Search Engine Optimization Contributions

[Guest]

There are many theories about search engine optimization. The algo used by search engines is a closely guarded secret and nobody knows exactly what it is except the engineers that constructed it...if it were public it would be way to easy to manipulate. Hence, there are only theories and nothing is known for fact. Even though the algo used is a mystery there are solid techniques that will ensure your site obtains top search positioning and stays there no matter if Google, Yahoo, or MSN change their mind on criteria.

 

#1 - CONTENT, STRUCTURE, VALIDATION - CONTENT IS KING

A product that has a description simply as "I'm good for you. Buy me." will not be terribly popular with customers OR the search engines. Everybody loves content that is unique and adds value to the browsing experience. The more content you give the customers and spiders the more value it will be given. The customers will feel confident to purchase from such an authority site and the search engines will feel confident to send web searchers to you.

 

Another area that you should pay attention is document structure. A clearly defined document structure makes the page flow better in terms of data organization and consistent tone. You should read up on using the HTML Header tags and how to format them with CSS. A good thing to keep in mind is that H tags should be used but not over-used.

 

The final step is to validate the HTML code according to W3C recommendations and standards. It is becoming increasingly more important to have cross browser compatible HTML code and may present an extra edge in search engine result placement. Notice I said may have an extra edge...it is a debated topic now but I feel that aside from possible SERP enhancement it's generally a good idea to ensure cross browser operation. Check your server logs and see what browsers your audience is visiting your site with. I'm willing to bet that there are a few you'll recognize but a few that you won't. Having W3C validated code ensures that each views your page the same.

 

#2 - META CONTENT - TITLE SAYS IT ALL

The most important meta tag for a page is the TITLE. This is what web searchers will see first and is used almost universally. Have you ever seen an osCommerce store that sells widgets having every page indexed come out as "osCommerce"? This adds no value (and may actually subtract) to their index entry. No matter if the web searcher asks for blue widgets or red widgets they will always see the "osCommerce" title and will most likely visit the search result that says "Blue Widgets on Sale" for the title. They have no idea what osCommerce is but do know it is not a Blue Widget.

 

An excellent contribution that remedies this is Linda McGrath's Header Tag Controller. It will give each page on your store a unique and keyword rich title...which is essential for not only page identification but also first presentation to the potential customer. What sets this contribution separately from others that do the same is the pinpoint accuracy that it affords on a per page basis. The main benefit is also the main drawback...you have to enter the meta information for each product and category by hand. If your store has a significant number of products or categories this can be a very time consuming task but well worth it due to the incredible amount of control (and tweaking) available. This contribution is best used on stores with a small number of prods/cats.

 

If you have a lot of cats/prods and want a more dynamic solution you should consider Chris LaRocque cDynamic Meta Tags. This contribution accomplishes the same as Linda's but does so completely dynamic...thereby saving countless hours entering data. This is under heavy development by Chris and in the future will no doubt become the preferred rapid deployment contribution for page meta information...especially for large stores. Currently, it dynamically creates the page meta data and has a tremendous amount of flexibility. You can use site name, product name, description, model number, and a few other columns to generate the metas. This added flexibility is great for novice coders since you can change on the fly what is used and presented...some like product name and description whereas others will like product model. IMO, with further development and refinement this should be released in it's next milestone as Ultimate Meta Tags.

 

#3 - URLs - 10% MORE FOR FREE

It is hypothesized that having keywords in the URL give the search engine resuly placement an extra 10% advantage. That is purely speculation but reflects the generally accepted notion that having keywords in the URL (domain or file) are that important.

 

There are several flavors of implementing SEO URLs and which one you choose is simple preference.

 

A popular choice is Daniel Kerr's Search Engine Friendly URL contribution. The benefit is that it presents the catalog in a directory structured manner and mimicks a natural organization. Each URL is characterized by a keyword rich path like "domain.com/CategoryName/ProductName". This contribution is currently still under heavy development but will surely rise to be one of the top SEO URL choices.

 

Another choice is a contribution that I coded called Ultimate SEO URLs. There are a few marked differences with Daniel's contribution such as using a static file instead of directory structure. The URLs are formed like "domain.com/category-name-c-1.html" or "domain.com/product-name-p-1.html". This has no directory structure but is very close in proximity to the domain root which may help boost the relevancy (hypothesized). Another benefit is that this is currently the only contribution to address the needs of mature stores transitioning from old style parameters to the new SEO URLs. There is a beta release automatic redirect script that will send the proper 301 (moved permanently) headers to signal to the search engine that the old style URL should be replaed by the new SEO URL. After a few months of use all the old URLs should be replaced with the new SEO URLs and not lose any page seniority or rank.

