Product with Definitely Used Tags Not Returned in Search?

[Caprice]

Have any of you had this happen?  You search for a product using tags that are included on your product, yet the item does not turn up in search results?  (I thought maybe it was tags not updating - but I checked the "public" tags to be sure they were there - still not in search).

[WBartworks]

Yes, it happens a lot.  I have duplicated products because that.

[Caprice]

But, but , but....how?  It defies logic.

[ColsCreations]

Just as a very general example, if you search for [baby elephant] you get 73.306 results
https://www.zazzle.com/s/baby+elephant

If you change the s in the above URL to c you get 36,423 results.
https://www.zazzle.com/c/baby+elephant

Results we can scroll thru are limited. 16-17 pages at 60 results each is roughly 1,000 results.

That leaves, in the above broad examples, 35-72K results that register as matching the search but are out of reach unless the shopper narrows things down farther and farther with more specific terms. For one's item to come up in those 1,000 that are scrollable, it has to match the specific search terms and also be ranked higher than the whoknowshowmany other results that also match.

I don't know what product you were searching for with what tags, but it's something to think about. If something's not coming up in search it's not always because it hasn't been indexed, it could just be that it's behind the roughly 1,000 viewable results.

[tracytrends]

Can you please share what the URL means with the letter c?
This one:
If you change the s in the above URL to c you get 36,423 results.
https://www.zazzle.com/c/baby+elephant

When I enter that url (copy/paste it) into a new tab, Zazzle adds the word Gifts to the string and my url shows like this with no c but I do have the reduced results:
https://www.zazzle.com/baby+elephant+gifts

What does the c mean and do customers land on this url with the c (maybe using filters or something)?

*thank you

[Windy]

I had a product where a search for the exact title did not turn the product up in the days after I created it.  I found this very disconcerting, but decided to wait. After quite a number of days (maybe ten) it began to show up all the time. When was your product created? If it was recent, it may just need onsite indexing time.

[Caprice]

Nope.  Product was created in Sept of '21.  😔  Last modified 2/2.

[Windy]

Only thing I can think of is that some terms are not actually searchable through Zazzle. Did we not used to have a list of those terms, in the old forums? Tags that won't be seen by the search?  I never really understood that whole thread, so maybe that's not at issue here. I am guessing you applied some very specific tag, though, one that is unusual enough it should return no more than a handful of results? If you want to share the tags here, I will see what I can find.

[randysgrandma]

Happens all the time. Even in the store's backend where there are definitely not millions of products that have to be searched through. When I eventually find the design I was looking for, I check the tags and the one I searched with is certainly there. It is hair pulling, frustrating.

[Caprice]

...a little disheartening when we work hard on title and tags.  😔

[Artsiren]

Does anybody have a decent link on tagging best practices for visibility in general, specific to Zazzle?

I should know this stuff after 14 years on the platform, but actually have no idea why products have a set of tags for the individual product we create (eg Puzzles) and another set for All Products. And a few are clickable links, and most are not clickable. Why? Are we supposed to tinker with tags until all of them are clickable in both individual product list and ALL product lists? Because I have loads where they're clickable on one list but not the other.

Maybe I'd sell more stuff if I literally knew *anything* about this, rather than just winging it off the top of my head when I create products, and then copy/pasting the same tags across products with the same design. Youtube videos and the internet at large are not helpful so far with this, for me at least. Because they all say different, often conflicting stuff. Nevertheless, I can't believe single word tags are useful at all (versus longtail, laser targeted ones), but most people use them, and seem to be doing great. (I think Z only allows 4 words in tags in any case, so they prefer shorter tail tags, I guess.)

Yep, it's like I was sick from school on the day they introduced the letter "E" and I've never used it since, because I never knew about it. Lol.

[Windy]

This is an excellent question and very well stated. I think it will be buried here and I would love to see you start a new thread for this, because I would LOVE for many people to see it, and I would love to learn from the community wisdom on these questions, which nag me as well. @Artsiren 

[Artsiren]

I'll do that a bit later. (Got designs to publish!) I was actually pondering it as a new thread - and didn't want to hijack this one, which is why I asked for a link, so I could go away and study it. But yes, it might be useful more widely to others as well as to us.

[Mark]

Hi all,

Thank you for your feedback on this topic. 

I will move this thread to General Discussion topic where we can continue the discussion.

- Mark

[Caprice]

Hi Mark -

Just wondering if you moved the topic simply for more discussion about tagging best practices, or if you don't believe this (items with definite tags not returned in search) to be a technically-based issue?

[Mark]

Hey @Caprice,

I moved it to the discussion topic as I don't believe it is a technical issue.

- Mark

[Caprice]

So, it seems if a product's color/size/etc is sold out/out of stock....the item will not appear in the search even if all the tags are there.  My question is: should it?  The customer may like the item, and be willing to purchase it in another size/color.  They don't get the chance if the product won't show in the search.