IDEAS how we can all assist Zazzle growth AND how Zazzle can recognise our efforts in doing so

[CreativeLeahG]

@James 

I have some comments and some ideas which I hope you consider and find helpful.

Kicking off with 'Linkovers'

Zazzle currently recognizes 'great design' hence the 'cover photos and editors picks/other special picks' presently dominating the marketplace.

I am curious to know if those sellers benefiting (in some cases with as many as 3000 special picks) are also the major driving forces for traffic for Zazzle .... (outside of course of Zazzle itself driving traffic which is substantially greater).

The reason I am curious because there will be Zazzlers who may be non pro/bronze etc. and not great at selling YET contribute greatly to driving traffic as they are prolific pinners, tweeters, etc.

And if they are contributing a significant amount of incoming traffic for Zazzle ... is there a way to recognize them for their efforts? Because without 'incoming traffic' none of us sell anything.

One could say they must be making loads in affiliate referrals if that is the case and that is reward enough. However from my own experience of driving 600+ (linkover history) per day I do not make 600 referrals a day.

One could also say if there is no affiliate referral, that 'customer' has already visited Zazzle. However, our link is what bought them back! If those sellers STOP their efforts or worse direct them elsewhere this will impact us all ... potentially?

Suggestion 1. Some form of system for recognizing 'traffic' bought to Zazzle

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Next up Affiliates

Suggestion 2:

We need more:

• Banners
• Ability to download cover images
• Bring back html so we can share items direct to our site
• The 'feed' to add items easily to Facebook shops (I've already sent details re this via email).
• Re Pepperjam/Ascend - the shop page tool host thumbnail images' only which may be great for mobile but for desktop they are far too small to be 'effective at converting' traffic.
• Does Zazzle do more 'template' sales via desktop or mobile? This information is useful for affiliates

Suggestion 3: 

Many of us affiliates create our own banners. Could there be a system for submitting banners 'we' create to Zazzle for consideration for use on Zazzle for ALL affiliates to access? With of course some 'reward' payment system in place. Make the most of our creative talent!

Affiliates need greater tools and these have diminished in recent months.

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Filters

As has been discussed at length the filters need fixing, specifically the 'popular' and the 'lowest'. These filters give customers confidence and they need to be accurate.

Suggestion 4: Please fix the filters or at least 'reword' them to more accurately reflect what is currently taking place with the marketplace.

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Zazzle Tags

I noticed something recently, but I will do more research to see if it IS the case! It appears that google is now seeing 'tags' and if that is the case, Zazzle tag policy might require a rewrite?

My observations suggested Google will pull up a tag phrase if it matches the user search phrase. This means Google can 'see' our tags. I wasn't aware this was the case - is it a new thing re Google activity or a new thing re Zazzle? Either way, if this is now the case, we will benefit from a range of phrases that may contain words used in other tag phrases for the same product, because it is the 'exact phrase' that will prompt it to appear in a google search result.

Suggestion 5: Some clarity re this tag observation and perhaps a change in 'best practice' re tags on Zazzle.

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Many thanks for your consideration.

If others have suggestions and ideas please contribute them.

[CreativeLeahG]

Not sure if this cover falls within Zazzle cover guidelines as there is some confusion re text or no text.

But something Zazzle rolls out for this info on product pages for all users would be great.

[Mark]

Thank you for all your feedback, @CreativeLeahG. I will be sure to pass this on to the team.

[CreativeLeahG]

Thank you Mark

[CreativeLeahG]

Suggestion 7

This was the idea of others but posting here as VERY relevant

COVER PHOTOS

Let us download a product image with a transparent background

[Cat]

Wow! Lots of ideas there... I'm impressed! Do you ever have time to sleep? 😀

In terms of Google seeing our tags - I believe that Google's crawlers can see all of the text on a page, and since our tags appear as text on the page, I would assume they can see them at least as page content - which would mean that they do figure into search results at least somewhat. 

In terms of meta data for the page (which you can view by right clicking on the page and choosing "view page source" - that's how to find it in MS Edge at least, I assume there's something similar for other browsers) I don't see the tags listed as keywords there, just the title and description. It's been a while since I researched this stuff, but last I heard Google was no longer using the keywords meta tags. That may have changed, but according to this article (which was last updated in October) they're still not using them. Does Google Value Keyword Meta Tags? - SEO Manager Knowledge Base

Other interesting tidbit, Zazzle is using our covers for the og:image tag - so that's another vote in favor of creating a good cover!

[CreativeLeahG]

To answer first question 'no' lol!!

And re the metatags ... I only undertsand half of this but it is what I thought WAS the case but I checked the items that came up in search and the phrases didn't match the titles or anything in the description but I found the phrases in the tags, BUT I will do further searches tomorrow to see if I can replicate the results.

[KeegansCreation]

According to View Insights, somebody found my shark design via googling "Jaws" and found my guitar design via googling "Fender", neither of which I would ever dream of using in tags, title or description. So who knows what google is actually using. 🙂

[Cat]

very interesting...

[LMGildersleeve]

Do you suppose Google is scapping the image itself and giving it a "name"?

Can you tell I know nothing of SEO? 🤣

[KeegansCreation]

I have been pondering it.

• Maybe Google uses companion words to deduce that when somebody searches for "Jaws sunglasses" they want ones with a shark, not a bone structure. And when they search for "Fender shot glass" they want a guitar image and not the fender of a car. So maybe "Jaws" attaches to any shark on a consumer object and "Fender" attaches to a guitar on a consumer object.
• Maybe they capitalized it in the search term (and then View Insights un-capitalized it) and that told Google it referred trademarked terms not bones or car parts.
• Maybe View Insights gives an abbreviated form of the search term and the actual search terms were "sunglasses with a picture of the Jaws shark" and "shot glass with a Fender guitar" which brought up my products independent of the trademarked terms.

Optimizing for Google SEO is a tough one because they are purposely opaque.

[Cat]

It's a very interesting question. Maybe Google's using AI to assist in it's search? Maybe the search brought up other similar products that did use those search terms and the customer actually clicked on one of those but then found your product in the marketplace? It's sort of impossible to know without both knowing more about Google's search (which they're never gonna tell us) or more about how the Zazzle insights are being calculated (like did those search terms get them to your product directly, or did they just get them to the site, and then they found your product once here?)

[KeegansCreation]

After replicating the search in Google, AI looks like a strong possibility. I Googled Fender shot glass (as somebody did to reach my non-Fender guitar shot glass) and sure enough, my design is somehow somehow in the Google shopping scroll. So is the admittedly much cooler shot glass that has an actual Fender guitar pick embedded in it and a shot glass with a bullet embedded in it (it's been shot, haha). The shot glass with the actual Fender guitar pick embedded in it has "guitar" in its' title (and my shot glass also has "guitar in its' title) so an AI nudge may have associated any guitar shot glass with Fender on account of this one with the actual pick. 

[PacifierCity]

Re Banners:  I've been asking for new banners for baby and toddler products since the last forums existed... that's well over a year now and they still haven't changed them.  The banners currently display products that Z does NOT offer any more...  So I had to make my own.

I personally would love to have an API forum.  I love the idea, and think I have a good grasp on how the link works and how to build it, but can't form the life of me figure out how to create a webpage with a display design area that would show the design as changes are made before a customer goes off to the Z website to purchase.  I get that it is not Z's responsibility to provide such ability, but something to start with would sure be helpful...

PC

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