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

[labcomputer]

Zen Cart or U SEO?

[labcomputer]

I check this out:
You will also want to look at your configure.php. The extra "/" in the URL usually indicates HTTP_SERVER and/or HTTPS_SERVER end with a "/" (and they should not).

but none of them have an extra /

Which one of the configure.php should I check?

[labcomputer]

I think the extra "/" was causing the issues.

It seems to be working now.

Please try it and let me know: www.labcomputerny.com


Thanks.

[lhungil]

I think the extra "/" was causing the issues.

It seems to be working now.

Just to confirm. Once you updated the RewriteBase to the correct value and fixed settings in the configure.php files everything appears to be working? And you can get to the admin side of Zen Cart?

log send me to cache_entry_created = '1362734288' in /includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php on line 120

Without seeing the full message, I can only guess... The partial error message looks similar to errors relating the the SQL_CACHE and line 120 has to do with Database Connectivity errors. if you are using Zen Cart 1.3.9h (never did get an answer to this question), you may wish to disable the SQL_CACHE (not officially supported w/ "USU" [Ultimate SEO URLs]).

[tracey]

Hi Guys,

I've been using Ultimate SEO URLS on my Zen Cart 1.3.9h website for the last year and it works great. I am now in the process of upgrading my website to Zen Cart 1.5.1, and am also upgrading to the latest version of Ultimate SEO URLs at the same time.

I've installed all the required files and everything's working well, apart from one small change I noticed between the old version and the new version of Ultimate SEO URLs.

The old version lists my categories like this:
http://www.mydomain.com/sample-category-c-80_3.html

And the new version lists my categories like this:
http://www.mydomain.com/sample-category-c-80_3/

As far as I can tell, the product pages and all other pages load with the '.html' shown at the end of the URL, but not the category pages. Instead, the categories are showing a slash '/' at the end.

The original category URLs has already been indexed in the search engines and I don't want to run the risk of losing traffic by changing the URLs.

If anyone knows how to fix this issue, I would really appreciate the help!

Thanks very much :)

[tracey]

Hi Guys,

I've been using Ultimate SEO URLS on my Zen Cart 1.3.9h website for the last year and it works great. I am now in the process of upgrading my website to Zen Cart 1.5.1, and am also upgrading to the latest version of Ultimate SEO URLs at the same time.

I've installed all the required files and everything's working well, apart from one small change I noticed between the old version and the new version of Ultimate SEO URLs.

The old version lists my categories like this:
http://www.mydomain.com/sample-category-c-80_3.html

And the new version lists my categories like this:
http://www.mydomain.com/sample-category-c-80_3/

As far as I can tell, the product pages and all other pages load with the '.html' shown at the end of the URL, but not the category pages. Instead, the categories are showing a slash '/' at the end.

The original category URLs has already been indexed in the search engines and I don't want to run the risk of losing traffic by changing the URLs.

If anyone knows how to fix this issue, I would really appreciate the help!

Thanks very much :)

[lhungil]

...
"http://www.mydomain.com/sample-category-c-80_3.html"
...

Go to "Zen Cart admin" > "Configuration" > "Ultimate SEO". Adjust the settings as follows to match the "original" version of "Ultimate SEO URLs".

Rewritten URLs end with: .html
Format of rewritten URLs: original
Categories as directories: off

The original category URLs has already been indexed in the search engines and I don't want to run the risk of losing traffic by changing the URLs.

You will not lose any incoming traffic unless you change the product / category / ez-page IDs in the database. Ultimate SEO URLs will still accept URLs coming in with the old format and show the correct page based upon the ID. So as long as the IDs stay the same during your upgrade things should work.

Additionally, Zen Cart 1.5 (and the newer Ultimate SEO URLs) automatically handles adding what is known as a canonical link to the HTML head of your pages. This lets Search Engines know two pages are the same (does not treat them as duplicate content). You can read more about this here.

You can also set "Enable automatic redirects?" to true. This will handle automatically issuing a 301 redirect to let Search Engines know the new URL (and update the index link quickly). I'd recommend enabling this option if you change the URL format or sometimes change a product, category, or ez-page title. This will quickly let Search Engines and browsers know the URL has changed. I'd probably just keep the old URL scheme on a well established site rather than take the 1-2% link juice drop caused by a 301 redirect, but still enable this option if you ever update product, category, or ez-page titles.

[schoolboy]

Zen Cart or U SEO?

Not sure what you mean here...

Are you asking if you should use this mod for better "SEO", or rely on native ZC ?

Answer is very simple... This mod will have zero influence on SEO...

(Some disagree... but their number is diminishing !)

[lhungil]

Zen Cart or U SEO?

Not sure what you mean here...

Considering the context of posts by the OP before and after that question, I'd say it most likely was in regards to what was the cause of the errors they were seeing in their debug logs. The OP of that question has posted they resolved the issues they experiencing and we know for sure they fixed one mistake made during installation and probably some issues with their Zen Cart configure.php file(s). Until we hear back from the OP, we cannot be sure.

...
Are you asking if you should use this mod for better "SEO", or rely on native ZC ?

Answer is very simple... This mod will have zero influence on SEO...

(Some disagree... but their number is diminishing !)

The primary reasons this module is being maintained are: A) add human friendly components to the URLs generated by Zen Cart (and there are valid business reasons to add such components). B) So those upgrading from Zen Cart 1.3.x to 1.5 who previously used an older version of this module (or certain other 1.3.x modules) can continue to use the same URLs (and also benefit from fixes and new features). These reasons have been repeated over and over in many different places on the forums including this thread.

I understand you have a personal crusade against any module which changes the URLs of Zen Cart. Some of your reasoning is valid and applies to many other Zen Cart modules - not just ones which change the generated URLs. I fully agree; One who does not understand PHP or mod_rewrite may run into some difficulties installing this module and any Zen Cart module which makes changes to PHP files or a .htaccess file.

There is a learning curve to PHP and mod_rewrite and even the best of us can make mistakes in the process of installing a module or updating Zen Cart. Backing up the store (files + database) is important before attempting to install any Zen Cart module - and testing changes on a non-production clone of a production site is also prudent.

[fairestcape]

In reality, these modules serve no useful purpose - not even for "human readable url's" because MOST website owners use <a href> hyperlinks which mask the true url. Even the search engines parse the url into "friendly text" - so what exactly is the point of risking your site? I just don't get it.

It's really noble that you have devoted a lot of time to polishing up this module - I respect that - but they have really "had their day".

The vast majority of people who install this stuff, do so under the misconception that it is a "silver bullet" that will somehow race them up the rankings at Google. Now that is very sad - because these mods are some of the fussiest and delicate ever made.

You just need to see the number of views these mods attract (as well as posts from desperate, tearful users who have messed up their sites terribly). A quick tally shows that about a million views have been made. Wow -- that's a lot of people looking for solutions! And for problems that never needed to be caused in the first place.

SEO is increasingly about on-page content, and the trend towards the semantic web is going to shift focus to rich-snippets more rapidly than most people realise.

Perhaps the problem is in the name - - "Ultimate SEO" - - when it is (in fact) the exact opposite.