Reduced visibility via Google and Zazzle Marketplace Means more self-marketing - what are your plans

[CreativeLeahG]

The Zazzle Visibility Dilemma

As a Zazzle creator, I've noticed a significant decline in product visibility. It seems that the platform's sitemap may not include all products, and some stores are even being marked as "no index," hindering as I understand it search engine ranking.

I've also noticed a decline in Zazzle products featuring organically and via sponsored ads in Google searches.

Additionally, the dominance of Editor's Picks and as such less effective filtering options further limit organic reach.

To combat these challenges, we need to prioritize our own marketing efforts.

However, sharing products on social media now leads to landing pages featring many other products rather than our own product page, diluting our brand.

Creating a personal website or blog offers more control but requires additional time and resources.

Video marketing is becoming increasingly important for SEO, but it can be time-consuming.

Being highlighted by affiliates  is another avenue for increased visibility.

I'm curious to hear your experiences and strategies for overcoming these hurdles.

Have you found any effective solutions to boost your Zazzle visibility beyond what many are already doing?

[DM]

I'll tell you what I did, though it's probably not the answer you're looking for. Years ago when Z informed us that we would have to do our own advertising without telling us how, I tried doing my own marketing. Facebook, twitter, pinterest, my own websites. All with absolutely zero success. So, I found a POD that still advertises, and I focused on them instead of Z. The other POD understands that it is the designers (not "creators", DESIGNERS) who make the products, so they use their advertising budget to bring people in. Here, my sales have dropped to laughable amounts. There, I'm still OK. Not great, but OK. I would absolutely love for Zazzle to be my number 1 POD again, or at the very least compete for the top spot. But in my world they stopped caring, so I did too.

[MOM]

@DM  Hmm, food for thoughts. Zazzle is my first and only POD company I have tried so far.

[Connie]

I've tried a few other PODs, but none of them do nearly as well as Zazzle. And S6 pulled the rug out from under me with their paid "tier" system, which meant that I had to delete all but 10 of my designs.

[MOM]

@CreativeLeahG  From Col I have learned that links coming from my own website skip the landing page where I have to compete with so many other Zazzlers even though I brought the customer. My social media links lead now all to my own website where people than can click through to my product on Zazzle. It's still a two click event (from my site to Zazzle) but it's the other way around also two clicks (from the landing page to my product) but it strengtens my brand (I hope - in the long run maybe?). On the other hand it's quiet sobering to know exactly how few people I actually get from Social Media posts. At least I know that now while linking directly to Zazzle I would have no clue just hoping for the best.

For sure I'm still searching for the best way to do things, sigh.

PS: On a site note if I ever decide to leave Zazzle I still have already an established site which will make moving to an other POD easier. But for now Zazzle it will be because I like it.

[Margielyn]

I posted a new teapot, I went to the page for it, right below my item they had 60 teapot, then my other collection! They use to have see other products or collections. I post on social media a lot?. I sold a coffee mug yesterday, first thing I have sold since mother's day, I some have some products on Fourthwall.com but no luck there! there disappeared, has them in collection but error when clicked on! I have a few items on 

[MOM]

@Margielyn Oh. I thought Fourthwall was just a shopping cart site? I have to give it an other look now. I wish you many more sales.

[CreativeLeahG]

Yes links from our own sites are ok for now. Time intensive marketing though.

[MOM]

@CreativeLeahG @Cherylb So very true, sigh. And now that you have mentioned videos (again) I wonder if I should add them to my own site too. And I wonder also if it were better to use YouTube (a search engine in it self) or my own server for hosting those product videos. So many questions, never enough time…

[Mistica]

About making own site...do you get any traffic from the site to Zazzle? 
Websites are a lot of work so trying to figure out where to go from here as far as promotion goes.
I know i can then use Pinterest ..once the site is up. Not sure if that would make a difference either. 
I went from at least 10 sales a day to one. Not good. I have about 12k products so going back and adding cover pics makes no sense...and there is no indication that it would make a difference.

[MOM]

@Mistica Oh my gosh - 12k products! I'm in total shock!! No way your own website would make a difference I think. I have as of today 327 products but some (rated ones) are not visible in the market place so I have under 300 public listings right now. Yesterday I had four website visitors - two via Google, one via Facebook and one with unknown referrer. And I sold one item but not coming from my own site because Zazzle said "None" as referrer. Oh boy, I need decades to catch up to you, lol.

