Ultimate SEO v3 (and v2.200) [Support Thread]

[100asa]

You may be interested in this post (many pages back now): Ultimate URLs 2.215: Ticket #28.

Thank you so much!!!

[lhungil]

...
1) login/my account links aren't friendly url. They are https... is that just the way it is? or can links to secure pages be re-written too?
...

Have you checked the Ultimate URL configuration? In particular the "Limit alternate URLS to the following pages" option?

The variable found in "main_page=" (stock Zen Cart URLs) is the name of the Zen Cart "page".

[Awalji]

Hi guys

I just installed Ultimate SEO Url plugin and it doesn't seem to show up on my admin panel.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you.

[lhungil]

Hi guys

I just installed Ultimate SEO Url plugin and it doesn't seem to show up on my admin panel.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you.

Zen Cart debug logs?
Version of Zen Cart?
Version of PHP (as shown in Zen Cart admin -> version)?
List of other modifications to Zen Cart?
Ultimate URLs version (installing)?
How did you obtain Ultimate URLs?
Upgrade from Ultimate SEO URLs?
If upgrading, what was previous version?
Configured Zen Cart admin default language?
Did you double check uploaded files (and locations) to verify?
What was the result of installation step 4c?

[buildingblocks]

Hi

I've got USU 2.215 installed on zen cart 1.5.4 upgrading from zen cart 1.5.1. The live site has urls formatted this way

madonnahardcandyvinyllpcoloredvinyl-p-6588.html


On upgrade site they are being formatted this way

madonna-hard-candy-vinyl-lp-colored-vinyl-p-6588.html


The urls look nicer with the dashes but I'm concerned the dashes will pose a problem in search results if the urls are not formatted the same as on the live site. How can the dashes be removed between words?

thank you

[lhungil]

...
I've got USU 2.215 installed on zen cart 1.5.4 upgrading from zen cart 1.5.1. ...

On the live site (Zen Cart 1.5.1) which module (and version) was installed to alter URLs?

Just curious as Ultimate URLs (at least since version 2.200 - possibly farther back) replaces whitespace with a dash (does not strip whitespace - unless a filter was configured).

...
The urls look nicer with the dashes but I'm concerned the dashes will pose a problem in search results if the urls are not formatted the same as on the live site. ...

As long as your Zen Cart template correctly supports canonicals (if it was designed for Zen Cart >= 1.3.9h it should), I would not lose sleep over this. If the template does not, it should be corrected ASAP (just to be on the safe side).

Why? Because your product (and categories, ez-pages, etc) remain accessible from the original Zen Cart URLs, past URLs generated by Ultimate URLs, and the currently generated URL. The canonical essentially tells Search Engines "this URL and the URL listed as canonical should be treated as the same URL". More detailed information is available from Bing and Google regarding the nitty gritty of canonicals.

One can also opt to enable the "automatic redirect" feature of Ultimate URLs to force a 301 to the currently generated URL instead. However some third party modules do not play well with this option enabled under Ultimate URLs <= 2.215 (3rd party modules directly calling application_top instead of integrating as a Zen Cart page). Again more detailed information is available from Bing and Google regarding the nitty gritty of 301 redirects (including pros and cons).

...How can the dashes be removed between words ...

If you really, really, really want to strip spaces (and more closely match the existing site)... You can! Custom string and character replacement is what the "PCRE filter" is for.

The following PCRE filter should remove all whitespace (space, tab, new line, carriage return, etc):

\s+=>

Be aware on some servers you may need to add an extra slash (if after saving the value in the configuration, the configuration does not show the first slash):

\\s+=>

P.S. Don't forget to apply the known bugfixes for Zen Cart 1.5.4 and the bugfixes for Ultimate URLs 2.215 (posted earlier in this thread).

[Woodymon]

Hi. Have ZC 1.54 and Ultimate SEO 2.215 installed. Been working fine.

Just added a NEW product, which I want the OLD product URL to 301 redirect to.

However, after inserting following rules to the very end of my htaccess, the browser still directs to the OLD product page.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.domain\.com$
RewriteRule ^acct\/documents\-c\-90\/old\-product\-p\-392\.html$ "http\:\/\/www\.domain\.com\/acct\/documents\-c\-90\/new\-product\-p\-394\.html" [R=301,L]

I also tried inserting the same rules ABOVE the "Start Ultimate SEO URLs" section in htaccess, with same result.

I've reset the "Reset URL cache".

Do I have to write a rule to redirect the stock URL for the OLD product to the stock URL for the NEW product? And insert the rule ABOVE the "Start Ultimate SEO URLs" section in htaccess?

Or is my logic failing and/or such a redirect is not possible with Ultimate SEO URLs installed?

Thank you for any pointers.

