How we score your Etsy listing — and where we're wrong

The 4 dimensions

We split a listing into four scorable surfaces, each worth 0–25 points (100 total). The breakdown mirrors how Etsy's public ranking factors interact with buyer behavior.

1. Title (0–25)

• 120–140 chars is the sweet spot (+10). Below 80 chars (+1).
• Front-loaded buyer keyword in the first 30 chars (+8).
• Pipe / comma separator structure helps scannability (+4).
• Long-tail phrase coverage (+3).
• Penalties: ALL CAPS or keyword stuffing (-5, floored at 0).

2. Tags (0–25)

• Etsy gives you 13 tag slots; use them all (+12).
• 2–3 word phrases beat single words (+6).
• Buyer-intent words like "gift for" / "personalized" (+4).
• Long-tail mix (+3).
• Penalty: duplicated tags / comma-stuffed single tag (-3).

3. Description (0–25)

• First-paragraph keyword density (+8).
• Length ≥ 160 chars (+5); ≥ 80 (+2).
• Buyer-intent hook in first 2 lines (+6).
• Section structure (Features / Materials / Shipping) (+4).
• CTA strength (+2).

4. Images + Alt (0–25)

• Image count ≥ 10 (+10); 7–9 (+7); 4–6 (+4); < 4 (+1).
• Alt text coverage × 10 (max +10).
• Primary image text overlay / branding signal (+5).

From score to grade

• ≥ 80 = A — competitive listing
• 65–79 = B — solid, room to improve
• 50–64 = C — needs work
• < 50 = D — start over with the title and tags

Where we're wrong (limitations)

• This is not the Etsy algorithm. Etsy's real ranking model is private and changes. Our rubric is an opinionated distillation of publicly stated factors and our own seller experience.
• LLM biases. We use DeepSeek to score the qualitative pieces (honest_take, next_step, title rewrite). The model can be confidently wrong, especially on niches it under-indexed.
• No traffic data. We don't see search volume, CTR, or competitor rank. The score is structural quality, not real-world performance.
• Parse failures. Etsy occasionally rotates page layout. When we can't parse a field, we mark the audit quality as "low" and the score reflects partial data.
• One listing at a time. Real SEO insight comes from auditing your whole store and tracking changes over weeks — that's what the paid TheSellerMind dashboard is for.

What we explicitly do NOT do

• Connect to your Etsy account or scrape your shop.
• Store your listing content beyond a 6-hour cache of the score JSON.
• Collect emails. There is no signup, ever.
• Show fabricated "X audits today" counters.
• Use a payment SEO data source (Ahrefs / Semrush) — pure LLM + rubric.

Back to the Etsy SEO checker.