Search function - really???

[Anne]

I just did a search on calendars.
Turns out 2023 calendars are trendy on Zazzle. Speechless ...

[Windy]

That's Zazzle for ya!

[James]

Most of the Calendars are templates, so customers are drawn to the design and most likely update the cover year where available. 😊

[NigelSutherland]

This shows that our posts ARE being monitored. 👏

[Anne]

Shows you are a delightful optimist, @NigelSutherland  🙂

[Anne]

@James 
You're clearly bezazzled, James! 🙂
You are (sort of) implying that Zazzle only caters to the die-hard customers who are coming back each year to customize their same template.
In the round circles are the "trending searches". One of them is 2023.
This means that any customer who looks for a "calendar 2026" in a search engine will not be lead to Zazzle (at least that is unlikely).
And in the odd case a "newbie" finds Zazzle on this page, they would probably conclude that the company is out of business. (and immediately leave) They would maybe not think "Oh, but I can customize that".
Also, Zazzle offers the option to replace a product. If I were working as a Zazzle employee I would approach the designer, tell them they made a wildly successful design and if they could please update it to 20XX. (as used to be the Zazzle policy). And remove the 2023 from popular search results.
I hope you reconsider. Thank you.

[Saints_Aplenty]

Umm, James... Unless it's a perpetual calendar, just updating the cover wouldn't make the product usable for a new year, would it? I don't design calendars, but wouldn't the purchaser need to update each and every page? Or do layouts automatically update?   I sincerely doubt a buyer would go to the trouble.  🤭 For the record, the layout of a 2023 calendar is only reusable in 2034, 2045, 2051, 2062, 2073, 2079, 2090, 2102, 2113, and 2119.

[ColsCreations]

 I don't design calendars, but wouldn't the purchaser need to update each and every page? Or do layouts automatically update?

I have wondered that myself and it's why I have never tried to design a calendar. 

[NigelSutherland]

The base calendar layout changes each year appropriately. Your added designs stay in place.

[Saints_Aplenty]

You learn something new every day! Thanks, Nigel!

[James]

Nope, we automatically update the calendar pages to start at 1/1/2026 and will change this half way through next year (or whenever they have this set up for, i don't know that). So while the cover image might be outdated, the calendar itself will be good. 

[Saints_Aplenty]

Good to know. I stand corrected.

[Wollastonite]

The round circles are populated with the most common tags in the search results. It's the designers who are still using the outdated "2023" as a tag that are at fault for that. They need to update their tags and cover images with the correct year.

[Anne]

@Wollastonite Is that true?
That would explain why the site looks so stale, as many designs are more than 10 years old.
I always assumed these round circles where trends based on what customers are looking for.

[Wollastonite]

It relates to that. The topsellers are near the top of the search results, and so their tags are the ones that populate those circles. So indirectly, it's kinda sorta based on trends. Nobody is intentionally curating those circles though; change the sort to Newest and those circles will pull different tags. In the specific instance of calendars as a product, they're very seasonal, so the calendars that sold well in 2023 are still there as the top results, and the "2023" tag is right up there.

[ColsCreations]

Right. The circles aren't curated suggestions, they are tags commonly used by the results your initial search pulled up. Clicking one will take you to that narrower set of results and more circles reflecting tags commonly used in that narrower set of results .. rinse & repeat until there are no more circle suggestions and all results include all of the previous circle suggestion tags in them. 
I encountered a Christmas card last night that was one of the top results for christmas cards and the template year on it was 2022, and one of the pictured circle suggestions was that card and "christmas cards 2022" which was a tag that card used. That was a Diamond level seller so even they forget to go back and update their tags on a yearly basis. It's kind of a vicious circle - the tags we use effect what is suggested to shoppers as they dig deeper so can make the MP look outdated and/or influence false trends. 

[Anne]

@Wollastonite Thank you for your explanation. I see room for improvement here.

[Anne]

Thank you for your research, @ColsCreations 
That's pretty shocking.
I did a new search on calendars today and the 2023 did not come up as the first in search. Circle tags still there:

What is also beyond me is why customers looking for a calendar, get weddings as result?
Compare with Amazon landing page for calendars:

What strikes me is that Zazzle leaves the left column empty, and offers no real choices for calendars, while Amazon immediately shows a lot of different sections and choices that customers are actually looking for (note that they have not included a wedding section 🙂 )

With the new huge budget that Zazzle now has for their marketing, I am surprised they were not able to hire a competent marketing adviser that would point out that this can't be marketed. Oh, wait, we as designers are now supposed to be the marketing experts ...
I give up.

[ColsCreations]

What is also beyond me is why customers looking for a calendar, get weddings as result?

Just typing [calendars] into the search box as you did I get the same four category squares above the circles. 
https://www.zazzle.com/s/calendars

My assumption was that "weddings" would be actual calendars that are wedding theme, or wedding related items with 'calendar' in tags/title, like probably save-the-dates. But while the first page of results does include some save-the-dates w/ 'calendar' in the tags/title, it is mostly wedding MENUS with nothing in the meta tying them to 'calendar'.
https://www.zazzle.com/s/calendars?dp=252473910063999984&q=calendars
 I can only guess this is one of those odd cases where search treats two different words as meaning the same thing? We've discovered a few of these before, the only one I can remember now was orchard/grove. I don't know why it would think calendar = menu but from the results here it clearly does. 

The other odd thing is that if you instead click the square for 'craft & party supplies' most of the top results are the same wedding menus.
https://www.zazzle.com/s/calendars?dp=252729036875402633&q=calendars
How can they be in two different categories at once?

[Anne]

Thank you so much, @ColsCreations for bringing up these points.
I felt so bad after being ridiculed and gaslighted by @James (at least that's how it came across to me), despite Nigel's effort to lighten the mood.
So you make me feel better, thank you!
Regardless, I still think it would be good to hear from James and notably to know that a professional web designer has been put on the landing pages of crucial products. (we've only been scratching the surface so far). You can have all these fancy tools once the customer starts to edit, but you first have to get them there.

[welshdesigns]

What are we supposed to do?  Put 20XX in places that require a "new product" be made for updates, and put 2026 in places where the metadata can be edited without a new saving a new product and losing it's popularity, like the title, and tags?  

[Wollastonite]

I'd say put 2026 in the title, front and center, but there probably isn't a reason to also put the year in the description or tags (use your best judgment). Then make a custom cover image showing the calendar with the correct year in place of the 20XX. You'll be able to see at a glance when your title and cover images need to be updated (schedule a day in July to do this), and you won't have to pick through the description and tags to update all mentions of the year.

[James]

Thanks for sharing your observations and behavior of the search, everyone. I have passed this to our search team for review. We have always urged Creators to use 20xx etc when it comes to Calendars so they remain evergreen, especially when they become popular and live on through the years, but this is definitely food for thought. Thanks again!

[Anne]

Thank you, @James 

[Anne]

So now the search goes automatically to "cute calendars" and this is the result:

[Barbara]

During the first couple years I was here, I used the actual year, but after having to change each calendar for a couple years and after we were advised to use 20xx, I changed all pertinent calendars to that and haven't had to fiddle with them since. Designers would be better off doing this all at once and being done with it. However, I personally know one designer who has a bestselling calendar (for her) with the original date, which makes me think some customers know they can change it themselves. How they know this is a mystery.

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[Anne]