Define Custom Page Titles for Individual Pages - not custom titles for site wide use

hi, i have spent the good part of 2 hours this afternoon researching custom page titles in Zen Cart.

i understand that in order to use custom page title tags (<title>) you need to create a folder in the *includes\languages\english* directory and create a meta_tags.php file in that folder

i have managed to do this and i have successfully set up a custom page title that is displayed on all of my pages. GREAT!

the only problem now however is that i want a different page title for each one of my pages..

lets take the following two pages for example..

Homepage - index.php

Contact Us page - contact_us.html

within my newly created meta_tags.php file, how can i create a custom page title specific to an individual page

would i need add the following (or something resembling this..) to my meta_tags.php page:

define('INDEX_PAGE_TITLE', 'Mysite.com - Home Page - Browser our products');
define('CONTACT_US_TITLE', 'Mysite.com - Contact Us - Tell us your thoughts');

or do i have to locate the actual page file itself and edit something there..

someone please please help me.. im desperate, someone MUST know what i am going on about.. PLEASE!!!

What exactly do you not like about what it currently produces for your page title?
If you want "Contact Us" display differently, then just update the page name in your contact_us.php language file (and save it in your custom override folder). It seems you may be making it more complicated than you need to.

hi, thanks very much for the reply, it is much appreciated.

the example i gave seems a bit silly i know.

the reason i require unique page titles is for seo. the majority of my pages on my site do have unique page titles (products, categories..) which i have edited using the custom meta tags function.

i still however needed to edit the top level pages because currently they are displaying the generic template which is bad for seo.

i would appreciate you guiding me through this..

i have located my contact page, it is in the following directory

includes\languages\english

here is the page code

<?php
/**
 * @package languageDefines
 * @copyright Copyright 2003-2006 Zen Cart Development Team
 * @copyright Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce
 * @license http://www.zen-cart.com/license/2_0.txt GNU Public License V2.0
 * @version $Id: contact_us.php 3149 2006-03-10 07:29:34Z birdbrain $
 */

define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Contact Us');
define('NAVBAR_TITLE', 'Contact Us');
define('TEXT_SUCCESS', 'Your message has been successfully sent.');
define('EMAIL_SUBJECT', 'Message from ' . STORE_NAME);

define('ENTRY_NAME', 'Full Name:');
define('ENTRY_EMAIL', 'Email Address:');
define('ENTRY_ENQUIRY', 'Message:');

define('SEND_TO_TEXT','Send Email To:');
define('ENTRY_EMAIL_NAME_CHECK_ERROR','Sorry, is your name correct? Our system requires a minimum of ' . ENTRY_FIRST_NAME_MIN_LENGTH . ' characters. Please try again.');
define('ENTRY_EMAIL_CONTENT_CHECK_ERROR','Did you forget your message? We would like to hear from you. You can type your comments in the text area below.');
?>

i have added a define title like so..

<?php
/**
 * @package languageDefines
 * @copyright Copyright 2003-2006 Zen Cart Development Team
 * @copyright Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce
 * @license http://www.zen-cart.com/license/2_0.txt GNU Public License V2.0
 * @version $Id: contact_us.php 3149 2006-03-10 07:29:34Z birdbrain $
 */

[b]define('TITLE', 'Contact Us Here');[/b]
define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Contact Us');
define('NAVBAR_TITLE', 'Contact Us');
define('TEXT_SUCCESS', 'Your message has been successfully sent.');
define('EMAIL_SUBJECT', 'Message from ' . STORE_NAME);

define('ENTRY_NAME', 'Full Name:');
define('ENTRY_EMAIL', 'Email Address:');
define('ENTRY_ENQUIRY', 'Message:');

define('SEND_TO_TEXT','Send Email To:');
define('ENTRY_EMAIL_NAME_CHECK_ERROR','Sorry, is your name correct? Our system requires a minimum of ' . ENTRY_FIRST_NAME_MIN_LENGTH . ' characters. Please try again.');
define('ENTRY_EMAIL_CONTENT_CHECK_ERROR','Did you forget your message? We would like to hear from you. You can type your comments in the text area below.');
?>

i have then saved a copy of this contact_us.php file in my custom template folder which is currently includes\languages\english\freefall

i have uploaded everything and the Contact Us page is still taking the generic title stated in my includes\languages\english\freefall\meta_tags.php file.

can you see what i am doing wrong?

Try changing a definition that's actually used by the code, such as:```
define('NAVBAR_TITLE', 'Contact Us');

hi, yes that does indeed work :)

however, the contact us page is now displaying my custom title AND the generic template in the meta_tags file.

i understand i could delete the generic title altogether and that would solve the problem but how can i retain my generic title but not include it in the contact us title???

Sorry, I don't follow you.

What's the URL where this can be seen?

thanks a lot for this help. i can show the page, it is here:

http://www.freefalluk.com/contact_us.html

I am able to edit the first part of the title, but the generic words..

Unique Unusual Funny Gifts, Rubber Ducks, Fashion & Lady Handbags, ############## Bag Accessory - FreefallUK

still get added to the title..

Are you saying that you believe that having your site keywords added to the page title is bad for SEO?

there is no real problem in that

however having the exact same title duplicated on every single page is VERY BAD seo

this is a different issue however, i'm still having trouble removing that generic title from every page. i may just have to delete the generic title altogether and write custom titles for every page.

is that the only way around this?

Zen Cart, out of the box, generates different page titles for every page.

Typically it starts with the page name, followed by your site-defined divider, followed by a site tagline, both defined in your meta_tags.php language file.
Thus, every page is different. Similar yes, but different nonetheless.

Keywords and Description metatags also vary from page to page.

If you're getting identical titles on all pages, then you've broken something somewhere.