| Ok below is a short and simple explanation of the search engine friendly optimization bits in cubecart if you have the SEO Mod installed which any site built by 2001 web will have.
Techie Words Explained
Let's start with a plain English run down of all the jargon and what it means, and yes you need to know this any webmaster does.
SEO
This stands for Search Engine Optimization. In other words making it as easy as possible for search engines to crawl and index the content of your site. DO NOT get all obsessive about SEO you only need the basics as recommended by search engines. They are covered here, there are far too many webmasters who spend way too much time on this instead of promoting their sites, and there is a multi billion dollar industry waiting to suck your time and money from you. Trust us what you see below is enough when combined with regular promotion of your site.
Meta Tags
Quite simply a meta tag is the general term for a little bit of information hidden in your web pages code that is designed to help search engines index your site. These tags are not visible to your visitors they are in the code.
Title Tag
Ok take a look at the VERY TOP of this web page right at the top above all your back and home buttons in your browser in the blue bar right at the top. You will see the words "2001web-knowledgebase-Search Engine Optimisation in cubecart" That is the title tag for this web page it should be descriptive and tell you what the page is about.
Meta Description
This is a short paragraph of text that goes into a little more detail about the web page. Imagine you have just searched for something on a search engine and are looking at the results. You see the link to the site first this is normally made up from the title tag. Then under that you would see a little paragraph of text giving you a little more info like this.
Jolly Jumping Beans <------Probably made up by the search engine from your title tag
A fine quality selection of jumping beans with free worldwide shipping.
We are the leading supplier of jump;ing beans in timbucktoo <---------- Would be made up from your meta description tag or the content of the page
Meta Keywords
This is simply a list of words or short phrases relating to your site. There is a lot of debate as to whether search engines still use these but you should have them just in case. Not all search engines work the same way. The list of ketwords are always separated by commas.
So for Jolly jumping beans the keywords might be:
jolly,jolly beans, jolly jumping beans,jumping beans,novelty beans
Ok now we have the blurb out of the way lets apply this to cubecart.
Basic SEO in cubecart
The first thing you need to look at are the general meta tags. You can do this by clicking General Settings in your cubecart admin area. At the top of the page you will see a section named "Meta Data" So using the definitions above let us complete that. For the sake of this tutorial we will pretend you sell flowers you can apply the following to your own site and product.
Browser Title (This is the same as the meta title just cubecarts name for it) In this box put a sentence that is keyword rich example:
Bright Blooms. Beautiful flowers, bouquets, sprays and posies created by professional florists in New York ( Don't go mad on the length of this I will explain why later)
Meta description (A little more detail)
Bright blooms is the best website in the world to buy beautiful flowers for your loved one from roses to posies we have them all. With over 30 years of experience our florists are sure to delight. Free delivery worldwide.
Meta Keywords (the list)
flowers, blooms, roses, bouquets, single stems, bunches, (you should have about 20 relevant keywords here)
Now scroll down to the very last section on the settings page called "Search Engine Friendly Url"
There are 5 drop down selection boxes set them as follows in this order:
1. Yes
2. Apache rewrite rule supported
3. Combine with global meta tags (this is just for now we will change it later)
4. Category > Sub category >Product name
Now click "Save" at the bottom of the page and we are done with the general meta tags.
Product Specific SEO
Now this is pretty much the same as above but is done on the edit or add product page and should not be general but specific to each product. This is why I told you not to go mad on the general meta work as we are adding product specific wording now.
In the admin menu click "view products" and go to edit a product
If you scroll down the page you will see the same three boxes:
Browser title
Meta Description
Keywords
You know what you are doing now so fill them in BUT this time do not be general these sections are for that product only! So as an example:
Browser title : 12 red roses in a beautiful bouquet
Meta Description : Classic bouquet of 12 red roses. Offset with delicate fronds of bares grass. Next day or named day delivery. Personalized message card. Vase not included. Tip here to save time, for the meta description copy and paste the product description you already have for the product.
Keywords : roses, red roses, red rose bouquet
Now click save to save the changes to the product and do the same for the other products on your site.
This may sound like a lot of hassle if you have lots of products but here is why it is worth the time. Your PRODUCT pages will start to appear in search engine results as well as your home page this will increase your search engine traffic so is WELL worth the time.
Once you know all your products have their own meta data go back to general settings and change the setting "Combine with global meta tags" to "Override Global meta tags (description keywords and title)"
That's it!
You know know what the three main meta tags are and how to use them in cubecart.
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