How to Plan Etsy Titles and 13 Tags in a Spreadsheet (with 140/20 Character Checks)

Disclosure: Seller Sheets Lab sells the paid workbook linked at the end. This tutorial is a standalone illustrative example, not a reproduction or test of that workbook.

Writing a title and 13 tags straight into the listing form works until you have twenty listings and no idea which phrases you used, which tag got cut off, or why two slots say the same thing.

A planning sheet keeps all of that visible before you paste anything into Etsy. In this post you will build one with LEN, IF, COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, SEARCH, ISNUMBER, LEFT and ROUND. Syntax may vary by spreadsheet locale (some use ; instead of ,). Every number below comes from clearly marked sample data, so you can check each formula against the expected result. This post does not promise search placement, views or sales for any title or tag. It only helps you avoid avoidable mistakes.

The limits you are checking against

From Etsy's Help Center:

• A listing title can be up to 140 characters.
• You can use up to 13 tags per listing.
• Each tag can contain up to 20 characters. Tags can only include letters, numbers and spaces; ' and - are allowed within words but not at the start of a tag.

Etsy also suggests clear titles (fewer than 15 words) and a diverse set of tags. Limits can change, so check the current Help Center pages.

What you will build

Two tabs:

1. Listing: one title, its main keyword and 13 tag slots, with length, status and duplicate checks.
2. Keywords: candidate phrases with your own search and competition numbers, a simple opportunity score, and a flag that shows whether each phrase is already one of your tags.

Sample data (examples only: replace with your own)

The sample is an invented handmade mug listing. The keyword numbers are made up for this tutorial; they are not real Etsy data and not output from any research tool.

Listing tab, top block

Listing tab, tag slots (headers in row 6: #, Tag, Length, Status, In title?; tags in B7:B19)

The sample deliberately contains three problems: one tag that is too long, one duplicate that differs only in capitalization, and one empty slot.

Step 1: Title length and characters left

Put labels in E1:E4 and formulas in F1:F4.

Expected with the sample: length 72, characters left 68, status OK.

LEN counts every character, including spaces, commas and any trailing space you pasted by accident. If the count looks one higher than you expect, compare it with =LEN(TRIM(B2)).

Step 2: Is the main keyword in the first 40 characters?

In many search views only the start of a long title is visible, so a common rule of thumb is to put the phrase that says what the item is near the start. The 40-character cut-off below is a planning heuristic you can change, not an Etsy rule.

In E4 type the label and in F4:

=IF(OR(B1="",B2=""),"",IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(B1,LEFT(B2,40))),"YES","NO")) 

Reading the formula:

• LEFT(B2,40) keeps only the first 40 characters of the title
• SEARCH returns a position if the whole keyword appears there, or an error if not
• ISNUMBER turns that into TRUE/FALSE, so you never see #VALUE!
• SEARCH ignores capitalization, so Ceramic Coffee Mug matches ceramic coffee mug

Expected with the sample: YES (the keyword starts at character 1).

Now try this alternative title in B2:

Handmade Speckled Stoneware Cup with Blue Rim, Ceramic Coffee Mug 12 oz

It is 71 characters, still well under 140, but the main keyword starts at character 48, so F4 shows NO. Both titles pass the length check; only one puts the main phrase up front.

Step 3: Tag length and status

In C7:

=IF(B7="","",LEN(B7)) 

In D7:

=IF(B7="","EMPTY",IF(LEN(B7)>20,"TOO LONG",IF(COUNTIF($B$7:$B$19,B7)>1,"DUPLICATE","OK"))) 

Copy both down to row 19.

Reading the status formula: empty slots are labeled first, then anything over 20 characters, then any tag that appears more than once in the 13 slots. COUNTIF ignores capitalization, which is what you want here: Handmade Mug and handmade mug take up two slots but say the same thing.

Expected with the sample:

Note slot 4 and slot 9: exactly 20 characters is still allowed, so the check uses >20, not >=20.

Two caveats. COUNTIF does not treat handmade mug and handmade mug (trailing space) as the same text, so trim your tags before comparing. And COUNTIF treats ? and * as wildcards; Etsy tags cannot contain those characters, so in practice this does not affect valid tags.

