topic Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO? in Ask a Question

Any luck using Ai for SEO?

CherylJones — Wed, 20 May 2026 12:25:57 GMT

Hi everyone! : ) I decided to use Chat GPT to do all the SEO for my listings: the title, description, and tags. I have hardly had any views on those products, so I have decided to go back to the old fashioned way of doing keyword research myself, while still using Chat GPT for descriptive words I may not have thought of. I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with Ai. I think the titles it created were especially bad, using keywords that--in my opinion--seem misleading, and not using much of the space allowed. Thanks for any input.

Cheryl 🙂

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

SimplyDesigned — Wed, 20 May 2026 13:09:54 GMT

There is a fine line between wording things for SEO and wording things for actual humans. Finding new descriptive words that fit what you have is good, but you still want it to feel like a person wrote it. I don't knock folks that use AI but at the end of the day its a TOOL, not something to do the job for you with minimal input.

That last sentence isn't aimed at anyone, but I spend more time on my YT channel than I do here on Z. People use AI over there to write scripts for their videos, they use assets made by AI in videos and thumbnails, they even have AI voices instead of their own in their videos and have AI music in the background. They crank out a shorts/videos in record time but then they cry about being "shadowbanned with 0 views". They don't take responsibility for the fact that the content they made isn't even for a human as the reason why they have no views. There's no soul, they made their ENTIRE video from start to finish SPECIFICALLY for SEO or the "algorithm". But you gotta replace "algorithm" with "audience". YT is built to show viewers more of what they are already watching and people that go SEO crazy 9 times out of 10 miss the mark because humans don't care about SEO. I personally refuse to use AI on my YT channel but, I do see how valuable of a tool it can be.

AI is a great tool, to help with bits and pieces and odds and ends. You could ask it "I want to make a bunny design, what are some holidays/occasions I could market that design to" so before you even start the design you already have a couple things in mind to aid in the process. You could say "I use 'bunny' a lot in the title/desc/tags, what are some other related words" it will probably spit out "Rabbit", so you could use bunny in title and perhaps have rabbit somewhere in the description, then use "bunny rabbit" as a tag.

The big thing for me and my YT brain is to have a strategy. I would absolutely make my titles for things on Z handwritten, use AI to find a new word or two if you're drawing blanks its fine. For descriptions, fewer people read those compared to titles BUT some do scroll down to there and see it. I would have the AI write 2-3 sentences (preferably about the design not the product) and then read back what it says out loud to yourself. If it sounds robotic, soulless or has bad flow, rewrite it in your own wording. Tags are meant to be SEO (they are at the VERY bottom of product pages, 90% of customers don't scroll that far). You could do a "double down" and repeat a couple words from title/description or use AI and tell it to give you "a mix of longtail and short tail keywords" each tag can be 5 words long, we get 10 tags, so that's potentially 50 words. But you should make sure longtail tags aren't just random words. "Baby religion easter Christian bunny" doesn't read well for an Easter themed thing aimed at newborns but "Christian easter bunny for Baby" reads a lot better. Short tail would be something like "Easter holiday", "Christian Holiday", anything with 3+ words I *think* is considered "longtail".

I hope this helps! I didn't anticipate writing paragraphs, but I suppose the caffeine is flowinggg this morning LOL. Even though my time is split 90% YT and 10% Z these days I find that there is a ton of things that I learn or stuff that happens on YT that I can pivot and apply over here at Z. Especially on the AI front. At the end of the day, anything you do with AI needs to still have that human warm tone to it. You will never get to ask AI a thing and have the 1st response it gives you be the exact thing you want; it will always need tweaks to get that warmth back in, it could take 2,3,4- or 10 more tries. I find it hard to draw a line for myself here on Z for using AI, lots of people do photography or draw/paint and upload it here. Human made designs with feelings and emotion, I feel like I taint my designs or water them down if I heavily use AI BUT that is just my personal feeling since I see how anti-AI Youtube viewers are in my channel niche.

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

CherylJones — Wed, 20 May 2026 13:35:20 GMT

Thank you so much for your response! I really appreciate the time and thoughtfulness that took. I have tried so many different way to do SEO, recently trying to simplify the process as much as possible while still being effective. For so long, I made it complicated needlessly, apparently, which has taken an embarrassingly amount of time from my creating. : )

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

SimplyDesigned — Wed, 20 May 2026 15:36:16 GMT

The only way you learn is to keep trying! Zazzlers wear a lot of hats just like a Streamer or Youtuber. It really helps to take things in as chunks to limit stress, and if you don't feel like you're making progress in one area pivot to a different one. 1% better than the day before is still steps forward ❤️

Learning how to do things, even if its tedious and slow is huge! Learn to do a thing, learn to do it well, then learn how to do it more efficiently is something I do personally.

