. And at 116%, it has an excellent Average CTR, too.

Ranking 12^th: mens clothing, up from #783 

Anyone else smell Etsy?

By which we mean a keyword likely ranking high due to an Etsy promotional Call to Action (CTA). Most of the time, Etsy targets these well. But here, did you notice the lack of our green trending-now banner? See the 66% Average CTR? That’s low for Etsy. And when we calculate the CTR just for July, when it was climbing? The CTR is even worse: only 30%!

We aren’t saying that men’s clothing isn’t selling well on Etsy. We just doubt it’s an organic keyword that Canadian shoppers typed into Etsy’s search bar 6,600 times in July. More likely, it was promoted via a CTA on your Etsy homepage and 6,600 shoppers clicked it. But for whatever reason, only 1,951 clicked any listings they were shown. Perhaps because those who did click the CTA were just browsing. In other words, they lacked purchase intent.

New to online selling? Click-through rates (CTRs) reflect how many times shoppers using a given keyword clicked listings in their search results. We care about these because CTRs signal “purchase intent.” That is, a shopper who’s searching with the intention to purchase (as opposed to one still just browsing). 

In any case, there’s no need to add “mens clothing” to your tags. Etsy tells us that the subcategory we select for our listing already acts as a tag.

Ranking 13^th: shirt

“Shirt” also made your Top 20 in July 2023. It’s only a screamer this year because search volume dropped to nearly nothing in June. Let’s have a look.

We aren’t concerned about those two dips in April and June this year. There are 17 entries with the word shirt in your Top 1000. And there were 22 in June! It just happened that the one-word search “shirt” was not among them. And anyway, as keywords go, it’s a ridiculously broad one. What mere mortal can rank for “shirt” on Etsy? Everybody has to niche down.  

Quick tutorial: how to use Keyword Tool to niche down

Are you new to eRank and/or online selling? “Niche down” is industry jargon for finding products and their keywords that you can rank for in search. Keyword Tool can help! Enter your broad search term, “shirt,” into Keyword Tool, and tick the “Include Near Matches” box. Doing so will include results for “shirts.”

Then scroll down to the Keyword Ideas table. There, use filter and sort to find “long-tail keywords:” the top Etsy searches with lowest competition. Once you find ones that fit your product best, these will be your “superstar” keywords. The ones you focus on ranking for in search.

Step-by-step demo

In the Keyword Ideas table, we chose “Broad” for the Keyword Match filter (circled in green here). Then sorted by the Search Trend column. (Just click the header, circled in orange.) This sort will show us what’s trending now. The three highest-ranked keywords were shirt, tshirt, and t shirt, all with daunting competition. 

But all these are next in current rank. “Halloween shirt” has a surprisingly good Average Searches figure for a seasonal keyword: 1,104. (In July, it had 1,550 searches.) And an inviting Average CTR of 124%. And yet not terrible competition: 20,636 listings.

Stats for “custom shirt” are even better – but competition is more fierce. So just niche further down. Click on it; that will open its own Keyword Tool page and then follow this same procedure. We’re sure you’ll find opportunities tucked away in there.

“Anime shirt” could be one to watch. Anime is wildly popular. In fact, the one-word search “anime” made the UK Top 20 this month. But at just 53%, “anime shirt” doesn’t have as high a CTR (purchase intent) as we prefer. But hey, maybe you can come up with a design that will make them click! And competition for “anime shirt” is only 5,445 listings.

Skip “chainmail shirt.” Who pays enough to make all that work worth it? And besides, its stats are abysmal. But “dad shirt” might be worth researching further. Its Average Searches are only 66/mo (250 in July), but it’s got a 118% Average CTR. Competition is not too terrible – but it’s worse than halloween shirt’s! Overall, “halloween shirt” might be the best pick of these. And what you find for “custom shirt.”

Ranking 15^th: 3d printed, up from #65 

Several years ago when 3D printing first got popular on Etsy, it was a Top 20 regular for months.

