X-Cart forums

[teddychan]

okay, i think i found the solution. the problem is on the line:

replace:

$product['descr']."\t".

with

func_froogle_convert($product['descr'], 65536)."\t".

in the install_how_to file

there should be two three line need to be replaced (included the comment out line)

[intel352]

Refer here for the latest (accurate) install docs, until I get another release out. I apologize for any issues:

http://x-cart-seo.googlecode.com/svn/branches/xc_seo_module/x-cart-seo%20docs/

Please note the Froogle modification instructions are different, there are issues in the current release's implementation of the Froogle changes.

[KCAutosound]

Sorry guys but I've been reading through the earlier posting of this and also this one and I am still trying to figure out what this is and what the benifits of it are. Can somebody please tell me in basic form what this is and why I need it.

[ShishaPipeUK]

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, search engines discriminate against ID numbers in URL strings and this mod helps and makes life a little easier for those lovable bots and spiders who crawl our pages.

Whether you believe the fact that search engines discriminate against ID numbers in URL strings or not, the fact of the matter is that

[1] http://www.theshisha.com/shopcart/product.php?productid=16242

will never look as nice to the end user, or search engines, as

[2] http://www.theshisha.com/shopcart/Soex-Herbal-Strawberry-250g-pr-16242.html

With the second option, you can see what the product is in the URL without even going to that page, where as the first option you do not know what the product is.

Both these above links, link to the same page but the search engine, spider that crawls our web sites would prefer the second option which is a html page and not a PHP page.

[jamesh3]

Is there a way of getting this to run on Webserver Software Zeus 4.3?
I just found out that my host uses this not apache. A quick google suggests there is a rewrite command but does not work for SEO stuff.

[intel352]

Not currently, but possibly in the future. For now, you definitely need rewrite functionality

[Scott DeToffol]

I'm getting 1,963 URLs not followed due to redirect errors under Google Webmaster Tools.

Here is an example URL listed by Google:

http://www.hellyhansenusa.com/store/Helly-Hansen-Bike-Short-pr-16722.html?xid=0ceab0f2ebc46e366efd295887cde46c

Google is indexing many of my pages, but they don't seem to be indexing my product pages, and none of my pages using this mod's reformatted URLs.

[intel352]

This is an issue that exists due to X-Cart's redirect mechanism + functionality in XC SEO. If there is no established cookie when a user visits a .php style url, and the user gets redirected to the .html url (i.e.- either cookies are turned off OR your visit to the .php url is your first time to the site), X-Cart's redirect function will insert the xid session into the url. XC SEO attempts to strip the xid value from the url and redirect, which begins a loop (since x-cart will once again insert the xid value).

The session id (xid) should *not* be included in the url for search engines, because that may lead to session issues when a user visits a url that has the xid value appended. I've reported this issue to X-Cart, with the suggestion that they do not append xid for bots. They have responded saying that this change will be incorporated into the next release of X-Cart (in my case, v4.1.4).

I'll post a release of XC SEO today, along with the session id fix for bots. I had delayed a release, because I was waiting for results from google to make sure my changes were effective. (I found this issue happening with *some* google bots on SoundChoiceStore, 20416 urls had been reported by google as having redirect problems, tho a number of the urls were the same url with a different session value attached. Since I've implemented the session fix for bots, google appears to have had no more issues)

I apologize for any problems this has caused for you, but rest assured the fix is on it's way

[jasonroy]

Originally Posted by intel352

This is an issue that exists due to X-Cart's redirect mechanism + functionality in XC SEO. If there is no established cookie when a user visits a .php style url, and the user gets redirected to the .html url (i.e.- either cookies are turned off OR your visit to the .php url is your first time to the site), X-Cart's redirect function will insert the xid session into the url. XC SEO attempts to strip the xid value from the url and redirect, which begins a loop (since x-cart will once again insert the xid value).

The session id (xid) should *not* be included in the url for search engines, because that may lead to session issues when a user visits a url that has the xid value appended. I've reported this issue to X-Cart, with the suggestion that they do not append xid for bots. They have responded saying that this change will be incorporated into the next release of X-Cart (in my case, v4.1.4).

I'll post a release of XC SEO today, along with the session id fix for bots. I had delayed a release, because I was waiting for results from google to make sure my changes were effective. (I found this issue happening with *some* google bots on SoundChoiceStore, 20416 urls had been reported by google as having redirect problems, tho a number of the urls were the same url with a different session value attached. Since I've implemented the session fix for bots, google appears to have had no more issues)

I apologize for any problems this has caused for you, but rest assured the fix is on it's way

definitely anxiously awaiting this

question about updating...i have 1.0.6 installed and noticed that you're up to 1.1.1. Is it as simple as uploading the new files, or do I need to re-run the sql commands?

[Sahani]

your mod is excellent. Thanks for the time you have spent on it. Look forward to your session ID fix