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

I installed this on my 1.5.5a and the installation went fine (except I had to do manual install - plugin manager doesn't exist)
Admin area came up with something like "Ultimate URLs installed successfully" in a green box :)

I can see and enter the setup for the module and it's showing as Enable alternate URLs? = true but my urls are still showing as :
http://www.skysports.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_19&products_id=281

Do I have to do something to kick off the process?

Since you did a "manual" install, did you remember to copy/merge the /.htaccess file? That's where much of the USU "magic" comes from.

Yes, i copied the file to / (same place as DIR_WS_CATALOG).
What permissions on .htaccess? Currently 644

Kenton:

I installed this on my 1.5.5a and the installation went fine (except I had to do manual install - plugin manager doesn't exist)
Admin area came up with something like "Ultimate URLs installed successfully" in a green box :)

I can see and enter the setup for the module and it's showing as Enable alternate URLs? = true but my urls are still showing as :
http://www.skysports.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_19&products_id=281

Do I have to do something to kick off the process?
It looks like you are missing some of the changes this module makes to core Zen Cart files. The currently version available from this website is compatible with Zen Cart 1.3.9h through Zen Cart 1.5.4. The included installer understands all of those versions and can apply the necessary changes to core Zen Cart files (and may even work with early releases of Zen Cart 1.5.5).

However some changes were introduced in Zen Cart 1.5.5a to the core Zen Cart files modified by the Ultimate URLs installer. There is a good chance when the installer runs it is unable to locate where changes to those files are needed (and just skips them to avoid breaking anything). While one could manually apply the changes required for older versions of Zen Cart, I am hesitant to recommend making any changes to the Zen Cart 1.5.5a core files at this time (an alternative method was introduced in Zen Cart 1.5.5a and some new code in Ultimate URLs to support the changes is still in QA testing).

When is a 155a compatible version likely to be available?

Is this add on anything like ultimate SEO URLs for oscommerce?

dspeak35640:

Is this add on anything like ultimate SEO URLs for oscommerce?

it looks like it is something like it.... probably derived from the same original code.

carlwhat:

it looks like it is something like it.... probably derived from the same original code.

Thank you for the quick response.

The reason I am thinking of installing this add on is because I went from oscommerce to zencart. Now all my links on the search engines are broken and I was thinking that if I had this installed my urls would be like the old urls and the search engine links would work once again.
Also do I need to just leave the core files alone, or do I have to upload the included core files with the package.

In your opinion is a add on like this helpful or not for getting pages indexed by search engines.

dspeak35640:

Thank you for the quick response.

The reason I am thinking of installing this add on is because I went from oscommerce to zencart. Now all my links on the search engines are broken and I was thinking that if I had this installed my urls would be like the old urls and the search engine links would work once again.
Also do I need to just leave the core files alone, or do I have to upload the included core files with the package.

In your opinion is a add on like this helpful or not for getting pages indexed by search engines.

you are best reading the install instructions. i think it touches a few core files, but i think this plug-in is FAR more solid than other plug-ins i have had to wrestle with.

i am NOT the SEO king, and clearly SEO has changed/evolved over the years that opportunists were buying domain names and holding them for ransom. and my opinion is just one data point.

there was an interesting conversation over on github on this very topic. i suggest reading that conversation and you can then make the decision yourself.

best.

https://github.com/zencart/zencart/issues/956

Hello there,

I wondered if somebody might have encountered this issue, it also happens to other SEO modules on zencart. I get many log like below, the file it is looking for does not exist. If I make an empty file of the same name in that location, the log for that particular url does not appear anymore. But there are countless logs that are being created still. Htaccess is configured as in installation for ultimate urls, and files are present and correct, and module works fine. I think this may be server related or old redirections that spiders are looking for, but just throwing this out in the hope somebody maybe was able to find which aspect is causing it. Thanks in advance.

[03-Jul-2016 09:31:22 America/New_York] PHP Warning: require(includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_appletouchiconpng_default.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home//public_html/includes/templates//common/tpl_main_page.php on line 154
[03-Jul-2016 09:31:22 America/New_York] Request URI: /index.php?main_page=appletouchiconpng, IP address:******
#1 require() called at [/home//public_html/includes/templates//common/tpl_main_page.php:154]
#2 require(/home//public_html/includes/templates/*****/common/tpl_main_page.php) called at [/home//public_html/index.php:97]

HeathenMagic:

tpl_appletouchiconpng_default.php

When Apple-products try to surf around your site, instead of looking for favicon.ico files first, they look for apple-touch-icon.png files.
If you create that file, then this specific issue will go away.

