Tagging - Yes I know another newbie question

[peanutfarm]

I'm just not getting the tagging concept at all!  Should I be making them as simple as possible ie butterfly, orange...?  Or gift use ie nature lover, gardener?  Combination of both?  What? What would you tag a magnet that has a monarch butterfly with a name underneath it?  I think I've incorrectly tagged all my products and I'm ready to fix them but need help.  I definitely need a store audit but unable to pay the $1000 one-on-one coaching.   

[Wollastonite]

Imagine yourself as a customer looking for a product. You find Zazzle's main page and you're presented with the search box to find whatever you're looking for. Who are you as a customer? Are you a fan of butterflies who wants to find butterfly products? People like that exist. Maybe you're a gardener, looking for general designs, but you aren't quite sure what you want. You just know you'll know it when you see it. Focus on both of them.

What are they going to type in that search box? The butterfly fan is probably going to go with "butterfly." They might not type "orange," because they probably aren't specifically looking for something that's orange. They want butterflies. They might be specific and want monarch butterflies. Realistic ones. Cartoon ones. Whatever that butterfly fan is likely to type in that box, that's the tag you want to include.

What is the gardener going to type? They might not specifically search for butterflies, but what might they search that could turn up a butterfly design?  Maybe they would search for things related to "nature" or "outdoors" or "gardening," which a butterfly design might fit. It might take some brainstorming and research to make that link.

You have tools available to you to help find useful tags. One of them is Zazzle itself. If your design is a butterfly with a name, type "butterfly name" in the search and see what comes up. There are some categories in circles that pop up based on the popular tags other shopkeepers are using. Borrow the ones that apply. I see vintage, floral, pretty, butterflies, blue, girly, baby shower.  Do any fit? "Pretty" and "girly" might? A customer might see that category, click on it, and you want your magnet to be there. [Bonus: Is the design floral? If not, is there something you could add to make a floral version? If "blue" is popular enough to show up there, maybe you want to color swap a blue version of your butterfly.]

In this day and age, you could also ask ChatGPT. Tell it it's a print-on-demand shopkeeper and SEO expert and it needs to produce twenty different SEO-optimized long tail keywords that would help a customer find a butterfly magnet through a search engine. Of those results, which actually apply to your design and which will a living person actually type into that Zazzle search box? Which will that butterfly fan type? Which will that gardener type? 

[Jadendreamer13]

I looked at this product to see your tags: Funny Rooster Two-Tone Coffee Mug. And here are my thoughts:

• The design and colors are beautiful. However, the rooster only has one leg, which I noticed immediately, and so will potential buyers.
• The design only appears on one side of the mug. The other side has only a name. You want the design to show on both sides of the mug, so both lefties and righties can see it.
• The text above the design should be customizable, too. Give buyers an opportunity to change that text, too, not just add a name - which should appear underneath the design.
• The title is very generic. Try adding more descriptive words.

Here are your tags:

farmhouse kitchen decorfunny coffee mugmorning coffee cupnovelty mugcoffee lover giftbackyard chickenchicken ownerroostercountrypoultry lover

I, personally, would not search for “farmhouse kitchen decor” when I’m searching for a coffee mug. I would search for “funny customizable watercolor rooster mug.”

Funny mug, novelty mug, morning coffee cup are basically the same tag repeated three times. Use that space to describe your design, the design style, who your design is for, etc.

Coffee lover, and chicken/rooster lover are good tags. Poultry lover says “meat eater” to me. Maybe use “chicken farmer or chicken keeper” instead.

Your tags aren’t awful, and you don’t need to completely redo them. Just look for duplicate descriptors, words, etc. Eliminate those to make room for additional tags that better describe your design.