Overview
TheFind is an online marketplace where e-commerce retailers can get their products listed for free. TheFind crawls the web and indexes hundreds of millions of products, allowing consumers to search for products and be sent directly to the retailer's product page for purchase.
Increase Your Chances
As a free resource, the number of vendors on TheFind is quite large. So how can you make sure that your products come up in a search?
- Submit a Product Feed
TheFind automatically crawls the web, so some products may show up even though product feeds are not submitted. Because there are so many sites to crawl, TheFind can't guarantee when they'll crawl any site. Submitting a feed ensures that your store is listed and that your products show up on TheFind. As a Modern Retail client, your product feeds are automatically submitted to TheFind daily for free.
- Rich Product Names and Descriptions
Whether you want to get found on TheFind or on the web in general, it is important to have rich product names and descriptions that fully describe your product. Include words that users would use when searching for your products.
- Use Text Vs. Images
When possible, use actual text in your content rather than images with text baked onto it. While it's easier to create a dynamic image with text on the image itself, crawlers can't detect text contained within an image.
- ALT Descriptions on Images
Whenever you upload images to your site, you should always use the ALT attributes to give a name to the image. Products can be found based on those ALT attributes.
- What About UpFront 2.0 Badge?
The UpFront 2.0 program is a free program designed to increase exposure and click-throughs. By joining the program, the retailer agrees to a certain code of ethics and to put the badge on their website. The thought is that by showing that the retailer is trustworthy, more shoppers will click on their site.
The big question is, "Does it work?"
According to TheFind's blog, in 2009 one toy merchant received a 48% boost in traffic. With that said, other retailers argue that there is little to no value in having one more badge cluttering your site. In a quick review of TheFind, it did not appear that merchants who showed up frequently were more inclined to have the badge. It seems that if you have a more unique or specific product, your chances of getting found increased. But if you are showing a product that is more generic or one that can be found by the big box retailers, your chances decreased.
While the program is free to join, Modern Retail charges a fee to add the UpFront badge to your site. Please note, Modern Retails submits our clients' product feed at no charge. To find out more about the UpFront 2.0 Badge, go to: http://www.thefind.com/whats-upfront.
In the end, TheFind is a free marketplace. Modern Retail sets up the initial information, product feed configuration, and submits your feed daily for no charge, so why not take advantage of it? Retailers should sign in and make sure that store information (including shipping, social media links, marketing message, etc.) is accurate. You can change the marketing message as often as you'd like or post special sales as well. For more on how to modify your store information, go to: https://support.modernretail.com/hc/en-us/articles/201109077-TheFind.
For more suggestions on how to improve your results, see TheFind Help.