Your product tiles matter. A lot!
You can get traffic to your TpT store in an active or passive way. The active way involves you posting to social media, replying to comments, and sending emails. All of these are good strategies and worth some time and energy, as they will result in traffic.
But another way to get traffic, and a highly effective way, is to let your potential customers find you on Search Engines, like Google or the TpT search bar.
You do this through a strategy called SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization.
Naming your products the right thing is one of the best ways you can get a high ranking on these search engines, which will result in more traffic.
Quick aside: other good ways to have great SEO is with a great product description and by writing blog posts.
Why SEO is so Effective
Think of how most teacher buyers arrive on a TpT resource. They go to Google (or teachers pay teachers, or Duck Duck Go, or another search engine) and they type in the resource they’re looking for. “Water Cycle Lab,” “Adding integers learning station,” “Ancient Greek mythology worksheet,” “Shakespeare lesson plan.”
Google (or whatever search engine they’re on) spits out 100,000 results, but the teacher sees the top 10 or 20. They begin scrolling.
As they’re scrolling through the different results, what are they seeing?
Product tiltes. Followed by the first two or three lines from the product description, and maybe the cover image (depending on the Search Engine they’re using).
If they’re on TpT they will get a little more information like price, grade level, and resource type.
So we want our product to show up in that list of results from the search engine. This is why we must “optimize” our post for “search engines.”
One of the best ways to rank higher on search engines is with the right title.
How to Optimize your TPT Product Titles for SEO
You want your title to look like the words the teacher is typing into the search engine.
For example, one of my best-selling resources for a while was a reflection worksheet for the student who keeps blurting out in class. I called it the Blurter Outer Corrector.
While that might be a fun name. No one would ever search for it. So that title would get me no traffic.
Instead, I called it “Reflection Sheet for the Student who Keeps Blurting Out.” Because those are words that teachers are typing into search engines looking for help and resources.
What words, associated with your product, are teachers looking for?
Get very specific. This is called niching down.
Don’t just say Ancient Egypt worksheet. Go further. Ancient Egypt map study guide. Or Ancient Egypt lab on the pyramids.
Try to include as many of these as possible in the title
- Skill, section, or unit
- Type of resource
- Product line
- Grade level
- Benefit (if there’s room)
So my adding integers worksheet would be better titled “Adding Integers Reteach Worksheet | perfect for stations”
I don’t use grade levels in a lot of my math skills because they work for many grades. But a third-grade writing prompt would be a good resource to list grade level. Same with a First Grade Valentine’s Day Craft.
Research
There are tools you can use to help you with titles. Like Uber Suggest, SEM rush, or AH refs (and many more). They all have a subscription plan, but many allow you a free trial or a few free searches each day.
When you’re doing your research, a lot of people suggest you look for popular terms. But I see those as “crowded.” If there are a million results for “adding integers worksheet,” what are the chances I will rank? Instead, look for long tail phrases (several words) that are searched for a lot but don’t have a lot of results.
To do that, you normally have to pay for the subscription plan of one of those SEO tools, and they can be very pricey. So I choose to go with just thinking about my resources in a practical way. I try to include the words and phrases my ideal customers are searching for based on what I know about the teachers in my niche.
Don’t Keyword Stuff
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to put every keyword into the title. It doesn’t sound natural and it confuses the customer.
Remember what Einstein said, “Everything should be as simple as possible, and no simpler.”
Give your product one name (not many in an effort to fit in a bunch of keywords).
Give it Time
It takes months for your product or post to be properly indexed by the search engines and to start appearing in the searches (or at least to start appearing with a high rank). So be patient.
And try not to update your resource titles too often. When you change the title, you have to start that SEO clock all over again. This will actually hurt your ranking. So if you have to change your title to get a better ranking, do it. But try not to do it often.
How Does the New TpT Search Algorithm Affect Your Product Titles?
Teachers Pay Teachers has been, and will likely continue, phasing in its new “personalized search algorithm.”
If you haven’t seen my video on the new search algorithm, you can watch it here.
But the gist of the situation is that TpT has been slowly implementing a new algorithm that personalizes the results of your search based on your behavior on the platform. So when you type something into the TpT Search Bar, you will get results that differ from what other buyers will get. This is based on TPT’s data of what type of resources you like, based on your history on the platform.
So. How will Product Title names affect the search results?
The short answer is that everything we have discussed still applies to the new search algorithm. You still want good product titles, that are very clear about what the product is and who it’s for. And you still want to use words and phrases that you know your ideal customers are searching for.
The new algorithm works hard at finding a good product match for whatever is typed into that search bar. And they try to match it specifically to the likes and spending habits of the person typing it into the search bar. For this reason, you want your product titles very specific, easy to understand, keyword friendly, and niched down. You also want excellent product descriptions and preview images that you will have a high conversion rate. This will help match more of your future products to customers since they have already purchased from you.
Conclusion
Put some thought and energy into your product titles. Be specific about what they are. Use words and phrases that you know your customers are searching for.
If you’ve got a resource that isn’t doing well, it might be time to rename it. Look and see if it’s getting the same amount of traffic as your other similar resources. If it isn’t, you might consider renaming it or updating the cover image.
If it’s getting traffic but not converting well, this means you need to update your description, preview images, or preview file download.