Simple SEO URL (OLD version) [support thread]

I can't get this to work.. I downloaded and installed using my best guess as there were NO installation instructions included. I have read many posts here that say that there is minimal editing ( 1 file ) but nobody has ever mentioned WHICH file.

I installed by simply copying the downloaded content over the top of my installation and I am getting a blank page with this in my error log...

[Wed Aug 22 15:28:07 2012] [error] [client 192.168.9.253] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.

SPH:

I went to your site to see if it has the back button/page not found problem SOME of my sites had with Simple SEO . . . hit back button from Ask a Question to return to product: goes to page not found in IE9. Didn't check my other browsers.

Same issue if go to product, then Contact Us, then hit back button at bottom of Contact Us.

Hmmm, curious about this. I just tested this on Chrome, Firefox, and IE 9.0 and didn't see this glitch. I do dislike how the page displays in IE, but that is another issue, LOL.

If I go to Ask a Question, I always go back to the original item. If however I got to Contact Us, apparently I set it up to open a new browser window, so within THAT window, there is effectively no back button, but the original window should still be open. This, appears to be handled the same way with all three of these tested browsers . . . tell me more about what you are seeing, if it is different that what I see.

I believe my Conditions/Terms window is handled the same way as Contact Us (i.e. new window), but will have to check. If it isn't it probably should be.

BTW, still not drama free with Simple SEO - I'm not sure if I've broken something else, while testing, but the change of the examplesite.com/includes/init_includes/init_ssu.php may not be the complete fix, or at the very least it is not fixing my ultimate problem. If this trick helps any one else let us all know.

Cheers, Seán

I just re-checked this time not only in IE9 but Firefox and Chrome. All three browsers had back button/page not found issue from Ask a Question.

I also just noticed that the Contact Us opens in a new window, so agree that that is probably cause of that one.

I'm testing the Ultimate SEO URL* and plan to use it when I upgrade my main site to 1.5 and return to re-writing. But some of my test sites have the same problem but in the Chorme browser.

Can't explain it. But I have Ultimate SEO on a fresh 1.5 install with Classic template and everything is working (according to my browsers). As time permits I'll add a template(s) and some mods to see if and where it breaks.

*NOTE: Before anyone runs to Ultimate SEO which has been upgraded for 1.5 zencart, the very latest update has an install problem with it not showing in admin, which I believe will soon be taken care of, if it already has not. See the latest thread here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?199064-Ultimate-SEO-2-200-%28new-features%29-Support-Thread&p=1146019#post1146019

I have back button/page_not_found problem too for firefox and chrome. i use simple ssu and 1.3.9h

SPH:

I just re-checked this time not only in IE9 but Firefox and Chrome. All three browsers had back button/page not found issue from Ask a Question.

I also just noticed that the Contact Us opens in a new window, so agree that that is probably cause of that one.

I'm testing the Ultimate SEO URL* and plan to use it when I upgrade my main site to 1.5 and return to re-writing. But some of my test sites have the same problem but in the Chorme browser.

Can't explain it. But I have Ultimate SEO on a fresh 1.5 install with Classic template and everything is working (according to my browsers). As time permits I'll add a template(s) and some mods to see if and where it breaks.

*NOTE: Before anyone runs to Ultimate SEO which has been upgraded for 1.5 zencart, the very latest update has an install problem with it not showing in admin, which I believe will soon be taken care of, if it already has not. See the latest thread here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?199064-Ultimate-SEO-2-200-%28new-features%29-Support-Thread&p=1146019#post1146019

sgc1998:

I have back button/page_not_found problem too for firefox and chrome. i use simple ssu and 1.3.9h

Take a look at the back button/page not found fix in post no. 1 here:

http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?200899-page_not_found-should-remove-itself-from-the-navigation-history

It worked for me on my ZC1.5.1 using Ultimate SEO URL and my 1.3.9h cart using Simple SEO.

Got tip from the new Ultimate SEO URL thread here, post no. 57:

http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?199064-Ultimate-SEO-2-200-%28new-features%29-Support-Thread/page6

My Zen cart is v1.3.9h. I have installed SSU successful but I recognized weird things happening in Who's Online. Before installing SSU, I've never saw this link "/favicon.ico", and duplicate IPs is only 1, 2, or 3, but now, I see tons of "/favicon.ico" and they are from duplicate IPs, around 19 duplicate IPs. I still see other people browsing my website with products and categories no problem, so I really wonder why this things happen. Could anyone please help me? Thanks in advanced.

