HTML Catalog

[courtney]

Hello!

This page https://www.modularmerchant.com/shopping-cart-features.php mentions

[Mail Bag]

Courtney,
Hello. Thank you for your question! There are two ways to the HTML catalog can be approached:

1. Catalog Generator Script
A script is available that will create a webpage file for each product and category in your store. This will allow these pages in your store to use descriptive URLs like "/store/catalog/name-of-my-product.php" instead of the standard "/store/product.php?id=1".

A sample of a website that is using this catalog script is:
http://www.balibooty.com

Clients who are using this script have reported seeing an improvement in their Google rankings. As always, results will vary from site to site.

This script is not installed in accounts by default. Upon request, it can be configured and installed in a client's account by Modular Merchant techs. There is no charge for the installation or activation of this script, but it is not available during an account's free trial period. To request the installation of this script in your account, please submit a Support Ticket from within your store's administration area.

The primary concern with the catalog generator is that your site will potentially contain two versions of the product and category pages. Some clients are concerned that duplicate content on their website could actually be detrimental to their Google ranking. There is validity to this concern, so, the next logical question is, "Is there an alternative to the Catalog Script?"

2. Apache's mod_rewrite: An Alternative to the Catalog Script
On most servers, it is possible to take advantage of Apache's mod_rewrite module to automatically change URLs like "/store/product.php?id=1" to "/store/name-of-my-product/".

Apache's mod_rewrite has some potential pitfalls that one needs to watch out for -- things that could hurt a client's Google rankings instead of help it -- so this is also neither activated by default, nor available during an account's free trial period.

Also, the mod_rewrite commands need to be written a bit differently for each store, depending on the directory structure of your store and website. As such, depending on the directory structure of the client's website, configuration of mod_rewrite may incur development charges.

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If you have additional questions on HTML catalog generation, let us know. Thank you, and I hope this information is helpful!
_________________
Modular Merchant Mail Bag
Answering your questions, queries and puzzlers.
Modular Merchant shopping cart software, website hosting, and custom programming.

[courtney]

[Mail Bag]

It's not currently possible to add/edit a robots.txt file from within the store's administration area. However, a robots.txt file can be added to your site during the installation of the catalog generator script. (Once an account is activated, it will have a website hosting account created for it. This will also allow you to access your site's robots.txt file directly by FTP, too.)

The robots.txt file could contain commands essentially instructing all spiders and 'bots to ignore the section of the store containing the dynamic pages, and just index the pages in the /catalog/ directory. Yep, no problemo.
_________________
Modular Merchant Mail Bag
Answering your questions, queries and puzzlers.
Modular Merchant shopping cart software, website hosting, and custom programming.

[Rutabaga]

Update!
The upcoming Modular Merchant version 3 update (currently in beta testing as of this post) introduces a completely new take on SEO-friendly store URLs. In short: it's built in by default, and it rocks.

In MMv3, all product, category and manufacturer pages in your store have been given the Search Engine Friendly Link treatment. For example, the URL of a product named "Acme Nonalcoholic Banana Fish Marinade" would be something like this:
http://www.mystore.com/product/123/acme-nonalcoholic-banana-fish-marinade

Additionally, the links are backwards-compatible. So, if there's a website out there somewhere (such as Google) that still has links to the old version of the product's page: http://www.mystore.com/product.php?pid=123, then the link will still work. Additionally, it's possible to add a line or two of PHP code to your store's templates that will automatically reload any page using the old URL format to the new SEO-friendly version when the page is viewed. The page updates its own URL instead of redirecting to a second, separate copy of the page. That means there's not two copies of the page floating around out there, so your site won't get penalized for duplicate content.

The new link format in MMv3 is achieved by using mod_rewrite. This means that the SEO-friendly links are being constructed the "correct" way. (ie: the industry standard method.) This also means that our clients won't have to tinker around with this potentially dangerous server component.

We've also installed a variation of this script in this very forum, allowing it to generate spider-friendly versions of the pages for each forum and individual topic. It's just been a couple weeks since we made the update to the forum, but we're already seeing improvements in the forum's placement in SERPs. (Search Engine Result Pages.) This is a very encouraging sign.

We're looking forward to working with our clients to improve their SEO rankings as MMv3 is rolled out in upcoming weeks.
_________________
Rutabaga
Keeper of the Development Schedule
Modular Merchant Shopping Cart Software.