[buildingblocks]

On the live site the USU version is not identified. I didn't install it so can say for sure which version. The file

admin/includes/reset_seo_cache.php

is still in use and shows this credit info


/*
* Script name: admin/includes/seo_cache_reset.php
* Contribution: Ultimate SEO URLs v2.1
* Version: 2.0
* Date: 30 January 2005
* Copyright (C) 2005 Bobby Easland
* Internet moniker: Chemo
* Contact: [email protected]
* Commercial Site: g i g a b y t e - h o s t i n g . c o m
* GPL Dev Server: m e s o i m p a c t . c o m
*/




Yes, the template supports canonicals. Yes, I really, really, reeeally want to match the live site. lol. This is the one that worked for me, \\s+=>

I will go over the bug fix lists


Thanks a bunch! :)

[Woodymon]

Do I have to write a rule to redirect the stock URL for the OLD product to the stock URL for the NEW product? And insert the rule ABOVE the "Start Ultimate SEO URLs" section in htaccess?

Inserted into htaccess (in www root)

Redirect 301 /shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=392 http://www.domain.com/shop/index.php...roducts_id=394

but it did not redirect.

And tried putting the same in the htaccess (in the shop directory) with same issue.

I figure I have to do a Rewrite Match to make a redirect workwith query strings, but I don't remember enough about regular expressions to make this happen.

Or maybe I can't do this with Ultimate SEO URLs installed?

Suggestions?

[lhungil]

...
Redirect 301 /shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=392 http://www.domain.com/shop/index.php...roducts_id=394
...

IMHO the best approach for an e-commerce website in regards to the customer experience would be to never redirect from one product to another product. I'm am however, not going to turn this support thread into a discussion on the topic. There are numerous other threads here on the Zen Cart forums and on the internet in general regarding WHY and alternative methods of handling products when they are: discontinued, no longer carried, or replaced by a newer version.


Just a warning (not targeted to the OP specifically), one should never adjust web server directives without thorough knowledge of the directives (and the implications of using the directives). Just placing directives without understanding the directives and how the server processes the directives can result in a major headache (and potentially unanticipated downtime). To properly place and use web server directives it is imperative one know if there are any server-wide directives, vhost directives, or other directives in .htaccess files (or parent folders) and how those directives will (or will not) impact any new directives being added.


If it is absolutely necessary to redirect one product to another product there are a few different methods. The first is to rewrite the request using a mod_rewrite directive (changing the product_id), and let Ultimate URLs issue the 301 redirect. The second is to use mod_rewrite to tell Apache to issue the 301 redirect. I would recommend the first method, letting Ultimate URLs handle the 301 redirect unless there is a very compelling reason to do otherwise.


One should place any custom 301 redirects in the section of the .htaccess labeled "Add any custom 301 redirects". This is also the correct place to add any custom mod_rewrite directives such as folder exclusions (for example when a test environment is located at /test-zencart/).

The following examples assume no other modifications to the supplied .htaccess files, no .htaccess files in parent folders, and no conflicting server / vhost directives.


Method #1 (Recommended):

###############################################################################
# Add any custom 301 redirects
###############################################################################
# Notes:
#
# In general these should be few and far between. If you use a RewriteRule
# be sure to add the L flag to let Apache mod_rewrite know to stop processing
# and skip any RewriteRules defined later in the .htaccess file.
###############################################################################

# Rewrite the request internally. Will catch all requests to the old page (stock Zen Cart and Ultimate URLs).
# This option will not result in "redirect loops" (even if the product name or URL is changed in the future).
# Enable automatic redirects in the Ultimate URLs configuration to issue a 301 to the alternative URL.
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} main_page=product_info
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} products_id=392
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=394

Method #2 (Not Recommended):

###############################################################################
# Add any custom 301 redirects
###############################################################################
# Notes:
#
# In general these should be few and far between. If you use a RewriteRule
# be sure to add the L flag to let Apache mod_rewrite know to stop processing
# and skip any RewriteRules defined later in the .htaccess file.
###############################################################################

# Redirect the requests via Apache. Will require multiple entries and updating every time the URL changes.
# This option can result in "redirect loops" (especially if the product name or URL changes in the future).
# Apache issues the redirect and does not use Ultimate URLs to determine the correct alternative URL.
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} main_page=product_info
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} products_id=392
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/actual-url-to-the-new-product-p-394.html [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^actual-url-to-the-old-product-p-392\.html$ http://www.example.com/actual-url-to-the-new-product-p-394.html [R=301,L]

All changes should be vetted in a non-production environment (testing website) before being applied to a production environment (live website).


NOTE: Without knowing the specific old and the specific new URL, no optimizations can be safely added to the second method (and one will be required to repeat the second RewriteRule for each possible alternative URL for the old product). If they were known some could possibly be applied. Not going to spend alot of time on these as using the first method is a better long term approach with Ultimate URLs.