Has anyone been able to get the Edit Cart Mod to work with Simple SEO. I am using 3.8.5 on 1.3.8. Yes I know it's old but I don't want to change it yet.
Would appreciate any suggestions to get the two to work together. Edit Cart works great when Simple SEO is off but I don't want that.

corseter:

Edit Cart works great when Simple SEO is off but I don't want that.

Your whole site will work better and be more reliable without this mod. It contributes nothing to SEO. You would do well to visit schema.org and then look at: http://pro-webs.net/blog/2012/09/25/customizing-google-snippets-with-schema-org-microdata/ ...

... to see where real SEO is heading. There is no advantage to re-writing URL's, and a lot of risks.

corseter:

Has anyone been able to get the Edit Cart Mod to work with Simple SEO. I am using 3.8.5 on 1.3.8. Yes I know it's old but I don't want to change it yet.
Would appreciate any suggestions to get the two to work together. Edit Cart works great when Simple SEO is off but I don't want that.
While folks continue to use the support threads of these modules to champion for their non-use, I think there are other MORE important things that you need to be made aware of.. (and so it's clear I don't think re-writer modules do anything useful or magical for SEO, but there are PLENTY of other good business reasons to use a re-writer module)

Dunno if you noticed, but the author of this mod is no longer actively supporting this or any of their other modules and there has been no one in the community who has stepped in to take over as it's active maintainer.. Add to this that you are using an old unsupported (and BUGGY) version of Zen Cart, and I am not sure you are going to get much help/support for this particular module at all. With the exception of unanswered support questions/queries, and off-topic commentaries, this support thread has been pretty inactive for some time now. I know that doesn't help you now with your question, but it might give you a compelling reason to consider that this might be the time to upgrade your store. As URL re-writing modules go, this one always was the most problematic IMHO, and if you upgrade and still want to maintain your re-written URLs, you will want to look at modules that are working and supported.. (SSU is NOT one of them)

DivaVocals:

As URL re-writing modules go, this one always was the most problematic...

... Suggesting that all the others are problematic too - but less so ? :D

fairestcape:

... Suggesting that all the others are problematic too - but less so ? :D
Right..:smile: Not suggesting any such thing.. Respectfully I am disagreeing with your POV which based on some of your past posts you are backing up that POV by using user installation errors as the basis of the "problematic" moniker you assign to these modules.

You will get no argument from me that URL re-writer modules are no magic bullet for SEO no matter what people continue to believe.. Based on your posts, it's clear that you consider them "unnecessary".. I think there are other business reasons for using a URL re-writer, and as long as folks using these modules understand that they are not the SEO booster they think they are, there's nothing wrong with installing a URL re-writer for having nicer URLs.. ANY module installed incorrectly can cause issues (which is the sum total of the kinds of posts reported in the support threads of the "others") .. Ceon URI and Ultimate SEO are both pretty solid/stable and supported URL re-writer modules.. SSU hasn't been any of these things in quite sometime.. SSU was abandoned by the author and has a series of issues that correctly installed or not will rear their ugly little head because there are parts of this module that are just buggy. THAT makes this one TRULY a "problematic" module..

DivaVocals:

Right..:smile: Not suggesting any such thing.. Respectfully I am disagreeing with your POV which based on some of your past posts you are backing up that POV by using user installation errors as the basis of the "problematic" moniker you assign to these modules.

You will get no argument from me that URL re-writer modules are no magic bullet for SEO no matter what people continue to believe.. Based on your posts, it's clear that you consider them "unnecessary".. I think there are other business reasons for using a URL re-writer, and as long as folks using these modules understand that they are not the SEO booster they think they are, there's nothing wrong with installing a URL re-writer for having nicer URLs.. ANY module installed incorrectly can cause issues (which is the sum total of the kinds of posts reported in the support threads of the "others") .. Ceon URI and Ultimate SEO are both pretty solid/stable and supported URL re-writer modules.. SSU hasn't been any of these things in quite sometime.. SSU was abandoned by the author and has a series of issues that correctly installed or not will rear their ugly little head because there are parts of this module that are just buggy. THAT makes this one TRULY a "problematic" module..

... just yanking your chain Diva.

I just find it so sad that so many people believe URL re-writes are going to magically rank them better on the SE's. I attend a LOT of programming seminars in London and Capetown - particularly those that focus on SEO issues relating to code. Everyone I listen to (and chat to) advises developers steer well clear of URL re-writing. Over the last 18 months / 2 years the discussion has focused largely on the Semantic Web and the embedding of MicroData tags into the page HTML as this is where the future lies.

