Riddle me this!

[Guest]

I have the normal all products page contribution installed to help with SEO. I've noticed that it seams to work to well for me at the moment. It is coming up in search engine results higher than the actual product searched for product info page at the moment. So what I have is lots of potential customers clicking a link in search engine results and entering my site by the all products page. Unfortunately most look at the page and then leave the site. I think the page overwhelms them.

 

Has anybody come up with a solution to this? My thoughts are to add a link that says ?if you arrived on this page from a search engine click here to use the search? to direct them to search the site.

 

I am also thinking that maybe the all products page has been indexed but not all of my product listings have. So maybe in time once its all indexed the product listing (product info page) will come higher up the search engine results than the all products page. What do you think?

[Guest]

In addition to the fact that the page can be overwhelming, if you have a large site, the page takes ages to load. This bores custoemrs and canes your bandwidth. Little suggestion - you have a browser detect script on osc - try using it. i.e. write a little php with an if (browser=googlebot | yahoobot|msnbot){show page} else{ dont } tiny little bit of code, can save you a lot of missed customers, retain your seo operation and save your bandwidth. Just an idea.

[Guest]

That would be the solution! Thanks.

 

Only problem with that though is if a customer follows a link on my site to the all products page then the browser script would then redirect them again. Unless the code includes a history or referal function.

 

Would it be possible to base the redirect on there referal value?

[Guest]

i would advise against feeding bots and individuals different data. rumor has it google likes to use a real useragent string occasionally to check random pages to see if you're serving bots different content

 

i've never actually caught google on my own sites doing this, so i can't say whether or not it's true, but it is a solid fact that they expect you to offer bots and people the same page.. else you can expect penalties once they figure out what you're doing.

 

if your sitemap is so huge you should paginate it.. which i probably will inevitably have to do as well. i don't think it would serve much difference in terms of rank, as i've read many places that google only follows up to 100 or so links on a single page. again i have no evidence to back that up :)

 

better to be safe than sorry though.

[Guest]

Have you looked into "paginateing" the all products page. Is it done in a way that it would be fairly simple to split the results into different pages.

 

It would be a good adon for this contribution it it was split into either pages of a 100 links or alphabetically, e.g. page (A-G), page (H-P) and page (Q-Z)

 

Do other people who use this have the same problem with customers entering the all products page through search engine results and then leaving?

[Guest]

i haven't tried to paginate it yet, but i probably should on my site.. it's quite large.

 

i too have people constantly hitting it and never clicking anywhere else.. i suppose maybe it's size and load time scares them off.

 

unless somebody else beats me to it, i will eventually figure it out and add it to the contribution section :) no telling when i'll get the time to mess with it though.

[Guest]

Nice one eww I'll keep an eye out for it.

 

I'll have a look into the page and see if I can work out how to split the results. If I cant I'll just add a link at the top to advanced search page.

 

I just though of a problem with spliting the results. You would have to split the results after reading from the database wouldnt you? WHich would mean long load times.

[Jack_mcs]

Have you looked into "paginateing" the all products page. Is it done in a way that it would be fairly simple to split the results into different pages.

 

It would be a good adon for this contribution it it was split into either pages of a 100 links or alphabetically, e.g. page (A-G), page (H-P) and page (Q-Z)

 

Do other people who use this have the same problem with customers entering the all products page through search engine results and then leaving?

See the All Products wiht Images contribution. It is set up to be SE friendly.

 

Jack

[Guest]

Thanks Jack but I looked at that and I think it has the same problem.

 

I've added a sentence and a link to search at the top for now.

 

http://www.shacktools.com/all_products.php

 

I'll keep an eye out and see if visitors use it works or improves things.

[Jack_mcs]

By the same problem, do you mean the long list of links? If so, then you must have looked at the wrong version. The latest version breaks the links into pages so there are only 20 /page (depends on admin setting).

 

Jack

[Guest]

Thanks sorting it now.

[Guest]

Sorry jack your totally right its exactly what I needed. Cheers!

