I don't take offence to your outburst, Lam, but since 2006, we have built nearly 200 zencart sites, and taken over the management of about 20 others (which were developed by other people). Many of these acquired sites were riddled with badly-written code (and add-ons) and in many cases, we have to basically start from scratch, with restoration of core behaviour, and the construction of more robust (ZC-compliant) templates.

We have found consistently that ZC in its raw state, is exceptionally search-engine-friendly. We sometimes add certain components, (like Dublin meta data), but this will depend on the area of business in which the site operates.

Generally, we focus on getting good content, smooth and logical navigation, validation compliance, and backlinks.

We also focus on more fundamental issues - like what are we going to do to provide shoppers with a good experience, and what will make them buy more goods and return more often. Interestingly, our focus on this as a priority delivers better results than any tinkering with possible "SEO" alterations.

One does not need a pHd to understand SEO - and the Search Engines are quite emphatic about what they look for in a website.

And Melanie Prough IS a SEO expert - one of the very few you can trust on this forum. We treat her advice with an almost Biblical reverence and apply it to all sites we build - zencart or otherwise.

And guess what? When we do what she says, we see the GA graphs steadily rising. And that is a fact.