New Etsy sellers often make the same mistake: targeting the same keywords as their biggest competitors. It doesn't work. "Necklace," "candle," and "wall art" are dominated by shops with years of performance history. You won't appear on page one for those terms any time soon.
Low competition keywords are the path around this problem — and they often convert better than broad terms anyway.
SEO Generator targets low-competition, high-intent keywords by default. When it generates your title and tags from your product photo, it builds in the specificity that makes keywords winnable and buyer-focused. Free, no signup required.
Here's how to find these keywords yourself and understand what makes one worth using.
What "Low Competition" Means on Etsy
A low-competition Etsy keyword is one where the search results are dominated by smaller, newer shops — not mega-sellers with 10,000+ reviews. When you search a phrase and see the top 24 results are all from shops that look similar in size to yours, that's a low-competition keyword.
Check competition directly:
- Type your candidate keyword into Etsy search
- Look at how many listings appear (shown in the results header)
- Look at the first 5–10 listings: what are their review counts? Sales histories?
Rough guide:
- Under 1,000 results: very low competition, highly targetable
- 1,000–10,000 results: low-moderate competition, good for new shops
- 10,000–50,000: moderate competition, feasible with good SEO
- Over 100,000: high competition, difficult without established shop history
Finding Low Competition Keywords in Your Niche
Technique 1: Add Specificity Layers
Start with any product keyword and make it more specific until competition drops:
- "earrings" (millions of results) → "gold hoop earrings" (hundreds of thousands) → "minimalist gold hoop earrings women" (tens of thousands) → "minimalist gold hoop earrings sensitive ears" (low thousands)
Each step down adds specificity and reduces competition. The buyer searching the most specific phrase is also the most qualified buyer.
Technique 2: Search Long-Tail Autocomplete
Type a 3-word phrase into Etsy search and observe the result count. Then extend it to 4–5 words and check the count again. The count usually drops significantly as phrases get longer. Find the version that still has meaningful search activity (not zero results) but low competition.
SEO Generator automatically generates multi-word, specificity-layered keywords from your product photo — finding the sweet spot between searchability and competition. Get your low-competition keywords free →
Technique 3: Seasonal and Occasion Modifiers
Adding occasion or seasonal modifiers often creates low-competition windows that high-volume broad terms don't have:
- "ceramic mug" (high competition) → "ceramic mug Christmas gift" (low competition, high intent in season)
- "linen shirt" (high competition) → "linen shirt beach vacation summer" (low competition, specific intent)
Seasonal keywords have lower year-round competition and high conversion rates when timed correctly.
Technique 4: Geographic Modifiers
Some buyers search with location-specific terms: "handmade earrings Pacific Northwest," "Texas custom leather goods," "NYC artist print." These have very low competition and attract buyers who prefer buying locally or from specific regions.
Low Competition vs. No Competition
There's a difference. Some keywords have zero results because nobody searches them — they have no competition because they have no buyers either. You want keywords where:
- Search results exist (buyers are searching it)
- The results are dominated by shops that look beatable
- The phrase matches what you actually sell
Aim for keywords where you'd appear in the first two pages of results if your listing was well-optimized. That's the realistic window.
Building a Low-Competition Tag Set
For a new listing on a new or young Etsy shop:
- 3–4 tags: highly specific, very low competition (under 2,000 results)
- 5–6 tags: specific, low-moderate competition (2,000–20,000 results)
- 2–3 tags: somewhat broader, used for reach even if harder to rank
This mix gives you high-probability ranking on some tags while building performance history on others.
You don't need to beat established sellers on broad terms to get traffic. SEO Generator finds the specific, winnable keywords for your exact product →](/) — upload your product photo and get a complete, low-competition-optimized listing in 15 seconds. Free, no account needed.