(How) are you dealing with category snap and general search terribleness?
As we all (I hope) know, the Trade Me search is... very bad.
In particular the "helpful" automatic category limiter ("snapping") and that the very short and limited title is searched by default (yes, you can quote to search the description, but general users don't know that).
It is so bad that the difference between searching for a singular, and a plural of a word can produce wildly different results (ring terminal and ring terminals are just one example).
So, how are sellers dealing with this?
I've started slowly going through every single one of my products and for each one trying to think of what search phrases the public might use if they were looking for that sort of thing, testing it, finding if it snaps to a category, and if it does, add that category, no matter how completely bonkers it is, into a pool of categories that particular product will randomly choose from when it relists, to hopefully at least be in that "snapped" search sometimes.
It's very very tedious and far from ideal based on a lot of complete guesswork, but I don't see any other way around it.
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Just started moving products to categories that they are automatically categorized into, same as yourself. Already noticed more interest in the listings. Will continue and do all of them. It's rather ridiculous as the automatic category is wrong, but what can you do...
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Callum Community Superuser
Hi James. Yep that's about all you can do. In fact that's what Trade Me advised me to do. It was worse for one of my common items as the snap to category was actually incorrect for the product! But as another seller had spammed it that's where the search landed.
Even worse you can't just check it once then assume it will be OK. Sometimes the snap to category changes. So if your sales or views suddenly stop or drop off you need to re-check it again. Especially if its a product that can end up in two similar categories. It can change as the number of items in whichever category is the biggest.
I don't yet know of a seller deliberately manipulating this "feature" so only their products show. But I suggest it would actually be possible if they wanted to go down that road.............
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Yes the thought has struck me also, sometimes the category snapped to is so ridiculously wrong and only one seller has their items in there, that I wonder if it really was a mistake or if they have actually figured out "the algorithm".
I usually find it is chinese sellers.
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We have actually removed many items from trade me, purely because we were paying listing fees and unable to find the items in search results and were getting no views at all. Unlike other platforms where even if spelling is a little off, you still manage to find things. Trade me just gives the,
"We couldn't find anything matching your search. Have another go – you could try a broader search, or double check the keywords you entered"
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