 

I think i must have been looking at something else. :-O

 

Ive been reading around about SEO, and doing a redirect so customers see somthing different from what is show to bots as suggested above could be a bit dangerous. If a search engine noticed you could get banned. BMW where banned for doing something like that.

 

Anyway my all products problems are over now. Lets hope my conversion rate increases too.

Edited May 5, 2006 by Caios

[warrenerjm]

See the All Products wiht Images contribution. It is set up to be SE friendly.

 

Jack

Hi Jack

 

I have just installed the All Products contribution, but I think this one you suggested would be better. My problem is I don't understand how to do this part...:blush:

 

1) Run the Required SQL statement using the file allprods.sql

 

I have searched everywhere to give a plain english tutorial about doing database queries but haven't had any luck. It is all too complicated & talks about setting up a database or installing, not what boxes I have to check & where to add the query. This is the same reason I am stalling on your Header tags contribution too.

 

Do I have to do the above through my control panel or is it a file I upload? I know this is obvious to everyone else but I don't even have a starting block. Any help would be very gratefully recieved.

 

Thanks.

 

Julie

Edited May 5, 2006 by warrenerjm

[Guest]

Juile you need to us phpmyadmin. You should find it under mysql databases in your hosting control pannel.

 

Once you have phpmyadmin open select the correct database from the drop down menu on the left.

 

Then select import at the top of the page on the right. You can then browse to the sql file and hit go. The sql file will then create the new tables in the database.

 

If your host doesnt have phpmyadmin installed you can get a database manager contribution which will allow you to do it.

[Guest]

Sorted somethings worked! Google has now already managed to get to 113 pages indexed so hopefully it has now broken past hanging at 100 pages.

[warrenerjm]

Juile you need to us phpmyadmin. You should find it under mysql databases in your hosting control pannel.

 

Once you have phpmyadmin open select the correct database from the drop down menu on the left.

 

Then select import at the top of the page on the right. You can then browse to the sql file and hit go. The sql file will then create the new tables in the database.

 

If your host doesnt have phpmyadmin installed you can get a database manager contribution which will allow you to do it.

Hi Cai

 

Through my control panel I can access my databases but I can't see a phpmyadmin. Do I need to ask my host to enable something?

 

Thanks

Julie

[Guest]

Is your host control pannel called C Pannel? The link to phpmyadmin is at the very bottom of the page and it pretty small.

 

Either phone your hosting provider and ask them or install the data base admin contribution as that will allow you to do the same thing.

 

I though I should add a link to the better all products now installed on my site:

 

http://www.shacktools.com/allprods.php

 

Remmeber to turn this on in admin after installing it. It got me!

[warrenerjm]

Is your host control pannel called C Pannel? The link to phpmyadmin is at the very bottom of the page and it pretty small.

 

Either phone your hosting provider and ask them or install the data base admin contribution as that will allow you to do the same thing.

 

I though I should add a link to the better all products now installed on my site:

 

http://www.shacktools.com/allprods.php

 

Remmeber to turn this on in admin after installing it. It got me!

Thank you for helping me Cai.

 

Firstly your new all products page looks great. Once I get my database sorted I am looking forward to mine looking as impressive.

 

I have had another look at my hosting account. They call it control panel, & MyPanel when I have accessed it. I have asked them to install phpmyadmin. Fingers crossed. If they can't or don't, can I use this contribution to do the same thing?

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...data+base+admin

 

I'll let you know what my host says.

 

Thanks

Julie

[warrenerjm]

OK. Had a look at this site, which gave a screenshot of phpmyadmin, which basically looks just about the same as what I see when I access my control panel & go to the OSC database.

