SEO/ tags/ KW for an Editable product

[mydoggypaws]

Hi. I’m new so bear with me.

Hopefully I can explain this without being confusing.
I will give an example. For instance, if I am going to sell an editable T-shirt with the name of a dog breed with the word mom (ie " doodle mom"), should I use tags and keywords for “doodle” in my listing? (Knowing the customer can edit it to whatever dog breed they want?)
I want customers to find my Tshirt, but if they are typing in a different breed of dog that they are looking for, I may not show up in their search result… Even though my shirt can be edited to any breed of dog that they want…
Does that question make sense?
Thank you for any help

[Cat_Ritchie]

Your best bet is to tag it for the way it looks, ie: put “doodle” in your title and key words. Even though they can change the text to whatever they want, a customer is unlikely to search for “any breed” or something similar - they’re going to search for what they want. You probably want to create separate products for each breed - I know that seems crazy when the customer can easily change the text, but you want to promote each one separately, or at the very least tag each one separately, otherwise people will never find them.

[BKMuir]

Would not just a generic “Dog Mom” tag get the most views? Or even “Pet Mom” - why limit it to dogs?

[Cat_Ritchie]

I would include those generic terms in the tags, but in my experience, people are more likely to both search for and click on things that match more specifically what they’re looking for. I could be wrong, but that’s been my experience! 🙂 

[mydoggypaws]

Is there a way to duplicate the listing and just change up some of the key words, tags and title? Then Edit the breed on the shirt (or Whatever i’m selling). 

Or Is the easiest way to just use the design transfer tool? 

[ColsCreations]

I respectfully disagree on this point. What sets Zazzle apart from other PODs is the template fields that can be edited by the end-customer. I think the whole point is being able to make one product that can serve many needs just by the customer changing the template fields. I understand that as Creators, we want to approach things in ways that serve US best, but publishing multiple products that are the same except for the template text, that defeats the point and clutters the MP. If we’re going to publish the same thing with just different years or breeds etc there’d be no need for editable text. In such cases it’s definitely challenging for Creators to decide on what template text to use and how to best to tag/market it, but I think we have to pick something and accept that we’re not going to directly hit all possible interested audiences. Publishing multiples to get around this is just sort of, well, not ideal IMO.

This calls to mind a “trick” I recall learning about a while ago where you can share a product URL with the template fields edited to whatever. So you could take a shirt and share to a Golden Doodle group with it saying “Doodle Mom” and share the same exact shirt to another group with it saying “Yorkie Mom”. I think the “trick” came from either @HightonRidley   or @Fiorenzo   , not sure now. But it would be very useful for pinning the same product with different template text for different target groups.

[HightonRidley]

Yes, there is a ‘trick’ to this. Have a look at this screenshot and then try the links underneath to see the template text being changed by the link.

Here’s the plain link showing the template text as designed:
https://www.zazzle.com/surprised_golden_globe_fish_i_dont_remember_poker_chips-256253408166544020

Here’s how to use the link to change the top text to “what memory” and the bottom to “bubble bubble”

https://www.zazzle.com/surprised_golden_globe_fish_i_dont_remember_poker_chips-256253408166544020?t_text1_txt=what%20memory&t_text2_txt=bubble%20bubble

Heck! The link above is cut off here, so I’ll put the last part here so you can see what it says:
256253408166544020?t_text1_txt=what%20memory&t_text2_txt=bubble%20bubble 

Have fun!

PS Care has to be taken if you want to use special characters in the text but that’s a bit advanced for here (use the special character’s ASCII code with a % in front of it)

[Fiorenzo]

Dang. That was a truly precious hint! I knew you could do this with API links, but didn’t know it would also work with regular ones. You never stop to learn on Z. Awesome! Thank you!

[mydoggypaws]

Thanks so much everyone. I will take all of this in and come up with a plan. I haven’t opened my shop yet, just trying to get everything together as much as I can. I want to get it all right from the start! Thanks

[Fiorenzo]

It was not me. And thanks to you mentioning HR and him answering with a precious tip, I learned something new… that you can change template texts not only on API links but also on regular ones.

@mydoggypaws  @ColsCreations  @Cat  @BKMuir  

Regarding the OP, I personally would go with Cat, at least when it comes to dogs. Cat “moms” can be addressed as such, but dog “moms” usually look for their specific breed, so I would create a few different variants with several different (popular) dog breeds and then tell the customer they can change it. E.g. one variant with a red text and publishing as Dobie Mom, one with a blue text published as Husky Mom, whatever, plus a generic dog mom. In the tag list I would include generic tags (dog mom, dog mommy, etc) as well as the mentioned breed (husky mommy, siberian husky mom / doberman mom, dobie mom, dobie mommy, etc.) Using slightly different designs with color and font changes plus published on different shirt variants makes sure you can address the most important dog breeds without having 20 exact copies.

