Google and Dynamic Pages in Miva

[dvduval]

I noticed a thread about how Google is doing a better job indexing dynamic pages on the latest update. I am curious if anyone has seen an increase in the number of Miva pages showing up in the index.

Historically, Google has been picking up 1 page out of several hundred in my Miva shopping cart. The only thing I've been able to do is create static pages, but it's way too much work.
What can I do to improve the chances of the pages being listed?
Will Google continue to improve it's ability to crawl dynamic pages (including Miva)?

[tylerh]

I have a site built with Miva and have had the same difficulties with the dynamic pages. I have had some success with static mirror pages but it is a lot of work and very time consuming if your pages need updating as mine often do. Anyways I have noticed that many more of my miva dynamic pages have been indexed in the latest update. I am not seeing extensive indexing yet..but definately an improvement. I hope it continues!

[dvduval]

Agreed tylerh,

For me, Google seems to now me indexing 4 pages: search, storefront , basket contents and product list.
I'm hoping that Google will start to get the actual products soon. That would be a blessing to my customer (and me).

[Marcia]

I'm working with a new person with a Miva site - only 11 pages indexed out of a large site - none of the others. Just some pages with less parameters. There's a module available to fix those pages though - and a member here has done a hack to overcome it so it's not impossible.

In its natural state, for a Miva site I work with regularly the cart pages are in a separate directory I've excluded with robots.txt (because they get one accidentally once in a while) and we just add static content pages.

<side note>
Just a FYI, from what I've been seeing, dynamic PHP pages are getting indexed much easier than others. Some ASP, too.
</side note>

[dvduval]

In its natural state, for a Miva site I work with regularly the cart pages are in a separate directory I've excluded with robots.txt (because they get one accidentally once in a while) and we just add static content pages.

Are you saying that everytime you add a new product you:
1) Create a static page for it?
2) Update your category static page to include it?

I got a product that recreates the site using static pages, but I'm afraid it's somewhat dificult to maintain a seemless presentation to the user.

If only Google would index Miva like other shopping carts, it would be so much better. If Google is trying to develop the rumored 'product search', it sounds like it would be important to index Miva pages. Surely there are hundreds of thousands of products that are being missed right now.

[dvduval]

Is there any hope for Miva?
Did I make a bad choice in selecting Miva?
If so, what's the best alternative?

[blitz]

Quick note here - you can get good search listings even if your site uses Miva as the cart. The best way to do it is build good content pages around the cart - you can optimize the index page, product pages etc - product links go into Miva - the left side nav bar you can add these new description pages.

This works with a test we did over the last 3 months or so and it worked - clients traffic has increased 10 fold and along with that sales. Does take some work, but you can do it.

Hope this gives you some hope :o)
Have a good one.
Tim

[Conard]

I am doing very well with a Miva cart and static pages. I ban all bots from /Merchant/.
There is a free script available that does one page at a time. Yes it is alot of work, but I found with the 2 automatic scripts out there that the titles, descriptions and <H> tags needed to be modified any way if you really want to rank well.
I just adjust all the tags that need it on each page as I build or update them.
I chuckle every time I read the Miva boards and someone is complaining about all the work it takes to automaticaly create a mirror site.
No one ever told me I could buy any shopping cart and hit the #1 spot for 20 keywords with the click of a button:-)
Here is a link to the free script:
[mvdevelopment.com...]

[dvduval]

blitz,

It sounds as if you are saying that you built static pages that are about your product pages and then optimized the static pages. I have also done that. The main problem with this is I would either I have to do this work for free or ask the client for a lot more money.

Maybe I'll do a small trial for a month or two. In addition, maybe Google will start to index Miva pages in the near future (psss...hey GoogleGuy...any feedback?)

[dvduval]

Thanks Conard,

I'll see what I can do with this. I'm not sure where this code goes, but I'll try to figure it out.

[Conard]

Even if Google could index a whole Miva site, the page titles and the way Merchant sets up the page code is not at all search engine friendly.
I'll stick to static pages and be able to adjust the code for each product and catagory.
Yes it does mean more money from a client and some wont go for it. For them there is always Overture and in the end they will end up spending much more money.

[dvduval]

Actually, Conard, I have good page titles on all of my Miva pages. I modified them a while a ago.

With a good page title and some good text on the page, my Miva pages are just waiting for the right spider to come along.