Magic SEO URL vs Ultimate SEO URL vs SEO_G

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Originally Posted by yellow1912

How about me doing some SHAMELESS self advertising

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I think that doing shameless self-advertising of this nature is scandalous. :shocking: So let me do it for you ...

I've used Magic SEO URLs for a client, tried unsuccessful to use Ultimate SEO URL for another and have tested Simple SEO, though have yet to use it in anger. But if asked by a client which I would recommend, I'd say Simple SEO.

Ultimate SEO URLs is well-constructed but was released as a Beta and the author hasn't been supporting it or moving it to a stable release for quite some time.

Magic SEO URLs has a nice installation, and good installation support, but if it just doesn't quite do what you were expecting or think it should, you may find yourself on your own, and it's closed source, so it's take it or leave it.

Simple SEO is well structured code that doesn't interfere with core code (only one file over-written), does what it says on the can (at least on the Linux boxes that are all we use), is under active development and is so open that the author allows you to peer into his repository, so that you can get the very latest fixes. I'm looking forward to having a live project upon which I give it a run out.

OK...so a few fans of Simple SEO - i will check it out. As i've never had problems with Ultimate SEO - are their actually benefits of switching to Simple SEO?

Does Simple SEO take into account the problems of duplicate content that Ultimate SEO has?

Also, does anyone know if these actually improve their search rankings?

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by fergusmacdonald

Also, does anyone know if these actually improve their search rankings?

Thanks.

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That to me.. is probably the most important question..

Is there any quantified data that suggests that any of these packages actually contribute to better rankings..

(Forgive the links, these are definately not meant to be self promotion, merely an example.

I have a number of products that have organically made it to page 1 on Google

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...cr%3DcountryAU

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...cr%3DcountryAU

Admitted, there aren't that many pages, but page 1 is still very impressive.

Yet other products are buried down in page "who gives hoot".
Yes these products are more popular so they will obviously be harder to rank higher, but even this one,
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=sa...&start=40&sa=N

Yes, who goes to Page 5 ??? no one.. but its still position 46 out of 35,700

So again the question, do any of these SEO mods actually produce higher page listings ?

As a side bar to this, I have PHP Version 5.2.4 with MySQL 5.0.45.

I understand some of these SEO mods have issues with PHP5, is that no longer the case, or is it still a case of patch this, add that and re-write the other to get any of them to work ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fergusmacdonald

Also, does anyone know if these actually improve their search rankings?

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There isn't any way to know. There are too many variables in the ranking equation. If the only thing you change is your url structure, there are still many other variables affecting your ranking that are changing too. If your ranking goes up or down, yuo can't say for certain what caused it.

I do think these help but that's my gut feeling, not a fact based arguement.

This is just one of many things that can contribute to better ranking. ZC pages without SEO ranks pretty well and actually does a better job of passing links to other pages because of the way the pages are constructed.

We use SEO url mod for other reasons as well like making the urls user friendly. When people see keywords in the url on search result page (it gives them a good idea what they are going to find on that page). ZC also generates duplicate urls (a product can have multiple url depending on how you get to it) which is not good from an seo perspective.

It might be better to take a look at http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52 where a lot of discussions already exists with regards to SEO.

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Originally Posted by jeking

There isn't any way to know. There are too many variables in the ranking equation. If the only thing you change is your url structure, there are still many other variables affecting your ranking that are changing too. If your ranking goes up or down, yuo can't say for certain what caused it.

I do think these help but that's my gut feeling, not a fact based arguement.

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Yes, I understand that SEO is just one piece of a Jigsaw that makes up the big picture, and its the big picture that Google sees.


Thanks,
Mike

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Originally Posted by BlessIsaacola

This is just one of many things that can contribute to better ranking. ZC pages without SEO ranks pretty well and actually does a better job of passing links to other pages because of the way the pages are constructed.

We use SEO url mod for other reasons as well like making the urls user friendly. When people see keywords in the url on search result page (it gives them a good idea what they are going to find on that page). ZC also generates duplicate urls (a product can have multiple url depending on how you get to it) which is not good from an seo perspective.

It might be better to take a look at http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52 where a lot of discussions already exists with regards to SEO.