 

#4 - ALL_PRODUCTS AND SITEMAP - BOTTOMS UP

It should be your goal to satisfy customers...and equally satisfy search engine spiders. Don't wait on them to crawl your site from the top down (start with homepage and find links deeper). Give them a spider buffet -> all_products and sitemap pages.

 

This gives them a handly list of important URLs and will guide them to those parts of the store. I won't go into it much more but here is a thread for further reading: Sitemap or All Products?, Which is better?.

 

#5 - BACKLINKS - HELP SPIDERS FIND YOUR STORE

Each link a spider finds back to your site will help drive that spider deeper. It is imperative to get the spiders to crawl your site to the greatest depth possible (and preferably completely). Some will view backlinks as a means of accumulating Google PageRank but remember that is a metric used by a single search engine. Other engines use similar technology but may give it other names like page seniority. The most desireable of all backlinks is one from a themed page or one whos content is the same as your website. In the world of eCommece it may be a bit difficuly to get competitors to link to you (and lose customers) so a good alternative is directory submissions. There are countless free submissoin directories and many more paid inclusion directories. It is a very time consuming task to perform a directory submission linking campaign but each one will be a valuable one-way and themed backlink. Here is a thread for more reading and links to great resources: How to increase your spider traffic, Maximize the depth of spider crawls. Visit that thread and bookmark the links...they are great resources and will serve you well. Be sure to send an email to Dan and thank him for the Free Directory List .

 

Hopefully this thread helps consolidate a lot of information that's been floating around...enjoy!

 

Bobby

 

BTW, here's the real story behind Google Page Rank technology. :)

[ukgoods]

Bobby,

 

I installed your Ultimate SEO URL contribution when you first brought it out. At that time, my Google Page Rank was a miserable 2. Most of my products were not even in the top 100.

 

I checked today and I now have a Page Rank of 6 and most of my products are in the 10 on Google.

 

I can't thank you enough!!!!!!

 

You are the man and I am implementing your suggestions as fast as I can. I am also removing many of my Pay Per Click keywords as I don't need them anymore :):)

 

I will be making a contribution to you via Paypal today.

 

Thanks again,

 

Donna Gordon

UKGoods.com

[Guest]

Donna,

 

Thank you for your kind words! I sincerely appreciate the extremely positive feedback especially after such a time consuming development of the Ultimate SEO URLs contribution. I labored long and hard making the contribution easy to install, robust in performance, and capable in advertised functionality.

 

It should be noted that all the benefits you are enjoying now are due to your own hard work. The time invested in reading the material and installing the contributions is insignificant compared to what you did in addition to those mentioned. The credit belongs entirely to yourself!

 

Now that you have the ball rolling and customers browsing the store remember that the work is not done...to the contrary...it has just begun. The labor of reaching the top is only 25% of the battle. The other 75% is staying there!

 

Bobby

[Jack_mcs]

   

The main benefit is also the main drawback...you have to enter the meta information for each product and category by hand.  If your store has a significant number of products or categories this can be a very time consuming task but well worth it due to the incredible amount of control (and tweaking) available.  This contribution is best used on stores with a small number of prods/cats.

An excellent article Bobby. Just one small correction. Header Tags has an install script that will pre-fill all of the meta tags. I also just released an update to allow the editing of all of the tags from admin, making the whole process much easier and quicker.

 

Jack

[Guest]

Mucho gratitude for the heads up! I haven't seen the script but could you briefly explain how it pre-populates the columns? I assume it queries for the product/cat name and inserts accordingly but maybe you came up with a nice algo :)

 

Bobby

[Jack_mcs]

I didn't come up with. It has been around a while but somehow got deleted in one of the upgrades. It was just recently added back in. It just reads in the names for the products and categories tables and uses those, nothing fancy but better than empty tags.

 

Jack

[clarocque]

I didn't come up with. It has been around a while but somehow got deleted in one of the upgrades. It was just recently added back in. It just reads in the names for the products and categories tables and uses those, nothing fancy but better than empty tags.

 

Jack

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Jack - I am not knocking on that contribution - but to be honest... that was why I dev'd the cDYnamic Contr. - I found the my clients were always copying there titles... so I tried to make a dynamic one that would keep it relevent to the page content.

