Should I make separate Etsy listings or variations for 20 animal appliqué cardigans?

Hi! For Etsy SEO and browse traffic, separate listings usually win because each animal can target its own exact keywords in the title/tags, show up for more specific searches (like “fox baby cardigan” vs. “animal cardigan”), and each listing can earn its own quality signals (clicks, favorites, conversion). A single listing with 20 animal variations is convenient, but Etsy mainly indexes the listing-level title/tags—so you’ll typically get less reach for individual animals unless shoppers already land on that one listing.

That said, making 20 separate Etsy listings can be a lot to manage, and you can end up competing with yourself if they’re too similar. The approach I see work best for handmade/“custom” knitwear is a hybrid:

• Create a few separate listings by theme (e.g., Farm Animal Cardigan, Woodland Animal Cardigan, Zoo Animal Cardigan) and make the animals variations inside each. That gives you multiple entry points in search without maintaining 20 nearly identical listings.
• Then spin off separate listings only for your top performers (the animals people search most, or the ones that start getting favorites/sales). Those “hero” animals deserve their own titles, tags, and first photo.

A few practical tips so whichever route you pick performs well:

• Make sure the first photo clearly shows the exact animal (that matters a lot for click-through from search).
• Use your variation names thoughtfully (e.g., “Fox,” “Bear,” “Giraffe”) and mention the theme animals in the description, but don’t rely on variations alone to carry SEO.
• For the optional name, use Personalization (and/or a variation) so shoppers understand it’s add-on/optional, and keep your processing time realistic since it’s custom.

If you tell me your average weekly production capacity and whether you want to advertise with Etsy Ads, I can suggest a clean structure (how many listings to start with and which animals to break out first).