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XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

 
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  #281  
Old 07-01-2007, 04:38 AM
 
rmoore rmoore is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

Quote:
Originally Posted by bluecat
I worry a bit about google's thoughts on rewrites. Does anyone have a concern with that at all?

Thanks again
Yes, it is a HUGE concern of mine. So much that I turned off XC SEO in the admin panel. What I read, because of spammer's abuse in the past, using redirects is much worse than having dynamic urls.

It is great to have the product name in the url itself, but I personally (and some SEO experts that I have spoke with) feel that using redirects to have the product's name in the url would hurt you more than the dynamic urls ever would hurt your rank.

Really if you think about it, that's what a spammers site does, redirect ALL their pages to spam. To redirect one or a few pages is one thing, but to redirect every product (hundreds of pages possibility) is something totally different!!



Some also say that GoogleBot will only follow so many redirected pages before it will stop and leave your site.
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  #282  
Old 07-01-2007, 04:40 AM
 
rmoore rmoore is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

Oops, it posted twice.... sorry
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  #283  
Old 07-01-2007, 05:19 AM
 
bluecat bluecat is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

Thanks again, I appreciate it.
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  #284  
Old 07-01-2007, 08:19 AM
 
jlangevin jlangevin is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

the part about googlebot only following so many redirects before leaving your site, is referring to continuous redirects

i.e. - goto page1 that redirects to page2 that redirects to page3 that redirects to page4, etc etc...
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  #285  
Old 07-01-2007, 08:21 AM
 
jlangevin jlangevin is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

btw, SoundChoiceStore had a *large* number of existing products. We installed XC SEO which redirected old urls to the new urls, and while SCStore dropped a bit for a few weeks, after about a month it was back to where it was, if not placed better. just fyi.
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  #286  
Old 07-02-2007, 02:55 AM
 
rmoore rmoore is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

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Originally Posted by jlangevin
btw, SoundChoiceStore had a *large* number of existing products. We installed XC SEO which redirected old urls to the new urls, and while SCStore dropped a bit for a few weeks, after about a month it was back to where it was, if not placed better. just fyi.
If it was back to where it was, if not a little better placement, why use the XC SEO mod at all??

Are we not looking for a HUGE increase in ranking??

What that kind of tells me is that the redirects lowered the rank and the product's name in the url increased the rank, so you're back to where you were before the mod (if not a LITTLE better).

I would think we are all looking to move up pages not slots on a page. Like go from page 10 to page 2, not from slot 110 to slot 101. Sure you jumped 9 slots, but you're still on page 10 which in my personal option did you absolutely no good..

Lets face it, if you're not listed within the first 5 pages of a searched return, your site will most likely never be seen. When I search something personally, I only go maybe 4 pages before I do another search using a different search term or keywords.

Now do not misunderstand me, I'm not saying that the XC SEO mod is not worth using, as it very well may work for some and not others. What I am saying is that if you do decide to install this mod, do not think you're good to go in the SEO of your site. Again we are faced with the dynamic urls or redirects and it is a double edge sword.
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  #287  
Old 07-02-2007, 04:14 AM
 
jlangevin jlangevin is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

the overall site was back to where it was, individual pages actually started placing at the top of searches. the problem with SCStore, is that now matter how nice the URLs are, it's tough getting it placed at the top due to the lacking return links

we couldn't convince the higher-ups that people needed to link into soundchoicestore.com, instead of soundchoice.com (the higher ups had split the store into a separate domain, for some reason)

the domain itself improved a bit on generic "karaoke" word search, but actual product pages (especially ones that we linked from the homepage) usually showed in the 1st 10 results on google, if not top 20

sorry for not going into more detail


i agree that people should never think that this mod alone will have their website good-to-go on seo (same for the other SEO mods). you have to do all the little tricks, such as getting linkbacks, moving page content towards the top of the page source, have some content-rich pages with good keyword references, etc etc.


rmoore, how would you recommend that XC SEO should be altered, to avoid the redirect issue? if i were to make the redirect optional, would that ease your worry?

