X-Cart forums

[Petepots]

Hi All

I have been playing around with google and I have found that product are indexed very well at bit to well.

I have some URL's that have been index that takes you to the Detailed description page and I would really like them to always go the the short description page.

Is there away I can redirect any URL's to point to the detailed page to go to the short description page

[cflsystems]

What is "detailed page" and what is "short description page"? Are you referring to product detials page and products list page? These are 2 different places - products details page is about the product, the other pne is about many products within same category, or manufactirer or search....
Why would you want to redirect an indexed product page to a page with many products? That will only hurt your SEO

[Petepots]

Hi Steve

I have not made this very clear, sorry I will try and explain

Have a look at
http://kingquick.co.uk/store/Alfa-Romeo-145-1.9-JTD-Diesel-Tuning-Unit.html

Where I wanted it to go was here

http://kingquick.co.uk/store/1.9-JTD/

This now shows 2 product the customer can choose what quality of product he wants. There is never more that 2 product that they can choose and would be displayed.

I was thinking at the time when make the site that there would be to much wordingis held on the detailed page, so that why I did it that way.

Steve what would work if I could put maybe a link in the detailed page that you click on to go back to the catogray it came from ie

http://kingquick.co.uk/store/1.9-JTD/ this would not harm the SEO with wording like "to choose quality of unit click here" that sort of thing

Whats your honest opinion, have a look around the site and you will see what I mean

[carpeperdiem]

Have you considered using VARIANTS and selling these related items on a single product detail page?

The items are similar -- but one has more features. You are using a CATEGORY page for 2 items that can be better served as a single product page with 2 variants.

Using variants permits BOTH products to receive the google final destination link, and you can offer the customer a side-by-side comparison of the two items, and they simply choose the one they want.

Think about it -- if this wee your brick & mortar store, would you merchandise these products in separate areas? Of course not. They need to be side by side. Some customer will choose to pay the premium for more features. Some customers will select the basic model.

WHAT I WOULD DO:

lose the category. make a 301 redirect from the original category page to the NEW product detail page

I took a look at your site, and it appears that you use lots of categories, and to me, that's a LOT of clicking to find what I want. Your site is a PRIME candidate for advanced search and filtering. But that's off topic.

Think about how your customer wants to shop. Build your store to behave like your customer's expectations. Unless you can change your customers, you have no other choice.

I hope this helps.

J

[Petepots]

Steve

I have had a long thought about this and you are right. I am going to have to fix the problem and get it right, the work does not worry me only one thing

I have been looking on the forum about 301 redirecting and to be honest I am not sure how to set it up.

As you kindly looked at my site yesterday as you pointed out there are too many category’s, I could detele the last category where you always have two products in.

I do need a type of drill down because we have to get clear details of the make, model, engine size and type, so by drilling down it promts the customer to give us the information to process the order.


Please can you give me an idea on how i would use this 301 redirect.


Thank you Steve for all your help

Peter

[cflsystems]

Actually I just pointed out that you should not redirect product page to category page, Jere,y was the one who looked at your site and suggested to use options/variants...

And yes if you go that route and the category page will not exists anymore you need to use 301 redirect and send customers to different page if they reach the deleted page somehow, SE as well... but this is only if this category page will not exists anymore

redirect 301 /old_url.html http://www.yourdomain.com/new_page.html

you can also use dynamic urls instead - your clean url or cdseo will pickup and convert them

[Petepots]

Steve

There will be just two catogries, Make and Model, thats it the rest of the information needed will work by variants

Steve where does this redirect 301 /old_url.html http://www.yourdomain.com/new_page.html
sit, I cant make out where to put the 301 rediects there would be round about 700

Thank you for your advice

Peter

[cflsystems]

.htaccess file in the root of the cart

[carpeperdiem]

Originally Posted by Petepots

where does this redirect 301 /old_url.html http://www.yourdomain.com/new_page.html
sit, I cant make out where to put the 301 rediects there would be round about 700

Peter,
You may consider getting someone to script your 301 code for you.
700 lines of 301 code could be reduced using GREP or variables. Maybe.
I'm not your expert, but there are people who can script this for you.

[Petepots]

Steve

To change the site and loose many of the categorys is not a problem but really I need to delete a load of products. I have an idea

How about, if I am right where is is no product because I would of deleted them as they are no longer required in the tidy up, the system would give a 404 error, so why can't I point that to automatically to load the home page.

Remember this time all they would have to do is to choose the make and the model then they have found the product.

I know it's not the correct way but it would solve the problem and not really to much of a hassle for the customer.

What do you think