How to link to your Etsy shop (+ understanding Menus & Widgets in WordPress)

If you are building a brand new website for your business, then you’ll need to link over to your Etsy shop (at least, until you have your OWN shopping cart installed on your site).

There are a couple of ways that you can link to your shop, and this video will show you how (+ give you a little bit of background on Menus & Widgets in WordPress).

[s3video s3url=”linking-to-your-shop.mp4″ /]

 

The first way is in your blog’s menu. To link to your shop from your menu, you’ll go to Appearance > Menus. In order to add a link to your shop, you’ll need to create a custom link.

To do this, click on the Links dropdown tab, and a box will open up under it, where you can place your custom URL (the URL of your shop), as well as the Link Text (the text you want to appear on your menu). Once you’ve entered these two items, click the “Add to Menu” button. The new link will now appear in your menu items list on the right side of the page. You can adjust where in the list you’d like this link to appear by dragging and dropping the item. When everything looks the way you want it, make sure to click the blue “Save Menu” button on the far right of your screen.

If your shop is on Etsy, then another way that you can link to your shop is by using the Etsy Mini Widget. You can grab the code for the Etsy Mini Widget in the dashboard of your Etsy shop (as shown in the video), and simply add the code into a text widget (Appearance > Widgets).

Hard Coding Your Shop Link.

Another way to link to your shop, or to individual products in your shop (I didn’t show this in the video), is to use good images of your products in your sidebar, and then link them to their listing in your shop. You can see an example of how I do this in my own sidebar.

You will first need to upload an image (somewhere around 250 or so pixels wide…. this will depend on the width of your sidebar area) into the Media Library (go to Media > Add New). Once the image is showing in your Library, click the link beside it that says “Edit”. On the next page, you’ll be provided with the URL for the image ….. keep this page open. You will need that URL for the next step.

In a text widget (under Appearance > Widgets), add a new text widget to your sidebar. Grab the snippet of code at the bottom of this page, and place it inside the text widget. Inside the quotes, in place of PUT YOUR SHOP URL HERE, add your shop’s URL. In place of PUT YOUR IMAGE FILE URL HERE, add the URL for the picture that you just uploaded to your Media Library. (Remember, you can grab its URL on the “edit” page that you left open.

Save your widget, and your image will appear, linked to your shop.

Something to keep in mind when linking to your shop – most people will not be actively seeking out a place to go and spend their money. In other words, don’t assume that your visitors will automatically go visit your shop, without being somehow enticed to visit it. Remember that your visitors are not emotionally invested in your website like you are, and they will not know you want them to go to your shop… nor will they care that you want them to visit your shop. This is why it’s so important that you find ways to entice them to check out your products, and why I really stress the importance of using great photos of your products in your sidebar, aside from just having a link in your main menu.

Code to link an image to your shop:

<a href=”PUT YOUR SHOP URL HERE” target=”blank”><img src=”PUT YOUR IMAGE FILE URL HERE”></a>

Important note: When you copy and paste the code above, you’ll need to delete and re-type the double quotation marks.

Other Resources You Might Like….

Your Website, Your Empire.

The Art of Etsy Independence.

1 Response
  • Sharon Jackson
    January 14, 2021

    Where is the video? My problem is that the custom link will not save the url. I add it, click save menu and when I go to look the url is gone.

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