diff --git a/app/logical/related_tag_query.rb b/app/logical/related_tag_query.rb
index c62123ce7..dab1c273f 100644
--- a/app/logical/related_tag_query.rb
+++ b/app/logical/related_tag_query.rb
@@ -11,8 +11,10 @@ class RelatedTagQuery
       pattern_matching_tags
     elsif category.present?
       related_tags_by_category
-    else
+    elsif query.present?
       related_tags
+    else
+      []
     end
   end