[Mistica]

 Are you saying yes or no to making a zazzle based website? I started one...and then stopped. 
Yes...I do work my butt off. Sales lately are not reflecting it at all. I get followers daily so I do think my work is saleable. I "was" doing ok...but then it came to a screeching halt. Something changed. Not sure what. I stopped designing and decided I had better get promoting instead.  Even if my work was beyond amazing...it is not being seen. 
About getting so much done...too many long days. I do this for "passive" income so that I can have what people call a life 🙂

[MOM]

@Mistica  I‘m not sure what to tell you. Honestly. I love working on my site and Google has finally started to pick it up. But I still have very little traffic - today I had four so far (like yesterday). But again I made a sale today but it (again) didn’t come from my own site because I didn’t make a referral.

I only work nights on Zazzle and my own site but I‘m thinking during the day how I could improve things. I‘m still amazed that you have created so many products - wow!! It would take me twenty years to catch up to you. 😱

[Mistica]

Yes. I will complete that site. Need to find the right plugins which determine visitors etc. etc. 
Don't envy my 12k. It's about visibility...which right now can definitely be GREATLY  improved. Take care of your family and do what you are doing. The rest will definitely come.  

[SkullPilot]

I don't know what your SEO experience is like, so you might already know all this. But writing blog posts with a particular keyword intent is pretty important.

You could try using Ahrefs free tools. I use the Keyword Generator and Keyword Difficulty Tool. Just go to their website and to the free tools on the Footer Section to find them.

They're very limited, but if you are not using any kind of SEO at the moment, you might be able to improve things by searching for keywords that are in the 'Easy' category. Just sprinkle a few into your blog post, as long as they are relevant! And also consider internally linking pages together, again if they can be linked naturally. I like to link them using the keyword as the clickable text. Don't know if that helps when it's an internal link, but it's what I do to try and help search engine bots figure out what both pages (the link-from and the link-to pages) are about.

The first one (including easy low competition keywords) will help you get more Google traffic. And the second one (internal linking) will help with keeping people on your website and reduce bounce rates (which Google can see as a negative signal).

Good luck with it. I've just started my own a couple months ago. I'm terrible at blogging consistently - which is why I was drawn to designing things rather than writing about them! Lol.

[CreativeLeahG]

I get about 2000  visitors to my blogs every month, and I haven't updated them in a year or more, so if they're updated and niche they can gain traffic. These are my free blogger blogspot blogs. 

[MOM]

@CreativeLeahG   Cool, I will definitely check it out. I‘m not much of a blogger my self, I think my readers would get irritated because I don’t use proper grammar, lol. 

[KBMD3signs]

There are free tools like ChatGPT, Deepl and Google translate to remedy grammar issues. If you know what you want to communicate.
First write an outline. Then create the prompt to "Improve: +outline into ChatGPT".
Check if it is what you wanted to say, refine by reworking your request and regenerating.
If it is unclear due to language, use Deepl get wording alternatives. That easily shows whether it is correct. Alternatively use Google translate to translate it into the language you are more familiar with.
I am sure you figure out a process that works for you.

The point is you need to know what you want to be talking about and its correctness.

[MOM]

@KBMD3signs  I appreciate your input. I use ChatGPT for my descriptions and keywords on Zazzle. I never heard of Deepl - I‘ll check it out. Maybe I have to add it to my resources page. I use Google translate in real life a lot to talk to my neighbors who don’t speak English (and I don’t speak Spanish, lol).

[KBMD3signs]

@MOMThat's a good start. Deepl is good to seek different expressions and spellcheck. Otherwise ChatGPT keeps astounding with its versatility.

[CreativeLeahG]

I used to be a paid SEO content writer and one technique is to write 'so a 12yr old can understand it' .. ie. not too verbose. But the reasoning is that most people are not English Graduates, and a LOT of people have English as their second language. Unless you're writing about something academic for an academic audience, writing how you 'speak' is a pretty good approach BUT it depends what the nature of the post is. Are you educating them about something, solving a problem, sharing an opinion or a review etc. 

Blogging is a lot harder nowadays than it used to be due to the sheer volume of blogs. Back in the day it was much easier to be seen. 

As always go niche! 

It takes a while to build momentum but the more niche your blog, the more Google will identify it as a valuable resource for the topic at hand.

Alternatively blog via sites that already have high visibility such as Linkedin.

[SkullPilot]

I recommend Drew Eric Whitman's book Cashvertising to people in general for marketing and advertising. But great for copy-writing in blogging too.

I've read it a number of times, but I'm yet to implement it. I'm still waaaaay too 'wordy' a writer, and probably put people off with walls of text.

