Teachers Pay Teachers SEO: The Ultimate Guide!
If you’re a TPT seller, the number one thing you should be thinking about when creating a new product is how to get it to rank in TPT search. For most sellers, the majority of sales come directly through TPT. That is, a teacher comes to Teachers Pay Teachers, searches using the search bar, and buys one of the products that they find. You want that product to be your product.
In order for that to happen, you need to know about SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Essentially, it means adjusting a webpage (in this case, your product page) so that a search engine knows what is on that page and is able to show it to the right people at the right time. You need your product to show up near the top of the first page of search if you want anyone to find it. No busy teacher is scrolling through pages and pages of search results! They look at the first few products, and they buy the one that jumps out at them.
In this post, I’m going to teach you everything you need to know to master Teachers Pay Teachers SEO, so that your products will show up on page one of search every time!
Table of Contents
- TPT’s search algorithm
- The importance of reviews
- Recent sales and conversion rate
- Keywords
- Preview and thumbnails
- Steps to create a new TPT product with SEO in mind
- Steps to optimize TPT products for SEO
- Improve TPT SEO with outside traffic
- Get more tips with my newsletter!
TPT’s search algorithm
TPT’s search algorithm is complex. It takes into account hundreds of factors to decide which products to display in what order for a given search term. We don’t know what all of those factors are, but here are a few that we know for sure: reviews, recent sales, conversion rate, keywords, and preview and thumbnails. Let’s take a look at each of these in depth.
The importance of reviews
Reviews and ratings are a crucial part of TPT’s search algorithm. Years ago, it was relatively easy for products to accumulate mostly five-star reviews, which is why many older products have hundreds or even thousands of perfect reviews. TPT eventually updated its rating system to encourage more meaningful, varied feedback from buyers. As a result, it’s now less common to see exclusively five-star ratings. You should aim for a mix of 4-star and 5-star reviews.
Here’s why reviews matter in TPT SEO: products with more reviews and higher average reviews are more likely to appear near the top of search results. These highly-rated products are also likely to have sold more units over time, which further boosts their ranking.
As a teacher-author, this knowledge can guide your decisions on what products to create. If you search for a particular term and all of the products on page one have a lot of reviews, you know that your product won’t be near the top, and this isn’t a great product to make. On the other hand, if you search for a term and the products don’t have many ratings (preferably in the 0-5 range, in my opinion), then you stand a chance of ranking near the top! This would be a great product to create.
This also means that you should try to get as many reviews as possible. In my experience, only about 5-10% of TPT buyers leave a review, so it does take time. I recommend including a link back to your product within every product, along with a snippet reminding buyers that they can get free TPT credits just by leaving a review.
Now that we’ve covered reviews, let’s move on to recent sales and conversion rate—two other factors that affect rankings.
Recent sales and conversion rate
Reviews aren’t the only quality measure that the TPT algorithm takes into account, though. The algorithm also looks at recent sales. If buyers searching for a particular term often buy a particular product, that tells the search engine that that product is a great match for that term. Products may start to rise in the rankings if recent buyers are purchasing at a high rate.
This is related to, but not exactly the same as, your conversion rate. Recent sales takes into account all teachers who are searching for a particular term, whether or not they click on your product. Your conversion rate, which you can see in your dashboard or product statistics page, tells you how many teachers who viewed your product ended up buying it. Products with a higher conversion rate rank higher in TPT search.
Now, these factors aren’t powerful enough to overcome a long history of sales and many good reviews. Your brand-new product almost certainly isn’t going to rank on page one amid products with hundreds of reviews, no matter how perfect it is for the keyword and how much buyers love it. Sorry!
But there are some things that you can do with this information. Namely, keep an eye on your conversion rate. If a product isn’t converting well, it’s going to start dropping in search. If you see a product with a low conversion rate relative to your other products, try adjusting the thumbnails or preview, lowering the price, or making changes to the product itself. Your goal is to boost the conversion rate and help the product rank in search.