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

CherylJones — Wed, 20 May 2026 16:26:15 GMT

Just one more thing: another thing that's been hindering me is going round and round--and round-- trying to perfect my store banners as well as designs. I try to remember the saying, "better done than perfect." I think, oh, just one more tweak or, being more careful designing, and it will be perfect! But then, I run into something else, and want to start the design all over again (It's been the same with seo for me). I suppose I should just leave well enough alone and move on. I love your advice to pivot. Thank you so much again! 💐

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

ColsCreations — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:35:37 GMT

I have just recently started dabbling with using Google AI mode to upload an image of a design and ask it "how would you describe this design?" or even directly ask it "what tags would you suggest for this?". It has come up with terms I would never have thought of. But ... if those terms never occurred to me, would they occur to a customer? Tags on Z are all about what a customer might actually type in to the search box. So AI might be able to suggest new words that do describe the design/style, but they won't be a bit of good if they aren't common things people might actually type into search.

I have used it a couple times now out of laziness to get a brief product description to use. If there are uncommon/unlikely words in it, I'm OK with that because last I checked, Zazzle does not parse our descriptions for its own in-house search of the MP. I've seen countless product descriptions that are crazy long and clearly AI trying to cover as many SEO words/phrases with as much marketing lingo as possible. It's very evident when the description is done for possible SEO benefit instead of for the actual human customer who might be reading it. If these long obvious talking-to-SEO marketing descriptions help with search engines outside of Zazzle, I don't know.

Just want to remind that for Zazzle's own in-house search, words/phrases that people might actually type into search are more important than SEO language.

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

SimplyDesigned — Wed, 20 May 2026 21:16:26 GMT

It has come up with terms I would never have thought of. But ... if those terms never occurred to me, would they occur to a customer?

This is true, but its also good to keep in mind that you are just yourself. I mean that in the least insulting way possible, I have a method to the madness I swear LOL.

You are YOU but there's 8 billion people in the world with a WIDE variety of cultures, hobbies, languages, etc. Pretend you made a T shirt with a grocery store cart on it. When picking titles/tags maybe your lived experience is "I know these as carts" but you ask the AI for synonymous words and it might give you "buggy, trolley, wagon & carriage". You wouldn't use those words but when dealing with a global audience you just have to decide for yourself which words to use, decide how far down the rabbit hole you want to go with it.

It depends on what kind of audience you're targeting and what your designs are. Sometimes its better to cast a small-average sized net into the ocean and catch 3-4 fish then spend the energy casting an extra-large net to trying and capture ALL the fish, only to reel it in and be lucky to have caught one fish. Considering time spent and your energy used to cast these nets, its different for everyone. A smaller cast is more repeatable and rewarding than getting burnt out throwing large nets and being dissuaded when there's just one fish or a old boot in it haha.

Not that you should never throw a big net, because sometimes it pays off! Kind of like the folks that got a jump on designing covid masks when Z first added them. A well-done design and perfect timing had many designers get bulk mask orders (unlike now, I never sold any & idk if they even still offer them right now anymore). Folks that already had puzzles in their shops or other things to do at home during covid saw a huge uptick in views and during that time, so maybe they decided to advertise that stuff a little more heavily on social media (I had the same puzzle sell over and over again during covid I was shocked and thankful).

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

SimplyDesigned — Wed, 20 May 2026 21:33:00 GMT

You could think of your store's banners as like a story arc, it's kind of how I treat making videos on my channel. I'm in one specific mood/tone, flavor if you will for a non-specific amount of time. Could be a couple months, or a whole year. But in anything creative we evolve, our tastes change. You aren't the same person you were a decade ago, we grow 🙂

Make something that suits your needs and meets your current standards that you can say "okay this is fine". Because you already know you can change them as much as you want! Nothing you made "today" will be perfect to you in the future. We're fickle beasts, us humans and we love to pick things apart about OURSELVES the most. I would try to not use "perfect" so much, because the verbiage we use can shape our mental mindset. Kind of like how bullies say "you're dumb", if you hear it enough you start to believe it.

If you hit a spot where you might "think of a whole new direction and want to start over" right near the end of making a banner, maybe keep what you have at the moment, jot down the details of this new idea or even doodle how you envision it, then set it aside until the next day. You might find that what you have is fine, but your new idea is something you could apply in the future. Being an in future thing gives you however much time you want to flesh it out or change it but more importantly it's not you actually in there fiddling around for an extended amount of time to even have a banner to put up at all.

Its so easy for even me to make a thumbnail for a video and add a little of this, and that, and these and those, and before too long the whole message im trying to show through the thumbnail is lost. Either THAT or something I blocked out 15 minutes for has taken me a solid hour and i'm not a happy camper that I did that to myself LOL you are not alone ❤️

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

ColsCreations — Thu, 21 May 2026 02:52:57 GMT

You're a good motivational speaker. 👍 I'd like to watch your Youtube if you're willing to share. (Don't think it's breaking any rules since you're being asked for the link.)