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I've read through a few of the threads and the one thing that everyone agrees on, is that no one can agree what works and what doesn't..!! :wacko: I shall read on.

What I still can't find is the answer as to whether any of the SEO Mods will work on PHP5 with MySQL 5.0.45, as that may put the brakes on my investigations..

All should work just fine.

If I may interject here;

I have been using simple seo for a few months now on my site and have recently achieved a PR of 3. Some people may argue that PR or pagerank doesn't have much to do with search results, but "oh contrair mon frair":P! PageRank along with other factors is VERY important, because PageRank tells googles spiders whether or not your site is even worth looking at (anytime in the next century or so). You achieve higher PR by getting other sites with good PR that have similar or relevant content to link to your site (while at the same time avoiding link farms like the plague).

Simple SEO creates urls that are much more user friendly and are actually more search engine friendly as well. They work much faster with GoogleBase and Yahoo Submit, and if your site is fairly new, duplicate url's won't be a big problem. They will simply, fade away. For older sites, it may take longer, but duplicate urls, when changing from a dynamic system to a more static looking, or natural looking system is an unavoidable nuisance, but one that will eventually fade away as well.

Now, with all that said, the MOST important thing is, CONTENT, CONTENT, AND MORE RELEVENT CONTENT! A very hard task to master for retail/wholesale sites that carry general merchandise, but should be a snap for specialty stores.

Here is a link to a page at Google that will help to explain SEO much better than I ever could.

Handy Dandy Link to Google

I hope I've been able to help at least one person. If so, then I feel good.:clap:

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Originally Posted by wtashby

If I may interject here;

I have been using simple seo for a few months now on my site and have recently achieved a PR of 3. Some people may argue that PR or pagerank doesn't have much to do with search results, but "oh contrair mon frair":P! PageRank along with other factors is VERY important, because PageRank tells googles spiders whether or not your site is even worth looking at (anytime in the next century or so). You achieve higher PR by getting other sites with good PR that have similar or relevant content to link to your site (while at the same time avoiding link farms like the plague).

Simple SEO creates urls that are much more user friendly and are actually more search engine friendly as well. They work much faster with GoogleBase and Yahoo Submit, and if your site is fairly new, duplicate url's won't be a big problem. They will simply, fade away. For older sites, it may take longer, but duplicate urls, when changing from a dynamic system to a more static looking, or natural looking system is an unavoidable nuisance, but one that will eventually fade away as well.

Now, with all that said, the MOST important thing is, CONTENT, CONTENT, AND MORE RELEVENT CONTENT! A very hard task to master for retail/wholesale sites that carry general merchandise, but should be a snap for specialty stores.

Here is a link to a page at Google that will help to explain SEO much better than I ever could.

Handy Dandy Link to Google

I hope I've been able to help at least one person. If so, then I feel good.:clap:

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Thanks for the link, quite informative.

I can't seem to find a current download link for Simple SEO, anyone have one ?


Thanks,
Mike

https://svn.rubikintegration.com/zen...ipped_modules/

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Originally Posted by wtashby

If I may interject here;

I have been using simple seo for a few months now on my site and have recently achieved a PR of 3. Some people may argue that PR or pagerank doesn't have much to do with search results, but "oh contrair mon frair":P! PageRank along with other factors is VERY important, because PageRank tells googles spiders whether or not your site is even worth looking at (anytime in the next century or so). You achieve higher PR by getting other sites with good PR that have similar or relevant content to link to your site (while at the same time avoiding link farms like the plague).

Simple SEO creates urls that are much more user friendly and are actually more search engine friendly as well. They work much faster with GoogleBase and Yahoo Submit, and if your site is fairly new, duplicate url's won't be a big problem. They will simply, fade away. For older sites, it may take longer, but duplicate urls, when changing from a dynamic system to a more static looking, or natural looking system is an unavoidable nuisance, but one that will eventually fade away as well.

Now, with all that said, the MOST important thing is, CONTENT, CONTENT, AND MORE RELEVENT CONTENT! A very hard task to master for retail/wholesale sites that carry general merchandise, but should be a snap for specialty stores.