Now let’s explore the SEO factor that you have the most control over: keywords.
Keywords
Keywords are what tell TPT’s algorithm what your product is all about. They’re the words teachers type into the search bar when looking for resources.
In this section, we’ll cover:
- How to avoid overly competitive keywords
- How to find keywords teachers are searching for
- Tips for placing keywords in your product title and description
Is this keyword too competitive?
The first step in choosing a keyword is to assess its competition. Since we know that ratings and previous sales factor heavily into the TPT algorithm, we know that your brand-new product isn’t going to rank among products with thousands of sales and thousands, hundreds, or even tens of reviews. You need to pick a keyword for which the first page of search is filled with other new products.
In my opinion, you’re looking for products with 0-5 ratings. It’s okay if there are one or two more popular products, because teachers will still see your product if it’s ranked number three or four. But no one will see it if it’s ranked number twenty or thirty.
So, before deciding what keywords to use for a brand-new product, go ahead and perform a search on TPT. Make sure that the keyword you want to use isn’t too competitive.
Once you’ve narrowed down a keyword that’s not too competitive, the next step is to ensure that teachers are actively searching for it.
Find out what teachers are searching for
Your keyword can rank #1 on the very first page of TPT search, but your product still won’t sell if no teachers are searching for that term. You need to figure out what teachers are actually looking for. There are a few ways to do this. Pick your favorite, or use a couple!
Use your own classroom
Your classroom is the most underrated TPT SEO tool, in my opinion. What do you need for your own classroom in the coming days or weeks? Many of my bestsellers are things that I made just because I needed them for my classroom, and I thought, “Might as well post it on TPT!” If you need it and can’t find it elsewhere, chances are other teachers are in the same boat!
During the school year, I challenge myself to never buy what I can make. If I can find something free online easily, I’ll use that, since other teachers can find that free product, too, and are less likely to pay for an alternative. But, if I need something that isn’t available for free online, I try to make it myself. That way, it’s customized exactly the way I need it for my classroom, and I have a new TPT product to boot!
Build out product lines
Similarly, you can build out product lines without doing a ton of keyword research. If you already have a product that sells well, try making a similar product for another skill, another grade level, or another season. If that one sells well, too, make another one! Keep going until the products become too niche and are no longer selling well.
TPT search bar
The TPT search bar can help you figure out what teachers are actually searching for on the site. Start typing in a keyword related to a product you want to create. Then, see what auto-populates in the suggested searches. These are current popular searches. They can be great ideas for products, but make sure first to check that the keyword you’re looking at isn’t too competitive!
Teachers Boost
Teachers Boost is a tool that helps streamline the process of looking for TPT keywords. When you type a keyword, it gives you suggested related keywords, as well as a score for each one that tells you how competitive that keyword is. Teachers Boost also sends out a free weekly newsletter with low-competition keywords that they’ve found that week, which can be a really helpful source of ideas if you’re ever stuck!
Your Data Playbook SEO Tool
Your Data Playbook, or YDP, also offers a keyword tool. You tell the program what general keywords and topics you’re interested in making products for, and it will give you a long list of related keywords, along with an estimate of how many teachers are searching for that keyword and how competitive it is. This is not only a great tool to use when trying to think of new product ideas, but it can also be used to rename and optimize existing products that are not selling as well as they should.
Once you’ve chosen your keyword, it’s time to make sure it’s a perfect match for your product.
Make sure your keyword is a good match
You need to make sure that your keyword matches your product well. Deceptive keywords that are designed to rank for search but don’t actually match your product will hurt you in the long run. Although many teachers might see your product, few will end up buying, which will tell TPT that your product isn’t a good match for this search term after all. Then, your product will start to drop in the rankings. Furthermore, a lower conversion rate might mean your product will start to drop in the rankings for other search terms, too, including search terms for which it actually is a good match.