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

SimplyDesigned — Thu, 21 May 2026 13:14:32 GMT

I used to be extremely shy and introverted, I like to think YT has helped me come out of my shell, so thank you for the kind words Col ❤️ I'm afraid my channel is completely unrelated to anything here, it's a gaming channel so I fear everyone would be either terribly bored or just not into the content haha & that's a me thing not a y'all thing 🙂

But rest assured, even if I don't post somewhere for days, I check this forum every morning and if I have something helpful to add I do my best to explain my thoughts/reasoning in probably way too many words (lol).

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

NZBrenda — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:52:42 GMT

I tried Chat GPT for the same things and had a really good result. My views went from zero to 12 to 15 views in the first day and they've been climbing ever since. Now I just need them to translate into sales ! *sigh

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

CherylJones — Fri, 29 May 2026 11:03:07 GMT

That's wonderful! And thank you for your reply. : ) I'm still using the free version of Chat GPT to help me with keywords I may not have thought of. And think it's worth that for me. Good luck to you; I hope your views turn into many conversions! Cheryl

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

Susang6 — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 03:01:45 GMT

I agree with you that AI can’t replace the human voice especially on platforms like Zazzle where shoppers respond to authenticity. But I’ve actually had the opposite experience from what you described.

I use AI very intentionally: not to write everything for me, but to research trends, understand what customers are actively shopping for, refine my SEO, my product listings, and help with competitive pricing. May was my test month, and my views and sales increased noticeably once I started using AI as a research partner instead of a replacement for my own writing.

For me, the key has been working with an AI that already knows my voice and my niche. I never take the first draft, and I always verify accuracy but the time savings and the insights have been worth it.

I agree with what you said: blending human tone with smart tools. When used thoughtfully, AI can strengthen the strategy behind the listing without removing the personal touch.

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

NZBrenda — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:35:12 GMT

Thank you Cheryl. I wish you many views and sales also 🙂

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

CrazyMermaid — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 23:50:47 GMT

I have serious doubts about AI and Zazzle strategies. I have the ChatGPT that supposedly lets it do deep, complicated research. So i tested it. I also want to figure out how much it could tell my competitors about me. So I asked it to tell me how many Diamond sellers there are on Zazzle. I asked it to check out the site and keep a tally of all the people who had Pro Diamond on any of their public pages. After 2 hours, it found 1. Then I wanted to know the top 100 bestselling products. That was a disaster. If it can't tell me who the most accomplished Zazzlers are, if it can't determine the best selling products, then how the heck can it come up with an SEO strategy.

Oh it can talk a really good game and that is it. It seems to just scan all of the Zazzle gurus and then summarize what they say. This from someone who has listed to way too many Youtube Vidoes, It is indeed fun to brainstorm with, but I am becoming disillusioned with it. I have never read anything from it, that I haven't heard or read somewhere else.

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

Susang6 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 20:14:30 GMT

I can see why you’d be frustrated, but the things you asked AI to do aren’t actually things any AI can do, because Zazzle doesn’t publish that information anywhere. There’s no public list of Diamond sellers, and there’s no public list of the top 100 bestselling products. Zazzle blocks bots from crawling dashboards, and the sales data we all see is private to each creator. So when you asked it to “scan the site,” it wasn’t failing you it simply didn’t have anything to scan. That’s a limitation of Zazzle’s platform, not a limitation of AI.

Where AI does help is in the areas where the information actually exists. It can help you brainstorm keywords, rewrite descriptions so they’re clearer, explore long‑tail phrases, and look at search intent outside of Zazzle. It’s not meant to be a detective digging into other people’s shops, and it can’t see anyone’s private data, including yours. It’s more like a writing partner that speeds up the parts of SEO we can control.

I think that’s why a lot of us use it for SEO even if we don’t rely on it for everything. It’s not magic, but it’s a helpful tool when you point it toward the right kind of task.

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

CrazyMermaid — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:09:16 GMT

But it doesn't really know if those SEO strategies work. I don't really get the impression that it understands the Zazzle ecosystem and better than the gurus, that consistently get it wrong. Don't get me wrong I use AI all day long. Once my cardiologist diagnosed my Afib and told me to use the DASH diet to help manage it, I was overwhelmed with the exchanges and potassium/magnesium requirements and sodium limitations. Wow, I asked ChatGPT and the perfect meal plan arrived. It even manages my pantry and shopping lists for me. Would I have asked it to diagnose my condition or treat it. Similarly. I think SEO is truly beyond it. It is guessing like the humans. However, I have to admit using it to design cover photos is so much fun. With the advent of the NY law, I have returned to designing my own cover photos. I really miss it!

Re: Any luck using Ai for SEO?

Susang6 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:10:01 GMT

Yes I get it, everyone uses AI differently, and it’s definitely not a magic SEO machine. I just wanted to clarify why it couldn’t pull the data you were asking for that part was about Zazzle’s structure, not the AI itself. Beyond that, we all find the tools that fit our own workflow.