Dog niche is a pain, since you have to address all breeds separately if you want to truly succeed.

[Fiorenzo]

Dog owners are complicated. They search for “their” specific breed. In other words, if you have a Husky you’ll search first for a Husky Mom and only then you’ll look further if you don’t find something you like.

[Connie]

@HightonRidley Wow, that is amazing!

[ColsCreations]

I agree. I have no issue with variants. But I do think they need to vary in more than just colors otherwise they get picked up by the grouping algorithm and it gets messy. I had that happen once with foil gift tags I’ve long since deleted. I made one in gold with appropriate text, tags & title for a 50th anniversary, and another in silver with appropriate text, tags & title for a 25th anniversary. They got grouped and if one initially clicked on say the gold one for 50th then clicked the swatch to switch to silver, the product changed to silver but the text didn’t, it stayed at that for 50th. So it was “pulling” the colors from the second product but not the template text which was quite confusing. I guess this is only important if the colors have specific relation to the tempate text as they did in that case, but it’s another something to keep in mind.

[Cat_Ritchie]

It never occurred to me to promote a customized version of a product - I mean with different text than the original (or a different color, or with pretty much any changes you like.) But there’s an easier way to get the link. Just make your changes then open the share dialog and choose “copy link.” 

https://www.zazzle.com/z/a4q3wmsw

The link will take you to the customized version of your product and if/when someone buys it from that link you still get the credit. I use that method for trading designs back and forth with customers when they need help with a design.

[Cat_Ritchie]

Apparently @ColsCreations  has much more faith in customer ingenuity than I do! Most of my experience is with wedding stuff though where the main difference people are likely to want is color - and since color schemes are such a big part of the whole wedding thing, they almost always include the color in their search. I don’t worry about marketplace clutter, I figure that’s Zazzle’s problem, not mine. I do agree that making different variations is a bit of a pain, but it has paid off pretty well for me! YMMV!

[Fiorenzo]

Jeez, the infamous auto-grouping mess. I had that chaos, too, with one of my designs, and know well the handling issues. Asked for a manual ungrouping option in the product backend back in the old forum to avoid the annoyance of having it ungrouped by Z. The breed problem is something I also have with the designs themselves, especially the scenes. I’m creating the Photoshop originals in a way that I can easily change the dog to create variants either myself or on demand. I’m also thinking of ways how I can make frames etc interchangeable without ending with 100 variants of the same design with different breeds and frames. That’s why I also offer different predefined text styles on my cards. The additional product mockups come in handy for such stuff, to show people how they can personalize the product.

[ColsCreations]

That is def an easy way to share a customized product where you can change even more than just the template text but I have my reservations about it because …

Here’s the URL to Highton’s product as published: (Hot link)

https://www.zazzle.com/surprised_golden_globe_fish_i_dont_remember_poker_chips-256253408166544020

Here’s the URL to the product where I used his URL parameter method to change the template text: (Hot link)

https://www.zazzle.com/surprised_golden_globe_fish_i_dont_remember_poker_chips-256253408166544020?t_text1_txt=URL%20parameter&t_text2_txt=%22trick%22%20method

Both links include the product ID number (PID) and if you follow the link to the product page, you can scroll down to “Other Info” and see the PID there as well as creation date.

Here’s the URL generated when I personalize the product and then use the Share icon on the product page: (Hot link)

https://www.zazzle.com/pd/spp/pt-chiplab_pokerchip?dz=f15f5389-df09-4b62-8ab5-1dc5fa6fffd1&clone=true&pending=true&style=composite&edgestyle=striped&edgecolor=orange&design.areas=%5Bchiplab_pokerchipnew_40mm_front%2Cchiplab_pokerchipnew_40mm_back_back%5D&social=true&view=113305378735917986&rf=238499276722080691

 It does not include the PID and it starts off the same way all create-your-own blanks start off (/pd/spp/pt-) and if you follow the link it actually shows Create Your Own as page title in browser tab:

 And once on the page, if you scroll down there is no “Other Info” section, the product has no PID (or creation date).

