What is the value of a description?

[Barbara]

The first few years I was here, I seem to remember that our descriptions were included in the search. I also thought the description might be used by search engines, though I'm not sure. Do customers read it, particularly now that it's been pushed down the page? (It's now useless on Pinterest.) Given that the real info is contained in Zazzle's description and specs, while nearly anything we might say in a description is mostly a reiteration of what a customer is likely to see in the image, do our descriptions have any value at all? Do they ever convince a customer who's on the fence to buy the product?

Colorwash's Home

[Jadendreamer13]

Maybe Google bots use the info listed in descriptions…..

[Barbara]

That's what I used to think, but I suspect they're more likely to use emphasized words such as larger or bolded. Even our titles are no longer rendered in bold. Doubtless picked up in Zazzle's search but maybe less likely by a search engine.

It dawned on me to look at the page source for one of my products, and I discovered that, not only is the title up at the top in the meta section, but the description is also there. I don't know how much of the description is included because my descriptions are fairly short. Some people write descriptions that are practically essays, and maybe they get cut off after a while. I'll have to check into it further. It's interesting that Google and Twitter are called upon up there but none of the other search engines nor social media. Also, given that it's called Twitter and not X, does it even function?

Colorwash's Home

[MOM]

@Barbara  70 characters (Title Tag in HTML) | 155 characters (Meta Descriptions in HTML – actually no limitation but only first 155 characters are displayed in Google search results).

One of the reasons I put a character counter on my resource page at https://sanfrancisco.zone/resources/. Because in the beginning I used ChatGPT‘s longwinded descriptions, lol. Now I always tell ChatGPT  „write a short description to sell bla, bla, bla“.

[Barbara]

@MOM 

That's what I'd thought, that there was a character limit for meta descriptions, but then I was totally confused when I looked at the page source for one of those ChatGBT essays and found the whole blessed thing in there. If it has no true value in a search engine, does it have any more value within Zazzle? My gut says that, no, it doesn't.

@LMGildersleeve  You've restored my faith!

I'm now going to start looking carefully at the first part 155 characters of a description when I write it, trying to make it both unique and yet searchable. Bet it's harder than it sounds, right?

Colorwash's Home

[MOM]

@Barbara  Yup, it certainly is, lol. 🤦🏻‍♀️

[LMGildersleeve]

Barb, funny story... I just Googled the name of my best selling Christmas card. I literally copied the entire title (which is unique) and posted into the search engine. The Christmas card came up on with a Pinterest link and a Zazzle link. When I clicked thru to Zazzle instead of my Christmas card my new years card using the same words but in a different order showed. 

When I used the first two sentences (with unique text) of my description to search I couldn't find my any link with my card. 

I believe Leah is right when she found a "no index" in her stores' code and that many of us are victim of this. Whether you have this I don't know but it just proves the point how important Pinterest is for selling our products. Pinterest may not show our unique descriptions but products do get sold from there.

[MOM]

@LMGildersleeve   Coincidentally I just did the very same thing last night and I posted it on Leah‘s board. I was really surprised by the result. Maybe I copy and past here too. It turned out kinda long.

[MOM]

@Barbara @LMGildersleeve 

Ok, here we go…

This post has turned out way longer than I had intended but in a nutshell my little experiment last night has showed me the importance of

1. Creating nice cover images for your product (see Google Section 4)

2. Promoting your Zazzle products on Social Media (the shelf live is longer than I had assumed)

3. Promoting your Zazzle products with video (with mobil phones becoming swiftly the most used devises nowadays)

4. Promoting your Zazzle products with a website (your own domain, YOURDREAMBUILT.COM or Snuggle Hamster Designs) of course not necessarily in that order. And you CAN NOT relay on Zazzle's marketing efforts because they are basically non-existant (at least in this example - see for your self). Zazzle had only one Kamala button indexed by Google and it wasn't mine, sigh.

So I am inviting you to run a test your self (if you have that much time to spare):

Pick your "Latest Products Sold" - in my case that's a product (ID: 256721593223281774) created on: 8/7/2024, 4:07 AM. This item has sold four times but I didn't make any referral bonus fee on it which means #1 or #5 earned them (see Google Section 3).

Go to Google and enter the title of your item - in my case that's "Raised Blue Fist! Kamala Harris/Walz 2024 Campaign Button".

Please share your results here for all of us to learn from it. Below is my result for this item - I'm just following the first Google search result page from top to bottom. Please note that the results may differ depending on the device you are using and if you are logged into Google or not.

