FAQ listing online shop in the ShopFinder shopping directory
Why should I list my shop on ShopFinder?
Having operated ShopFinder since 1999 we have established a large user base, visitors that go directly to ShopFinder for any need related to online shopping in the UK. During this period we have also gained a substantial experience in search engine optimisation - SEO. The vast majority of new visitors to the ShopFinder pages are coming directly from a search engine. We dare to claim that directory sites like ShopFinder are ranked relatively higher in search engines than individual shops on popular shopping related keywords. The reason for this is complex and nobody but dedicated search engine staff (at Google, Yahoo, etc.) knows for sure. Because of this we dare to say that 90% of online shops listed on ShopFinder will find their ShopFinder link on Google higher than the link direct to their online store. We acheive this by creating an optimised page dedicated to show the information about your shop only.
Will you approve my shop?
The requirements are:
- The address (URL) of the shop's website should equal a first level domain name like www.justshop.co.uk, www.candyshop.com etc. Subdomains like bikes.store.co.uk and subdirectory addresses like www.store.co.uk/bikes may not be accepted.
- Your store's website must offer products that can be purchased online, from your site via a secure ordering and transaction process like a shopping cart system or similar. Any sites acting as intermediates and purely displaying products that are essentially purchased off another site are not accepted.
- Your store's website must have prices available in UK Sterling. Other currencies are of course allowed as long as the user can select £, GBP.
- Your site must comply with current UK legislation for online shopping.
- Products must be shipped from within the EU - the UK included of course.
Listings are validated completely at our discretion. Should we decide not to approve your site, you will of course recieve a full refund of any subscription payments.
With which keywords will my shop listing be found?
The listing will be found with all the keywords and phrases you choose to ad. This applies to searches on ShopFinder. If the listing is found on a search engine it is of course out of our control, and depends on the originality of the keyword/phrase the competition, and loads of other parameters. You are very welcome to contact us if you want our advice in optimising your listing towards external search engines. Often we can optimise your listing towards say 3-5 keywords/phrases chosen by you.
How much is a shop listing on ShopFinder?
You can choose between 4 subscription options:
£12.00 per Month
£34.00 every 3 Months
£65.00 every 6 Months
£122.00 per Year
Of course you can change your payment option or cancel further payments at any time. You will see these options after adding or updating your shop details.
How much traffic will you send to my shop?
Your listing on ShopFinder should send at least 10 targeted daily visitors to your shop. On a monthly subscription (£12) this equals a cost of just 4p per visitor
If your listing does not perform better than this, please pay attention to the contents of your shop details, keywords etc., and please do not hesitate to contact us for advice.
How long before you reveiw your listing prices again?
The above prices are here to stay for several years. Should we decide to change them we will of course inform all subscribers giving them a chance to opt out. We know that these rates are significantly lower than similar listings on credible directories edited by humans like theukhighstreet.com, shopperuk.com, etc. Also we are confident that no other directory offers the same functionality in terms of flexibility and search engine optimisation of listings than ShopFinder.
Wasn't it free to be listed on ShopFinder in the past?
Yes, from 2000 and until September 2007 online stores have enjoyed free listing in the ShopFinder UK directory. Listings were established on basis of the shop displaying a reciprocal link to ShopFinder on their pages. We wanted to enhance the promotion of the online shops on ShopFinder and needed a way to ensure more commitment from the shopowners listed. We found that a large number of the 2000+ stores listed on ShopFinder (September 2007) were not kept up to date. We believe that only you, the Shop Owner, should have control over the content of your listing.
Therefore in a move to remove idle shop listings and improve the active ones we introduced subscription payment. The last notices about this went out in the beginning of April 2008 giving all current free listings a chance to update their shop details and initiate the subscription. By May 2008 all listings on ShopFinder are either subscription based or funded via an affiliate agreement
Is there any tracking of visitors from ShopFinder to my shop?
We count each outgoing click, but currently this figure is not available to listing owners. If you don't already have visitor statistics on your site, we highly recommend implementing a tool like Google Analytics (which is free). With Google Analytics you will get very detailed measures of traffic including traffic sources. One of the planned extras that we want to offer (for subscribers) is a mini-statistics page which will show different measures of how your listing performs.
How many other retailer's selling the same products will you be listing?
It very much depends on the competition within your field. We do not have any maximum number of listings within each category in place.
How do I update the details of my shop listing?
Please click Update shop listing and follow the instructions. Lost passwords are handled from here: email my password
Will my shop be reviewed by users?
Yes, by listing your shop on Shopfinder UK, you agree that registered users can submit reviews about your store.
Latest news:
March 2008 - It is now easy to add your shop's logo to the listing. Enhance the visible impact and upload an image file with your listing. We are currently developing tools that will enable you to specify products of your choice to be shown with description, photo, price and of course a link directly to the product page on your site. Also an RSS style product feed is being considered.
