How to integrate with existing site?

Hi,

I just installed Zen Cart because I want to give multiple payment options (paypal, Gogole checkout, Amazon, etc.) where only PayPal is currently available on my site.

My goal is to have the "buy now" button on my site add the corresponding product to the shopping cart, take the user to view their cart, and present them with the checkout options.

I am having a hard time understanding how to do this. I would appreciate some guidance or a nod in the direction of documentation. Or am I misunderstanding Zen Cart?

Thank you!

Andrey

Sorry Audrey, it doesn't work that way.
You haven't mentioned just what your site is, but you would need to make Zen Cart look like your site and keep all transactions inside the Zen Cart engine.
Like a car's engine, you find the same style engine in many cars that look totally different. But, most all of them have the steering wheel and gas pedal in the same spot (even if on the left or right). You're idea is somewhat like putting the steering wheel in the trunk.:P

Zencart is not a "simple shopping basket and payment system" program.

It is a sophisticated eCommerce platform, designed to be your ENTIRE website. You don't fold zencart into an existing site...

You "abandon" your existing site (or certainly its architecture), and you create everything inside zencart.

Zencart (like all eComm programs) has literally hundreds of functions and features that all tie in with each other to some degree or other, and you can't easily "unpick" the software to just apply one or two of these features.

If you think that zencart is not capable of handling complicated and detailed sites, see what we are doing HERE... This is a site built on zencart, but there is NO eCommerce on it at all...

... But as the client MIGHT want eComm in the future, making it eComm will be very simple - just a few switches in the admin panel, and it becomes fully eCommerce...

Hi schoolboy

I guess I'm a bit surprised reading your explanation, because I thought that by linking ZenCart to our PayPal account, we could just have a PayPal button on our existing catalogue web pages that would redirect to a shopping cart. Do we actually have to rebuild our entire website to be "on" ZenCart? We don't have any developers here, so that would be impossible. Is there a function of ZC that would just allow it to be linked to our site, rather than "be" our site?

Thanks very much. I seem to have really misinterpreted the instructions from ZC and PayPal... :shocking:

~BG

Proper eCommerce is sophisticated stuff, and while zencart is very "user-friendly", it does require a fair degree of "webmaster" knowledge and ability to design and configure it.

ALL eCommerce platforms are like this... People who are not computer-savvy (in the webmaster sense), either take the time to learn the ropes, or they hire professionals to do the webmastering for them.

There are quite a few "hosted eCommerce" organisations that charge monthly subscription fees for reasonable eComm sites.

This may be a viable option for you.

Just to throw my 2 cents in: Take a stab at using Zen Cart. You'll encounter the learning curve, but when you're done, you'll find you have a site that's easier to maintain.

Complex? Yes. Impossible? No.

afo:

Just to throw my 2 cents in: Take a stab at using Zen Cart. You'll encounter the learning curve, but when you're done, you'll find you have a site that's easier to maintain.

Complex? Yes. Impossible? No.

I would add two things. One is that once you've done it, there's a tremendous degree of satisfaction. The other is that should you decide to use the services of a professional in the future, you'll have a much better grasp on web site concepts and be less likely to get hosed.

There is a LOT of value in taking time to learn the ropes... but in our experience (and we have built well over 500 sites in the last 17 years), most people (particularly those interested in online retail) want to get on with the business of retail... not web management.

When we suggest to clients that they take a more proactive interest in the technical side, by far the majority tell us that they are more than happy for US to look after the technical stuff, while they get on with the business of SELLING STUFF to customers.

Of course I do realise that there are huge numbers of people out there who have no choice but to assume both roles (budget constraints), but there is no denying that every hour you spend tinkering with code, databases, servers... is an hour you're not spending looking after your marketing and your sales.

We have had people come to us who have been trying for DAYS to get some desired alteration or behaviour done, and we have managed to sort it in minutes... But there you are... 17 years' experience in site building (7 in eCommerce alone) have given us the background and the knowledge.

Put a cost (including lost opportunity cost) to people's time, and there's a big difference between DAYS of effort and 10 minutes of effort.

I will say however, that this forum is one of the most valuable repositories of excellent advice and information, and it will provide even the most "green" of novices just about everything they need to set up and competently manage a zencart site.

So YES... install ZC and try it out...

Hello, new Zenner here. I've been reading replies to this question now for a while and everyone recommends you 'abandon' you existing site in favor of zen cart. I love the program and am implementing it on a new site, but what about an old site, already indexed in Google? If you move to ZC, how do you preserve your page(s) ranking?