Result:

Google Section 1

Sponsored/Stores (203 ads)

My product nowhere to be found but I do not use paid advertisement. I broke down the sponsored ads below (Zazzle had 1 ad running but it wasn't for my product when checking with the laptop):

Zazzle 1 (** on the Iphone it was my product, on the laptop some other Zazzler's button)

Amazon 5

eBay 10

Etsy 49

Walmart 3

Tee Shirt Palace 126

Wacky Buttons 9

Look HUMAN 1

TeePublic 0

Google Section 2

Videos

When I checked with my laptop zero hits for me, only news videos but when I checked with my iphone three of my own videos popped up - all posted on TikTok (5th, 6th and 9th where mine but not for this product. And yes, I took screen shots, lol)

Google Section 3

1. Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/101542166597381608/) ** posted by a Pro Zazzler of 14 years - see https://www.yourdreambuilt.com/designers/index.html for more info!

2. Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/listing/1763535826/harris-walz-for-president-button-pin) ** some Etsy seller - not my product

3. Kamala Harris (https://store.kamalaharris.com/harris-walz-buttons/) ** of course not my product, lol

4. San Francisco Zone (https://sanfrancisco.zone/raised_blue_fist_kamala_harris_walz_2024_campaign_button/) ** my own website - yeah!!

5. Snuggle Hamster Designs (https://snugglehamster.com/a/mom/p/import-raised-blue-fist-kamala-harris-walz-2024-campaign-button) ** my product - Jim's website.

6. The New Republic (https://newrepublic.com/post/185403/elon-musk-first-political-hire-republican-election) ** unrelated kinda

7. Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-gaEqlyxeE/) ** my post but different product.

Google Section 4

Images

Fifth row Google/Zazzle using my image (I take it as a compliment) to link to "Campaign Buttons & Pins - No Minimum Quantity | Zazzle" (https://www.zazzle.com/campaign+buttons) where my product is the 11th listing on that page

Google Section 5

Zazzle Kamala HARRIS 2024 Campaign Button (https://www.zazzle.com/kamala_harris_2024_campaign_button-256523341608306017?srsltid=AfmBOooSP2hZWZy...) ** not my product

Google Section 6

Sponsored

2024 Campaign Buttons | Amazon® Official Site (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=2024+campaign+buttons&hvadid=685707234840&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9032106&hvnetw...)

Campaign Political Buttons | eBay Official Site (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Campaign%20Political%20Buttons&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-1565...)

End of first search result page on Google.

[MOM]

PS: In the iPhone version in the Google Section 3 the second listing (Etsy seller) didn’t come up so there my site was on place three instead of place four (after Kamala’s website) and so on.

[Barbara]

Oh my goodness, @MOM , that was a lot of digging into things! It would be worthless for me to do it, given that I'd be using DuckDuckGo (I hate Google). Also, the closest I get to social media is Pinterest, which I haven't gone near since almost a year ago, though I'll be going back to it soon. And I don't have a web site. What a totally dull girl I am. LOL However, your work shows that the things we do or should do are worth it. Thank you so much.

Colorwash's Home

[MOM]

@Barbara @I have neglected my Pinterest too since I have figured out that Instagram is creating a pin for me automatically.

I hate Google too (with a passion because it’s so invasive and wants to combine all my accounts all the time…), that’s why I so seldom search for anything on the web. I have never used DuckDuckGo but I will check it out now - thank you.

[LMGildersleeve]

"I have figured out that Instagram is creating a pin for me automatically."

What do this mean please? 

[Malissa]

If you link your Pinterest and IG accounts, you IG pins will automatically sync to a board (I think of your choosing) on your P account. It needs to be a P business acct and you need to go into your settings on P and link them.

[MOM]

@LMGildersleeve  @Malissa  What Malissa said is probably correct but in my case Instagram just asked me once and I said yes thinking what’s the harm - it saves me a minute. I didn’t realize that it would be a steady thing. YouTube had asked me too (before Instagram did) and I said no to YouTube, sigh. I do have a business account which is free, I did this right when I signed up for Pinterest. A YouTube channel had recommended that and now I can’t even find that specific channel anymore, lol. 

[Mariholly]

@MOM I feel like I’m missing something... I googled my title and a link to Zazzle appears first and Pinterest second, both showing my product. I did this on my laptop. It’s only been sold 2 times, maybe 3 because the last sale from yesterday hasn’t shown up in the statistics yet... I’m confused, did I miss something?

[MOM]

@Mariholly  No, I don’t think so. Thanks so much for posting your result (which is outstanding!!). You just tipped the pendulum into the other direction restoring some of my faith into Zazzle because I almost was about ready to jump ship. What search engine did you use?

[Mariholly]

Google

[MOM]

@Mariholly

Very interesting. Google seems not to sell ads in your country. I am amazed. Again thanks so much for sharing.

[Mariholly]

[MOM]

@Mariholly  Wow!!!!! 🤩 

On first and second place and NO paid advertising ahead of you. I’m shocked. I hope that will never change for you.

Thanks so much for sharing!!

[Mariholly]

I believe both the description and the tags are the originals from when the product was created. I added the cover photo in the past, possibly when it was sold, as that's what I usually do, and I haven’t done anything else.