Custom Links for catagories...

[robotix]

Hi.
What I want to do is put my own links for the categories for SEO purposes. I've read the SEO url threads, chemo's SEO URLs etc, but what that module seems to do is convert on the fly the URLs using the information that's in the $_GET string variables. Trouble is, I actually want to control the links myself, and just handle the translation in my .htaccess file similarly to what the SEO urls mod does.

1) Is there a simple way to define each category's url somewhere? Or do I need to roll up my sleeves and start doing 'if/then' 'switch' coding in a template file? If so, which files do I override, and do you have any suggestions on an easy way to do it?

2) If I were to have to edit a template file, what I'd do if I had to do this would just be grab the current link out of the page source and just do a 'switch:' argument on each of them to return my custom URL, is this the best approach?

3) Is there any way to actually do this when editing a category itself? Does ordering in the database ever get changed, such as doing a cart upgrade, or does the catagory/product numbering stay the same as long as you don't remove/change a product?

thanks.
regards,
rxr

[kobra]

A lot of effort for "NO" return as the Search Engines today can navigate the dymnamic urls with little issue.,,,,but yes code them through htaccess if you want

[robotix]

Kobra, thanks for the reply.
I see what you are saying, and I agree that the spiders can crawl it... however don't you think that keyword optimization would be beneficial in the links themselves?
Regards,
rxr

[kobra]

I see what you are saying, and I agree that the spiders can crawl it... however don't you think that keyword optimization would be beneficial in the links themselves?

This is what the meta tags (black bio hazzard circle) selection is for in the admin > catalog > products > area where you can add custom meta data per product

[robotix]

hi kobra. sure that works great for title / keywords / and description. however as per my original post I am looking for a way to easily update my actual links.
from doing more hunting in the forums, it's looking like there is no way to do it from admin, and you have to actually mod/overide the templates.
thanks again for your input!
regards,
rxr

[kobra]

There is only one major Search Engine that even uses keywords anymore...inktomi as the others look at content