Forum Moderators: buckworks
I get asked quite often to optimise ecommerce sites. The problem is that many ecommerce packages make links that are unspiderable. Some of the problems include URL parameters and session ID problems.
I've been using Interchange now for about a year. What has shocked me is how many pages I'm getting into google. I did a site recenly with 4000 products I managed to get 4020 pages into Google! All with unique contenet and titles.
So I'm throwing down the Gauntlet, soes anyone know of any other truly search engine friendly shopping cart packages?
It took a bit more work on my part, but got the job done nicely.
In the end the only querystrings in the entire site are pagename.asp[/php]?page=2
The following carts creates static html pages which link onto their dynamic pages.
searchfit
x-cart
Therefore besides having their php pages indexed, they will have static html pages indexed as well which should give them a much higher ranking in search engines.
In our case, we are still using a handwritten html site and do not dare to change yet because the search ranking for all our products are usually within the top 5 results.
Of dynamically generated pages, php is definitely the best.
Respectfully disagree. The file extension (and the server-side language used) doesn't matter to the engines, as far as I've seen.
As far as SE friendly carts, roll your own. It's not too terribly difficult if SE spider friendliness is a design goal. Just make it a priority in your plan, and stick to it. Your pages will come out better anyways for it, and you'll get cool stuff such as dynamic link titling and alt text built in from the database.
If you can't, find someone who can, and spend the money. It's a good investment to roll your own cart, IMHO.
However almost all the php carts I have seen are indexed correctly. e.g.
x-cart
squirelcart
e-commerce templates (php version)
os commerce
cubecart
digishop
If you could name some asp carts that are indexed correctly, I would be interested.
If you could name some asp carts that are indexed correctly, I would be interested.
Mine. :) And paladin's, it sounds like. But seriously, that's why I encourage everyone to roll their own. I think paladin shares the same opinion, having rolled his own.
Commercially available carts are not adequate from my experience in several areas. Most notably coupons, tiered discounts, and shipping. Granted, there are no commercially available ASP carts I've found that I particularly like. Scratch that, there are no commercially available carts in general that I've found suit my needs for my (and clients) sites.
If you're serious about your e-commerce efforts, I really do encourage you to roll your own.
But just because a piece of software may be coded without SE friendliness in mind doesn't mean that the search engines treat that particular coding language any differently. If what you say was true, why wouldn't everyone just change their .asp pages to .php and remap the mime-type in IIS? If you did that, the search engines would never know....
indexed correctly. ... os commerce
Derek, I have not found this to be true with the default installation. session ID is included in the URL? I think static HTML files may have broader compatibility with the smaller niche engines, but I don't see a ranking difference based on file extension.
Commercially available carts are not adequate
Although it might be best to roll your own, it may not be an option due to time constraints or inability to program.
Another service that has good SEO and static HTML files is shop4site.
Besides being spiderable, I would like a cart which would allow the title metatags on individual pages be changed. It is beyond my expertise to roll out my own cart.
I have spent over a year looking for the ideal cart but I am still undecided. I am seriously considering x-cart at the moment. It is one of the few carts that is more powerful than OS Commerce. I just find OS Commerce too daunting. Cubecart, which is an OS Commerce clone do not have all the features we need.
Besides the name extension, it could be that php pages are called up more rapidly from the server thus making them easier for googlebot to crawl.
File extensions have no bearing on search engine rankings.
[webmasterworld.com...]
What you're seeing is most likely a result of poor coding. But that does not mean that carts programmed in any server-side parsed language are more visible to the search engines than another server-side parsed language. In fact, the engines can't even tell what server-side parsed language you're using: the extension can be falsified!
Two ASP cart owners have just told you that their carts have been successfully spidered with good results.
Now, back on topic:
sun818 is right - time constraints may stop you from rolling your own cart. In that case, you may have to pick an available one which suits your needs. The original poster asked for a recommendation though, and mine is to roll your own (or find a good programmer who can).
in that year you spent looking for a good cart, i could have built you an ASP cart that will get every single product crawled :) . i have built my own ASP cart, and have had nothing but success with it in a niche market. there is no advantage with having PHP, or ASP, or HTML, or anything else for that matter. what it all comes down to in the end is:
- querystrings with minimal variables
- no session id's in the querystring
- good coding practices
-Matt
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The first non-sponsored listing for these terms is a page that was created by Nexternal's Search Engine Friendly Catalog feature.
[edited by: TallTroll at 1:24 pm (utc) on Oct. 13, 2003]
[edit reason] no specifics please [/edit]
first non-sponsored listing
<snip>
Well, I guess you could say it's search engine friendly alright! Static enough, I guess. Get many conversions on that one? ;-)
BTW - Judging by your previous posts, you may want to snip yourself up there. It's only a matter of time....
