Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
Hi
In one of my sideboxes (top left) I want to change it so the title is a H2 tag not an H3.
Since every ZC template I can find puts the text in the top left sidebar before any of the other text areas on the page.. this is a very important spot for SEO. It is one of the first places Google looks for keywords. I would like to further emhasise that area by changing the default h3 tag (sidebar title) to an H2
So.. how can i "hack" ZC so i can manually put in a title there with my choice of Tag (h2)
Still its not ideal because then the H2 tag shows before the H1 tag in the main content..but anyway.
What I am trying to do, by means of changing this and doing some other hacks - to show certain keyword rich text sideboxes on relavent pages. Turning them off and on for different pages.
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
You don't need to hack up your site's code to improve your page ranking. Many Zen Cart sites rank at or near the top for their niches with standard code and great content. The best thing you can do is to write good relevant content in the category/product descriptions and other main content areas. Google in particular is trying very hard to find and promote good content above anything else, to make their users more satisfied with their search results.
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gjh42
You don't need to hack up your site's code to improve your page ranking. Many Zen Cart sites rank at or near the top for their niches with standard code and great content. The best thing you can do is to write good relevant content in the category/product descriptions and other main content areas. Google in particular is trying very hard to find and promote good content above anything else, to make their users more satisfied with their search results.
Thanks - yes but my shop is selling flowers for delivery.
Nobody searches for "12 red rose bouquet send in singapore"
They search for "flowers singapore" etc
So .. seo for the products and categories isnt really useful to me.
I want to prioritise the EZ pages as I have a lot of quality SEO text in there targeting keywords.
Also I want to H2 a text box (blank sidebox mod) that shows on index page only.. because that is where my primary keywords i am targetting for my site as a whole will go... in a text box at upper left.
And for ever EZ page i will have a different text box showing in the top left. I think this will help my SEO no end... Google now rates content "above the fold"
Thanks
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
Quote:
Originally Posted by
creamcrackers
Thanks - yes but my shop is selling flowers for delivery.
Nobody searches for "12 red rose bouquet send in singapore"
They search for "flowers singapore" etc
So .. seo for the products and categories isnt really useful to me.
I want to prioritise the EZ pages as I have a lot of quality SEO text in there targeting keywords.
Also I want to H2 a text box (blank sidebox mod) that shows on index page only.. because that is where my primary keywords i am targetting for my site as a whole will go... in a text box at upper left.
And for ever EZ page i will have a different text box showing in the top left. I think this will help my SEO no end... Google now rates content "above the fold"
Thanks
Ideally i would also remove all the <h3> tags on the other sideboxes too and replace them with <p> Its not necessary to have so many <h3> on a page... its better to have <h...> tags with your keywords in them.. not things like <h3>Categories</h3> or <h3>Information</h3> Has no SEO benefit at all and most likely takes importance away from other <h... tags on your page that do have the keywords in them
Google does like lots of quality content.. but shop owners shouldnt need to be writing articles. Bloggers write articles, Jouros write articles why should shop owners write articles? You are right.. but seems a bit crazy to me. I have put a wordpress blog on my site in a subfolder and ive used magpie rss to grab the feed from it and post snippets of its content onto the front page of my shop. New content, updated recently.. but actually i seem to have a DROP is SEO as a result of this. I think my blog pages are seeping Google juice and relavence away from my shop.
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
We have many clients getting to page one of Google on both generic and specific keyphrases. All using UN-ALTERED zencart installs.
One client gets EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT in the top 3 on Google - and for some products gets Google #1, #2 and #3 .
As Glenn Herbert says, there is no need to hack away at the core code. Proper descriptive content - and particularly product names which populate the title tag and the H1 tag on product info pages - is really all you should be focusing on.
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
I know but im a bit of a weird person and like to do things a bit differently :bigups:
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
Quote:
So .. seo for the products and categories isnt really useful to me.
I want to prioritise the EZ pages as I have a lot of quality SEO text in there targeting keywords.
In that case, yes, write good content for the ez-pages ("other main content areas").
I doubt it will make any difference to Google, but if you really want to change the top left sidebox heading to an <h2>, edit /includes/templates/your_template/common/tpl_box_default_left.php. Change
PHP Code:
<h3 class="leftBoxHeading" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id) . 'Heading'; ?>"><?php echo $title; ?></h3>
to
PHP Code:
<?php $heading_tag = ($box_id == 'your_top_left_box')? 'h2': 'h3'; ?>
<<?php echo $heading_tag ?> class="leftBoxHeading" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id) . 'Heading'; ?>"><?php echo $title; ?></<?php echo $heading_tag ?>>
Change your_top_left_box to whatever the id of that box is for you.
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
Great thanks for your help!
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gjh42
In that case, yes, write good content for the ez-pages ("other main content areas").
I doubt it will make any difference to Google, but if you really want to change the top left sidebox heading to an <h2>, edit /includes/templates/your_template/common/tpl_box_default_left.php. Change
PHP Code:
<h3 class="leftBoxHeading" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id) . 'Heading'; ?>"><?php echo $title; ?></h3>
to
PHP Code:
<?php $heading_tag = ($box_id == 'your_top_left_box')? 'h2': 'h3'; ?>
<<?php echo $heading_tag ?> class="leftBoxHeading" id="<?php echo str_replace('_', '-', $box_id) . 'Heading'; ?>"><?php echo $title; ?></<?php echo $heading_tag ?>>
Change
your_top_left_box to whatever the id of that box is for you.
Thanks.. how can i change all sideboxes titles to <p> except for the top left one!
Cheers
Re: Change one sidebox's title to <h2> not <h3>
Make only that change for now, and let us know after a reasonable time if it made any difference in your search engine results. I'm betting it won't have any significant effect.
Change 'h3' to 'p' in the code above. You would have to do the same for tpl_box_default_right.php.
Note that this actually makes your markup LESS meaningful and relevant, as those box headings are really headings, not paragraphs.
