Depop SEO: get your items seen in Depop search
Free first-line preview — no cardDepop SEO breaks most generic marketplace advice at the first rule: there is no title field. The first line of your description is the title — it's the first thing a shopper reads on your listing and what search reads first. Open with "so sad to sell this" and you've spent your most visible characters on words nobody types into a search bar.
The rest of the system is just as specific. The whole description, hashtags included, lives in one field — and Depop publishes no character limit for it, so the roughly 1,000 characters Sellura writes to is our own budget for keeping a phone-sized description readable, not a Depop rule. You get up to five hashtags of 20 characters each. Category, brand, condition, and size are dropdowns rather than free text, and Depop's search filters run on them. Here's how each piece actually works and what to fix first, in order.
How search works on Depop
Depop search reads your description text, and because there's no separate title, the first line carries the weight a title carries everywhere else. Sellura targets about 65 characters for it — roughly what survives on a phone screen — and the structure that works is plain: brand, item, era or style, color or material, size. Those are the words resale buyers actually type.
Filters are the second gate. Category, brand, condition, and size aren't free-text attributes — they're structured dropdowns, and when a buyer narrows results by any of them, listings with a wrong or missing value vanish from that search no matter how good the text is. The thirty seconds you spend setting them precisely is the cheapest visibility you'll ever buy on Depop.
Then it's a thumbnail contest. Results are a mobile grid of square 1:1 photos — four per listing, with eight rolling out — so the text decides whether you show up and the first photo decides whether anyone taps. And because the audience skews vintage and streetwear resale, buyers search the way collectors do: by brand, era, and aesthetic, not by polite product copy.
- First line = your title. Front-load brand + item + the descriptors a buyer would type.
- The description and hashtags share one character budget — every wasted line costs search real estate.
- Up to 5 hashtags, 20 characters each. Five deliberate picks, not an afterthought.
- Depop's listing walkthrough also describes up to two brand hashtags alongside those five — use them only for a brand you actually sell.
- Category, brand, condition, and size are dropdowns that power filters. Set them exactly.
- Square 1:1 photos in a mobile grid; the first one earns the tap.
Why your Depop listings get no views — and what views vs clicks mean →
Depop listing limits at a glance
| Field | What Depop allows |
|---|---|
| first line | aim for ~65 characters (hard cap 65) |
| Hashtags | up to 5, each ≤ 20 characters |
| Details | up to 5, each ≤ 40 characters |
| Description | the first ~120 characters carry the SEO weight |
Verified against Depop's seller documentation; Sellura generates within these limits automatically.
The first line and the five hashtags
Write the first line like the title it is. A reliable resale formula: brand, item, era or style, color or material, then size if it fits. "Vintage 90s Carhartt Detroit jacket, brown duck canvas, size L" runs 62 characters and contains five different searches. Compare "Absolutely obsessed with this, so sad to let it go" — 50 characters, zero searchable words.
Treat each hashtag as a search you're choosing to enter. With only five slots, repeating words that already sit in your first line is the common waste; use them for coverage instead — the style names, eras, and adjacent terms buyers also type. For that Carhartt jacket: #carhartt, #workwear, #vintageworkwear, #90sfashion, #chorecoat. Each fits the 20-character cap and reaches a search the first line couldn't.
Both live inside the same shared budget, so spend it in order: the first line, a few short lines of condition and measurements, then the hashtags last, so the readable part stays readable. Measurements matter more here than on most platforms — vintage sizing is inconsistent, and a flat-lay pit-to-pit and length answer the question before it arrives as a DM.
One recent change reframes all of this. Depop's own guidance on describing an item says it automatically generates tags and keywords to add to your listing, and that you can stick with those or add your own. Depop doesn't publish how they're derived, or whether they take up any of your five slots, so treat the mechanism as unknown — but the consequence needs no inside knowledge. A tag generated from your listing can only be assembled out of what your listing already contains, which means it restates your own text back to you rather than reaching a search you missed.
So ask where your leverage actually sits now. Two inputs are still entirely yours and cannot be inferred from anything you didn't write: the first line, which decides what words search has to match in the first place, and the dropdowns, which decide whether you appear in a filtered search at all. Automation can restate a description; it cannot set a size you left blank or invent the phrase you never typed. Write the first line as if it were the only field, set every dropdown, and let the five hashtags carry the coverage those two left over.
- Formula: brand + item + era/style + color/material + size, inside Sellura's ~65-character target.
- Hashtags are for coverage, not repetition — five slots, 20 characters each.
- List flat-lay measurements; "size L" means little on a 30-year-old jacket.
- Depop auto-generates tags and keywords — your own slots earn their keep only where they add what that set can't.
How Sellura writes for Depop's format
- It treats the first line as the title and aims at about 65 characters — our target, not a Depop-published cap — brand and item first, written to read like a real Depop listing. You see that line plus a deterministic 0-100 SEO score free on every generation — no card.
- The description and hashtags are budgeted together against one ~1,000-character allowance — Sellura's, since Depop publishes none — so the result comes back at a length that still reads on a phone.
- All five hashtags are generated and checked against the 20-character cap — the five you control, separate from anything Depop attaches on its own — and item details stay in the description text, where Depop search can actually read them.
- Unlocking the full listing — hashtags, details, description, CSV — costs 1 credit, and the first unlock is free on a new account.
Generate a Depop-ready listing in about 60 seconds.
Free title preview and 0–100 SEO score on every generation — no card.
The grader works with public Depop listing URLs, though Depop sometimes blocks automated reads — if a check fails, try again a little later.
FAQ
How do I add a title to a Depop listing?
You don't — there's no separate title field on Depop. The first line of your description does that job: it's what shoppers see on the listing page and what search reads first. Treat it like a title — brand, item, era or style, color, size — and keep it to roughly 65 characters. Depop doesn't publish a length for it; 65 is Sellura's target, about one phone-width line. Everything below it is detail, measurements, and hashtags.
How many hashtags should I use on Depop?
Depop allows up to five hashtags, each up to 20 characters, and they sit inside the same description field as your text rather than in a separate box. Depop doesn't publish a length for that field — the ~1,000 characters Sellura writes to is our own budget. Its walkthrough of listing an item also describes up to two brand hashtags alongside the five, in the app's listing steps. Use all five deliberately — cover the styles, eras and adjacent searches your first line couldn't fit, rather than repeating the words already sitting in it — and reach for a brand hashtag only when the brand is genuinely what you're selling.
Does Depop add tags to my listing automatically?
Depop says it does. Its guidance on describing an item states that it automatically generates tags and keywords to add to your listing, and that you can stick with those or add your own. What it doesn't publish is how they're produced or whether they count toward your five hashtags — so check your own listing after you save it rather than trusting a blog. Either way, a set generated from your listing can only repeat what the listing already says, so keep your own slots for the searches it misses.
Why are my Depop items not getting views?
Check three things in order. Does your first line contain the words a buyer would type — brand, item, style — or does it open with filler? Are the category, brand, condition, and size dropdowns set correctly? Depop's filters run on them, and a wrong value drops you from filtered results. And is your first photo a clear, square shot that reads at thumbnail size on a phone?
Can I check my Depop listing's SEO for free?
Yes. The free Listing Grader at sellura.io/tools/listing-grader scores any public Depop listing URL from 0 to 100 and shows which factor is dragging the number down. One honest caveat: Depop sometimes blocks automated reads, so a fetch can occasionally fail — if that happens, try again a little later.
Sellura is not affiliated with Depop. Platform rules change; we track the official seller docs and keep the limits above in sync with what the generator enforces.