Bethany Neilens

When I first started building a disability humour brand, I thought I had two jobs: be funny and sell stuff.

Turns out, I had a third job… convince an invisible, ever-evolving algorithm that my jokes, products, and pages deserved to be seen AND by the right audience.

Spoiler: the algorithm does not care how funny you are.

The Harsh Reality: Google Is Not Your Audience (But It Decides If You Get One)

In e-commerce, you can have:

• The best product
• A brilliant brand voice
• Genuinely original ideas

…and still get buried on page 7 of search results, where dreams go to quietly disappear.

Search engines are the gatekeepers. They decide whether your product pages get traffic, or just sits there like a beautifully designed shop in the middle of a desert. At that point you might as well just be an expensive mirage.

When I launched a disability humour brand, I assumed bold messaging and originality would naturally attract attention. And to be fair, they did… just not from search engines. Even with experience in marketing, I quickly learned bypassing the basics or workarounds just wouldn’t cut it.

Because originality without structure is chaos to an algorithm.

Early Mistakes (AKA: Comedy Doesn’t Rank by Itself)

At the beginning, my “SEO strategy” looked something like:

• Writing product descriptions that prioritized punchlines over clarity
• Ignoring keywords because they felt “corporate” and didn’t align with what I thought my audience would search
• Assuming people would magically find niche humour

In hindsight, I basically asked Google to guess what I meant. Google does not guess. Google shrugs and moves on.

The Turning Point: Respecting the Algorithm Without Losing the Brand

The breakthrough came when I realized something important:

You don’t have to choose between personality and performance.

You just have to structure your personality in a way the algorithm understands.

That meant:

• Keeping the humour but making sure product titles actually described the product
• Writing category pages that answered real search queries (yes, even if they sounded less exciting than a joke)
• Adding context around the comedy so search engines could “get it”

Think of it like this: your brand voice is the personality, but SEO is the translator.

What “Good SEO” Looks Like in Ecommerce

1. Products That Explain Themselves (Even If They’re Ridiculous)

You might sell a t-shirt with a brilliantly niche disability joke but your product page still needs to clearly say:

• What it is
• Who it’s for
• Why someone would search for it

Because no one is Googling “that one sarcastic line I saw once.”

They’re searching things like:

• “funny disability t shirts”
• “chronic illness humour gifts”

Meet them there.

2. Category Pages Are Your Secret Weapon

Product pages are important, but category pages are where ecommerce SEO really shines.

Instead of just listing products, treat these pages like content hubs:

• Explain the theme
• Use relevant search terms naturally
• Guide the shopper

Yes, it’s less glamorous than writing jokes. It also drives significantly more traffic.

3. The Algorithm Loves Helpfulness (Even When You’re Being Funny)

Search engines track how people interact with your site.

If visitors:

• Click through
• Stay and browse
• Actually buy

That’s a signal your content works.

So your job isn’t just to be clever it’s to be useful.

Even comedy needs context.

The Long Game: Building an Ecommerce Asset, Not Just a Shop

Here’s the part most people underestimate:

Good SEO turns your shop into an asset.

Instead of relying entirely on ads or social media spikes, you build:

• Consistent organic traffic
• Pages that rank over time
• A brand that’s discoverable, not just shareable

For my disability humour brand, this meant shifting from “posting and hoping” to intentionally building pages that could be found months, or even years later.

Why Cutting Corners Backfires (Yes, Even If You’re Funny)

It’s tempting to:

• Stuff keywords awkwardly
• Copy competitor descriptions
• Chase quick wins

But the algorithm is smarter than that. And honestly, so are your customers.

Bad SEO doesn’t just hurt rankings, it dilutes your brand.

The Real Takeaway

You don’t need to water down your voice to succeed in ecommerce SEO.

You just need to respect the system that decides whether your voice gets heard.

Be funny. Be bold. Be original.

But also:

• Be clear
• Be structured
• Be searchable

Because the algorithm isn’t your enemy, it’s your distribution channel.

And once it understands you?

That’s when the fun really starts.