Meta, title, keywords setup

[Andreas1211]

Hi all,

I would like to ask, if there is a plugin to easily setup the meta, title, keywords and make them more google friendly?

Thanks for the help in advance!

[kobra]

There is no shortcut for this
You should google microdata as this is the trend over keywords
Also search this forum for micro data

[DivaVocals]

Hi all,

I would like to ask, if there is a plugin to easily setup the meta, title, keywords and make them more google friendly?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Kobra is spot on about micro-data!!! That said, I actually do have a module that the brilliant lat9 created for me that does make the work of managing titles, descriptions and such in Zen Cart a LOT easier and even improves how Zen Cart's default auto generation of the description, title, keywords behaves.. I had been thinking about making this thing public.. Just hadn't gotten around to it yet (among a LOT of things on my "to-do" list )

The module's functionality takes a few cues from the popular WordPress plugin "Yoast SEO" by Joost de Valk and his team at Yoast.

If you want to check this out, here's the repo: https://github.com/DivaVocals/zen_MetaTagsImproved. No official support for this yet because it is still technically "beta" until it is officially submitted to the Zen Cart plugins respository, but I do have it installed on several client sites and it is working VERY well..

Please read through the module description to get a sense what this thing does..

[DivaVocals]

Some useful info on this topic:

Based on current browser standards, here's how title and descriptions should be managed on a site:
Description - Recommended Length
Meta descriptions can be any length, but search engines generally truncate snippets longer than 160 characters. It is best to keep meta descriptions between 150 and 160 characters.


Description - Not a Google Ranking Factor
Google announced in September of 2009 that neither meta descriptions nor meta keywords factor into Google's ranking algorithms for web search. Google uses meta descriptions to return results when searchers use advanced search operators to match meta tag content, as well as to pull preview snippets on search result pages, but it's important to note that meta descriptions do not to influence Google's ranking algorithms for normal web search.


Quotes Cut Off Descriptions
Any time quotes are used in a meta description, Google cuts off the description. To prevent meta descriptions from being cut off, it's best to remove all non-alphanumeric characters from meta descriptions. If quotation marks are important in your meta description, you can change them to single quotes rather than double quotes to prevent truncation.


Title - Optimal Format
Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name


Title - Optimal Length for Search Engines
Google typically displays the first 50-60 characters of a title tag, or as many characters as will fit into a 512-pixel display. If you keep your titles under 55 characters, you can expect at least 95% of your titles to display properly. Keep in mind that search engines may choose to display a different title than what you provide in your HTML. Titles in search results may be rewritten to match your brand, the user query, or other considerations.

[mc12345678]

FWIW, EasyPopulate v4 offers the ability to edit meta-tag information of product, categories, etc... (default/admin controllable ZC meta-tag fields) and mass populate the database with the information.

[GerriM]

...That said, I actually do have a module that the brilliant lat9 created for me that does make the work of managing titles, descriptions and such in Zen Cart a LOT easier and even improves how Zen Cart's default auto generation of the description, title, keywords behaves.. I had been thinking about making this thing public.. Just hadn't gotten around to it yet (among a LOT of things on my "to-do" list )...

If you want to check this out, here's the repo: https://github.com/DivaVocals/zen_MetaTagsImproved. No official support for this yet because it is still technically "beta" until it is officially submitted to the Zen Cart plugins respository, but I do have it installed on several client sites and it is working VERY well..

Hi DivaVocals

Its been quite a while since that post was made. But since having an auto-populate option for meta-tags seems ideal, I thought I'd try. Thanks to you, lat9 and Yoast for your efforts putting that together.

Followed your excellent instructions (a fair bit of merging required) except: I'm running ZC1.5.5e...so thought I'd attempt to try uploading the 1.5.5 versions of EZ-Pages & Manufacturer's Metatag plugins posted by lat9 ITM.

Mixed results: new menus loaded, phpMyAdmin showed the new tables were created - but the auto-populate doesn't seem to kick in. No error logs. (Minor point FYI: My Store menu columns were bunch up from the length of the last line)

Since I'm testing on WAMP, here's a selection of snip-its: Attachment 17820.

Would you have any any suggestions on resolving this? Could one of the following be the cause:
(a) incompatibility issue either with the main plugin & my 1.5.5 environment or with the two plugins - I couldn't find a 1.5.5 v of that one. Retry with 1.5.4 v of the 2 other plugins?
(b) a problem with my file merging?
...Or has an alternative auto-populate option arisen ITM or that I've missed in my searching?

I'd be very grateful for any help. My system: WAMP with SSL (apache 2.4.23; mysql 5.7.14; php 5.6.25);template: clone of Responsive Sheffield Blue v2.0 (w ZC 1.5.5 compatibility amendments); lots of plugins.

Thanks again. Cheers