Etsy Titles Now: Etsy's Shorter Title Guidance, Explained

For years, the standard advice for Etsy titles was to pack all 140 characters with keyword phrases separated by commas. In 2025 Etsy published new guidance for listing titles that points the other way: shorter, clearer titles that say what the item is.

This guide covers what Etsy now recommends, why, and how to decide what to do with your own titles.

What Etsy now recommendsCopy Anchor Link

Etsy's guidance, in its own words, comes down to a handful of rules:

• Clearly state the item for sale, like mug or dress.
• Put the most important traits up front, like the item's color, material and size.
• Consider using fewer than 15 words.
• Try not to repeat words.
• Move subjective words to the description. Beautiful, perfect and unique describe your opinion, not the item.
• Only include a holiday, occasion or recipient (Christmas, wedding, gift for him) if it is essential to what the item is.
• Leave out price, shipping and sale details. Etsy already shows those as badges in search results.

The title can still be up to 140 characters long. The guidance is about what makes a good title, not a new limit.

Why Etsy changed its adviceCopy Anchor Link

The reason is how Etsy search now works. According to Etsy, search reads much more than the title: tags, attributes, the description, the first photo, and even reviews. The title no longer has to carry every keyword on its own.

Etsy's Keywords 101 also notes that where a phrase sits in your title does not affect ranking. What position does affect is the shopper: the beginning of the title is what people read first in a grid of results, so that is where the item itself should be named.

A before and afterCopy Anchor Link

A typical keyword-stuffed title:

Personalized Mug, Custom Coffee Mug, Gift for Her, Ceramic Mug, Birthday Gift, Name Mug, Best Friend Gift

Rewritten the way Etsy suggests:

Personalized Ceramic Name Mug, 11 oz White Coffee Mug with Custom Lettering

The second one names the item first, says what it is made of and how big it is, and does not repeat mug five times. The phrases it dropped, gift for her, birthday gift, best friend gift, are still worth targeting, but in the tags and the description, which is where Etsy's guidance sends them.

Short and clear, or keyword-rich?Copy Anchor Link

Etsy recommends the concise style, and new listings should start there. Some experienced sellers still prefer longer titles built from several search phrases, and Etsy has said a suggested rewrite does not mean a current title is underperforming.

A sensible way to decide:

• New listings: write the concise version.
• Existing listings that sell well: you do not have to rewrite them all at once. Change a few, watch your Etsy stats for a few weeks, and decide from what you see.
• Either way: the phrases that do not fit in a short title belong in your 13 tags. See how to choose your Etsy tags.

A checklist for every Etsy titleCopy Anchor Link

• The first words say what the item is.
• Color, material and size follow.
• Fewer than 15 words, no word repeated.
• No perfect, beautiful or best.
• No price, shipping or sale wording.
• Occasions and recipients only if the item is made for them.

Where Holgo fitsCopy Anchor Link

Holgo's Etsy listing AI writes two titles for every listing, separately rather than one cut from the other: a concise one in the shape Etsy recommends, item first and then color, material and size, and a keyword-rich one that uses most of the 140 characters. You pick which one to use, and the phrases that do not make it into the title go into the tags.