Actually they look for lots of variants of that file, including the following (and probably more):
apple-touch-icon-180x180.png
apple-touch-icon-152x152.png
apple-touch-icon-120x120.png
apple-touch-icon-76x76.png
apple-touch-icon-57x57.png
apple-touch-icon.png
touch-icon-192x192.png

And microsoft devices (windows phones, surface tablets) look for:
ms-tile-image144x144.png

And they all look for favicon.ico too.

So the solution is simple: use an icon-capable graphics program to create appropriate variants of your store logo for the corresponding dimensions and filenames, and put them on your server.
There are hundreds of online articles on how to do this, including dozens of software programs that can do it. Some free. Some with crappy adware. Always use caution when installing new software.

Thanks Dr Byte, I will look into this and hope I can rectify the issue. It does it with file names also, and image names of some items, that reference such as 'tpl_imagesdiamondoiljpg_default.php' in the the templates folder. I am thinking it may be from an old template, as I switched and it seems to have the same behaviour. And files from modules such as'tpl_guestandfullaccountsupported_default.php' and 'tpl_qc_login_default.php'. So far I have nullified these logs by creating blank files for these and more. I will create logo variations as you advised, I think I have some good software somewhere that I can use.

HeathenMagic:

It does it with file names also, and image names of some items, that reference such as 'tpl_imagesdiamondoiljpg_default.php' in the the templates folder. I am thinking it may be from an old template, as I switched and it seems to have the same behaviour. And files from modules such as'tpl_guestandfullaccountsupported_default.php' and 'tpl_qc_login_default.php'.
Probably need to also fix whatever is rewriting things to point to invalid locations. And maybe turn back on the Missing Page Check setting in Admin->Config->My Store.

Hi All,
I installed USU 2.215 on my 1.5.5a and the installation went fine.
Admin area came up with "Ultimate URLs installed successfully".

The links in shop still looks without changes. For ex. link to contact us page is "http://domain/index.php?main_page=contact_us", but when I open this link, in browser address bar is displayed the "http://domain/contact_us.html" link. When I fill the link "http://domain/contact_us.html" in the address bar in new window of my browser, then page is opened ok.
It looks all going fine, but shop displays old untouched links.

Any idea?
Many thanks.
Radek

do you have any sort of caching turned on?

Kenton:

When is a 155a compatible version likely to be available?

Any updates as of then a 1.5.5a compatible version will be available? I upgraded from 1.3.9h to 1.5.5a and now all of my old links are broken, I'd really like to get this installed in order to fix this!

carlwhat:

do you have any sort of caching turned on?

No, all cache features (in USU settings) are OFF. But same behavior is, when I set it ON.

Radek:

No, all cache features (in USU settings) are OFF. But same behavior is, when I set it ON.

I went ahead and attempted to install it, I am having the same results as Radek. If anyone knows of anything we can try, please post!

if your site(s) are available to look at, post the url so that we can get a better sense of the issue.

in addition, have you tried turning on the debug log in admin => configuration => SEO urls. and if so can you post some of the contents of the log?

carlwhat:

if your site(s) are available to look at, post the url so that we can get a better sense of the issue.

in addition, have you tried turning on the debug log in admin => configuration => SEO urls. and if so can you post some of the contents of the log?

Hi Carlwhat,
My site is augiespanoramas(dot)com
I enabled debug log in the Configuration settings.
Here are the logs that I found (doubt they're useful):

index-2016-Jul-17_2.log

============================================================
===== URL Generation Log Started 2016-Jul-17T00:27:51
============================================================
Real URI:      index.php?main_page=index&cPath=10_63
Request URI:   /index.php?main_page=index&cPath=10_63
Canonical URI: 

============================================================
===== Generated Alternative URLs
============================================================

and:
product_info-2016-Jul-17_0.log

============================================================
===== URL Generation Log Started 2016-Jul-17T00:27:55
============================================================
Real URI:      index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10_63&products_id=145
Request URI:   /index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10_63&products_id=145
Canonical URI: 

============================================================
===== Generated Alternative URLs
============================================================