Given the lack of a PID and that the URL has a “pending=true” parameter in it, that leads me to think these modified versions are not treated as an actual existing product when shared like this. We already know that if a designer modifies their own published product, the result is treated as a personal creation and therefor no sales stats or royalties are earned on it unless you actually publish that version. You can get around that by going in anonymously, customizing your product, and then not signing in until you are prompted to on the payment page. That makes you the same as any random shopper clicking on your published product and customizing it. This is getting really confusing but, if you customize your product and share the link to that version, it seems like the same thing, that you’re creating a personal product you wouldn’t get any credit for (though you could still earn a referral on it) because it’s not considered a published product.

So, I don’t know. It seems like that Share button is there more for regular customers not worried about sales & royalties to their share customized designs for feedback before ordering, but for the designer it might have the unintended consequence of making your product a personal not-published one. Again, I don’t know , just thinking out loud here as to why this method of sharing a customized product gives me pause.

[Cat_Ritchie]

Well, I use this method several times a week, and I always get the royalty when the customer buys it, so I know it works in terms of the royalty. An easy way to check is to look at the product page and make sure your store is showing as the creator:

BUT now that you mention it, I’m not sure about referrals. I’ve never shared a link on the web this way - like I’ve never posted it on Pinterest or something, and I never try to trick the system into giving me a referral when I help a customer with their design, so I’m just not sure.

Here’s what the short link translated to when I posted it into a browser. 

https://www.zazzle.com/pd/spp/pt-zazzle_invitation3?dz=7346ffb7-55e2-4bed-91f9-3d27aba7ba4e&clone=true&pending=true&style=5x7&cornerstyle=normal&media=128ptsemi&printquality=4color&envelopes=white&zattribution=none&design.areas=%5B5x7_front_full_vert%2C5x7_back_full_vert%5D&social=true&view=113335724526596936

I suppose you could add “&rf=YOUR-ASSOCIATE-CODE” and I think that would probably work… but I’m not sure, and I’m REALLY not sure about if you’re in the Promoter 2 program.

So yeah, it you’re gonna use it for promoting, it’s probably best to stick with @HightonRidley 's method. 

[LauraLee]

Just my 2¢ here, @mydoggypaws …In your OP, you mentioned nothing about what the graphic was.  So, all the chatter is good info, but let’s dive a little deeper.  IF you had a “doodle dog” graphic, here’s what you do FIRST.  Goto a search engine, and type “doodle dog”, and see if it’s popular.  You’ll know if the word is a good KW by looking to see how popular is it.  If it is, then it must be a good choice of KW.  Next, go do a Zazzle search, and type the same thing, again seeing if it’s popular.  You’ll know more confidently if the word is a good KW by what you find there.  Logically, doing this type of research helps you optimize KWs and being specific is going to drive your niche with “doodle dogs”.  I mean you could build a whole store around a “doodle dog” if you wanted too.

Now, the thing about Zazzle is everything can be customizable.  Say that your graphic was customizable with ANY dog.  Then think, what are you selling a customer - the entire (customizable) t-shirt as a template, right?  They can put any dog with any title to it they want, right?  Therefore, I would say “doodle” is not a good KW, right? 

So, you’ve learned quite a bit how others design, and basically, not what your customers are looking for.  That’s where your choice of the type of audience you are attracting comes first, before all the other options.  Do you have a group of friends that own different types of dogs?  Are you in FB groups of people who own various types of dogs?  How are you connecting to dog owners that want to buy t-shirts with dogs on them?  These are types of questions I wish I had learned at the beginning of my Zazzle journey.  And you can bet, in 2024, connecting to your audience is going to be even more personally influenced than ever before.  So, if your idea is the dog/pet mom, dog breed mom, etc., think who am I going to market this to before creating the t-shirt or product(s). 

Your question on duplicating the listing, yes, you can copy/paste designs and change up the KW, title, and descriptions.  You can also use the transfer tool to add it to another t-shirt or whole nother product altogether.  Transferring keeps your customizable items like graphic and text, but copy/paste does not.  Whichever you use is fine, but always make sure to check the customizable items, and if they are how you want them to post for sale.  
Hope this helps, sorry it was so long.

[GagCartoonist]

The proof is in the pudding, what works sells and what sells elevates sellers. The reality is dog owners search as Cat noted by breed and regardless of polluting marketplace if you want to sell to dog owners, your best placed to do so by being breed specific and those who sell doggy products know this. It’s already been tried and tested. People looking for gifts might go for something more generic so a balance of both is optimal as there are two different target audiences.