See which of your 13 tags are working and which are wasted — duplicates, tags over 20 characters, lonely single words, and empty slots. Paste your listing and get a free check.
Etsy gives you 13 tag slots and 20 characters each. These are the four ways sellers quietly throw that away.
Every unused tag is a search you can't appear in. The checker counts how many of the 13 you've actually filled and flags the gap.
'coffee mug' and 'mug coffee' target the same search. Near-duplicates waste slots that could each cover a different query — the checker spots the overlaps.
Etsy silently cuts tags past 20 characters, so a long phrase may not match what you intended. The checker flags any tag that's too long.
Single words like 'mug' or 'gift' compete with millions of listings. The checker highlights single-word tags so you can swap them for phrases that rank.
Etsy reads title and tags together, so cramming a title word into five tags is wasteful. The audit shows where tags just echo the title instead of adding reach.
Beyond flagging problems, the audit suggests stronger, honest tag ideas built from your own product words — no invented rooms or occasions.
mug, coffee mug, mug coffee, coffee cup, mug cup — five slots, one idea
ceramic coffee mug, mountain mug, hiker gift mug, 12 oz coffee mug, handmade pottery mug
mug, cup, gift, cute, coffee, ceramic, handmade
phrases buyers actually type, each targeting a different, less-crowded search
personalized ceramic coffee mug gift (29 chars — Etsy truncates it)
ceramic coffee mug, personalized mug (two clean tags under 20 chars)
Bad tags do not throw an error. Etsy accepts a half-empty tag list, five versions of the same phrase, and a tag that gets silently truncated at 20 characters — and then quietly shows your listing to fewer buyers. Because nothing visibly breaks, most sellers never realize they are spending their 13 slots on six real searches.
The healthiest tag set treats all 13 as separate doorways: one for the material, one for the design, one for the recipient, one for the size, one for the style, and so on. When two tags lead to the same doorway, one of them is wasted. The checker shows you the overlaps so you can redistribute them across real, distinct searches.
It is easy to fill empty slots with generic filler — “home decor,” “gift for her,” “boho” — but tags you cannot back up help no one and can read as stuffing. CraftProof builds replacement tags from your actual product words. If you want a full set generated from scratch, use the Etsy tag generator; for the whole listing, see the Etsy SEO checklist.
Paste your title, description, and current tags into the free listing audit and it will flag duplicates, over-length tags, single words, and empty slots in seconds — then suggest stronger replacements.
Paste your listing's title, description, and tags into the free audit. It flags duplicates, tags over 20 characters, single-word tags, and unused slots, then suggests stronger tag ideas built from your product.
20 characters per tag, and up to 13 tags per listing. Tags longer than 20 characters get truncated, so the checker flags any that are too long.
Usually, yes. A single word like 'mug' competes with millions of listings. Multi-word phrases like 'mountain coffee mug' match a more specific, less crowded search and are easier to rank for.
No. Etsy reads your title and tags together, so repeating a word wastes slots. Use each of the 13 tags for a different search angle instead.
Yes — paste your listing and get a free check, no account and no card.
Paste your listing and the free audit will flag duplicate, over-length, single-word, and empty tags — then suggest stronger ones built from your product.
Check my tags freeGuidance only — please review every draft before using it in your shop. CraftProof is not affiliated with Etsy, Inc.