 

screenshot

 

Now the instructions says

 

1) Run the required SQL statement using the file allprods.sql

 

but I don't know how to. :blush:

 

This is the allprods.sql

 

insert into configuration (configuration_id, configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, last_modified, date_added, use_function, set_function) values ('880', 'All Products Image Width', 'ALLPROD_IMAGE_WIDTH', '100', 'The pixel width of heading images', '4', '5', '2003-07-31 19:35:01', '2003-07-24 17:45:15', NULL, NULL);
insert into configuration (configuration_id, configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, last_modified, date_added, use_function, set_function) values ('881', 'All Products Image Height', 'ALLPROD_IMAGE_HEIGHT', '80', 'The pixel height of heading images', '4', '6', '2003-07-31 19:34:01', '2003-07-24 17:45:15', NULL, NULL);
INSERT INTO configuration_group (configuration_group_id, configuration_group_title, configuration_group_description, sort_order, visible) VALUES ('29', 'All Products', 'All Product Options', '29', '1');

INSERT INTO configuration (configuration_id, configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, set_function, date_added, use_function) VALUES ('','All Products: ON/OFF', 'ALL_PRODUCTS', 'false', 'All Products <br>(true=on false=off)', '29', '1', 'tep_cfg_select_option(array(\'true\', \'false\'), ', now(), NULL);
INSERT INTO configuration (configuration_id, configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, set_function, date_added, use_function) VALUES ('','All Products: filename', 'ALL_PRODUCTS_FILENAME', 'allprods.php', 'All Products filename Default=allprods.php', '29', '2', '', now(), NULL);
INSERT INTO configuration (configuration_id, configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, set_function, date_added, use_function) VALUES ('','All Products: Display Mode', 'ALL_PRODUCTS_DISPLAY_MODE', 'true', 'Display in standard table format <br>(true=on false=off)', '29', '3', 'tep_cfg_select_option(array(\'true\', \'false\'), ', now(), NULL);

UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '1' WHERE configuration_title = 'Heading Image Width';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '2' WHERE configuration_title = 'Heading Image Height';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '3' WHERE configuration_title = 'Subcategory Image Width';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '4' WHERE configuration_title = 'Subcategory Image Height';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '5' WHERE configuration_title = 'Small Image Width';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '6' WHERE configuration_title = 'Small Image Height';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '7' WHERE configuration_title = 'Medium Image Width';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '8' WHERE configuration_title = 'Medium Image Height';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '9' WHERE configuration_title = 'Large Image Width';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '10' WHERE configuration_title = 'Large Image Height';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '11' WHERE configuration_title = 'All Products Image Width';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '12' WHERE configuration_title = 'All Products Image Height';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '13' WHERE configuration_title = 'Calculate Image Size';
UPDATE configuration SET sort_order = '14' WHERE configuration_title = 'Image Required';

 

I figure I use the SQL tab but do I need to be in a particular part & is the above in parts or one whole piece?

 

I'm sorry for getting back to basics, but I really am clueless at the moment. I hope the light comes on soon!

 

Thanks

Julie

[Guest]

is there an actual support topic for all products with images? (i searched, found a bunch of irrelevant threads)

 

a few problems i noticed:

- things are paginated (if you have more than X amount of products for a specific letter). what happens if you sell enough items and no longer stock them; so you're reverted to 1 page. the bots will still be looking for page 2, page 3, etc. = is there any way to give a 404 for obsolete pages that should no longer exist? the bots will still hit page 2, page 3 and be reverted to the first page of that letter, which would hit you with a duplicate content penalty, no?

 

- most people are lazy and don't want to click and get a "there are no products for this category" if they click on Z or something that doesn't have enough products. is there any way to hide these letters (if there's no products to show)?

 

i would love to use this as it looks like a huge step up from the full allproducts contribution that i currently use (listing thousands of products on one page) .. but because i go in and out of stock so frequently, these types of problems could pose an seo nightmare

[Jack_mcs]

OK. Had a look at this site, which gave a screenshot of phpmyadmin, which basically looks just about the same as what I see when I access my control panel & go to the OSC database.

 

screenshot

 

Now the instructions says

but I don't know how to. :blush:

 

 

I figure I use the SQL tab but do I need to be in a particular part & is the above in parts or one whole piece?

 

I'm sorry for getting back to basics, but I really am clueless at the moment. I hope the light comes on soon!

 

Thanks

Julie

Try this thread. It helps most people see how phpmyadmin works easier.

 

Jack

[Jack_mcs]

The support thread is here.The out of stock problem is addressed in that thread. I will be uploading a new version at some point with that, as well as other changes, but no idea when.

 

Jack