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Making OSC Google perfect?


SkinEFX

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Posted

I read alot of posts about google having problems and getting good placement with OSC, but can't find any answers.

 

What do I need to do to make it rock on google?

 

What files do I put my meta tags in?

 

any help would be great, thanks

Posted

depending on what version of OSC you are using you should use Linda's Meta and Header Tags contribution. That will make life much easier for you.

 

now dont come back screaming when the Google bot spiders your web into oblivion - read the other posts about that one.... L :wink:

Posted

Forget Meta Tags. Outdated and useless, and google certainly takes zero notice of them. Whatever anyone says about Meta Tags, they are now outdated - part of my day job is Search Engine Optimisation and submittal - over the past 3.5 years I've spent countless hours optimising pages - and I stopped using Meta tags over 2 years ago. You'll get lots of people tell you otherwise, but I can say for certain (being as I'm involved in that particular industry) that they are useless.

 

Of course if the client wants them he can have them...

 

Anyway, install the "allprods" contribution and a SID killer. The SID killer contribution of Ians is fatally flawed, I'd advise against using that.

 

Until that one is fixed, use a temporary solution in includes/functions/html_output.php - look in the tips and tricks forum for a thread entitled "new spider", from which you should be able to make the changes as required.

 

hth

Posted

now all they have to do is upload that SID killer as a contribution... there are snippets of the code around, but I havent seen the complete code for it. I too tried using Ian's but no joy there......

 

meta tags may be dead, but people still like to have them... and the way engines change their algorithms every other day, it never hurts to have the old 'standards' available

Posted

Burt,

Can you point me to the SID killer you use?

Posted

go to the Tips and Tricks forum - they posted the full code for a version that works!! its the New Spider thread.

Posted

I'm using Ian's sid killer and have no problems. What I would like to know, is what is the problems with the contrib. I'm not using SSL at this time.

Steve

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Posted

the problems seem to be with SSL - there are various threads on it and no one seems to be able to get it working properly - the output_html.php method seems to be the easiest solution for now....

Posted
the problems seem to be with SSL - there are various threads on it and no one seems to be able to get it working properly - the output_html.php method seems to be the easiest solution for now....

 

Yea, I've read that too, but for now my install seems to be working just fine. I'm not going to have SSL at least for a while. Just going to use PayPal for now. For the amount I'm going to sell, I'm not going to need or can afford a merchant account. By the time I do, maybe they will have this sorted out.

Steve

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Posted

Some time ago I put up a thread on how to get google to take you site and process it the "best way". Of course everyone said I was wrong. Everyone said that "google would be pissed".

 

Amazingly enough, when you populate Froogle they ask you to provide them with what I basically provided google with.

 

go look up my old post. It details the following:

 

1) how to doorway to allprods.php

2) how to doorway so that google thinks allprods.php is /default.php

3) why this is a good thing to do.

 

I'll go over #3 one last time quickly here.

 

Google wants to be the most accurate search engine there is. Your site with OSC is a pain for google to process and leads to an inaccurate mapping of your database (which is what google wants, an accurate mapping of your database). A doorway to allprods will generate a product listing map that google will follow to your product details page. It therfore gives google exactly what they want to put in their databases for their consumers and does it spending the lowest possible ammount of time at your site.

 

Does it work? Yes. PM me if you want me to send you a search term to enter into google to access my clients site.

 

Remember, if you want google to show your site when someone does a generic search, best to get adwords. What you really want google to do is list your site when someone does a search for a product you carry.

 

Consider how over 80% of the people shop on the net.

 

1) enter generic product terms "math education workbook"

2) go to a few sites and actually find the product that you want by description

3) return to google and enter the exact product name of the product you want so you can run comparisons by price.

 

One of the key things the Internet does is change every purchase into a commodity. When it takes 5 minutes to find the "lowest price" for any product, then price comparison becomes a key component of every purchase.

 

Example:

Initial search: "swatch watch"

first major return: http://www.squiggly.com/

watch: Swatch James Bond SFB116

second search: "Swatch James Bond" SFB116

returns:

http://www.shop4brand.com/store/swatch.html $59

http://www.galleryone.cc/galleryone-sandie...atwatjambo.html $70

http://www.watchmywatches.com/frame.php?on...watch_007_2.htm $56

http://www.webjeweller.com/login/searchRes...p?prodID=SFB116 $74.80

 

Now, that is how people "shop" on the net. That ought to be how YOU check out your competitors so you can beat them on the sale. Yes, customer support is a must if you want to retain a relationship with the customer after an initial sale. But, to get the first sale you have to be indexed by your product into the search engine (google doesn't need to see your FAQ or shipping policy, no one really cares about that in a search).

