HTML Catalog
 

Hello,
I have a couple of questions.

1. I have generated the HTML catalog and would like to know how and where can I change the links that are automatically created for the company logo and the images? I want them to point to the catalog home page rather that the xcart welcome page. I made the appropriate changes I wanted from home.php, but don't know where to go to change links for the catalog/index page.

2. Just so I am understanding this correctly. The HTML catalog is simply for use because it's search engine friendly. So customers will browse the catalog, but when they start shopping they are automatically redirected to the php pages. There isn't the possibility that they could go back to the html catalog, right? My concern was that if they could jump back n forth they would lose what they put into their cart. Hope this is making sense! :roll:

3. I would like to make the html catalog pages validate using W3C Markup Validation, but I am a bit leary of messing with the pages. Is this something that I really don't need to be concerned about? or if it is, then what is the best way to go about editing the catalog pages?

Honestly, this is a much better solution than using the HTML catalog:

http://www.safetynetweb.com/Dynamic-Search-Engine-Friendly-URLs-pr-1.html

If you would rather use the catalog, here are some suggestions:

1. Generate the catalog in the root directory. Re-directing customers and search engines to the catalog is just not good practice.

2. Make sure you block the search engine spiders from indexing .php pages if you are going to use the catalog. If you don't, you will get penalized for duplicate content.

Ok, just wondering.... how do you generate the catalog in the root directory anyway?

Does anyone here use the safetynetweb mod for generating SE friendly HTML? Has it helped?

Just change the directory at the bottom of the screen where you generate the catalog.

And yes, I'm using the mod on a few sites and it works great.

Hmm, but I already tried that. By default, x-cart automatically selects '/catalog' as the HTML file destination. But when I empty the field (I presume this is how you specify the root), I get the following error "No languages are selected" at the top of the screen. If I allow it to generate in the default directory (/catalog), everything works fine.

Try /

I did, and this is the error I got:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generating catalog

Converting pages to HTML

Warning: fopen(/home/xxxxxx/public_html/index.html): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/xxxxxx/public_html/admin/html_catalog.php on line 129
Cannot save file: /home/xxxxxx/public_html/index.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could this be a permissions problem? I have the permissions set for the 'public_html' directory to 755

Need to have write access to that directory and make sure index.html is writable as well. Remember, it will overwrite index.html, so if you have customized that page be sure to save it!

YOU IS THE MAN! :) Bingo!

Thank you Balinor, you've done it again :lol: :lol:

Hello,
OK...still have a few more questions.

I did place a robots.txt file in the root directory.

# All robots will spider the domain
User-agent:*
Disallow:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /lab/

User-agent: GoogleBot
Disallow: /*.php$

Is this correct?

Also, I generated the catalog using the default /catalog. If I change it to the root directory (/), then do I need to mark the box that says: "Drop the old catalog before generating the new one". ??

That looks correct, although Google seems to blow through that rule for a couple sites I have been watching.

If you decide to regenerate the html catalog into the root remember that it will overwrite the index.html file, so if you have customized a 'splash' page it will overwrite it. Always a good idea to dump the old catalog if you are regenerating.

Balinor,
Thank you for responding to my post. All my static pages outside the cart are linked to the catalog/index...pages. What is the reason why I can't leave the catalog where it is? Sorry if I am being obtuse about this. I am not understanding why it should be placed in the root directory. If my robots.txt file is in the root directory, then the robots should pick that up first....then to my homepage and follow links from there. They would then pick up my catalog pages and ignore the .php side of things. Right??

If you have gone through and manually linked to the catalog/ directory, then it shouldn't be an issue. The main problem with the catalog directory is getting the spiders INTO it. Redirecting from home.php to catalog/index.html is not good practice, as the SE's don't like redirects all that much, at least in my experience.

Hey again,
I checked my web stats to see if the spiders and robots were picking up my robots.txt file and if I am understanding the info. correctly it looks like they are picking it up about 20-40% of the time. ....need a manual just to understand the web-stats :?

Is there something in the robots.txt file I should change?

BTW: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions...I am learning new info everyday thanks to people like you!

Hey Danielle...the real test of your setup will be to see which pages get indexed in the search engines :) Just be patient...but stay on top of it to make sure it is working the way you want it to. Your robots.txt file looks good to me!

They are only offering this on the 4x branch. Anyone know of a similar solution for 3.5x branch?

Afraid not.

Padraic,

If you are up right now and could respond to this I would greatly appreciat it. I need to know if I can stop the HTML catalog generation in the middle of it without creating any major errors or situations with the stability of my site. I would like to use the safety net service you recommended if it is still the simplest way to make my site optimized for the search engines. I have over 3000 products on it and the html generation is taking forever. Please let me know if I can stop it, how I would stop it, and whether the safety net product is the best way to go. How easy is it to install the safety net?

Thanks,

I'm afraid I can't help you with the HTML catalog, as I use the DSEFU mod exclusively. Yes, it is definitely the way to go and you don't have to worry about install as it is included in the price :)

Thanks balinor 8)

Tangodancer has opted to do the DSEFU shuffle :)

Thanks for the referral to DSEFU Balinor.

I am all about dynamic and automated when possible. With over 3000 items the manual html catalog process was becoming quite cumbersome and time/resource consuming.

Take care.

Hooter,

Thanks for being such a lifesaver last night at 5 am. After being up all night working on SEO, your services were a welcome sight and are well worth the cost.

Thanks,

Thanks Tango and you're most welcome 8)

All I can say about this mod is WOW! WOW! What a huge time saver! It worked like a charm. I would have been in SEO hell with the number of products I have on my site.

I didn't know Hooter or about this mod until about 5 am this morning but if you haven't tried it you are working way too hard to keep your site SEO optimized.

Thanks again Balinor and Hooter soooo much! I would buy you a beer if I was in your area.

Take care.

Feel free to send me and John a six pack via Fed Ex ;)

can somebody tell me what is the different between this mod and the standard x-cart html-catelog?

I was wondering, when you use this mod, and when you export file to froogle, does it show dynamic link or html link?