It all sounds really technical. I will still carry on with full titles and adding tags to my photos though, as I use the photos on social media and elsewhere and it helps to find them on my computer.
So we need to have it confirmed that Folksy removes all the title names and photo tags, and if so, how effective SEO really is for our listings if we are just relying on the 15 tags we are allowed per listing.
I am so worried about it all as I probably only get 1 sale a month on Folksy and as my items are small in value, it’s not enough to cover the £7.50 monthly fee. The only order I have so far this month was for £7.30 incl. postage. I have over 200 items listed - I can’t keep making and adding things every day. I have tried joining the daily listing challenge for a month, spending time on Folksy Friday grids for Instagram, adding links to my store on email signatures, including flyers with my store and social media details with every order (despite which platform I am selling on), social media promo and so on. I’ve watched all of the help videos, spent hours and hours researching SEO - even joined an 8 week online course to help with building a business. It’s disheartening.
@MinpinTowers Our images aren’t always avif, we use a service which automatically serves the optimum image type for the browser being used, which means the images could either be avif, webp or jpg (which is why some people might find the image is avif if they try to download from desktop, but jpg from their phone).
@caledoniankeepsakes As far as I’m aware, the images don’t retain any metadata added by sellers (but would need to confirm that with Doug to be absolutely certain it’s not on any of the image types). Many people don’t have a clue about SEO and wouldn’t think of putting a descriptive title on their photos or adding tags to the photo itself, so we don’t rely on sellers doing that and optimise our listings for SEO instead. For Folksy it’s important you get all those important keywords in your listing rather than on the photos.
As @Craftyali1 says, photos from Folksy often show high on a Google image search even without those tags, for example if I search ‘highland quartz ring’ or ‘Stirlingshire necklace’, @caledoniankeepsakes’s listings are the top results on image search (although I’m aware some are saying out of stock when they’re not, has your shop recently been in holiday mode?)
Hi, Kim, @kimfolksy
Just to be sure, are you saying there is no point in individually re naming your images?
I still do this, (it was encouraged at one time) but didn’t know if it was still worth it, as I know things have changed and moved on? Thanks.
@PetraBradleyPrints No metadata is saved on the images when you upload them, so there is no point individually renaming (or tagging) your images for Folksy.
Just to note, the image is assigned a URL at the point the image is uploaded, and this is taken from the listing title and your shop name. That means you should always upload your photos after writing the title. The image URLs don’t update when you edit the listing title though, so if you previously had very short arty names, and changed them to longer descriptive titles for better SEO, you may want to reupload the images to update that URL. That also means if for some reason you did want the image to have different words in the URL to what’s in the listing title, you could write that in the title box first, upload the photo, and then edit the listing title.
Oh heck!!! So as I have just been going through our shop and editing the titles of all Alan’s prints for better SEO, I’m going to have to go through them all again and reload the photos
Hi @kimfolksy when I create a new listing I always upload the photos first then title, description etc. Not sure if I have misunderstood but did you mean we should add a title first then upload photos ?? If so do I need to do anything, will my images have the titles you mentioned or does it mean I need to rename all of my photos thank you
I would think the title is added to the images after you have pressed the update button at the bottom of the page, or when you press list itsm button, then you have finalised the listing, generating an item number. Well that’s would be the logical method
Below is the bit from @kimfolksy which I didn’t know - and perhaps lots of others don’t too. As I have just gone through and edited nearly all Alan’s photo titles I need to go back through and delete and re-upload the photos so they have the fuller titles - hopefully with better keywords. Title first - photos second! At least that’s what I understand
“That means you should always upload your photos after writing the title.”
Oh blommin eck…that’s going to be a lot of wasted time then as I always upload photos first then title…I do it in the order it comes up when listing a new item. Wish we had known this before, I also have a habit of listing then going back and re editing photos. Do we really need to give every single photo (that’s 10 per each listing) a title, can we duplicate the title ? As there’s no way I could think of 10 different titles for each bear.
I might not bother it’s a big job to fit in, it’s a wonder we ever have time to maka anything
I think what Folksy is trying to explain is that all photos will have the same title as the listing title,but if you amend your title after uploading the photos then the photos will have the same title as the original listing title, unless you re upload the photos
I’m getting confused now - I didn’t know anything about giving photos titles. As far as I am understanding this it is your listing title that attaches to your photos - and shop name - not individual titles for each photo -
“ Just to note, the image is assigned a URL at the point the image is uploaded, and this is taken from the listing title and your shop name. - from Kim’s post.
You don’t need to assign a specific title to your photos and they don’t all need to be different.
If you want a keyword filled URL on your photos (which may help a little with SEO for the images) you just need to upload the photos after the standard title (which should have lots of relevant keywords in anyway to help people find your items).
Adding a different title was only mentioned because of people saying they wanted to add titles and tags to the images, which sounded as if they considered their listing titles weren’t enough and wanted something different. It’s an option for those that want it, but it’s certainly not what we expect people to do.
Also, if I search ‘woodland elf teddy bear’ on Google image search, Forrest is still the top result, even though his images don’t have the full title URL, so please don’t worry too much about it. Google is still picking up the images from the words on the listing.
@linthamdesigns The image URL is assigned when you select your photo to add and it uploads to our image service, it uploads immediately rather than when you click ‘preview’ (otherwise we can’t give the thumbnail previews where you decide the order of the photos). That also helps ensure there are no issues with uploading the photos before you preview the listing, so you don’t lose any information if the image upload fails.
xx