"Pages" will no longer be "ranked", and <meta headers> will become all but irrelevant. CONTENT within the page will be "benchmarked" and "rated" according to how well it meets the item defines (depending on which XMLNS protocol being used.)

Quite frankly I don't care if people use these "useless and risky" plugins - and if they compete with any of our clients' websites, then I actively encourage to install URL Re-writing, as the likelihood that they will break their site is quite high - meaning that we have fewer competitors to worry about!

fairestcape:

... just yanking your chain Diva.I knew that..:smile:

fairestcape:

I just find it so sad that so many people believe URL re-writes are going to magically rank them better on the SE's. I attend a LOT of programming seminars in London and Capetown - particularly those that focus on SEO issues relating to code. Everyone I listen to (and chat to) advises developers steer well clear of URL re-writing. Over the last 18 months / 2 years the discussion has focused largely on the Semantic Web and the embedding of MicroData tags into the page HTML as this is where the future lies.

"Pages" will no longer be "ranked", and <meta headers> will become all but irrelevant. CONTENT within the page will be "benchmarked" and "rated" according to how well it meets the item defines (depending on which XMLNS protocol being used.)

And again.. you get no argument from me with regards to these modules having ZERO effect on SEO, and the fact that there are many who still beleive in this brand of SEO snakeoil... I still believe that there are other very valid business reasons to want nicer URLs, and for those shopowners who want to install a re-writer, I encourage them to install one of the two which are stable and supported.

fairestcape:

Quite frankly **I don't care if people use these "useless and risky" plugins **- and if they compete with any of our clients' websites, then I actively encourage to install URL Re-writing, as the likelihood that they will break their site is quite high - meaning that we have fewer competitors to worry about!You say that, but that you do seem to enthusiastically enjoy posting your "just say no to re-writers" message in the support threads of these modules.. From the outside, it sure looks like you do care on some level..

However to your last point which implies that one is MORE likely to break their site simple BECAUSE they installed once of these modules I will say this again.. Anyone can break ANY site with an INCORRECTLY installed module.. (the posts in the support threads for the most popular Zen Cart modules will bear this out..) To imply that ALL URL re-writer modules will break a site simply because it is installed is a tad misleading.. SSU is buggy, broken, unsupported, and IS likely to break one's site especially if one is running Zen Cart v1.3.9 or v1.5 not because it's URL re-writer, but because it's buggy broken, and unsupported. The others cannot be described in the same manner. Ceon URI or Ultimate SEO if installed correctly will not break one's site simply because it's there..

DO OVER.. Just wanted to clean up my post a tad.. (this is why one should not post while in the middle of a conference call :laugh:)

fairestcape:

... just yanking your chain Diva.I knew that..:smile:

fairestcape:

I just find it so sad that so many people believe URL re-writes are going to magically rank them better on the SE's. I attend a LOT of programming seminars in London and Capetown - particularly those that focus on SEO issues relating to code. Everyone I listen to (and chat to) advises developers steer well clear of URL re-writing. Over the last 18 months / 2 years the discussion has focused largely on the Semantic Web and the embedding of MicroData tags into the page HTML as this is where the future lies.

"Pages" will no longer be "ranked", and <meta headers> will become all but irrelevant. CONTENT within the page will be "benchmarked" and "rated" according to how well it meets the item defines (depending on which XMLNS protocol being used.)And again.. you get no argument from me with regards to these modules having ZERO effect on SEO.. The fact that there are many business owners who still believe and rather are COUNTING on this form of SEO snakeoil is indeed very sad (and frankly makes me giggle sometimes)... That said, I still believe that there are other very valid business reasons to want nicer URLs, and for those shopowners who want to install a re-writer to achieve that, I encourage them to install one of the two which are stable and supported. (and it's NOT SSU)

fairestcape:

Quite frankly I don't care if people use these "useless and risky" plugins - and if they compete with any of our clients' websites, then I actively encourage to install URL Re-writing, as the likelihood that they will break their site is quite high - meaning that we have fewer competitors to worry about!
You say that, but that you do seem to enthusiastically enjoy posting your "just say no to re-writers" message in the support threads of these modules quite frequently..:smile: From the outside, it sure looks like you do care on some level..:smile:

However to your last point which implies that one is MORE likely to break their site simply BECAUSE they installed one of these modules I will say this again.. Anyone can break ANY site with any INCORRECTLY installed module.. (the posts in the support threads for the most popular Zen Cart modules will bear this out..) To imply that ALL URL re-writer modules will break a site simply because a URL re-writer has been installed is a tad misleading I would think..