 

So for so good - SE listings are good and sales are up for all - vant say this was the cause - you know how that goes...lol

 

Chris

[aspiringarts]

Jack - I am not knocking on that contribution - but to be honest... that was why I dev'd the cDYnamic Contr. - I found the my clients were always copying there titles... so I tried to make a dynamic one that would keep it relevent to the page content.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Also, as far as I can tell, you need a Windoze box to install the Meta Tags Controller. Chris, thanks for letting me know about yours - I'll be adding it soon.

 

Susan

[Jack_mcs]

Also, as far as I can tell, you need a Windoze box to install the Meta Tags Controller. Chris, thanks for letting me know about yours - I'll be adding it soon.

 

Susan

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What made you think Windows is required? As for the catagory titles, if HTC is installed and set up correctly, it reads in the categories. Having them generated dynamically is nice but it is not the usually the best way to achieve the best SEO results. I guess it depends on if you want ease of use or results.

 

Jack

[Guest]

...

I guess it depends on if you want ease of use or results.

 

Jack

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sometimes ease of use on large inventory stores provides the best results :)

 

Bobby

[♥toyicebear]

My 2 cents....

 

 

If you do use the header tags contribution, and make every single products keywords and meta description manualy according to that single product optimal seo principles..yes thats the way to go.....

 

If seo is a new word for you, if you are not sure, if you do not want to go into a detailed key word analysis for every single product in your shop.....

 

Do choose a dynamic meta tags contrib..like clarocques c-dynamic meta tags.

 

:rolleyes:

[happycow]

Hi,

 

I found Bobby's posting very good. Thanks for sharing here. :thumbsup:

 

I am trying to install SEO urls. It works on cName(rewrite doesnt work), but with osCsid. I want to get rid of osCsid in urls, except for login, creat account. Any ideas? Any help will be appreciated!!

 

www.leigifts.com

 

 

Lei

[NGR]

Hi,

 

I found Bobby's posting very good. Thanks for  sharing here.  :thumbsup:

 

I am trying to install SEO urls.  It works on cName(rewrite doesnt work), but with osCsid. I want to get rid of osCsid in urls, except for login, creat account. Any ideas? Any help will be appreciated!! 

 

www.leigifts.com

Lei

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi

 

I installed the SID killer, its under the contributions section. Follow the instructions and then at the last step, just added the code. Worked for me.

 

www . ngrcomputers . za . net

 

Thing is, dont think yours is working right. If you click category it comes up with cname??? Surely it should display the category name? Dunno, maybe im wrong. Have a looksee at how mine works :)

 

Hope it helps...

[DavidR]

Perhaps I am just too bleary eyed to figure it out, but where is the sid going with these SEO contributions? I tried cName and pName earlier this evening and while it worked as advertized, the osCid seems to be assigned with first product click, but then disappears for the remainder of the session. From this link http://www.apexdog.com/index.php it seems to work the same way with the SEO URL contrib. This site is going up cold so I would like to get the links right before they are indexed. Can someone explain the story with sid's and these contributons? Is it being passed behind the scenes?

 

Also, a) should there be any problems with multiple store lanquages using either of these and, b)does the compression zlib setting in the cName-pName files override the one in the Admin > Configuration, or should they both be on?

 

I've looked over these files and maybe tomorrow it will stand out at me but I'm just exhausted right now. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

David

[Guest]

The osCsid in the first URL click is normal. Thereafter the osCsid is pulled from cookie on enabled browsers or will remain if the configure settings are incorrect or disabled cookies by the customer. So, your store is setup and performing correctly.

 

The languages are handled automatically and there should be no other modifications.

 

BTW, you should consider using the rewrite mode instead of cName/pName as it offers more SEO benefit.

 

Bobby

[DavidR]

Thank you very much! I knew I was too tired to think :)

 

David

[DavidR]

Argh! I was in the middle of editing that last post and it took away my permission to edit. I've enjoyed reading your material and posts on SEO and site speed - very helpful. Now I have a question you should be interested in: why is there a compression setting both in the admin configuration (i.e. database) and in the gzip_output() function in gzip_compression.php? They seem to be for the same thing. Does one override the other?

 

David

[Wendy James]

Chemo, do you write for any mailing lists? I belong to one about SEO and optimising sites and so on and I swear they cover everything you do about the same time I see a post about the topic from you in here.

