OSCommerce Titles and Meta tags

Can you customize meta tags and titles

[walrus]

I am confused about this (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum88/415.htm?highlight=oscommerce) post on the ECOMMERCE forum.
Im totally new to OScom and just changed all the title and tags on the html pages but havnt uploaded them yet.
Does this paragraph below only apply to the php?
Is it safe to change the tags on the html pages still?

It says - the design of the code is such that the page headers are displayed before the database is queried for content - this means that you cannot have unique titles and meta tags etc on each page - please don't say it can't be done anyway, because it can. all you need to do is do all the database queries before any output.

[lorax]

It applies to all of the PHP files.

The point is that those dynamic product pages are actually a single template page. The cart is designed to give you generic header info but not the level of control we really want for SEO work. It's the same header info regardless of what content is displayed.

The only way to fix this is to customize the cart such that you can add specific header info for each product. It can be done but it's not part of the default osC setup. Now you're talking about customizing osCommerce at a level the developers hadn't planned for. Not yet at least. ;)

[walrus]

Thanks Lorax!
This forum is great!
Cheers!

[Robino]

Look for the header tags contribution. It does exactly what you're looking for and is simple to apply.

[lorax]

>> contribution

I should have suspected there might be one available. :)

[WibbleWobble]

Linda's (webmakers) Header Tag Controller and Header Tag admin are what you want. There is also a contribution (wihout admin functionality) for category meta tags. HTH.

[walrus]

OS COM UK offers them for 25(lbs) an hour,
but say they are difficult to install if youvre already customized the store.
Yikes! Im just a webgrasshopper ,no master!

[WibbleWobble]

They're pretty much lying :)
Backup whatever existing installation you have, and follow the instructions in the header tags .zip contribution. Any SQL that has to be injected or altered should be done with phpmyadmin or another mySQL interface. Its really relatively straight forward, even for those non-techie minded.

(You can always go to them if you botch it up, and then pay)

[walrus]

Thanks Wibble Wobble!
Ill be trying that.

[Big_Balou]

If you have already modded the cart in use use a compare and replace tool to integrate the mod that way you can be sure you don't muck up anything you have already done.

[walrus]

Thanks again everyone, the rankings are actually pretty
good now so im thinking of just leaving it alone till i study up on some of these suggestions.
Merry Christmas!