And reviewing category keywords for our Monthly Trends tool, we always see searches related to 3d printing. And yet, even for a broad keyword like “3d printed,” competition from your fellow Canadian sellers is still moderate. Seems like a healthy niche to research if you’re looking for one.

Ranking 16^th: shoes 

Another screamer!  “Shoes” seldom reaches any Top 20 list of the top four Etsy countries we report on. (When it does, it’s most likely to be Australia.) Let’s see if we can see what’s what.

Gracious, “shoes” has got a fantastic Average CTR for you: 145%! And as we sometimes find with screamers, it is not so much that they’re trending out of nowhere. Rather, it’s that they fell uncommonly low the month before. Which is the case here. This keyword hit a 15-mo low in June with just 150 searches. Now it’s recovered and then some! Enough to make your Top 20.

But wait! Other factors to consider 

To make a Top 20 list, there is another factor to account for. That month’s overall search volume. Above right, we see that “shoes” climbed above 10,000 searches in May of 2023, nearly double its current count. Yet it only ranked #23 that month. Because the threshold to make the Top 20 was that much higher: 12,700. This month, keywords only needed 4,700 searches to make July’s Top 20.

And that explains why this is the first time in 15 months that “shoes” has made your Top 20. It’s the same in the US, by the way. Their threshold has been pretty consistently been dropping. We’ve been tracking it since December 2022.

The takeaway? Still our usual: don’t leap straightaway on screamers. Besides: while “shoes” has above-average search volume, it’s not a category we’d recommend for a new or small shop. Shipping costs are high. Returns are bound to be high. Handmade? You’d need to carry so many sizes, and they’d need a lot of space to store. And despite all that, competition is in the red! 

Ranking 18^th: tshirt, up from #21 

Since this report is already so long, we assumed we could skip discussing this climber. In the past 15 months, “tshirt” has charted on more than half of your Top 20 lists. And all of you know the drill now: niche down! But that was before we looked up “tshirt” in Keyword Tool. And we noticed something unexpected.

A year ago in May and June, “tshirt” was charting much, much higher. Over three times as high. And while it did take a dramatic dip that July, it was still 1000+ searches above this July’s. It only made your Top 20 this month because it’s so much easier to do now.

Of course it’s not all doom and gloom for tshirts! See: it’s waving the Trending Now banner; it’s got an Average CTR of 129%. But when calculated just for July, its monthly CTR is down to 70%. “Tshirts” plural ranks #122; its July CTR is just 82%. “T shirt” (with a space) is farther down at #141; its CTR for July is only 33%: yikes! And “t shirts” plural didn’t make your Top 1000 at all.

Are you relying on this category? Might be wise to put all four variants (tshirt, tshirts, t shirt, t shirts) on a Keyword List and keep an eye on them. Meanwhile, start putting some eggs in other baskets. Just in case.

Ranking 20^th: posters, up from #89 

Well, “posters” may have climbed from #89, but “poster” (singular) ranked 10^th in June and is 14^th now. Quite a popular category for you! Let’s have a look.

Hmm. “Posters” appears to be down Year on Year. And its 93% Average CTR could be better. (And indeed, when calculated just for July, it is better: 127%.)

So, just for fun, since this is our last one, let’s tick that “Include Near Matches” box. See what poster + posters looks like.

Much better! Combined, their search volume is twice as high. And their combined CTR for July is 118%: very nice, Canada!

And with that, it’s west to Australia for us!

As always, we love hearing what you think about these or any other trends you’ve spotted. You’re welcome to join us in eRank’s private Facebook group. With over 28,000 members from around the world, someone friendly is always up and about. And don’t miss our weekly live Q&As on YouTube, where you’ll also find dozens of eRank tutorials, tool demos and more! And here we are on TikTok, featuring lots of quick how-tos.

RESOURCES: eRank’s Trend Buzz and Keyword Tool have 15 months of historical Etsy search data to help you understand trends in what’s selling on Etsy now, what did well this time last year, and to help you spot what’s new. Together, they are the best way to track what’s popular with Canada’s Etsy shoppers now.