Meta Tags - Defining Issues

[davewest]

So is this the way it is supposed to work?.... I doubt it ... but If so it is a real problem.

Yes... So, somewhere we are not on the same patch... My site is a ZC155f and php7.1.x and it all works as expected... I don't see any bugs in the code.

In Admin, Go to Catalog>Product Types select Products - General select 'Edit Layout' you well see a list of default settings for Metatags.. If you want to do the metatags yourself for every product, set this to false which shows as 0.. or leave it all as is...

In the product metatags, setting the switch only works if you actually imputed something into that corresponding text field.. All that does is to tell ZC to use your words and not the default... If you wish never to see default metatags created, you need to turn that off in edit layout for that product type..

Category Metatags are different, normally, if you don't create metadata it does not get displayed.

I create tags for some of my items, others I let the default system do it... Tags help quick search. When the tags don't match the content... that is bad. If you really want to figure out what works, just look at a big box store... there tags are single line and match page content..

[mc12345678]

Another way to state how the "default" settings work for product: if there is something (not the value '0') in either the keywords or description field, then use the setting last saved or if not saved or both are 'empty' then mark the option as defaulted to the product type. If the option selection value stored/returned does not exist then mark the meta feature to be displayed.

Now there may still be a php 7.x issue though I can't truly claim that yet. I am running php 7.2 on a test site with ZC 1.5.5 and 1.5.6 both installed. When I tried to disable the display of the products_model (no other data entered), the price appeared to get stored as $0.00. I believe it is a 7.2 not 7.1 issue, but may see...

[shags38]

@davewest and @mc123456789

Gentlemen - I apologize for some of the innuendo in my posts - I totally misunderstood the 'automatic' meta tag system and how it worked. Somewhere in a thread some time back about SEO and meta tags I read something to the effect that 'to save a lot of time and effort if you do not manually enter meta data for every product then the ZC system will do it for you selecting product name and description (to the value of characters set in configuration .....' - there was no mention of keywords however they were not really of any interest to me in that there is so much said that bots do not take any notice of keywords etc etc.

There was also no mention that when triggered it submits site meta title AND product meta title separated by a colon = spammy .... and same with description.

Also if one reads the FAQ on the subject https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php...ngines-to-find it is very vague and lacks a detailed explanation of how the system works and what to do and what not to do - and the statement in red type appears to relate to the paragraph in which it is contained ONLY, the way I read it certainly indicates that. (the statements about SEO and meta tags is, well ... at best someones opinion and likely somewhat misleading dependent on your leaning)

I have no problem in offering to re-write that FAQ ..... if it is vetted by you guys first before I submit it to ensure I have got it right. IMHO it should NOT contain opinions of meta tags and their place in SEO (or not) - simply this is how it works and this is what you do (optionally this way ... or that way).

Dave I agree (now) that it is not a code problem, but it is a problem in that setting the radio buttons to what you select and then confirm/upgrade doesn't result in a warning or an error.

MC ... for those that do not read the 'new' FAQ and do what I have done I'm not sure that the default of doing nothing should result in two lots of meta title being combined - that in itself is spammy

Also there should be an explanation of what 'custom keywords' in meta_tags.php actually means and what it is designed for and importantly what it is not designed for (I entered my keywords in that field resulting in two lots of keywords combined - very spammy)

As a suggestion for future development of ZC it would make sense to me to incorporate the adding of meta data on the product page so it is done at the same time as the product is entered with default pre-loading being product name and product description of that product with only keywords to be added - changing product name and description to 'custom' text would be selectable as an override. For the inexperienced at least the prime data will be there for the spiders to see as meta.

The way it is at present there could be a few others out there with double meta unknowingly on their sites.

Maybe this is being considered already - combining it with structured data markup would be ideal.

Anyway - just some thoughts.

So again thank you for your support (and lindasdd)

cheers,
Mike

at present I add keywords only and the system does the rest (keywords obviously trigger the system)

[davewest]

As a suggestion for future development of ZC it would make sense to me to incorporate the adding of meta data on the product page so it is done at the same time as the product is entered with default pre-loading being product name and product description of that product with only keywords to be added - changing product name and description to 'custom' text would be selectable as an override. For the inexperienced at least the prime data will be there for the spiders to see as meta.

Personally, I use CITTINS and do everything in one setting, even autotweet...
https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2171

I'm not so sure with today's search engines that metadata would be more impotent then content.. Maybe in the past... but it's interesting to see sites still trying the hidden keywords attempt.. Theirs nothing more time consuming then to have sites popup on a search that have nothing to do with the search!

[shags38]

Personally, I use CITTINS and do everything in one setting, even autotweet...
https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2171

I'm not so sure with today's search engines that metadata would be more impotent then content.. Maybe in the past... but it's interesting to see sites still trying the hidden keywords attempt.. Theirs nothing more time consuming then to have sites popup on a search that have nothing to do with the search!

Thanks Dave for the heads up on CITTINS - looks great, I will install it soon. You are right, content has always been king - meta data is more useful in structured data these days but meta <title> still plays a big part in SERP's .... if everything else on the site is conforming ....

Thanks again for your help - much appreciated.

cheers,
Mike

[echexxxxxxxx10]

hi, can someone help me? I need to set the form of the metatag to all products by activating product name on SI and title on SI to all products and not one by one, they are so many products ...

maybe with a mysql query?

thank you

[shags38]

hi, can someone help me? I need to set the form of the metatag to all products by activating product name on SI and title on SI to all products and not one by one, they are so many products ...

maybe with a mysql query?

thank you

I believe you should be able to do this using Easy Populate (EP4) plugin - do a full product export then in excel you can change the fields to '0' for off or '1' for on for each of the fields shown on the form (starting at column Y - you can even allocate the meta tags for all products, if they are the same or same by category or group of products by copying down the column, in this spreadsheet ........ then import the file and once imported click the copy to data base button.

Setting Product Name to on (1) will automatically allocate your product a meta title as per product name (with title set to '0') ....... *** however as I learned the hard way you MUST enter at least one keyword in meta keywords. My settings are Product Name > on ... everything else is off .... then some keywords in the keyword column.

I hope this helps.

cheers,
Mike