Keyword research
How to Find Low-Competition Etsy Niches
Judge an Etsy niche by the listings already ranking for a specific phrase. Count them, read the titles, and do not treat a missing search volume as a score.
Published 2 October 2026 · Last reviewed 2 October 2026 · 3 min read
A niche is a phrase a buyer types, plus the listings already answering it. “Low competition” is not a number Etsy publishes. I treat it as a check you can repeat: how many active listings match this exact phrase, and do their titles already say what you sell?
How Etsy Search Works says search takes a holistic view of the title, tags, attributes, description, first photo, and reviews. Exact matches can rank higher. Using all 13 tags, varying them, filling attributes, and picking a specific category are the levers Etsy names. None of those sentences is a competition score. If a tool prints one, ask which field it came from. The longer version of that question is does Etsy show search volume?.
Start narrower than the category
“Napkin” is a category. “Stonewashed linen napkin” is a phrase. Keywords 101 tells sellers to use multi-word phrases in tags because a phrase matches the way people search, and it uses the 20-character tag better than two single words. The same habit works when you are choosing what to make.
Write five phrases before you open a spreadsheet:
- The object, plus the material.
- The object, plus the occasion, only if the occasion is the product. How to Create a Listing says holiday or recipient language belongs in a title only when it is essential.
- The object, plus a size or quantity a buyer would type.
- For digital goods, the object plus the file type. See the digital keyword guide.
- One phrase you would be willing to put in the title, under the title rules.
What to record
For each phrase, write down three things and stop:
| Field | Where it comes from | What not to type |
|---|---|---|
| Active listings | Etsy search results, or a NicheKite lookup of the same phrase | A “competition score” with no formula |
| What page 1 already sells | The titles in front of you | A guess that they convert |
| Demand | Only a number you can cite, such as your own Marketplace Insights paste | A monthly volume copied from a blog |
A smaller listing count is useful when the titles are still generic. It is not useful when you have no idea whether anyone searches the phrase. NicheKite shows the count and the sample titles, and it leaves Etsy-native search volume as a dash unless you paste Marketplace Insights. That is the product choice, described on how our data works.
A cut I actually use
I drop a phrase when the first page is already the same specific product I planned, with the same material and the same buyer. I keep researching when the first page is the broad noun and my phrase adds a detail those titles do not use. I do not keep a phrase just because the listing count is small. A phrase nobody searches also has a small listing count.
Then I check whether the phrase fits the listing, not the other way around. Tags are 13 slots of 20 characters. The title is 140 characters, and Etsy says to consider fewer than 15 words. If the niche phrase does not fit those limits, it is a description sentence, not a search phrase. The listing checklist is the pass I run after the niche is chosen.
The full sequence, including the free difficulty check, is in Etsy keyword research.