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

lat9:

What's weird is that one of my clients that's using USU doesn't exhibit this behavior. What template's in use?

im using wokiee template although... it was very badly coded. 2 Forum members helped massively with getting it running on 1.58, since the upgrade im error log free with the exception of the few from a module im testing for google logins at the moment. That module doesn't interfere with urls though and the symptom is present on the sites copy that does not have that addition. Something perhaps many sites have installed that particular one does not have if it is not template related. Let me know if there are any files you want me to send over to dif or further info such as installed modules ect

When "Alternate URLs end with" is set to ".html", links for products end in .html as expected but links for categories do not. Is this a bug or expected?

swguy:

When "Alternate URLs end with" is set to ".html", links for products end in .html as expected but links for categories do not. Is this a bug or expected?
It's as expected. A category is, in essence, a directory containing products or other categories/directories.

Makes sense. TY.

I am in the process of redesigning a site from 1.5.8 to 2.1.0 and I have installed this plugin. The current site as it is now, does not have ultimate SEO installed yet it receives great traffic. My question is if I activate the plugin to enable alternate url's should I expect the site traffic to decline or increase? I am concerned of any decline in traffic. Thanks.

My feeling is that if you are getting good traffic from the search engines with the stock URLs, don't change them. Google can decide to mess with page rank when URLs change. However, you can enable automatic 301 redirects from older URLs (both stock and alternative) to the new URLs in this module; it shouldn't be too bad.

barco57:

My feeling is that if you are getting good traffic from the search engines with the stock URLs, don't change them. Google can decide to mess with page rank when URLs change. However, you can enable automatic 301 redirects from older URLs (both stock and alternative) to the new URLs in this module; it shouldn't be too bad.

Sounds great. Thank you for your response. I really appreciate it.

From my experience you will not see any difference in traffic at all when using rewrites.
But if you decide to drop SEO url in the future you will get indexing errors of course.

I am using Ultimate URl v3.1.2 on my Windows Dev server, with PHP 8.4 and ZC 2.2.0, and it runs as expected.

The same configuration and files are installed on my Linux Test laptop, with PHP 8.4 and ZC 2.2.0, and it runs as expected.

On the pre-production Linux machine with PHP 8.4 and ZC 2.2.0 I see the same URL eg "https://bmhtest.bmh.com.au/chains-and-sprockets-c-181/" but get 404 errors.

the .htaccess file is the same across all systems

I have removed and reinstalled all Ultimate URLs usu-3.1.2 files several times. I tried the usu files with permissions set to 777 (in desperation!).

What other permissions could be preventing it from working?

Where does usu try to write the URLs if it no longer uses a database table?

Environment Dev: Zen Cart 2.2.0; Apache 2.4.63; PHP 8.4.16; MySQL 11.8.5-MariaDB-log; Windows 11
Environment Test: Zen Cart 2.2.0; Apache 2.4.52; PHP 8.4.16; MySQL 10.6.22-MariaDB-log; Linux 5.15.0-164 Ubuntu(Mint)
Environment Pre-prod: Zen Cart 2.2.0; Apache 2.4.66; PHP 8.4.16; MySQL 11.8.5-MariaDB-log; Linux 6.8.0-59 Ubuntu

OldNGrey:

....

"https://bmhtest.bmh.com.au/chains-and-sprockets-c-181/" but get 404 errors.

the .htaccess file is the same across all systems

I have removed and reinstalled all Ultimate URLs usu-3.1.2 files several times. I tried the usu files with permissions set to 777 (in desperation!).

What other permissions could be preventing it from working?

Where does usu try to write the URLs if it no longer uses a database table?

404 means not found.

your url is not found. it has little to do with usu files...

there is no db table because the info is in the url.

your .htaccess file should rewrite the url to:

"https://bmhtest.bmh.com.au/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=181"

if that url works, then there is a problem with the .htaccess file. i would ensure that your system is reading the .htaccess file and that file is properly written for the apache version you are running. a simple test is to add 1 line of muck into the file and then nothing should work. if that is the case, then your system is reading the .htaccess file and there is a problem with the rules contained within it.

if the above url does NOT work, then you have a different problem as category 181 is not found.

Sometimes stepping back from the bigger problem makes the actual target problem obvious.

Everything worked on that box with zc2.1.0 so what is different? Apache was upgraded. Apache reports the rewrite module is enabled.

To test it I created a file in my Zen Cart main folder named " check_rewrite.php". Within that file I placed the following

<?php echo "Mod_rewrite is working!"; ?>.

I then placed the followed rewrite directive in my .htaccess file. ```

TEST REWRITE

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^.*$ check_rewrite.php [L]
##############

On the Dev and Test installations the rewrite worked and a page with the message " Mod_rewrite is working!" displayed.
On the problem installation Zen cart fired up normally.

So the rewrite module on the problem box is not functioning correctly. This probably occurred with the last Apache upgrade.
So I'll reapply Apache.

Zen Cart 2.2.0 (alpha) works really well with my testing and in my case it is fast.

I had been running this on my website for years.... recently upgraded to ZC 2.1.0 and USU 3.1.2 - after the upgrade, my links in custom sideboxes, categories sideboxes, and menu links all give 404's with the html link created by USU.

Any ideas what might be causing the this? I've turned it off so the links work for now.

Carbonless:

I had been running this on my website for years.... recently upgraded to ZC 2.1.0 and USU 3.1.2 - after the upgrade, my links in custom sideboxes, categories sideboxes, and menu links all give 404's with the html link created by USU.

Any ideas what might be causing the this? I've turned it off so the links work for now.
Did you apply the required changes to the site's .htaccess file to redirect those USU urls?

if I said yes, that would make my post legit... Alas, the single simple thing I didn't do, since I previously had it installed, but it was several versions back.

I made the change, and WALA... working.

Your reply saved me, thank you soo much #iykyk

v4.0.0 of USU is now available for download: https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=132

This releases contains changes associated with these GitHub issues:

#66: Minimum zc158a and PHP 8.0 required.
#65: PHP SID deprecated in PHP 8.4.
#63: Use zc158+ array-based language files
#62: Update .htaccess to enable image files matching the USU signature to be properly loaded.

v4.0.1 of USU is now available for download: https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=132

This release contains changes associated with these GitHub issues: https://github.com/lat9/usu/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20milestone%3Av4.0.1

lat9:

v4.0.1 of USU is now available for download: https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=132

This release contains changes associated with these GitHub issues: https://github.com/lat9/usu/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20milestone%3Av4.0.1
Unfortunately, this release includes a PHP fatal error (see GitHub issue #73, PHP fatal error due to mistyping of redirect_uri in v4.0.1). I've just submitted v4.0.2 of USU which includes all the changes for v4.0.1 and also corrects this issue.

Running ZC 2.2.2, php 8.3, RC template (clone) and USU 4.0.2.
The breadcrumb home link is being built as domain.com//.html
I'm digging around to find a solution, but so far no luck. Everything else is working fine. Please advise.

Thank you,
John

bumba000:

Running ZC 2.2.2, php 8.3, RC template (clone) and USU 4.0.2.
The breadcrumb home link is being built as domain.com//.html
I'm digging around to find a solution, but so far no luck. Everything else is working fine. Please advise.

Thank you,
John
John, I'm not seeing that behavior. The breadcrumb home-link I'm seeing is built as simply domain.com.

Other than the enable setting, did you make any changes to USU's default configuration?

lat9:

John, I'm not seeing that behavior. The breadcrumb home-link I'm seeing is built as...

I sure didn't. I didn't even change anything in the admin config usu. This happens on the RC clone template, the RC as well as classic green.

Thank you,
John