 

My last long post on this topic was before Froogle, and I said then, and I stand by it now, Google wants you to give them your sites data in the best way for them to present to the customer exactly what the customer wants. They don't want you to use a doorway to stuff the engine, but have no problem with you doing what makes their job easier, or their customer base happier.

 

Well, I think I have beaten this horse to death. :-)

Posted
2) how to doorway so that google thinks allprods.php is /default.php

 

This is termed "cloaking", which google categorically states is looked at unfavourably.

 

If anyone reports you for serving up different content to a "normal" user as opposed to googlebotm then you will be penalised. Your site will drop PR, or be removed from google entirely. And we all know what that means.

 

I have checked with googleguy, and using a SIDkiller is not termed as "cloaking", and I was in fact thanked for removing the SID.

 

People, play it safe when it comes to Google - don't take a chance on annoying them.

 

/End of public service announcement.

Posted

That was what we were told before by people that all "know" what Google's "policy" is. If I was being malicious you are right, they would punish me. As it is, you are wrong.

 

Now considering I charge people for setting up OSC, and considering that I provide support (if they choose to pay for it) you could take two avenues. One, I'm a flake and don't care about my clients and want to be sued when Google drops them for doing a doorway. Or two, I actually spent time on the phone with Google explaining what was being done and walked them through both doorways before installing this on a clients site.

 

Let's see, I'm a former CTO who's now running my own company and the main product (SiteControl ) is totally unrelated to OSC, I have four patents, I have written a book on CGI programming for Prentice Hall. Yep, must be a flake.

 

I'm sure there are other opinions you may have, but as I pointed out, all I'm doing is passing Google a stream that in no major way differs from the stream they get at froogle (and is in fact smaller), I am reducing their bots time on site, and their clients/consumers actually get the data that they want (my site indexed) without data that they don't want. These are all obviously very bad things and should be avoided at all costs.

 

So, Burt, don't do it. Others may wish to do so.

 

YMMV.

Posted
Let's see, I'm a former CTO who's now running my own company and the main product (SiteControl ) is totally unrelated to OSC, I have four patents, I have written a book on CGI programming for Prentice Hall. Yep, must be a flake.
Wow, I'm real impressed.

 

I'm sure there are other opinions you may have, but as I pointed out, all I'm doing is passing Google a stream that in no major way differs from the stream they get at froogle (and is in fact smaller), I am reducing their bots time on site, and their clients/consumers actually get the data that they want (my site indexed) without data that they don't want. These are all obviously very bad things and should be avoided at all costs.

 

You are serving up different content to googlebot than to normal users, yes ? If so you are "cloaking" and this is a bad thing.

 

I can't understand why you'd want to give bad advice to people who maybe don't understand the importance that Google has on todays e-commerce.

Posted

Be sure to install the SID killer contribution.

 

Use the Headers controller contribution for meta info on every page.

 

Check out http://www.SearchEngineWorld.com there are some excellent tips on there that work wonderfully. For example, update your keywords weekly with that week's most requested keywords.

 

The User Tracking contribution already stores the most requested keywords. If you're using both, it may be worth thinking about hacking together a query that would get the 10 most requested keywords and inserting them into meta keywords automatically...

 

- Greg

Posted

thats a great idea! another late i can see.....

  • 7 months later...
Posted

Ok I'm new to this and pretty confused. In the readme file for allprod it states:

 

1. Add this to catalog/includes/filenames.php:

 

//BEGIN allprods modification

define('FILENAME_ALLPRODS', 'allprods.php');

//END allprods modification

 

I cannot find the filenames.php under catalog/includes/

 

could it be in a different location in my version?

 

Also item 4 states:

 

4. Add this hidden link to where ever you like it i placed it in the catalog/includes/Header.php but you can also place it in footer or whereecer you want too :-)

 

What link is being referred to?

 

 

As I said I'm new to this so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Confused worm farmer looking for assistance.

Posted

The contents of filenames.php used to be in includes/application_top.php

 

Hth,

Matt

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