Step 4: Is the tag already in the title?

This column is informational, not pass/fail: it shows where title and tags overlap.

In E7, copied down to row 19:

=IF(B7="","",IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH(B7,$B$2)),"yes","")) 

Expected with the sample: yes for ceramic coffee mug and stoneware cup, blank for the other slots. handmade mug is blank because the title says "Handmade Speckled Stoneware Cup", not the exact phrase.

Step 5: A one-glance summary

Put labels in H7:H10 and formulas in I7:I10:

"?*" means "at least one character", so empty slots are not counted. The COUNTIFS version combines two conditions in one formula: not OK and not empty, which leaves the two duplicates and the tag that is too long.

With the sample, the fix list is short: shorten slot 8 (for example to pottery coffee cup, 18 characters), replace one of the two handmade mug slots, and fill slot 13.

Step 6: Keywords tab with a simple opportunity score

For each phrase, type in an estimate of searches and a measure of competition (for example, the number of results) from whatever research method you use. The sheet does not fetch them.

Headers in A1:F1: Keyword, Searches, Competition, Score, Rating, Tagged?

Sample (invented numbers):

Score in D2 (searches divided by competition, blank if competition is missing or zero):

=IF(OR(B2="",N(C2)<=0),"",ROUND(B2/C2,2)) 

Rating in E2 (the thresholds 0.5 and 0.1 are arbitrary examples for this sample; pick your own):

=IF(D2="","",IF(D2>=0.5,"HIGH",IF(D2>=0.1,"MID","LOW"))) 

Tagged flag in F2, which looks at the Listing tab:

=IF(A2="","",IF(COUNTIF(Listing!$B$7:$B$19,A2)>0,"tagged","not tagged")) 

Copy all three down to row 7.

Expected with the sample:

Counts: =COUNTIF(E2:E7,"HIGH") gives 1, "MID" gives 2, "LOW" gives 3.

In this sample, handmade latte mug (18 characters, so it fits in a tag) has a MID rating and is not tagged yet. It is a candidate for the free slot, if it actually describes the item. That last condition matters more than the number.

What the score does not tell you: it ignores relevance, seasonality, price, photos and how Etsy search personalizes results. Search and competition figures from different sources are not comparable, and a "LOW" phrase can still be the most accurate description of your item. Use the score to sort a shortlist, not to decide for you.

A simple workflow

1. Write the main keyword first, then the title around it; check F3 and F4.
2. Fill all 13 slots and fix every row that is not OK.
3. Pick replacements from the Keywords tab, only from phrases that truly describe the item.
4. Copy the final title and tags into the Etsy listing form and keep the sheet as your record.

Common mistakes

• Counting words instead of characters; the limits are in characters, spaces included.
• Using >=20 for tags and rejecting valid 20-character tags.
• Missing duplicates that differ only in capitalization or a trailing space.
• Starting a tag with - or ', which Etsy does not allow.
• Treating the opportunity score as a ranking prediction.
• Comparing search numbers collected from different sources as if they were the same unit.

Want the workbook already built?

You can recreate everything above in a blank sheet.

If you would rather start from a ready-made file, our SEO Spreadsheet for Etsy Sellers has a Listings tab to plan your title and all 13 tags, with automatic 140/20 character warnings and a "main keyword in the first 40 characters" check, plus a Keywords tab where an opportunity score (searches ÷ competition) rates every keyword GREAT / OK / HARD. It has 7 tabs in total, including a Start Here guide, a dashboard, a weekly rank tracker, monthly stats and a 14-point SEO checklist. It is one .xlsx file with no macros. You pay once, with no subscription. This tutorial is a separate DIY example, not a copy or test of that workbook; use whichever fits your workflow.

Sample data in this article is invented for illustration. Following these steps does not guarantee search placement, traffic or sales. Seller Sheets Lab is not affiliated with or endorsed by Etsy, Inc., Google LLC or Microsoft Corporation. "Etsy" is a trademark of Etsy, Inc.