Simple SEO URL (OLD version) [support thread]

[DivaVocals]

We have never used these modules - not even the esteemed Ceon's URI Mapping - because even this mod serves no useful purpose. There are very few (if any) situations, where a generated URI makes for a better user experience.

So what do you suggest to folks who want/need nicer looking URLS for say.. marketing materials.. those long URLS don't really work on marketing and sales materials.. Because for my customers who use these tools, THAT's what they are after..

I have no objection to people using these modules, and in fact, if your business is in competition with one of our clients' sites I actually urge you to install a SEO URL module... It means one less competitor to worry about in the SERP stakes.

No offense, but the anti-SEO mod PSA's you post in these various support threads (except t"he esteemed Ceon's URI Mapping") would tend to indicate otherwise..

[corseter]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Did you reset the cache after you made changes?

Yep, everything hse been reset by now but still does not give the update button.

[schoolboy]

So what do you suggest to folks who want/need nicer looking URLS for say.. marketing materials.. those long URLS don't really work on marketing and sales materials.. Because for my customers who use these tools, THAT's what they are after..

That's a valid point. Rendering a product-specific URL in a printed document might have an advantage if the URL is more "understandable" to a human. Interestingly, back in 2008 we produced a printed catalogue for a company selling educational resources and teaching aids. In this catalogue, we referenced the URL for every product as its standard dynamic URL.

We had user tracking module installed on the webshop, and within days of the printed catalogue reaching the 35,000 UK schools to which it was sent, we saw many (scores, in fact) visitors come into the site via the product-specific url referenced in the printed catalogue.

At the time, we had considered the "value" of static URL's, but came to the conclusion that either way, the customer would still have to READ (visually absorb) the URL before typing it into a browser, and it actually made no difference if the URL was in a dynamic format or static format. They would just READ what was printed in the catalogue, and type that into the browser address bar.

We did a focus group on the usage of the catalogue a few weeks before printing it. Afterall, printing a 300-page catalogue and mailing it to nearly 40,000 people was going to cost us about £500,000 - so we needed to make sure people could use it effectively.

While the people in the focus group were not specifically asked if they found the URL confusing (we did not think it mattered much), their collective report on the catalogue was very positive and on the question: "Were you easily able to find the product on the website?" the resounding answer was "Yes".

The focus group result ALSO showed that most people would simply navigate to the site's home page and use the SEARCH function to find the product - mainly because they were after SEVERAL items - not just one, and once inside the site, the search feature would be used to return a result on the Product Code (Model) in more than 75% of cases, and the Product Title was used in about 20% of cases - with more "generic" searches used in the remaining 5% of cases.

As a result of this focus group's input, the PRODUCT CODE was made more prominent in the catalogue, with advice on how to use the site's search feature.

The dynamic URL was still referenced - and as indicated, was used MANY times to reach the product.

Over 700,000 UK teachers have access to this catalogue - and to date no complaints have ever been received about "confusing" web links.

The site attracts about 4,500 teachers a day, and generates about 250 - 500 orders a day (more at peak purchase times in the academic year).

No offense, but the anti-SEO mod PSA's you post in these various support threads (except t"he esteemed Ceon's URI Mapping") would tend to indicate otherwise..

I don't actually care if people use SEO URL modules or not. All I am indicating is that they are not necessary, and (in many cases) do more harm than good. MOST people apply them because they have a (desperate) hope that they are going to be advantageous for SEO... and THIS is the myth that needs addressing. In Zencart's case they do nothing for "SEO", and (judging by the length of this thread) cause big problems...

If people want to use them, that's absolutely fine.

We have strong evidence that they do nothing advantageous - even when referencing URL's in printed marketing materials.

[Mark_88]

I'm having a problem getting SSU to work with a mobile website theme.. are there any .htaccess wizards around?

Currently SSU rewrites "index.php?main_page=" to a pretty URL. Everything is working fine with this.

The mobile theme I'm using sends all URLS to "mobile.php?main_page=". The problem is, SSU sends all mobile.php requests straight back to index.php, thus breaking the mobile theme.

I've changed SSU's configuration in the admin section of zen-cart with no results. I'm fairly sure the best option is to stop SSU from rewriting mobile.php requests altogether, does anyone know how I can configure this using .htaccess?

Unfortunately I'm "not allowed" to turn off SSU altogether, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lfreddecolo]

Product info page:
http://www.example.com/bracelets-c-1...ion-silver-p-9

A manufacturer link:
www.example.com/toyota-manufacturer-12

It works for any module that uses ZenCart’s function to create links.

As of version 3+, SSU allows you to add keywords into any links you want, be it a manufacturer link, an ez-page link, a product review link, or any type of link you want. You can write your own plugin to add keywords into your links.

As of version 3.6.0+ SSU can remove all the identifiers and ids from links automatically. It is also capable of creating a well-structured category urls:
www.example.com/cars/toyota/corrola (cars and toyota are category and sub-category while corrola is the product)

[Mark_88]

I'm having a problem getting SSU to work with a mobile website theme.. are there any .htaccess wizards around?

Currently SSU rewrites "index.php?main_page=" to a pretty URL. Everything is working fine with this.

The mobile theme I'm using sends all URLS to "mobile.php?main_page=". The problem is, SSU sends all mobile.php requests straight back to index.php, thus breaking the mobile theme.

I've changed SSU's configuration in the admin section of zen-cart with no results. I'm fairly sure the best option is to stop SSU from rewriting mobile.php requests altogether, does anyone know how I can configure this using .htaccess?

Unfortunately I'm "not allowed" to turn off SSU altogether, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Any thoughts guys? At my wits end here, I've been trying different solutions all day to no avail.

[DivaVocals]

Don't expect any help here anytime soon.. Little to no support here as the author of SSU no longer support this mod.

I no longer provide installation support on forum for all my modules. However, if there are real bugs with the modules please feel free to contact me

[abcisme]

I'm having a problem getting SSU to work with a mobile website theme.. are there any .htaccess wizards around?

Currently SSU rewrites "index.php?main_page=" to a pretty URL. Everything is working fine with this.

The mobile theme I'm using sends all URLS to "mobile.php?main_page=". The problem is, SSU sends all mobile.php requests straight back to index.php, thus breaking the mobile theme.

I've changed SSU's configuration in the admin section of zen-cart with no results. I'm fairly sure the best option is to stop SSU from rewriting mobile.php requests altogether, does anyone know how I can configure this using .htaccess?

Unfortunately I'm "not allowed" to turn off SSU altogether, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Having the same issue, so if anyone happens to come up with an answer, I would really appreciate it if you'd share! Thanks!

[tesefoti]

I copied my folder to a new folder for development purposes but the SSU links don't work and in my new folder any link I click it remains in the homepage. Does anyone know if it is possible to have SSU working while moving folders, or if we need to change something?

I googled and searched the board but didn't found any answers

[tesefoti]

I copied my folder to a new folder for development purposes but the SSU links don't work and in my new folder any link I click it remains in the homepage. Does anyone know if it is possible to have SSU working while moving folders, or if we need to change something?

I googled and searched the board but didn't found any answers

BUMP on this question

And would like to add the following:

Has anyone tried this in zen cart 1.5? Does it work? Thanks