[edited by: TallTroll at 1:25 pm (utc) on Oct. 13, 2003]
[edit reason] repeat of specifics from previous post [/edit]
It's also easy to get rid of the URL parameters by using actionmaps which pass paramters in the path:
/parameter/parameter.html
I've managed to get every page (all dynamically generated) into Google for the latest sites I've done. I've also added some tweaks to Interchange so you easily generate unique, relevant page titles and <h1> etc. Which all helps get my sites high positions, traffic and sales!
Derek, I have not found this to be true with the default installation [of oscommerce]. session ID is included in the URL? I think static HTML files may have broader compatibility with the smaller niche engines
Just so you know who I am, I am The Web Doctor, host of The Web Doctor's Radio Show.
The shopping cart I would recommend is the Apple Pie Shopping Cart. For a web site owner the price is extremely reasonable and well worth the money.
[edited by: TallTroll at 12:28 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2003]
[edit reason] URL and sig file drop [/edit]
I want shopping cart that can create static html.
These are software. I have $ 1000.
Which one is wll?
Could you kindly tell me?
x-cart
squirelcart
e-commerce templates (php version)
os commerce
cubecart
digishop
Regards
mai
Unfortunately, there are many folks who wish to get into ecommerce and do not have the skills to build their own. They must rely on either an OTS product or a programmer. To get up and running as quickly as possible an OTS product is the safest bet. Now I'm not saying that a programmer like one of you couldn't get someone set up quicker and with a better product. I am saying that when a business person sets out to get an ecomm solution in place they face a few daunting issues: 1) there are very few ways that they can locate someone of your skill set and 2) they have even fewer ways to determine whether or not to trust you.
I've seen many business people get burned hiring a website designer/developer/programmer/guru because they didn't know the questions to ask. This is one of the primary reasons OTS packages have so much appeal - the business person can implement the darn thing themselves. It may not be the best or the fastest but it does what they want and does it for a fixed price - which translates into they know what they're getting into.
I think we do these business folks a great disservice to suggest they get involved with oscommerce or other free carts and especially a roll your own solution unless they really express a desire to learn how to program. Even then my take on it is they should sit down with an experienced programmer and look over their shoulder while they build the solution.
The underlying point I want to make is that we as ecommerce people wear different hats and we need to bare in mind which one we're wearing when we suggest solutions. I don't think anyone here has been out of line with their suggestions but I do think we need to establish a point of reference so that other folks that read this thread will be able to use it in order to make an informed decision for themselves.[soapbox=0]
So - SE friendly URLs in a cart? If you're a programmer - choose one of the pre-existing cart scripts and edit it if you have the time and the patience to wrap your head around another programmers work. IF you don't then buy an OTS solution or hook up with a programmer you can trust. Of the existing options already offered, I'm only familiar with osCommerce and X-Cart.
osCommerce is a free script that does not come ready to go with all of the bells and whistles installed. It does have a lot of power but you'll need to add the functionality you want. It does have the ability to support SE friendly URLs.
X-Cart is an OTS product that comes with the SE friendly URLs already to go. For a bit of extra $$ the company will customize the cart to your needs.
I have not never seen an asp cart that is indexed extensively or at all by Google.
I don't know about the rest of you but, I'd rather not have a bunch of static html pages sitting there in the directories if they don't have to be there.
I'm with others that have participated in this thread, roll your own or, purchase the cart that fits your needs and then modify it using a rewrite program that fits with your server technology.
I've watched these sort of topics with great interest and I see many who do the static html pages. Forgive me for being dense but, why have hundreds or thousands of dynamically generated html pages sitting there? Why not just set up a few templates and let the pages be generated on the fly per the request?
I've dealt with nothing but asp generated carts which we've developed from scratch using a core cart interface that was rolled a few years ago. I believe you could take any commercially available cart product and make it SE friendly through a URI Rewriting routine. Much less expensive and you don't have to sit on thousands of static html pages.
Why is that? I'm seeing more web host offer lots of disk space even with a basic plan. Why not use the space? Is it a maintenance issue that you are concerned with?
> duplicate content
Another thought for people generating static pages for products in multiple categories, you will want prevent one of those static pages from being indexed.
Why is that? I'm seeing more web host offer lots of disk space even with a basic plan. Why not use the space? Is it a maintenance issue that you are concerned with?
Why clutter your directory structure with hundreds or thousands of static pages? Disk space is an issue with some although that would not be my main concern. Yes, maintenance would be an issue although most of those static page generating programs make the maintenance easy.
I think I'd rather have a sub-directory with one or two templates and then have the pages generated dynamically per the request complete with SE friendly URIs.
There is no reason to have to generate static pages if you structure your content properly and provide a map for the spidering SEs.
Can we continue this conversation over here [webmasterworld.com]?
Static HTML is still faster than serving up dynamic content. There is also no dependency on the database server or scripting language that could fail. Content can be placed any web host. I also want to be thoughtful about the system resources I use since I am on a shared host.
Paul
ecommerce_man, have you looked at ShopSite.com? They have search engine friendly product pages.