Here is a link to a page at Google that will help to explain SEO much better than I ever could.

Handy Dandy Link to Google

I hope I've been able to help at least one person. If so, then I feel good.:clap:

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All sound advice - thanks for that.

Indeed - no one really knows how to get the top spot on any search engine, except the search engines! I guess what is important in this thread is whether these mods benefit or hurt your site's ranking when compared to the standard ZC link structure. As ranking is not only controlled by how the urls look (e.g. your site may be more popular because it has nicer looking urls, thus creating more people linking to your site), then user-friendlyness, ability to see what page you're on and what it's parents are, etc, is also important.

Go to http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...198#post553198
for another outlook on MSU from a customer's perspective.

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Originally Posted by yellow1912

https://svn.rubikintegration.com/zen...ipped_modules/

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Thanks :wink:

...and outlook from vendor perspective http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=203 :-)

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Originally Posted by iRAY

...and outlook from vendor perspective http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=203 :-)

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Frankly, I think that the admins should ban you since you are only here to promote your own paid-for product and you have never offered anything other than shameful self-promotion of your paid-for mod!!!! Never once have you offered any kind of support or REAL free advice to benefit zen cart users! You should look at other examples of professional support that is offered here, you really could learn more than a thing or two.

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Originally Posted by lankeeyankee

Frankly, I think that the admins should ban you since you are only here to promote your own paid-for product and you have never offered anything other than shameful self-promotion of your paid-for mod!!!! Never once have you offered any kind of support or REAL free advice to benefit zen cart users! You should look at other examples of professional support that is offered here, you really could learn more than a thing or two.

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And, just to clarify this a little more, just have a look at IRay's profile and see his posts. Out of the 45 posts he's made to this forum, most, if not all, are to promote his own paid-for mod! Think I'm wrong or just a pissed-off customer? Just look at his posts, it says it all.

lankeeyankee, please do not turn your posts into personal attacks. Forum Rules do not allow it and it just makes "you" look bad. This doesn't mean you cannot state your personal experience with someone's Product or Service, but that is quite different from posting Personal attacks.

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Originally Posted by lankeeyankee

Frankly, I think that the admins should ban you since you are only here to promote your own paid-for product and you have never offered anything other than shameful self-promotion of your paid-for mod!!!!

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I am only defending MSU. My post are very rare since I am very busy.
Btw this topic also includes MSU and I think I was posting here only facts, not any promotion bull ########.

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Originally Posted by Website Rob

lankeeyankee, please do not turn your posts into personal attacks. Forum Rules do not allow it and it just makes "you" look bad. This doesn't mean you cannot state your personal experience with someone's Product or Service, but that is quite different from posting Personal attacks.

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You are, of course, absolutely correct Rob. Sorry to all for losing my cool. :blush:

You can see this is obviously a bit of a touchy point and I really do appreciate the objective viewpoint. There is more to this story, but I will not sully this great place with the timeline of dirty details... Thanks for keeping me in line with the purpose of why we are all here, Rob! :hug:

*rant has been released to the universe*

Thanks...

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Originally Posted by fergusmacdonald

All sound advice - thanks for that.

Indeed - no one really knows how to get the top spot on any search engine, except the search engines! I guess what is important in this thread is whether these mods benefit or hurt your site's ranking when compared to the standard ZC link structure. As ranking is not only controlled by how the urls look (e.g. your site may be more popular because it has nicer looking urls, thus creating more people linking to your site), then user-friendlyness, ability to see what page you're on and what it's parents are, etc, is also important.

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SEO friendly url's do help. At least it seems that way if you look at competitive key words. Top listed sites have them. Do a search for wedding favors and have a look at the top few. Google marks the found key word in the url bold. Why? Guess what, it matters to them so it has to matters to me...

If I may interject once again:

Zen Cart is the worlds Greatest FREE open source shopping cart software available. Support is FREE, ABUNDANT, FAST, and KNOWLEDGEABLE (scuse the all caps there).

That being said, why do people insist on purchasing third party programs, mods, and software without checking with the REAL experts here first?

The age old addage "Buyer Beware" seems to be obviously appropriate for this thread.