One point for people to think about is length of titles and headlines. It's common to lever in as many keywords as possible into a title, for search engines.

But according to Cashvertising, if your title has 3 words, 87.3% of people will read it. By the time your title is 13+ words long, you're already losing readers - 77.9% will read it.

Like you said with the 12-yr-old analogy: short words, short sentences, short paragraphs - but long copy to persuade customers to buy.

[Cherylb]

So if someone clicks your link for a t-shirt for instance, it goes to your website and then from your website, they click again to buy your product on zazzle?  Wouldn't they still see all the other products from other zazzlers before they bought?

[carolineg]

I think Zazzle should speed up their account approval, I discovered that this problem have been lingering for quite sometimes. This may put the new creator in a dilemma who wanted to contribute more to Zazzle and  at the same time worried about getting  payment. Thus, they might put on hold to do marketing and creating more income for Zazzle. 

[Bepina]

I feel discouraged. What is the point on spending endless hours on getting my tags and descriptions right which should be used for better Google search results when my store and products are invisible to Google?

If I want to promote something, paid advertising is the only way to make me more visible as the competition is huge and I cannot use direct links to Zazzle, I have to have my own website which is another expense and time consuming task.

I don't see a point to be honest, it this remains the case, to create at Zazzle anymore.

[Mistica]

I must have missed it. Why does google no longer like Zazzle?  
I wonder if the marketplace....as huge as it is...is just not getting enough visitors anymore?  I am just trying to understand what happened...besides the economy?

[Sea-Change]

I need to rethink what to do with Zazzle, given the lack of recent results, but I really like creating products and interacting with great people here. Work has been nuts, but I'll have more time in October so will do more deep thinking then. 

I have a website but haven't had time a lot of time to update it. I find Wix a pain to work with but maybe it's just me, lol, especially after working a full day. I still post to Pinterest and X fairly regularly, and I still see a lot of saves for Affiliate pins but zero dollars from it. I created videos for many of my recent products -- and several before that -- but not convinced of their ROI on Zazzle. My sales fell off a cliff here despite rising several weeks ago. I think they did help my Pinterest stats.

Summoning the whine fairy has only resulted in crickets and one sale this month, although I realize there are several economic factors at bay. Maybe I need to set out cookies and milk? 

[InkConvenient]

Honestly If I need to put this much effort into selling on zazzle I may as well sell for myself! If it takes that much effort to only take home a royalty why bother! my income has dwindled to less than 1/4 of what I was making that's with making new products that are selling, I'm not really seeing any point in continuing at this point. 

[KBMD3signs]

Currently I am working on a content site focused on the practical use of the collections I’ve created. While the results have been mixed so far, I’m continuing to refine my approach.

Since backlinks are still important for SEO, I’d like to extend an invitation for guest posts. I’m offering a spot on my site for a Friday post each week, where you can share your expertise and include a section that highlights your design solution to the topic at hand, with a do follow link. This offer is intended for a different person taking the spot each week. If you have your own website, I’d be happy to provide a reciprocal guest post for a do-follow link.

If this interests you, please get in touch so we can discuss the range of topics that would be a good fit for the site and work out the details.

For context, KBMD3sings.com currently has a PageRank of 2.6, a Page Authority of 31, and a Domain Authority of 18.

Additionally, I’ve noticed on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest that creators often band together to share and engage with each other’s content, boosting visibility through the algorithm. I’ve been particularly active on Pinterest and would love to form a group with the intent of growing together through mutual support.

[klstock]

Is Zazzle doing any marketing? Anyone seen any?

[Peter222]

Yes its horrible, so discouraging when the little red thing only shows you designs that need "optimized", or someone liked a design.  I said this before, but if WE are making less sales, They are making less money too. So I hope some billionaire gets off his yacht, and realizes his Company is going to s. Lower the prices, and change back whatever you changed. Your long term designers are leaving for other Pods, and your sales must be down.

[almdrs]

"Reduced visibility via Google".. Not only that. Even when you find one of your products through Google,  you click on it you're taken to somebody else's products or to the marketplace. It happened to me today.
It seems like a battle that's impossible to win.

[Marcia]

@almdrs That happened to me the other day when I was searching my products on google. Then I noticed it was the same for other people's products as well. I was thinking some designers were stealing my cover photos & titles to get their product appear instead of mine when customers clicked on it. I wrote to Zazzle & they said that it was a google thing/glitch, not Zazzle, and to contact google. Which I haven't yet at this point, since I have plenty of other things to do.