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

Need help! I have Ultimate URL 2.215 and I have found that everytime I change the page title, it creates a new link. So for one product page, if I edit the title, I could easily have 5 different links all with different keywords, linking to my product. I'm just learning SEO, but this seems like it would hurt my SEO efforts if I decide to use a different target keyword for a product. I could change it, but 5 other links to the same page could be indexed by google with keywords I don't want to use anymore.

I posted a thread about this: https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?219908-Store-Keeps-Generating-Links-Now-I-have-20-000&p=1308084#post1308084

How do I get rid of the links Ultimate URL has created? I now have 20,000 links to a 5,000 page site...a bit insane and I don't think this is a good thing for our site to have in general.

How can I get Ultimate URL to stop generating new links and just update the original one? Should I turn it off?

Thank you for any help!

I would not worry as long as the template you installed did not remove the built in support for canonicals. If it did, you will want to fix the template ASAP.

Keep in mind Zen Cart and Ultimate URLs (when zen_href_link is used) do not continue generating links to the older URLs. So both customers and SEs will only see the current URL when visiting a page.

One can choose to enable "automatic redirects". This forces a 301 redirect to the newest URL when the page is accessed from older URLs.

If you want to remove Ultimate URLs, make sure you leave behind the .htaccess file - so old URLs go to the new URL. The canonicals will keep SEs informed - or you can modify the .htaccess to issue 301s.

Thank you for the feedback. A few follow up questions:

1. could having all these extra links be slowing website performance?
2. would having the extra links be essentially hurting our indexing since google would be wasting time crawling so many urls for a page when only one is needed?
3. This is also a concern: (per Google) "This indicates the preferred URL to use to access the green dress post, so that the search results will be more likely to show users that URL structure. (Note: We attempt to respect this, but cannot guarantee this in all cases.)" If there is no guarantee one of the URLs we don't like will come up in a search, this could deter our clients. If we make a typo, for example, click update, then go back and fix it, the typo URL still exists and Google can index it, even if its attached to a canonical. How do we go into our root folders and simply remove all URLs we no longer want?

Thank you!

No "extra" URLs exist in your store, so there are no URLs to remove. Only the most recent title is used (when generating a URL) by Zen Cart w/ Ultimate URLs installed. Take a look at the HTML Source of your pages, you (and search engines) will only see one URL generated for each product page.

As such, what you are reporting is not an issue or error with Ultimate URLs.

Hi Larry - where can I download 'Plugin Manager' which you recommend for installing your plugin - it is not coming up in searches in ZC plugins ??

cheers,
Mike

shags38:

Hi Larry - where can I download 'Plugin Manager' which you recommend for installing your plugin - it is not coming up in searches in ZC plugins ??

cheers,
Mike

Ummmm I think lhungil's name is Andrew..

Last I knew the plugin manager on which lhungil was working was still in beta status and available through request. In the mean time if you were wanting to identify changes that have been made to a cart by plugins (outside of the plugin manager) there is Mod List that identifies specific differences in the cart as compared to a default install to "some extent". (meaning I haven't looked at what it uses as a comparison to validate the "differences".)

DivaVocals:

Ummmm I think lhungil's name is Andrew..
yes, but he lets me call him Larry

When I install this on a 1.5.5 I got this in the admin area?

Some potential issues were found in your "admin" configure.php. Failure to correct these issues may result in Zen Cart not functioning as intended.
The "admin" configure.php file can be found at /xxxxxx/xxxxxx/public_html/morrisgiftshop.biz/xxxxxxx/includes/configure.php.
The HTTP_CATALOG_SERVER setting cannot end with a slash. Remove the extra / from the end of HTTP_CATALOG_SERVER
The HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER setting cannot end with a slash. Remove the extra / from the end of HTTPS_CATALOG_SERVER
The value for DIR_WS_CATALOG cannot be blank. If the store installed at the website root (not in a subdirectory), set the value for DIR_WS_CATALOG to /. If the store is in a subdirectory, the name of the subdirectory should be placed in DIR_WS_CATALOG. The subdirectory should be preceded and followed by slashes, e.g. /store/.
The value for DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG cannot be blank. If the store installed at the website root (not in a subdirectory), set the value for DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG to /. If the store is in a subdirectory, the name of the subdirectory should be placed in DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG. The subdirectory should be preceded and followed by slashes, e.g. /store/.

wmorris:

When I install this on a 1.5.5 I got this in the admin area?
Read it - it is self explanatory

kobra:

Read it - it is self explanatory

Ok, when I remove the slashes as it says in the Admin. Now I got this:

Some potential issues were found in your "admin" configure.php. Failure to correct these issues may result in Zen Cart not functioning as intended.
The "admin" configure.php file can be found at /xxxxxxx/xxxxxx/public_html/morrisgiftshop.biz/xxxxxxx/includes/configure.php.
The value for DIR_WS_CATALOG cannot be blank. If the store installed at the website root (not in a subdirectory), set the value for DIR_WS_CATALOG to /. If the store is in a subdirectory, the name of the subdirectory should be placed in DIR_WS_CATALOG. The subdirectory should be preceded and followed by slashes, e.g. /store/.
The value for DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG cannot be blank. If the store installed at the website root (not in a subdirectory), set the value for DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG to /. If the store is in a subdirectory, the name of the subdirectory should be placed in DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG. The subdirectory should be preceded and followed by slashes, e.g. /store/.

Also, there is no Ultimate SEO in the Configuration menu.

What I uploaded was 3_install files and modified files for v1.5.5.

Ok, when I remove the slashes as it says in the Admin. Now I got this:
You had this before - - Again read it - it is self explanatory

T[B]he value for DIR_WS_CATALOG cannot be blank.[/B]

kobra:

You had this before - - Again read it - it is self explanatory

T[B]he value for DIR_WS_CATALOG cannot be blank.[/B]

Is this in the Admin area? If it is what do I need to put in the blank?

wmorris:

Is this in the Admin area? If it is what do I need to put in the blank?
The message you received started with:

Some potential issues were found in your [B]"admin"[/B] configure.php. Failure to correct these issues may result in Zen Cart not functioning as intended.

You'll need to edit /YOUR_ADMIN/includes/configure.php and set the value for DIR_WS_CATALOG and DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG to (presumably) '/', e.g.

define ('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/');

lat9:

The message you received started with:

Some potential issues were found in your [B]"admin"[/B] configure.php. Failure to correct these issues may result in Zen Cart not functioning as intended.

> You'll need to edit /YOUR_ADMIN/includes/configure.php and set the value for DIR_WS_CATALOG and DIR_WS_HTTPS_CATALOG to (presumably) '/', e.g.
> ```
define ('DIR_WS_CATALOG', '/');

Ok, I got it to work. I notice something like p-100 in the link is that normal or can I get rid of that?

it's normal. its known as an anchor.

carlwhat:

it's normal. its known as an anchor.

Ok, on this:
Display categories as directories I have that turned off.

But when I look at a product I see this: flower-top-jar-p-570.html?cPath=2_58 is there a way to get rid of the "?cPath="

you should have a configuration screen in the admin for ultimate SEO. look for the generate cPath parameters. you could turn it off there, although it might mess with your breadcrumbs and some other minor navigation issues when viewing a product. depends if you link 1 product to many categories and some other factors.

carlwhat:

you should have a configuration screen in the admin for ultimate SEO. look for the generate cPath parameters. you could turn it off there, although it might mess with your breadcrumbs and some other minor navigation issues when viewing a product. depends if you link 1 product to many categories and some other factors.

Ok, Thanks. I found it before you replied. Plus I only had 1 product per category not multiple categories.