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

[lhungil]

Thank you for the response. ...

No problem. Hopefully the information gives you a good starting point.

I'd probably tackle things in this order...

1. Fix the location of <base href="" />. Should be before any reference to an external CSS or JScript file - but after then language / content type declarations. This will fix things so the page displays.
2. Update the custom category box to use zen_href_link or replace with a plugin (or the stock Zen Cart sidebox) which already uses the function. Without this change unnecessary 301 redirect may take place.
3. If after fixing the above you still see any HTTP 406 errors (FireBug or similiar comes in handy here), contact the hosting provider and see if they will look into the errors.
4. Time permitting look into fixing the more cosmetic HTML errors (modern browsers can handle most of the other issues without loss of functionality).

[asdowser]

Hello,

I'm about to install this on a 1.5 installation that has a non-default them, couple addons, etc.

One newbie question before I go through with it: what's the difference between 'merge' and 'overwrite', as per the install instructions in the readme?

"1a. If you haven't made changes to Zen Cart. Overwrite the files..."
"1b. If you have made changes to your Zen Cart. Merge the files..."

Since I'm running a non-default theme and have some other add-ons installed, I'm assuming I qualify for 1b...

I've compared files/folders between what's on my server and what's in affected_files and there's a handful of existing files...do I overwrite these? e.g. includes > functions > html_output.php already exists on the server, adminfolder > categories.php and product.php, adminfolder > includes > functions > general.php and html_output.php, all exist on the server. Overwrite these with the files from the add-on? Or am I missing something with the reference to 'merge' the files?

Thanks, looking forward to getting this up and running!

Kind regards,

Nathan

[lhungil]

... One newbie question before I go through with it: what's the difference between 'merge' and 'overwrite', as per the install instructions in the readme? ...
"1a. If you haven't made changes to Zen Cart. Overwrite the files..."
"1b. If you have made changes to your Zen Cart. Merge the files..."
...

Definition of merge. Definition of overwrite.

Basically the files in "affected_files_xxx" are core Zen Cart files (with path) already modified to work with their respective version of Zen Cart. If you have made any changes to these files (and uploaded the changes to your production server), you will need to "merge" your changes with the changes found in these files (best done on a local copy of the site). Once done with any needed file merging, you can simply upload the files (which overwrites the files on the server).

Note: Don't forget to BACKUP your production site before making any modifications. This includes both the database and files.

[asdowser]

Definition of merge. Definition of overwrite.

Basically the files in "affected_files_xxx" are core Zen Cart files (with path) already modified to work with their respective version of Zen Cart. If you have made any changes to these files (and uploaded the changes to your production server), you will need to "merge" your changes with the changes found in these files (best done on a local copy of the site). Once done with any needed file merging, you can simply upload the files (which overwrites the files on the server).

Note: Don't forget to BACKUP your production site before making any modifications. This includes both the database and files.

Groovy, that's what I figured. Thanks!

[shags38]

Hi,

I recently installed the plugin and think I have an issue with configuration as I have received a WMT warning about excessive 'not followed pages', some 214. This is how it is currently configured, straight out of the box - what do I need to change, if anything, or do I ignore the WMT warning?
Attachment 13060

many thanks,
Mike

[lhungil]

... I have received a WMT warning about excessive 'not followed pages' ...

Alot depends upon what exactly WMT is telling you (and what you find when checking the links). It may also just be false positives from WMT and the warnings may go away after the next crawl). Without being able to see the website (or WMT), here are some things to check...

First, do the URLs being reported by WMT look like they were generated correctly? Can you access the URLs? Was the .htaccess file upgraded with the latest rules (the .htaccess file in the distribution zip)?

This plugin does not affect / alter / create "no follow" tags on pages... Kinda "doubt" this is the issue, but you can check the URLs indicated by WMT for "nofollow" (in the HTML source / HTML headers).

Double check the "canonical" link in the affected page(s). Is there a canonical (if not your theme may be removing it)? Does this match the URL (with automatic redirects on it should match)? If you type in the canonical link are you redirected (should not happen)? If the generated canonical is not correct, make sure the init_canonical override file was installed.

Next thing to check is for a redirection chain. Make sure a request to your site does not incur more than a single 301 redirect. Having more than one can be problematic. If you are seeing two or more... Time to look at the ".htaccess" files and server configurations to ensure they are not adding any "redirect" or "R" flags (this plugin does not add any).

I've also seen some redirect loops in the past (misconfiguration of Zen Cart). These are usually caused by adding a "hostname redirect" inside a ".htaccess" file which does not match the value of "HTTP_SERVER" in "configure.php". So for example when "HTTP_SERVER" is set to "http://domain.com" and in the ".htaccess" file someone has added a redirect to force all traffic to "http://www.domain.com".