There is no "magic" (hint hint) formula for achieving top key word or page rankings. It's an ongoing battle that is being fought daily by some of the most ruthless, unethical, dishonest jackasses, spammers, and cheaters on the planet, and us little guys, mom and pops, and privateers, unfortanately, will NEVER, EVER win!

But, we can try. Follow the rules and guidlines set forth by Google (the mac daddy), check, and double check your site for errors, good content, proper meta and key word placement, try to get some good quality RELEVANT back links to your site (try a relevant high quality blog or two, but google how to do that first).

Install and use the GoogleBase and Yahoo Submit mods, and Definately install and use the Google XML Sitemap mod. If you really want to try a GOOD seo url mod that does NO damage to core files, and actually does seem to help a little, again, as before, I reccomend Simple SEO. Nothing "magic" about it, it just works nicely out of the box. And, it is FREE. The support is FREE.

With Gas prices getting as high as they are, it's nice to get something for FREE, isn't it?:hug:

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Originally Posted by mydanilo

SEO friendly url's do help. At least it seems that way if you look at competitive key words. Top listed sites have them. Do a search for wedding favors and have a look at the top few. Google marks the found key word in the url bold. Why? Guess what, it matters to them so it has to matters to me...

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Thank you, Mydanilo! I look every day at how people reach my site using the user tracking mod, and many times I see the search keywords in bold in the actual URL of my competitors that are above and below me. I have always thought that the URL content had an effect. But, to defend the standard ZC install, I am constantly amazed (knock on wood!!:smile:) by how well my standard ZC links appear in Google. My site has been live since right after XMas '07, so just over 4 moths, and I am indexed every day by Google and we appear if not #1 at least on the first page for so many keywords that I am totally amazed and totally in LOVE with ZC just the way it is in terms of SEO. I think the absolute most important thing is to have great keyword density in your meta title, meta description, and page content. My own personal experience, after having paid for a certain SEO mod, is that the default ZC structure works and you need to focus on the above point of meta data and content and then Google will love you. I make a point of having keywords repeated no more than 4 times in my meta content. Please feel free to check out my site and do searches for items related to it, I know there are certain categories of items that are very competitive compared to others, but you will get my point. I couldn't be happier after so short of a time, after all there are many many site that have been around longer than 4 months BUT I AM BEATING MANY OF THEM ON MANY KEYWORD SEARCHES, and my sales are going up and up and up.....

I think the bottom line is, ZC out of the box will get you in the hunt as long as you add teh extra ingredient of great and relevant content. You might be able to tweak a little better SE listing(not Ranking) by improving the URL string but after using a paid for SEO mod, please see my other posts, to start my site(with very dismal results but that might just be the way it worked out), I can't fault the stock ZC system from a SE point of view since I am frankly Kicking a$$.:D My sales are growing so well, and my PR and #1 or 1st page listings are so good, I should knock on wood.:D:D AND, most importantly, the donations to the devs of ZC will keep flowing and I hope that EVERYONE that is on this forum will donate at LEAST a few $$ a month to keep it rolling along. ZC and this forum community are SO awesome, you will not find a stronger community elsewhere.:smile:

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Originally Posted by wtashby

If I may interject once again:

Zen Cart is the worlds Greatest FREE open source shopping cart software available. Support is FREE, ABUNDANT, FAST, and KNOWLEDGEABLE (scuse the all caps there).

That being said, why do people insist on purchasing third party programs, mods, and software without checking with the REAL experts here first?

The age old addage "Buyer Beware" seems to be obviously appropriate for this thread.

There is no "magic" (hint hint) formula for achieving top key word or page rankings. It's an ongoing battle that is being fought daily by some of the most ruthless, unethical, dishonest jackasses, spammers, and cheaters on the planet, and us little guys, mom and pops, and privateers, unfortanately, will NEVER, EVER win!

But, we can try. Follow the rules and guidlines set forth by Google (the mac daddy), check, and double check your site for errors, good content, proper meta and key word placement, try to get some good quality RELEVANT back links to your site (try a relevant high quality blog or two, but google how to do that first).