SSU is buggy, broken, unsupported, and IS likely to break one's site especially if one is running Zen Cart v1.3.9 or v1.5 not because it's a URL re-writer module, but because it's buggy, broken, and unsupported. The "others" in this class of modules cannot be described in the same manner. ANY buggy, broken, and unsupported module can have the same undesired effect on one's store. So I think the message to shopowners should be to NOT install ANY buggy, broken, and unsupported modules of ANY kind.. Ceon URI or Ultimate SEO if installed correctly will not break one's site simply because it's there.. Plenty of users of these modules can attest to that.. SSU in it's current state is another story altogether because (say it with me :laugh:) it's buggy, broken, and unsupported..

DivaVocals:

SSU is buggy, broken, unsupported, and IS likely to break one's site especially if one is running Zen Cart v1.3.9 or v1.5 not because it's a URL re-writer module, but because it's buggy, broken, and unsupported.

Diva, I agree with most of what you say. The main problem now with SSU is that it is unsupported and has not been upgraded for zencart 1.5.x. Otherwise, I have it on an under-developed 1.3.9h cart and it is working great. Although it does require a certain amount of babysitting to make sure that new products and categories are being rewritten. This involves doing a SSU cache refresh when adding products, and I've found that the fastest way to check the urls is with the google xml sitemap.

Too bad about SSU being left behind, because IMO it has some nice touches. One in particular: You can copy a product to another category and it not only retains the proper canonical url, but it does not require the addition of any p or c numbers for the copied product (I know that CEON does with copied products). So a very clean url all around.

And the no magic seo bullet aside, on that gibberish WB test we had going not long ago, I now see that in MY search results that my SSU entry has the top three spots (going to show dupes) as the dust has settled somewhat. Above my Ultimate SEO, CEON and Native entries. This did raise an eyebrow; but possibly a chance fluke or a single moment in time. And other cart factors may be in play.

One thing I do think is clear: these pretty url writers do not damage ranking. I think it clear that google can pick-up, index and rank them well.

The real potential harm is damage or conflict with another mod or some zencart upgrade. Case in point: SSU not being available for the 1.5.x upgrade.

I think that if Zencart came with the option to turn on pretty urls, the anti-pretty url folk would have a much harder time selling their view to have people leave them off.

Now, here is something interesting - somewhat on and somewhat off topic. Last night I re-visited Tomatocart by installing the latest stable version in a test environment. The admin is like nothing I've seen before in a cart. But looking closely, I recognize Zencart! I suppose this is because of the DNA link back to OSC. This cart, and it's nice front-end looks like a Web 2.0 version of Zencart that we've been waiting for. I've been looking to make a radical change for a new domain and have been looking closely at Prestashop (which I do consider somewhat buggy and slow), but this crazy Tomatocart seems fast and is somewhat comparable to Prestashop, IMO.

Yes, I did turn on its pretty urls...and may test further by putting up that gibberish WB test product. Otherwise, it's native urls remind me of zencart's.

Okay, enough of that.

@Fairestcape: these MicroData tags. If they will become so important do you think that they will become part of zencart, or the subject of a mod?

SPH:

Diva, I agree with most of what you say. The main problem now with SSU is that it is unsupported and has not been upgraded for zencart 1.5.x. Otherwise, I have it on an under-developed 1.3.9h cart and it is working great. Although it does require a certain amount of babysitting to make sure that new products and categories are being rewritten. This involves doing a SSU cache refresh when adding products, and I've found that the fastest way to check the urls is with the google xml sitemap.Well any mod that needs "babysitting" to work is IMHO a buggy module and not one I would ever put into use on a client's website..

SPH:

Too bad about SSU being left behind, because IMO it has some nice touches. One in particular: You can copy a product to another category and it not only retains the proper canonical url, but it does not require the addition of any p or c numbers for the copied product (I know that CEON does with copied products). So a very clean url all around.As Ceon allows you to have complete control over your URLs, this is a non-issue as you can simply edit the URL as you please..

SPH:

@Fairestcape: these MicroData tags. If they will become so important do you think that they will become part of zencart, or the subject of a mod?They ARE already important.. Already supported by the browsers and I know several WordPress plugins that make use of these already.. Hopefully it will become part of the Zen Cart core, but's it's more likely that a mod will be required.. Melanie Prough's article which Fairestcape posted a link to discusses how to use them with Zen Cart.