 

Either way, excelent information.. and thank you for sharing your knowledge with everyone. It's much apreciated. =)

[Guest]

...

Now I have a question you should be interested in:  why is there a compression setting both in the admin configuration (i.e. database) and in the gzip_output() function in gzip_compression.php?  They seem to be for the same thing.  Does one override the other?

 

David

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They are there for PHP backward compatibility. Either it's a newer version of PHP and the server can negotiate whether the browser accepts compressed data transfer or it's not and has to be done with the manual code. Most are fairly new PHP installs and will only need the ob_end_flush() call to initiate compressed data transfer.

Chemo, do you write for any mailing lists? I belong to one about SEO and optimising sites and so on and I swear they cover everything you do about the same time I see a post about the topic from you in here.

 

Either way, excelent information.. and thank you for sharing your knowledge with everyone. It's much apreciated. =)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thank you for your kind words! I don't write for any mailing lists although I do have some articles ready to be published for seochat.com (Dev Shed).

 

Bobby

[scratt]

Please can anybody help me with a mod conflict on OS Commerce...

 

I have an attributes mod which has changed the html wrapper code in html_output.php in admin/includes/functions. THIS IS THE ONLY CONFLICT.

 

Basically it replaces the one html wrapper function with two modules for a reason I cannot fathom.

 

Ultimate SEO then replaces what was originally one module with it's own really small neat module and a library...

 

I do not have the php knowledge to integrate these two different modules, but with cursory overview I know it's only passing parameters in and out of those routines that need to be tidied up...

 

I need to keep the attribues function in OSCommerce, so would desperately like someone to help me with integrating the two...

 

Thanks,

scratt

[Cowzor]

Another choice is a contribution that I coded called Ultimate SEO URLs.  There are a few marked differences with Daniel's contribution such as using a static file instead of directory structure.  The URLs are formed like "domain.com/category-name-c-1.html" or "domain.com/product-name-p-1.html".  This has no directory structure but is very close in proximity to the domain root which may help boost the relevancy (hypothesized).  Another benefit is that this is currently the only contribution to address the needs of mature stores transitioning from old style parameters to the new SEO URLs.  There is a beta release automatic redirect script that will send the proper 301 (moved permanently) headers to signal to the search engine that the old style URL should be replaed by the new SEO URL.  After a few months of use all the old URLs should be replaced with the new SEO URLs and not lose any page seniority or rank.

 

 

Sorry to be a noob, but does that mean I can install your Ultimate SEO URLs contrib on an existing shop?

 

I opened the docs and it says "INSTALLATION - Clean install on sterile osCommerce MS-2.2" but perhaps I've just mis-read the paragraph above. I'm not going to have enough time to re-do the whole site until christmas so here's hoping :thumbsup:

[♥toyicebear]

Sorry to be a noob, but does that mean I can install your Ultimate SEO URLs contrib on an existing shop?

 

I opened the docs and it says "INSTALLATION - Clean install on sterile osCommerce MS-2.2" but perhaps I've just mis-read the paragraph above. I'm not going to have enough time to re-do the whole site until christmas so here's hoping  :thumbsup:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

The original author of this contrib is no longer on the forum, but to answear your question....

 

Yes, you can install ultimate seo urls on an exsisting shop.

[Jack_mcs]

I opened the docs and it says "INSTALLATION - Clean install on sterile osCommerce MS-2.2" but perhaps I've just mis-read the paragraph above. I'm not going to have enough time to re-do the whole site until christmas so here's hoping  :thumbsup:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Many contributions have two ways to install them: copy the files into a new shop or update files in an existing shop. Since your shop has been modified, you may not be able to use the copy method. Be sure to backup before you start since it may break your shop if your try that method.

 

Jack

[Cowzor]

Excellent, thanks guys/gals

[c_scott666]

I have just installed the SEO contrib. I have had some issues with it including the following error message in the admin section.

 

SEO URLs

1146 - Table 'osCommerce.cache' doesn't exist

 

DELETE FROM cache WHERE cache_name LIKE '%seo_urls%'

 

The table doesn't exist and I can find no reference to the structure of the table so I am unable to manually make a blank table.

 

Also when trying to access the product info for any item in FireFox I get a strange error message:

 

Redirection limit for this URL exceeded. Unable to load the requested page. This may be cause by cookies that are blocked.

 

Cookies are turned on in the browser. In IE the issue is even worse and the error is a simple DNS failure.

 

Getting frustrated and I don't have enough hair left to lose...... Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

Scott