Install and use the GoogleBase and Yahoo Submit mods, and Definately install and use the Google XML Sitemap mod. If you really want to try a GOOD seo url mod that does NO damage to core files, and actually does seem to help a little, again, as before, I reccomend Simple SEO. Nothing "magic" about it, it just works nicely out of the box. And, it is FREE. The support is FREE.

With Gas prices getting as high as they are, it's nice to get something for FREE, isn't it?:hug:

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YES YES and YES to everything you have to say!!!:hug:

You are speaking the honest truth and there is no "magic" in what you have to say.:D

I did a search for snare drums on google. A key phrase that is searched
408 times daily with 2670000 competitors. Search for bass drum, about the same thing....

I can't see you on the first few pages? Look at the first page listings and look at what you find in the url's? You find url's like www.xxxxxx.org/percussion/bassdrum.html

Can you tell me what key word you are happy with? Does the listing in google point to a category or product page?

Now if you try to compete for key phrases that are searched thousands of times a day, you will see the need for every bit help you can get.

Don't get me wrong, I am quiet pleased with the rankings I am getting with my standard installs as well, especially in more specialized fields where key words are not so hard fought over. The sites in my signature do not use any SEO url mods and I am pleased with results. Indexing is no problem.

And by the way, the main page is never an issue anyway. This is where you have your main key words placed and no url mod makes a difference here. It may only affect, help the sub categories and products pages.

I feel the key word rich url is ONE small factor in the SEO puzzle that is worth pursuing if you need every little bit of help you can get. It's like tuning a car to the max.

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Originally Posted by capnhairdo

One issue I discovered is that products that have incorrect categorizations, e.g. associated with disabled/deleted categories or with an invalid "master" category, seem to throw a 404 with MSEO installed. The pages still come up fine, but if you look at the header, you'd see 404 instead of 200. Of course, these miscategorized products should be fixed anyway (I think it's not cool Zen even allows this to happen); but be vigilant in checking your links sitewide with MSEO installed to make sure you don't have any of these erroneous 404s popping up.

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I'm concerned that this might be happening to me. How to I actually look at the header? Sorry for being stupid :cry:

You can see HTTP headers by installing e.g. Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox and selecting Information - View Response Headers.

But since MSU send HTTP 404 only after redirections to dynamic URLs is made, I don't think it is MSU issue.

barricades, I wouldn't be too worried about what you quoted by capnhairdo. Their site (babybestbuy.com) has some specific problems going on with that do not look like they are related to MSEO. In perusing their site I noticed I can get more than one Zen Cart ID which shows there is a more basic problem somewhere.

Also, anyone concerned about what a Module is or isn't doing can always turn the Module OFF to verify, if the Module is the problem or something else.

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated and some good advice.

I would conclude that ZC's links work fine for SEO purposes, so if there is a mod which will improve their readability, without hampering the site's pagerank (ie by creating duplicate content etc) then it should increase the organic click through rate (i'm certainly more likely to click a link which is /drums if i'm looking for drums rather than /c-123/-24 etc).

The advice is all appreciated and i will definitely look into SSEO instead of my current Ultimate SEO.

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Originally Posted by Website Rob

I wouldn't be too worried about what you quoted by capnhairdo. Their site (babybestbuy.com) has some specific problems going on with that do not look like they are related to MSEO. In perusing their site I noticed I can get more than one Zen Cart ID which shows there is a more basic problem somewhere.

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Rob, I'm not sure what you mean, but if you've discovered a problem with our site, I'd be keen to find and fix it. Can you explain?

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Originally Posted by Website Rob

anyone concerned about what a Module is or isn't doing can always turn the Module OFF to verify, if the Module is the problem or something else.

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Of course, this was the very first thing I did to isolate the problem with the 404s we were experiencing, which is how I figured out it was MSEO. I then went to the trouble of decoding MSEO and actually found the line of code within it that was issuing the 404 erroneously. iRay will deny this, as he did when I first reported the issue, and I don't care to rehash that argument. So take this for what you will, but know that my claims were not simply idle speculation.

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Originally Posted by capnhairdo

iRay will deny this, as he did when I first reported the issue, and I don't care to rehash that argument. So take this for what you will, but know that my claims were not simply idle speculation.

