Category-specific attributes

Product categories on Etsy are fine-grained. Each category is very specific so that all listings within the same category are very similar. For instance there is a category for Toddler beds.

An attribute is something like Jewelry type or Ring size, these would both be found on categories in the realm of rings and jewelry. These attributes are the only additional information that you can use to describe a product beyond the title, description, etc..

For every single category, Etsy defines a set of allowed attributes. These are called category-specific attributes. Only the defined attributes are allowed for listings within a particular category.

For instance Jewelry type wouldn’t make sense on a listing in the Toddler beds category, so it’s not available at all.

Category-specific attributes and SEO

All category-specific attributes help boost your SEO. This is because Etsy treats the attributes like extra ‘super tags’. So, a listing with 13 tags and 5 attributes has 18 more keywords it can rank for in search. Obviously this makes attributes very important — especially in competitive categories.

Keep in mind, if you provide an attribute on your listing, you don’t also need to create a tag for the same keyword. You can use tags to target other keywords instead.

You should include every relevant attribute for every listing. This will give your listings the best performance in Etsy’s search rankings.

Attributes in Shop Uploader: _underscore_columns

Since each category has a specific set of attributes, our templates don’t include columns for all of them. Shop Uploader instead has you choose the categories you want to upload, then generates the template with the attributes for those categories.

These columns are the _underscore_columns in Shop Uploader templates. Any column header starting with an underscore is a dynamically generated column, specifically for your template. For example the Primary color attribute will be managed by the _primary_color column in Shop Uploader.

Attributes have allowed values

Etsy has also chosen allowed values for most attributes. For example, there is a set of colors you can choose for the “Primary color”. These allowed values will be provided in your Shop Uploader template as a dropdown box. We have included data validation in every template to show the exact set of values that are allowed for your chosen category.

If an attribute has pre-determined values, you can only use those allowed values. That means if want your Primary color to be Maroon, you’ll have to settle for Red.

Some attributes don’t have pre-determined values. These attributes will accept any values but may require a scale (see that section below).

Not using Excel or customizing your template? The allowed values are provided in hidden worksheets in the Shop Uploader template. Unhide the sheets and you will find the set of allowed values mapped to each column. Each sheet is for a different category and labeled by the category’s ID.

There is one exception to the allowed values. Listings with variations can define their own values while using an attribute. So, you can still use Primary color but also provide variations for Red, Maroon, Coral, etc..

That means option1_name = _primary_color and then you can use any color for a variation’s option1_value.

Some attributes require scales

Some attributes are open ended and cannot have a set of allowed values because they are dimensions. For instance you can provide any number to _length and _ring_size but they require a scale.

For example, 5 is not a length that makes sense, 5 what? Inches? Centimeters? Feet?

To account for this, you will need to provide a scale for some attributes. For the previous example that would look like this: 5 in — no dot after the abbreviation.

Some attributes have special scales, like _ring_size, that are specific to the industry. Things like in, cm, are common scales used everywhere. Things like that K UK, 6.5 US are not.

Special scales may not be supported by Shop Uploader — yet! Try it out first and if there is an error, we can very quickly add any scale you need, just contact support.

Attributes in the Etsy interface

You can find attributes in the Etsy interface in the “Details” section. There is a subsection for “Attributes” that will display some recommended attributes or any attributes you have already provided.