Online Stores

Turn On Store Tracking#

Store tracking turns on when your site type is Online Store. TDC Signal sets it during setup when it detects a store. You can change it in the Site type field under Brand & Competitors in Settings, then Tracking.

With the Online Store site type, you get:

• A Products screen in the app sidebar.
• An Add Products step in setup and a Products section in Tracking settings.
• A Product Issue alert type and a Products CSV export.
• A Product Page fix draft kind, once you have products.

Also turn on ChatGPT Searches and Shopping in Tracking settings. It collects the products ChatGPT shows, and product tracking needs it. TDC Signal turns it on by default for stores.

Add Your Products#

Add the products you most want AI engines to recommend. You can track up to 100 products per workspace. There are two ways to add them, and you can use both.

Add Product Links#

1. 1

   Open Products

   During setup, use the Add Products step. After setup, open Settings, then Tracking, and scroll to Products.

2. 2

   Paste your links

   On Add Product Links, paste up to 20 product page links from your website, one per line.

3. 3

   Add them

   Select Add Product. Each product shows Reading Page, then Page Read with its name, price, stock and rating.

Links must point to your website or another domain of your brand. TDC Signal reads the product details your page publishes for search engines (Product structured data and product meta tags). When a page has none, it reads the details from the visible page text.

Upload a CSV#

On Upload CSV, select Download Template to see the format, then select Choose CSV File. Each row is one product and needs a name or url column. Other columns are optional:

Common header names from other tools also work, such as title, link, sale_price or barcode. TDC Signal skips rows with a problem, lists them by row number and imports the rest. Uploading a product again updates it, so you can upload a new version of the same file.

Keep Products Current#

TDC Signal rereads each product page in the day before each scheduled check. To read a page now, select Refresh on a product, or Refresh All.

Page reads update the price, stock and rating. They only fill in names, brands, categories and codes that are empty, so values you set stay. To change how a product is matched, select Edit and set its Name and Other Names.

Products from a CSV without a link on your website keep the values you uploaded. Price checks use them for 48 hours after the upload. Upload the file again, or add product links, to keep checking them.

To stop tracking a product, select Remove.

When a Page Read Fails#

The product shows Read Failed with a message. The most common causes:

• The page returned an error. Check that the link opens the product page.
• Your site blocked the read. Allow TDCSignalBot on your site. See TDCSignalBot.
• The page shows no price or stock. Add them to the page, or to your CSV.

Questions for Your Products#

In setup, Choose Questions starts with For Your Products: 2 buyer questions for each of your first 10 products. TDC Signal writes them once their pages are read. They ask what a shopper types before they know your product, such as "best shower chair for a small bathroom". One question per product is selected, up to half your plan's question limit. Select or unselect any of them.

Each of these questions targets its product. To set a target on any question later, open Questions, edit the question, and pick a Target Product. Product Appearances on the Products screen then shows how often your targeted products appear in answers to their questions.

How Products Are Matched#

For shopping cards, TDC Signal checks product links, brand names and product names against your products. Ambiguous cards stay unmatched. A full product name or other name in answer text also matches your product. Names shorter than 4 characters don't match from answer text.

Unmatched shopping cards appear as Other Product Cards.

Product pages you add also become tracked pages, so answers that cite them count toward your sources and page audits.

The Products Screen#

Products shows these cards for the selected date range, engine and location:

• Your Products: how many products you track and the status of their page reads. Select Manage Products to open Tracking settings.
• Product Appearances: your products in answers and shopping cards, with counts, engines and price differences. When questions target products, you also see the share of checked answers that show them.
• Other Product Cards: unmatched shopping cards, including tracked competitors when identified.
• Observed Category Share: your product mentions among answers linked to each product category.
• Product Page Citations: answers that link to your tracked product pages. A product mention alone does not count as a citation.
• Price & Stock Issues: recent shopping cards that differ from your product details. Select View Answer to read one.

Price and Stock Issues#

TDC Signal checks cards linking to your site against product details confirmed in the 48 hours before the answer:

Price comparisons require both currencies. Text-only mentions do not trigger product issue alerts. Cards from other merchants appear in product tracking without a price or stock comparison.

To hear about new issues, add a Product Issue rule on the Alerts screen.

Get More Products Into Answers#

If AI engines don't recommend your products yet, add category questions, such as "best waterproof boots under $200". Answers to category questions name more products. You can also draft a Product Page fix for a product. See Improving Visibility.