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Could you please PM me the line causing this or your fix? (It is technically impossible for MSU to have such behavior as I wrote in one of my previous post)
Whenever anyone report troubles/issue/bug I am double checking it and this was not exception.
If you post me also your FTP login details I am able to fix it even if it is not MSU related problem (to prove you I am correct).

capnhairdo, steps to reproduce.

1. http://www.babybestbuy.com/
2. Baby Bedding << this gives me a ZC ID
3. Crib Bedding
4. 100% Cotton Knit Standard Crib Sheet
5. Add to Cart
6. Now choose Home link
7. Mouseover any link on the Main Content page, you now have a new ZC ID

Note: you may have to remove previous site Cookies and/or restart the Browser you are using for this test.

The above happened with; SeaMonkey, IE 6, FF 2 and Opera 9.24. Speaking of Opera, none -- and I mean none -- of your images would display.


As to your reference about my posting for anyone checking a Module by turning it OFF, it was intended for 'anyone' and not just your situation. I have no intentions of getting in between you & iRay. :wink:

Also, your Sidebox Category links show 'javascript : void' on a Mouseover, when one is viewing a Sub-category. Zen Cart doesn't work the way by default nor when USEO is used.

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Originally Posted by BlessIsaacola

Well, I think a lot of this with regards to breadcrumb and url formatting is a personal preference, business and SEO objectives. Like you rightly pointed out without code modification to ZC core, when a product belongs to multiple categories ZC does not always use the master category as the category in the breadcrumb.

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To allow full control how master categories are handled when unique path to product is assigned, there is now new use_master_category option. I think this is one of the most wanted feature. Check updates.

Re: Magic SEO URL vs Ultimate SEO URL vs SEO_G

These are both open source, so I was able to easily remove the .html extension. Extensionless URLs are the best way to go for long term SEO. Why commit to having PHP/ HTML, or anything else in your URL when it's unnecessary and could eventually become outdated.

Anyone informed knows the W3C standard is to create urls that are not dependent on any specific language. This is why you'll see that wordpress URLs are extensionless by default.

However, since MSU is closed source, that's not an option (extensionless URLs), and clearly a downside to the program.

I've done a lot of shopping cart comparison, and after years of research, I would say (at least currently) the only thing holding zen cart back from being hands down the best cart, is the fact that there's not a single good clean URL mod out there for zen cart.

Frankly, I'm disappointed that any code or other garbage is inserted into any of my URLs.

If I ever write my own PHP/ MYSQL based redirection mod with truly clean URLs, maybe I'll share it with the zen cart public.

The last major tool I've done a few projects on was wordpress, and I was quite impressed by the way they handle URLs (you can dictate anything you want for your URLs, there's really no limitations).

Anyway, back to my primary point: I'm disappointed with all the SEO URL mods I've found for Zen Cart.

If anyone finds something new/ better/ or any worthwhile updates, this might be a good post to include them in.... I really want no BS urls with no numbers or other superfluous b.s.

Something easier said than done :D

I'll look forward to a new seo module as well (and hopefully opensource)

I don't see why it's so hard to write a url rewrite mod that does not append a '.html' extension. It makes no sense to me that all of the mods out there right now add this extension.

I have written personal rewrite mods before and not adding an extension is a fairly simple concept.

So you are saying it's bad because of this .html?

I thought it's fully customizable thru admin?

:D

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Originally Posted by mikedeezy33

I don't see why it's so hard to write a url rewrite mod that does not append a '.html' extension. It makes no sense to me that all of the mods out there right now add this extension.

I have written personal rewrite mods before and not adding an extension is a fairly simple concept.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by yellow1912

So you are saying it's bad because of this .html?

I thought it's fully customizable thru admin?

:D

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yes, never use .html on any SEO URLs. It's outdated, and not up to current W3C standards. Using .html is so 1997 (lol?).

Anyway, back on track...

OK guys, I'm VERY impressed with the framework this mod is written on:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...=14132&page=65
http://breakmyzencart.com/sefu

Let me explain, instead of sloppy htaccess rewrites, he's feeding the query to zen cart, and outputting whatever page he wants. The key to feeding your virtual URLs (in fact, all URL requets) to index.php is this simple htaccess:

Code:

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<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

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Now, this is the exact HTACESS I've used on a wordpress project. SEFU gets pretty close to this, although he's got several things in his HTACESS that I don't like. I want to change his mod to use this htaccess above... clean, simple.

