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Etsy Listing Description Checklist: Materials, Size, and Use

Etsy 商品描述检查清单：材质、尺寸、用途

  1. State materials, size with units, and use or care. The title and the 13 tags do not have room for all three.
  2. A line is enough when a stranger can check it. “Quality materials” and “medium size” are too vague to tick.
  3. TagPeek can flag a short description and missing material, size, or use wording. It does not write the text, edit Etsy, or estimate sales.

I used to paste the title into the description and move on. Buyers still wrote to ask the fiber, the measurements, and whether the piece could go in the wash. Those answers belong in the description.

Open your own listing and read it the way a buyer does, including the mobile “read more” fold. If you want those description lines marked on the live page, Add to Chrome and run a check there. The list below is what you can verify with your eyes either way.

Why the description is more than a longer title

The title has a character limit, and search cards show less than the full line. Each of the 13 tags is a short phrase, about twenty characters. “12 fl oz (355 ml), stoneware, top-rack dishwasher” fits in the description. It does not fit in those other fields.

Buyers open the description for material, size, and use or care. More adjectives in the title leave those facts unstated. This page does not predict which line will sell. It asks whether you can point at the three facts on the published listing.

The three fields buyers look for first

The pairs below are fictional. Swap in your own product. The test stays the same: could a stranger confirm the line from the text alone?

Materials

Enough: “The scarf is 100% merino wool, woven, with a sewn label at one short end.”

Too vague: “Made from premium quality materials with a luxury feel.”

Merino names a fiber. “Premium” does not. If there is no physical material, say so: “PDF knitting pattern. No yarn is included.”

Size

Enough: “About 70 in × 12 in (178 cm × 30 cm), measured flat before the first wash. One size.” A mug is the same kind of sentence: “Holds 12 fl oz (355 ml). About 3.5 in / 9 cm tall, handle not included.”

Too vague: “A nice long scarf. One size fits most.”

Every physical number needs a unit. On variations, say which size the numbers describe. “Medium,” with no units, still needs a follow-up message.

Use or care

Enough: “Wear it as a neck scarf or a light wrap. Hand wash cold and lay flat to dry. Do not tumble dry.”

Too vague: “Perfect for everyday wear and gifting, for any occasion.”

“Any occasion” does not say how to wash it. Care has to match what you actually do.

Checklist before you hit Publish

Read the buyer-facing text and tick these. If the text alone does not support the tick, the fact is not stated yet.

  1. A stranger can name the material, fiber, clay, metal, wood, or file type.
  2. Every physical measurement has a number and a unit.
  3. Variation listings say which size the numbers refer to.
  4. Use or care is specific: wash method, fit, where it sits, or how a digital file is delivered.
  5. The first lines say what the item is, before a slogan.
  6. The description adds a fact the title and the 13 tags cannot hold, such as units or care.
  7. The text does not promise a medical result, a search ranking, or a ship date your processing time does not support.
  8. Care, personalization, and processing notes match the variation menu and your shop policies.
  9. Material and size in item details agree with the prose.
  10. The same three facts are visible on the public listing, including after the mobile fold.

What TagPeek can (and cannot) flag

On a listing you open, TagPeek’s description check is a text heuristic. It looks at length, at whether a main phrase from the title appears in about the first 160 characters, and at wording that usually signals materials, size, and use. It also notices shipping or processing words, and whether the text breaks into short paragraphs. A short description, or one that only echoes the title and tags, is flagged. The description pillar on Features states that scope: length, and overlap gaps with the title and tags.

Add to Chrome Description checks

Read a flag as a pattern match. The checker recognizes common words such as cotton, cm, inch, hand wash, and gift. A clear fact in unusual wording can be missed. “Perfect for any occasion” can pass the pattern and still fail the list above. Promo stacking — “best seller,” “must have,” runs of exclamation marks — can be flagged as clutter. That is a text pattern, not an Etsy policy clearance.

TagPeek does not write the description, save edits to Etsy, prove the wool is merino, or estimate sales, views, or rank. A clear row means the heuristic found those topics in the text it read.

After you edit: re-check on the live listing

Save in Shop Manager, then open the public listing on desktop. Run the extension again and read the description yourself. The editor draft can differ from the page buyers see after you save, especially when a variation or a second language did not update.

While the listing is still a draft, the pre-publish check scores a paste of the title, tags, and description in the browser. Nothing in that paste is uploaded, and the score is not a sales forecast. After the listing is live, repeat the pass on the public page. The paste cannot see a line you forgot to save.

If the description also states processing time, match it to your shipping profile yourself. The checker notices when those words are missing. It does not open your shipping settings. Refresh the public URL after you save, and confirm materials, size with units, and care are in the text buyers can open.

FAQ

How long should an Etsy listing description be?

Long enough to state materials, size with units, and use or care, in short paragraphs a phone can scan. Etsy does not publish a word count that places a listing. TagPeek’s checker treats a thin description as incomplete. Its own length note looks for room for those facts, on the order of a few hundred words. Filling that target with repeated adjectives does not answer a buyer.

Can I fill an Etsy description with keywords only?

Repeated search phrases with no measurements still fail this checklist. Write sentences, and put the product noun in the opening lines. TagPeek may flag a missing topic. It will not write the description for you.

What if the description overlaps my 13 tags?

Tags are short search phrases. The description carries units, which variation a size belongs to, and care. Sharing one true material word with a tag is consistent. Pasting all 13 tags as the entire description leaves the same gaps. The guides below cover tags, the first 40 title characters, and the wider pre-publish list.

Add to Chrome See description checks

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