If none of these apply, and the site was active for a long time at different URLs... I'd suspect WMT may be warning many URLs are showing a 301 redirect (have changed). Another (rare) possibility would be you are somehow exceeding the 2048 character limit for URLs (unless one has VERY verbose titles with a LARGE number of sub categories, one should not be able reach this length in a stock Zen Cart installation due to database imposed limitations).

[shags38]

Hi

thanks for the detailed response. I marked the not followed urls as 'fixed' in WMT so I can't now check if they could be accessed however there are no more urls reported as not followed yet but it may be too early to call.

I've also seen some redirect loops in the past (misconfiguration of Zen Cart). These are usually caused by adding a "hostname redirect" inside a ".htaccess" file which does not match the value of "HTTP_SERVER" in "configure.php". So for example when "HTTP_SERVER" is set to "http://domain.com" and in the ".htaccess" file someone has added a redirect to force all traffic to "http://www.domain.com".

I in fact had this exact situation - have now deleted the redirect from http mysite to www mysite. I had it set up initially by my host as I could not access the www. version of the site via the browser for some reason or other - the fix was to use the 301 redirect. I must also admit to being confused about this statement in WMT at the bottom of their information page on 'preferred domain' settings in WMT

Note: Once you've set your preferred domain, you may want to use a 301 redirect to redirect traffic from your non-preferred domain, so that other search engines and visitors know which version you prefer.

not sure how advantageous that is given the dominance of Google - your thoughts on this? - in any case I have now deleted the 301 redirect and will monitor any developments.

So many thanks again for your assistance - if the problem persists (see a doctor ) I will check the things you have mentioned before I mark the urls as fixed - hopefully it will all just settle down.

cheers,
Mike

[shags38]

Spoke too soon - latest crawl has 178 urls not followed. I have given some examples below. WMT says "Google couldn't follow your URL because it redirected too many times." - the urls cannot be accessed - the browser gives following error message "The page isn't redirecting properly - Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete. - This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies."

sample urls - response code is 301 in all cases;


index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=116&sort= 20a

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=116

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=528&sort= 20a&page=12

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=528&sort= 2d&page=17&language=en

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=528&sort= 2d&page=17

the .htaccess file is as per the .zip file - it did have the following additional script but I have deleted this as per my previous post;

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^dazzlers.net.au$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "http\:\/\/www\.dazzlers\.net\.au\/" [R=301,L]

the same redirect was at the host also in cPanel but that is now deleted also

Ultimate SEO configuration is as per my first post above (untouched)

Double check the "canonical" link in the affected page(s). Is there a canonical (if not your theme may be removing it)? Does this match the URL (with automatic redirects on it should match)? If you type in the canonical link are you redirected (should not happen)? If the generated canonical is not correct, make sure the init_canonical override file was installed.

this I do not understand - what would the canonical link be? configure.php is set to http://mysite . com - * the init_canonical override file IS installed

The site is working properly and site navigation is fine. So not sure what else you would need to know.

cheers, Mike

[lhungil]

I in fact had this exact situation - have now deleted the redirect from http mysite to www mysite. ...your thoughts on this?

Pick which one you prefer. with or without the www prefix. Then be consistent. If you want the prefix make sure it is added to the Zen Cart configuration. If you don't make sure it is not in the Zen Cart configuration. Zen Cart automatically adds the HTTP_SERVER to the start of generated URLs, so SEs will always see the one you set :)

If you really want you can have a "canonical redirect" in the ".htaccess"... But will probably want to exempt "post" requests, pass query terms and the URI, and make sure it redirects to host specified in Zen Cart's "configure.php" files.

index.php?main_page=index&index_php?main_page=product_info&products_id=116

Looks like some bad links coming in from somewhere... best to figure out where :)
In WMT when you click on a link in the error list, it pops up a dialog. In the dialog there are some tabs. Click on the "sitemaps" and "linked from" tabs and see if you can narrow down the cause.

Speaking of sitemaps.... The one listed for your site in the "robots.txt"... Does not appear to exist... May want to fix this :)

... this I do not understand - what would the canonical link be? ...

The canonical links appear to be correct on your site. These are automatically generated by Zen Cart (and USU includes some minor changes so they work with USU). Google WMT has an okay article on the subject. Zen Cart currently generates canonical links for EVERY page. Recommendation from Google (and Bing) is to only set this if the URL differs from the canonical URL (but Google at least seems okay with it being on every page).

[raimond]

hello,

I have a problem with the function in the shoppingcart "Continu shopping". When someone put something in the cart from a categorypage and the clicks the button "continu shopping" and add another product in the cart, the firtst product is now twice in the cart and the last one isn't.

I think it has to do something with the url created after "continu shopping"....the url looks like this http://www.domain.com/onecat/?produc...12431&sort=20a

What can be the problem?