I need some advice from my fellow designers. I have a wedding suite built on this rose and it isn't getting as much traction as some of the other colors. I think it's because I'm not using the right words to describe the color (and I'm not going to tell you what I've been calling it because I don't want to influence you, I want your un-biased opinion.) So, what words would you use in a search if you wanted to find this color?
And the corollary question is, since this isn't a clearly defined color, if I use a bunch of different color terms in my keywords to try to cover my bases will I get flagged for tag spamming? Thanks in advance for your thoughts, and I can't wait to see how you'd describe this color because when I asked my friends, I was really surprised what they said!
Just went and read the other responses. I think there's much subjectivity based on not just our own eyesight but on our monitors, too.
It looks very pink to me - almost hot pink or fuchsia...
On my laptop, it looks much too dark for me to consider it hot pink or fuchsia or even magenta. Your friends' description of 'dark mauve' is more fitting though less pretty sounding. On my tv monitor it looks a bit brighter, I might go as far as 'dark magenta'. But I wouldn't consider it anywhere in the pink neighborhood on either. To me, it's firmly in the purple class, it's too dark to be a pink to me.
On this little chart, it's a dead-on match for 'loganberry'. But I find it unlikely that's a name anyone would search for.
If I were tagging this I would go with [burgundy mauve plum-colored rose] and work 'light purple' into another tag.
I think you're right - loganberry is almost an exact match. Unfortunately, that's probably right up there with "cassis purple" in terms of obscurity! It's interesting that mauve resonates with you because I think of it as a COMPLETELY different color. It is one of those things that's all over the map when you Google it, but this palette is what I think of for "mauve." So, when I hear "dark mauve" I think of something like the left most color in this group.
But obviously, what I think and what the general public thinks are two different things in this case! Well anyway, I guess I'm going to try a bunch of permutations of the colors folks have mentioned here in the hopes that I hit on something that resonates more closely with what people are searching for!
Thanks so much for your thoughts!
I used [plum-colored] for a couple reasons.
Including "colored" may or may not be helpful with search engines but in human-speak this way makes it clear you're referring to something the color of a plum and not actually the fruit itself. The hyphen is because I think that is the grammatically correct way to write it. I feel like we're supposed to write tags in a way people might actually phrase things, not just string 5 random words together which could be considered stuffing even if they're relevant. "burgundy mauve plum-colored rose" just seems more real/natural to me then say 'pink purple magenta plum rose'. Plus, 'plumrose' is a fruit plant that is not related to either a plum or a rose so adding a hyphen and colored between plum and rose is a just-in-case thing to make sure it doesn't get interpreted as plumrose by search. So that's why I wrote it that way, even if it doesn't really make sense.
But on to what Zazzle search makes of this which is the important thing ...
A search for [plum-colored] (with hyphen):
A search for [plum colored]: (no hyphen):
Get the same 8,783 results with or without the hyphen.
If we try it both ways but in quotes this time ...
A search for ["plum-colored"] (with hyphen and quotes):
A search for ["plum colored"] (no hyphen and quotes):
We get the same 930 results either way.
None of the results I clicked on used an actual hyphen in their tags. Or did they? ...
"tie-dye" is probably my most-used keyword. I tried to test out the hyphen thing a long time ago but there were too many variables so I just started working in all three possible versions into my tags ("tie-dye", "tie dye" and "tiedye") to be safe. The really notable thing is, on the tag list on the bottom of the product pages, in all the tags where I used the hyphenated version, the hyphen doesn't show, it's just treated as a space.
So all in all, it seems like in Zazzle's search at least, hyphens are ignored and just treated as a space. Google however, from what I have read, doesn't have a cookie-cutter approach to hyphens. It will recognize them or ignore them depending on what it thinks you actually want and how much difference the hyphen makes to the meaning of the word(s) used with it.
* Good luck though to the person who wants an actual plum design and not just the color. I tried [plum wedding invitation] and got 7,685 results. There was not a single plum-the-fruit design on the first six pages of results (I didn't keep looking after that), it was all just plum-colored stuff.
Without looking at any of the other responses, if I were a shopper looking for something in the color of your rose I would first try just 'light purple'. Next thing that naturally comes to mind would be 'plum-colored'. Honestly though, if I were looking for something in a hard-to-describe color, I'd Google up color charts to see what other people are calling the shade I am looking for and then search using those terms. And as a designer I would definitely do that. You can Google "purple colors chart" and get all kinds of ideas on how to describe your rose shade. I would not worry about getting flagged for tag spam. 100% indisputable, egregious occurrences of tag-spam have been left to stand even after being reported. Honestly trying to describe a color isn't tag spam, I can't imagine anyone flagging it as such.
Alright guys. After staring at this stupid thing for hours and hours, I've come to the conclusion that in addition to the color description in the title/key words, the color on the back of the card is a big part of the problem - it doesn't really match the flower and it makes it really hard for your brain (well, for my brain at least) to settle on which color the darned thing is! So, since almost nothing from this collection has actually sold, I decided to change the color on the back and see if that helps any. Hopefully Z will accept the changes - if not I'll just delete the originals and replace them... not much to lose!
Anyhow, here's the new color on the back. I think it helps...
