You'll be told you need eRank or Marmalead before you can rank on Etsy. You don't — not to start. Etsy hands you most of the keyword data you need for free, and you can read competition with your own eyes in fifteen minutes. This is the free workflow, the data sources you already have, and the point where a paid tool finally earns its money.
Got your keywords? Skip to the listing.
Turn the phrases you find into a compliant title and 13 tags free: title generator · tag generator.
The free keyword data you already have
- Etsy search autocomplete. Start typing your product in Etsy's search bar and read the suggestions. That dropdown is real demand, ordered roughly by popularity — the single best free keyword source there is.
- Etsy's "related searches." Run a search and scroll to the related-search suggestions. Each is a phrase real buyers use.
- Your Shop Stats search terms. Once you have listings, Etsy tells you the exact phrases that brought you traffic. This is gold — double down on the terms that already work.
- Google autocomplete + "people also search for." Type "[your product] etsy" into Google. Free, and it surfaces phrasing Etsy's own bar might miss.
- Pinterest autocomplete. Pinterest is a 6-9 month leading indicator for Etsy demand. If a phrase autocompletes on Pinterest, demand is forming.
The free workflow, step by step
- 1Seed it. Write down the plainest name for your product ("ceramic mug," "printable wall art"). That's your starting point, not your final keyword.
- 2Harvest autocomplete. Type the seed into Etsy search and write down every suggestion. Then add a letter ("ceramic mug a," "ceramic mug b") to pull more. You'll have 20-40 real phrases in five minutes.
- 3Mine related searches. Run your top few phrases and collect the related-search suggestions at the bottom. Add the new ones to your list.
- 4Cross-check on Google and Pinterest. Type the product + "etsy" into both. Add any phrasing you hadn't seen.
- 5Sort by specificity. Split your list into broad ("ceramic mug"), long-tail ("speckled stoneware mug"), and buyer-intent ("coffee lover gift"). Long-tail is where new shops win.
- 6Map to the listing. Pick your strongest phrase for the title, then spread the rest across your 13 tags and the first lines of your description.
How to read competition without a tool
Paid tools estimate competition with a number. You can see the truth for free: search your candidate phrase on Etsy (incognito), open the top 30 results, and count the distinct shops. If 3-5 shops own the top 30, the phrase is captured — skip it. If 15+ shops appear, page one is contested and there's room. This 15-minute check beats any competition score, because it shows you who actually owns the term. (Full method in low-competition niches.)
Etsy hides sales data on purpose
Etsy stopped exposing real sales numbers years ago. Any tool showing "exact sales" is estimating. So don't chase precision you can't get — use free signals for direction and your eyes for competition. Honesty about the data beats false confidence.
When a paid tool is finally worth it
Free research stops scaling when you're optimizing listings every week and want harder data — real search-volume estimates, seasonality, and competition grading across hundreds of terms at once. That's when eRank's free tier (or paid, around $10/mo) or Marmalead's forecasting earn their keep. Until then, the free workflow above is genuinely enough. We compared the main options honestly in eRank vs EverBee vs Marmalead.
What to do this week
Pick one listing. Spend fifteen minutes harvesting autocomplete and related searches for it, sort the phrases into broad / long-tail / buyer-intent, and run the top three through the 15-minute competition check. Rebuild the title and 13 tags around the long-tail phrases that passed. No subscription required.
Free keywords, free listing
Found your phrases? Generate a compliant title and 13 tags free →, or do the whole listing from a photo with Artlister.