Where to put your keywords
Your keywords should be included in the title of your product on TPT. Not necessarily in your cover – there, you can use whatever cute or eye-catching title you want. But the actual name of the product that you type in when you’re posting the product to TPT should include these keywords.
The keywords should also be included in the product description. Specifically, you should fit as many as possible, using natural language, in the first 180 characters of the description, which the TPT algorithm focuses on specifically. The ones that don’t fit there can be included throughout the rest of the description. Just make sure your language is natural and that it doesn’t read like you’re “keyword stuffing,” or trying to trick the algorithm. This will likely just hurt your chances in search.
Keyword tips and tricks
TPT’s search algorithm has improved significantly over time. It used to be that “first grade worksheets” and “worksheets first grade” returned a totally different list of results! This is no longer the case, but there are a couple other quirks to know about.
First, TPT does know that “1st grade” and “first grade” are the same thing, but sometimes it still prioritizes an exact match. For this reason, if you’re including a grade level, I recommend spelling it out in either the title or description, and using the number in the other. So, if your title says “first grade worksheets,” your description should include “1st grade worksheets” (or vice versa).
This is the same for singular and plural nouns. “1st grade worksheets” and “1st grade worksheet” do not produce the same search results, although teachers are probably looking for the same thing. Try to include both the singular and plural version (if applicable) somewhere in your title and description. Of course, don’t include the plural if your product only has one worksheet, one packet, one whatever it is.
Preview and thumbnails
Previews and thumbnails don’t just help sell your product—they also help it rank in search. The TPT algorithm favors products that have a preview and at least one thumbnail (the cover). So, you should make sure that you always include a preview for your product, and you always include at least a cover, instead of having TPT auto-generate it.
Of course, if you want to actually convert views to sales, it’s best practice to include an attractive and informative cover, thumbnails, and preview, anyway! Just know that it’s also helping your product rank in TPT search!
Steps to create a new TPT product with SEO in mind
- Brainstorm types of products that you think teachers might be looking for. Use your own classroom and other successful products in your store as inspiration.
- Use a keyword tool to find out what teachers are searching for when they’re looking for products like this.
- Make sure that your keyword isn’t too competitive! For your brand-new product to rank near the top, the first products that show up when you search for your keyword should have between 0-5 reviews.
- Picked a keyword? Create the product!
- When posting the product to TPT, make sure the keyword is included in the title, first 180 characters of the description (the snippet), and throughout the description.
Steps to optimize TPT products for SEO
Optimizing products can be a really powerful way to increase sales! I’ve had products that were slowly losing sales year after year suddenly have their best year ever after a title change with SEO in mind.
- Do your keyword research. Use an SEO tool to find keywords that match your product. Remember that if your product already has sales and reviews, it might be able to rank for more competitive keywords! Aim for keywords for which the top products have a similar number of reviews as your product.
- Change the title and description of your product. Make sure to include the keyword in the title and in the first 180 characters of the description.
- Fill in the rest of the title. Don’t leave space unused! Keep typing and adding more keywords until TPT won’t let you add any more.
- Check back to make sure that your product’s sales are increasing. If not, it might be time to try something else!
Improve TPT SEO with outside traffic
Since TPT’s algorithm uses the number of recent sales and reviews to help it decide which products to rank in search, bringing more traffic to a product can help it rank higher. You can do this through advertising, social media, email newsletters, blogging… any way that you can think of to get more eyes on your product!
Teacher-authors have asked TPT staff in the past whether the reduced conversion rate that results from advertising will hurt their product in search. In other words, if you’re sending a lot of potential customers to your product through advertising, but relatively few of them actually buy, the conversion rate on your product will dip. TPT responded that this does not negatively impact the product’s search ranking. The algorithm only worries about whether or not people who searched through TPT end up purchasing the product. In fact, they said, bringing in outside traffic can boost a product’s ranking in TPT search because its sales and ratings will increase.
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