[osCommerce] My shop is part of a larger portal

[Fred]

I have built the site upon the osCommerce framework, but the "Shop" itself will be one tag amongst others, much more like in a portal: "Business" - "Shop" - "Club". It is no more than a graphical trick, for everything is built on osCommerce, session is kept, etc. However I use other tables with dynamic pages for events and this kind of stuff.

Is there any major issue that could provoke unexpected or low-performing behaviour of MSU on such an "extended" shop?

[inveo]

I have built the site upon the osCommerce framework, but the "Shop" itself will be one tag amongst others, much more like in a portal: "Business" - "Shop" - "Club". It is no more than a graphical trick, for everything is built on osCommerce, session is kept, etc. However I use other tables with dynamic pages for events and this kind of stuff.

Thats good. Magic SEO URL was developed to be primary used on such heavily modified web sites.

Is there any major issue that could provoke unexpected or low-performing behaviour of MSU on such an "extended" shop?

No, there isn't. Anyway, 30-day money back guarantee is available for all customers - you can request a refund during this period without specifying any reasons.

[Fred]

I have correctly installed the MSU pack. True, that’s easy!
I have been checking the generated “.htaccess” and it seems that everything is dynamic and that I will not have to generate again and again the “.htaccess”, which is good.

Today, our "portal" website is only informative. The “Shop” tag is under construction…

The point is that my “main page” (let’s say “Z”, which is also in /catalog) is a page that has nothing to do with the normal osCommerce one (/catalog/index.php) …and some of the directives in the MSU “.htaccess” have been built on this Z page. So far, it sounds absolutely logical and I could check that site behaviour was NOT affected. So everything seems ok...

…but I have a remaining question : what will make more sense from a SEO perspective WHEN OUR SHOP IS READY?

1. Should I change the “DirectoryIndex” directive in the top-level .htaccess (the one in the www root) to redirect to “/catalog/index.php” instead of the current “/catalog/Z”? (I guess that no, as Z is the main entry page for bots…but you will know more)
2. Or manually replace the Z chain in the MSU .htaccess by “index.php” ? (Should work, isn’t it?)
3. Or repass the whole MSU process, but browsing this time in the precise “/catalog/index.php” url first?
4. Or anything else that you would recommend…

NOTE : all the website content is in catalog (and I repeat using the osCommerce framework: every page with "application_top", etc.) ... except for htaccess, robots.txt and [sitemap file] which are in the / root...

[inveo]

The point is that my “main page” (let’s say “Z”, which is also in /catalog) is a page that has nothing to do with the normal osCommerce one (/catalog/index.php) …and some of the directives in the MSU “.htaccess” have been built on this Z page. So far, it sounds absolutely logical and I could check that site behaviour was NOT affected. So everything seems ok...

Basically - yes it is ok. Anyway, if you find any unexpected behavior during future usage, feel free to contact us.

…but I have a remaining question : what will make more sense from a SEO perspective WHEN OUR SHOP IS READY?

1. Should I change the “DirectoryIndex” directive in the top-level .htaccess (the one in the www root) to redirect to “/catalog/index.php” instead of the current “/catalog/Z”? (I guess that no, as Z is the main entry page for bots…but you will know more)
2. Or manually replace the Z chain in the MSU .htaccess by “index.php” ? (Should work, isn’t it?)

Not completely, because index.php is handling lot of different requests in osCommerce - not only index (but also categories, products).

3. Or repass the whole MSU process, but browsing this time in the precise “/catalog/index.php” url first?
4. Or anything else that you would recommend…

Since http://www.example.com/ and http://www.example.com/catalog/ is showing same content, I highly recommend you to make immediately decision where you do want to have all your content placed in / (root) or in /catalog/. In case of /catalog/, place following lines to the .htaccess file in / (root):

Code: Select all

RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^$ catalog/ [L,R=301]

[Fred]

1. What are the differences between my DirectoryIndex directive

Code: Select all

DirectoryIndex /catalog/Z

...and the Rewrite directives you are proposing?

Code: Select all

RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^$ catalog/ [L,R=301]

(FYI: root htaccess also contains the "Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks" directive... should it come before or after your directives?)

2. Could you briefly sum up the main consequences and advantages (and disadvantages) of the change you are proposing?

NOTE : could you please just remove direct references to the site?

[inveo]

There is big difference. DirectoryIndex directive shows content of /catalog/Z under /, but RewriteRule directive makes redirection from / to /catalog/.

(FYI: root htaccess also contains the "Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks" directive... should it come before or after your directives?)

It doesn't matter in this case, but it is usually placed at the begging before RewriteBase directive.

2. Could you briefly sum up the main consequences and advantages (and disadvantages) of the change you are proposing?

Pros: moving two low PR pages to one with higher PR
Cons: Some SERP positions may be temporary lost due to this change.

[Fred]

Ok, it worked adding the "RewriteEngine on" directive in the /.htaccess...

Code: Select all

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^$ catalog/ [L,R=301]