and ya, i agree the mod is likely best for a new store, as it's never good to change your urls mid-stream, especially if you already have a successful store

btw, didn't mean to sound too snide in my earlier post about "advertising", was just attempting to joke around

cheers
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  #288  
Old 07-02-2007, 02:03 PM
 
rmoore rmoore is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

Quote:
Originally Posted by jlangevin

rmoore, how would you recommend that XC SEO should be altered, to avoid the redirect issue? if i were to make the redirect optional, would that ease your worry?

and ya, i agree the mod is likely best for a new store, as it's never good to change your urls mid-stream, especially if you already have a successful store
cheers

jlangevin,
To be perfectly honest here, I don't have enough X-Cart operating knowledge to give you sound advice on how to mod XC SEO so it does not have to use the redirect in htaccess.


I have been a LONG time OsCommerce webmaster and just within this past month was hired to webmaster for the company I'm working for now. I have to get the site and its products straight before I can start looking into what makes X-Cart tick.

What I read about CDSEO, that is really the way you want to go. I have not bought CDSEO as of yet, but will be soon. Then maybe I can get a better insight on how they the use static urls without having to use redirects. With that
knowledge maybe we can work from there....

I will keep you posted in PM when I have something. It may be a while though...
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  #289  
Old 07-02-2007, 03:06 PM
 
jlangevin jlangevin is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

rmoore, i think you have rewrites and redirects confused

this is how it goes:

mod_rewrite (htaccess) is used to transparently (hidden to users and search engines) map a static url to a dynamic location

redirects are *only* used when a user or search engine visits the old *dynamic* url, which is when a 301 redirect sends the user to the new static url. this occurs in PHP

using htaccess/mod_rewrite does nothing that a search engine would see, so what you're concerned with is the 301 redirect that occurs in the PHP script


as for my question to you, i wasn't asking how to programmatically change XC SEO, but it was more of, how would you handle the duplicate url issue?

i.e.- my solution for the duplicate urls (dynamic old url vs the static new url) was to 301 redirect the old urls to the new url location, which works well for me. but if this 301 redirect is of concern to you, the only alternative i see is to allow duplicate urls

so, x-cart already has a dynamic url to view the product. then there is also another variant of the url to view the product, but this url will include the category id and page id. additionally, if you have the static shop generation enabled in x-cart (which creates a physical page for each url), there is at LEAST 1 additional url for each page, if not more

so add in XC SEO's "static" representation of the urls, you essentially double these numbers, if there is no redirection


OR, you can use XC SEO, which redirects all old urls to their new location. additionally, if you are an SE, you will only see 1 possible variant of a url for each page, vs the multiple possible versions (again, regarding the inclusion of category id, page id, etc, in addition to other variables that have to be rewritten for x-cart)


-----

so, my question to you is, how would you suggest that the multiple url situation be handled? that it be left alone, so that there are 10-15 urls per page (with XC SEO installed, and X-Cart's old dynamic urls still accessible), or have 1-5 urls per page for users, 1 url for SE's?

or, do you have another suggestion? (I'm very open to suggestions, fire away)
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  #290  
Old 07-02-2007, 03:13 PM
 
jlangevin jlangevin is offline
 

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Default Re: XC SEO v1.1.0 Released

regarding CDSEO, it actually does the same thing as XC SEO, except that it uses categories as if they were folders (which I like):

/category/product.html

Also, CDSEO allows you to personalize each product url however you like. XC SEO is more automated, it doesn't have that personalization feature yet

additionally, CDSEO redirects the old urls to the new locations, to prevent "duplicate content penalization". that's what XC SEO does, again there's no difference

so, if you're thinking CDSEO functions differently to improve SEO than XC SEO, it's only "real" advantage is the /category/product.html feature, which some people argue will worsen your page rank

again, i personally like the category folder path structure, from a usability standpoint, and it arguably provides additional keywords in the url, but many SEO gurus prefer to have the url appear to be in the site root (mysite.com/this-is-a-product.html), as the closer to the site root a url is, then supposedly the more important it appears to SEs

let me know what you think.
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