Understanding and Learning Titles and Tags

[ZAZKAT]

Best advice to set me ahead would be phenomenal.  Looks like "less is more" in this area.  Where I was giving 10 tags with five words each may be best at a reduced rate.  And titles defining let's say flowers for example as zinnia poppy may be best worded as yellow florals.

Any suggestions would be great.  Or direction to who is doing it "just right"

Thx

[PacifierCity]

@ZAZKAT 

The words you use are what is going to bring traffic to your designs / products.  These are in fact, the most important part of the design process.  You can have the most beautiful art, but if no one can find it, then no one will buy.  It is through the words you choose that search engines have access to, and therefore how people find your products.

The Title and Description should definitely be readable by a human and make sense grammatically.  With the title you should use as many words as possible while still keeping it grammatically correct.  The title should focus on the design, not the product or intended uses.

The description should expand on the title, using a few of the words in the title again.  The description should again focus on the design, but you might mention a use if the product is intended for a certain use, ie... a thank you card, a baseball, or ... wrapping paper.  When writing your description consider how different people in life might describe your design...ie... a 10 year old, your grandmother, your art teacher, the local news caster.  Utilize a thesaurus to discover words that work well to describe an element in the design that you may not have thought of.  There are mixed thoughts about using hashtags at the end of your description.  For that bit I'd say research and decide for yourself.

There is much debate about the best way to tag...  Zazzle does provide "Help" on the page where you add tags.  This is there platform, so it probably makes sense to follow there guidelines/rules.  But generally, 10 single words as separate tags is probably not the best choice.  Short phrases that describe the entire design, or elements within the design is believed to be a good way to go.   Avoid the product type and avoid uses of the product.  Including those can really throw off the Z search algorithm. 

I hope you find the above helpful.  I look forward to reading any other tips that other designers provide.  I am forever trying to evolve in the words I use.  They are so important.

Oh and be careful when research products that appear on the top pages of your Z searches.  Many of those products have been around for a very long time.  It is there sales history that keeps them there and all those years ago there was not so much competition for eyes, and that means that simple tagging worked well... ie, 10 single words as tags.  And this often applies to poor and short descriptions.  Some of those products were also created by folks that have a big following and they themselves are driving traffic from elsewhere and all the words weren't that important to them as they themselves are the source of their sales, not search engines...

Happy Sales!

PC

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[ZAZKAT]

Thank you for the thorough reply.  I need a few more bits of clarification.  Examples given may be best.  Title:  "Grammatically correct."  Can you give an example? "The title should focus on the design, not the product or intended uses."  Can you give an example? "Avoid the product type and avoid uses of the product."  Can you give an example?  I create based on a variety of nature.  Is it best to title or use the specific name of the plant? Example:  Daylily Leaf or best to use Green Plant Leaf?  Commonly people know what a Rose is but they do not know what a Purple Zinnia is.  It sounds as though descriptions should almost be as simple and direct and "common", if you will,  wording.  Lastly, can you expand on the Algorithm?   If Zazz and Pinterest work on the same algorithms, Pinterest seems to function on a low variety of tags.  I am actually astounded that the choice of tags is so limited.  

Another thought:  When I look at tags that are used by other creators they are often black with blue highlighted words.  Are the blue words those that are most relevant and should be used as tag choices?  

An overall example of  Title, Tags, and Description would be great, when and if you have a moment.  

Thank you

[PacifierCity]

@ZAZKAT 

I am sorry that I never saw your follow up questions.  If you @ someone then they get notified that they have been @'ed and they know to take a look to see why.

A grammatically correct title would be Silly Clip Art Frog with Golden Starburst (product added by Z).  as opposed to Green Frog Golden Starburst Clip Art (product added by Z).  The first is easily readable and understood.  While the second doesn't actually read like a sentence would.

The title should focus on the design, not the product or intended uses:  Funny Frog Tee shirt  (No product type added by Z as you've included tee shirt in your title.  Vs.    Silly Smiling  Green Frog Sticking It's Tongue Out (product added by Z).

As for using specific plant names...  I think that one is sort of tough.  Botanists searching for products are likely to search for specific plants.  The average person is likely to search for something like purple flowers.  In cases like this you have to spread your verbiage across all three areas where you add text.  Perhaps include the proper name in the title and in the tags use the proper title as a tag, but also more common phrases as tags too.  The title and tags are what Z uses for its search while title tags and the description are read by search engine bots (at least that's my understanding).  So in the description, you would want to start off with the proper terms and then simplify it a little as you describe the plant itself.  And short and sweet (to the point) is probably best.  

Almost all platforms use some sort of algorithm (computer program) to aid them in helping customers find products through search.  They all have there secret sauce and they don't reveal how they work.  Otherwise one could game the system and gain an unfair advantage.  SO I can't really explain the difference between how Z's works as opposed to P's. 

The blue tags you see, if clicked (at last test) lead to a search on Z of other items that also used the same tags.  I am still unclear on if that is a good thing or not.  It is always interesting to scroll down and look at which tags end up being blue and which are not.  I have no real conclusion as to whether one should hope to have their tags end up being blue or not.

Hopefully better late than never...

PC

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[andyodell]

When you say "The title should focus on the design, not the product or intended uses." does that mean for example something like "Bold Botanicals Baby Shower Black border Invitation" - Where Zazzle adds "invitation" on the end for you is not a good title because it has its intended use within the title which is "baby shower"?

[PacifierCity]

@andyodell 

There is always a "grey" area for all advice.  If it were me, I would include "baby shower" in the title as Z's addition of "invitation" leaves too many possible things that one could be invited too.  Plus the title will be seen by search engine bots and it is an important distinction that you want them to pick up on. 

PC

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[andyodell]

Thanks. That is great.

[Connie]

I think the RELEVANCE of the tags is more important than if they are single words or long-tail phrases. Some of my most popular products do have single word tags, but others have multiple word tags. It depends on the design, also- if something is always searched for using a phrase, it makes sense to keep that whole phrase as one tag. For example, "rose gold" needs to be one tag, not "rose" and "gold" separate.

[Windy]

I can say that I have many years of experience with tagging poorly and many years of experience with tagging exactly as forum wisdom asserts we should. Neither has brought me results. If I tagged anything with "yellow floral" I would not expect more than 3 views in a year, if that. And one of the views would be my own.  Meaning in a year, two people would  might see it and those would probably see it by some accident.  Right now I would be competing with 230,544 other "yellow floral"  products in the marketplace and my store rank is not high, so my yellow floral items would never ever be found. 

The ONLY products I have which get views are products which some people want, and few people sell.