Anyway, this piece of HTACESS feeds all queries into index.php (if needed you can add a directory). Of course this can be changed to feed the queries to any page you like.

the REQUEST_FILENAME F/D pieces are to make sure you don't try to rewrite any pages that physically exist on the server.

With this htaccess, you get the URI requested by using the PATH_INFO parameter:
http://www.tutorio.com/tutorial/php-...-friendly-urls

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the $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['PATH_INFO'] returns the path of the url from where something.php is being accessed so in this case it will return page/12/category/hosting. This then gets exploded or broken down into the array $data

* $data[0] = page
* $data[1] = 12
* $data[2] = category
* $data[3] = hosting

This way you have access to all the data you need for your php script.

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Once you get the requested URL from PATH_INFO & explode/ parse it, there's the whole issue of feeding the right query into zen cart. This is the piece I'm not sure on, I'll have to dig into the SEFU php edits to find this.

After you parse the data, you'll have to be sure to send the right status header for each page...

Any 404 errors, 301 redirects, or 200 'http ok' status headers, would need to be sent--this is a parameter that needs to come at the start of a php header command. Here's a complete dummy exmaple:

PHP Code:

---

<?
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com" );
?>

---

Anyway, SEFU's mod is written for 1.2.6d... I would need to convert it to feed the queries correctly to zen cart 1.3.8a (our current version). I'm not sure what other issues it might have.

You may want to look at this:
http://demo.rubikintegration.com/zencart

^_^ Remember tho, the latest version of this module is not in the upload section, it's in the support thread of this module.

Unfortunately, I can no longer edit my previous post. I should have done more research, Simple SEO URL is quite close to what I need.

yellow1912: very nice mod, so far I'm impressed. In my eyes you're the only developer that's written an SEO URL mod in a framework that can really deliver. I really felt like all the other mods were just sloppy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yellow1912

You may want to look at this:
http://demo.rubikintegration.com/zencart

^_^ Remember tho, the latest version of this module is not in the upload section, it's in the support thread of this module.

---

Let me clarify.

This is using the "Simple SEO URL" mod:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...t=86353&page=1

Ah, gotcha, I just checked the download page for this mod.
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1013
and.. here's his htaccess:

Code:

---

#### BOF SSU
Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews
RewriteEngine On
# Make sure to change "test_site" to the subfolder you install ZC. If you use root folder, change to: RewriteBase /
RewriteBase /zencart/

# Deny access from .htaccess
RewriteRule ^\.htaccess$ - [F]

RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php?/$1 [E=VAR1:$1,QSA,L]
#### EOF SSU

---

this is perfect. Forget my SEFU comment above. Simple SEO URL is feeding the queries to Zen Cart.

I should be able to hack this mod with just a few slight adjustments to serve beautiful URLS. We will see.

Ok, I found the latest version of Simple SEO URL. I can no longer edit my previous post, so I'll link it here.

Quote:

---

If you feel adventurous, you can use this new version of includes/init_includest/init_ssu.php

---

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...=86353&page=65

Looks like we are going to see a Beautiful URL Mod very soon? I am a proponent for good looking url's with as little as possible other stuff. I have encouraged yellow1912 way back in this thread. I understand he found there were limiting factors for leaving out some category reverences. You might want to discuss closer with him. I am just posting to encourage the issue of improving the look of the url's for zen cart. This is just what this cart absolutely needs to shine even more!

I have used the Ultimate SEO and I am quiet happy with the look of the url's. I am just worried that the future support for the mod and the mentioned possible drawback of it's design will come to hunt me down the road. Keep on going....:flex:

There is a plan to work on it. Actually, in the newest package you will find a file named init_ssu_alpha which Im trying to play with that. Havent found the time nor the necessity to do it yet tho.It's a feature that is nice to have, but wont hurt without. So its priority is pretty low.

When I have time, I want to work on link-alias feature first, which will help a lot with online/offline promotion