Thanks,

Luis

One thing a lot of folks forget about SEO is that the search engines are competing with each other just like you are competing with your competition.
They are each vying with the others to get the freshest, most correct, best presented content they can find on any given subject. The number of people using their SE determines how much the advertisers are willing to spend with them.
It's the best win win situation and easily accomplished on your end because you ARE the best person to tell the world about your product.
You'll find the the search engines will hit your new site within hours of your initial setup.
On the plus side for Zen Cart, it's well known that Zen Cart is extremely SE friendly right out of the box. Where most noobs make a mistake is in thinking that pretty pictures make the sale. While that may be true, something has to get the customer there first before they can be wowed by the beauty of your product. That's where you, the SME (subject matter expert) come in. You don't need to throw a bunch of keywords at the SEs as they just don't use them. HOWEVER, it is a good idea to start with keywords on a product, develop them into an outline, and (finally) a product description. Use the Meta Tag symbols at the end of each category/product you add. Be brief with titles, succinct with meta descriptions and let it all hang out with the actual product descriptions.
Also do that for your main page, as well.
When you have the cart like you want it, you'll want to finish it off with a sitemap creation and send it to Google. They'll probably already have been there but submitting a good roadmap for them will only help.
The facts that you were ranked before, you will have a better SE-friendly cart, and the extra attention to content/sitemap will have you back on top in no time. You might even find yourself coming out ahead of where you were.

There is a great module for zen cart, called Ceon URI Mapping (SEO), that will allow you to retain your original URLs from your current website for each product (or any page on your site for that matter) so that you don't loose anything you've built up with the search engines and all your back-links will still work.

You can find it in the Free Software Add-Ons on the Zen Cart site here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1269

Dianne:

There is a great module for zen cart, called Ceon URI Mapping (SEO), that will allow you to retain your original URLs from your current website for each product (or any page on your site for that matter) so that you don't loose anything you've built up with the search engines and all your back-links will still work.

You can find it in the Free Software Add-Ons on the Zen Cart site here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=1269

While URI mapping is a good module, installing it will probably have little, if any, influence on Google coming into the site to check things out.

In January this year, we migrated a very clunky HTML site over to Zencart, (322 HTML pages) and within 14 days Google had started putting the new site into its results. Within 21 days the site was getting #1 rankings for over 50 product pages, and by the end of February this had escalated to over 200 POSITION ONE rankings, for many critical key-phrases.

Today, it gets positions One, Two and sometimes Three for many important keywords.

Never used SEO URLs ... never used URI's... never fooled about with ZC code to "tweak" how it writes meta data...

Just trusted core ZC to do its job.

BTW. I am happy to provide proof of the above by PM, just in case anyone disbelieves me.

There is, in practically all cases, no need to use URL re-writers... they do not influence SE's one little bit.

Hi,

How are you? I hope all is well! :)

schoolboy:

There is, in practically all cases, no need to use URL re-writers... they do not influence SE's one little bit.

I've seen you mention SEO rewriters a few times and I thought it probably best to correct you.. :)

There is indeed no need for modules that change a site's URIs. I think however that most would agree that static URIs look and work much better than dynamic URIs, as they can be used on advertising literature and customers can read/remember/type them in more easily.

In terms of SEO, content is king, and it is what anyone should concentrate on.

However, having keywords in URIs also adds a tiny bit to rankings in the search engines.

You can test this by setting up two sites with identical content, with one having the standard dynamic ZC URIs and one having static, keyword-based URIs.

The one with keywords in the URIs will rank higher in the search engines.

Again, it's not necessary for SEO as you point out.. content is 100% king, but contrary to what you thought it does actually increase rankings... but only by a tiny amount in comparison to content.

Hope that helps! :)

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Moderator's note - several posts re: SEO URL re-writes have been removed for NOT answering the poster question.

I love the program and am implementing it on a new site, but what about an old site, already indexed in Google? If you move to ZC, how do you preserve your page(s) ranking?

Reproduce those static pages using Zen Cart's EZ pages for information and the product pages for your merchandise. Then use 301 redirects from the old pages to your new pages.

Hi,

Kim:

Moderator's note - several posts re: SEO URL re-writes have been removed for NOT answering the poster question.

Removed or moved?

The thread had diverged but I thought the info was still useful in context.

I wrote a post, late at night, to be helpful, I hope it wasn't simply deleted and my time wasted? I can't find what I wrote?

I'm replying here as I don't use your PM system and don't know how else to ask you this.

Thanks,

Conor

Kim:

Reproduce those static pages using Zen Cart's EZ pages for information and the product pages for your merchandise. Then use 301 redirects from the old pages to your new pages.

Thanks!

Luis