DivaVocals:

Well any mod that needs "babysitting" to work is IMHO a buggy module and not one I would ever put into use on a client's website..

Perhaps babysitting was too strong of a term. As I recall, even with Ultimate SEO you have to manage your url cache. Heck, don't we even have to manage google sitemap with a refresh after adding products?

As Ceon allows you to have complete control over your URLs, this is a non-issue as you can simply edit the URL as you please..

SSU appears to have something similar, but never really tested that. If I had a choice with a modern SSU and CEON, from what I've seen so far I'd choose SSU.

But this Tomatocart seems more interesting than either, right now.

SPH:

Perhaps babysitting was too strong of a term. As I recall, even with Ultimate SEO you have to manage your url cache. Heck, don't we even have to manage google sitemap with a refresh after adding products?

SSU appears to have something similar, but never really tested that. If I had a choice with a modern SSU and CEON, from what I've seen so far I'd choose SSU.So different strokes.. Not trying to convince anyone on the choices they make for their stores.. For my money SSU has a ton more issues in that it also doesn't play nice with lot other mods.. I like trouble-free/fuss free stuff for my clients which I PERSONALLY didn't and still don't find SSU to be.. If you like SSU stick with it..

DivaVocals:

If you like SSU stick with it..

Can't, unless someone comes along who can upgrade it for 1.5.x

noname:

My Zen cart is v1.3.9h. I have installed SSU successful ... now, I see tons of "/favicon.ico" and they are from duplicate IPs, around 19 duplicate IPs. I still see other people browsing my website with products and categories no problem, so I really wonder why this things happen. Could anyone please help me? Thanks in advanced.
SSU redirects all requests for physical files and directories which do not exist to Zen Cart. So if someone requests "/favicon.ico" and the file does not exist on the web server the request is sent to Zen Cart (and shows up in the Who's Online). Even if your template does not specify a "favorite icon" for your website - some web browsers will automatically ask for "/favicon.ico". Thus why you are seeing these now.

To fix this behavior either add a "favorite icon" for your website to your Zen Cart template (or add one at "/favicon.ico"). This should make them stop showing up in "Who's Online".

corseter:

Has anyone been able to get the Edit Cart Mod to work with Simple SEO. I am using 3.8.5 on 1.3.8. Yes I know it's old but I don't want to change it yet.
Would appreciate any suggestions to get the two to work together. Edit Cart works great when Simple SEO is off but I don't want that.
Not sure of the answer on this one... I would guess it has to do with uprid's for products with attributes (ex product_id=9:3217451664)... The Edit Cart mod assumes this will be present in $_GET['products_id']. You may need to make some changes to remove this assumption from the Edit Cart mod - OR - modify SSU to make sure products_id with the uprid is left on the end of the URL.

SPH:

... The main problem now with SSU is that it is unsupported and has not been upgraded for zencart 1.5.x. Otherwise, I have it on an under-developed 1.3.9h cart and it is working great. Although it does require a certain amount of babysitting to make sure that new products and categories are being rewritten...
Exactly - SSU is unsupported and not compatible with Zen Cart 1.5. So there is a good chance few people are using SSU with the Edit Cart mod. Which will make it harder for people using both to get help.

DivaVocals:

Well any mod that needs "babysitting" to work is IMHO a buggy module and not one I would ever put into use on a client's website.
Agreed! Although I would probably consider it less "babysitting" then needing to manually manage the SSU cache whenever changes to products, categories, etc are made. I would also not encourage new Zen Cart installations to use SSU - The lack of support for newer versions of Zen Cart would mean future migration to a different URL module anyway.

SPH:

... As I recall, even with Ultimate SEO you have to manage your url cache.
The URL cache in Ultimate SEO URLs by default caches entries for up to 30 days. Additionally if an item is not found in the cache (such as when doing a mass import) Ultimate SEO URLS will still generate the correct URLs. After installing Ultimate SEO URLs, when you make changes to a product or category (or add new ones) the URL cache is automatically reset. So you do not need to babysit or manage your URL cache when updating products or categories.

Currently Zen Cart does not support calling additional code when a configuration setting is changed. So if you change the URL display settings (under configuration), you would want to reset the URL cache (the option is found on the configuration page) to see the changes immediately. Otherwise you can wait for the contents of the URL cache to expire (30 days).