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Get Serious About SEO: 3 Meta Descriptions in ZenCart

Previously I briefly covered the basics of meta descriptions. Here I focus specifically on Zen Cart and how it can help you.

I haven’t manually assigned meta descriptions and keywords for each product, that is too time consuming, but I have for product categories. Google picked up those changes very quickly so it it absolutely worth doing.

In your categories menu you will see, on the right hand side, something like this:

The orange symbol shows the tag has been manually configured, the black shows it is on automatic. Doing it manually is so much better and from the example above there is one category to configure so lets do that now.

There are 3 boxes to complete: the first is a customised title for the page which should reflect its content. The second is for keywords which should reflect the products within that category (or subcategories if you use them). The third box is for the meta description.

This is what could be displayed when people search for a particular key word. If your keywords and content match up to a users search term then the meta description may be shown in the search engine results, otherwise only the page title will show.

Maximum characters displayed (by Google) in a meta description is 150 so don’t go over this.

My previous post offers ideas on what makes a good meta description.

It is too important to leave to Zencart to auto display. Ensure for each category and sub category you manually configure your (meta) title, keywords and description. It is so worthwhile.

Update: Don’t forget /includes/languages/english/YOUR TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php

and then add a line for each of your EZ-pages

  • define(‘META_TAG_DESCRIPTION_EZPAGE_2′,’your description here’);
  • define(‘META_TAG_DESCRIPTION_EZPAGE_3′,’your description here’);

and so forth for the title, description and keywords for each EZ-page you are using. Google loves it.

NB: When editing meta titles, descriptions and keywords for your categories or pages all 3 fields must be filled in otherwise the meta fields are not complete and will be ignored.

Zen Cart Error: A network error occurred loading an XSLT stylesheet

If you have upgraded to Zen Cart 1.3.9 and use the sitemap module to create a sitemapindex file then you may be getting the above error.

Fix:

  • Delete the old sitemap files from the root directory.

  • Edit the file includes\modules\pages\sitemapxml\header_php.php
  • Delete the line that reference sitemap css 119/120:

$tpl_dir = $template->get_template_dir(‘gss\.xsl’, DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base, ‘css’);
$zen_SiteMapXML->setStylesheet($tpl_dir . ‘/gss.xsl’);

Get Serious About SEO: 1 The Meta Description

Its time to get serious about SEO.

This is basic but has been on hold for too long so lets get down to it.

  • Set up your meta description

While of only little use to search engine placement or result, the meta description appears beneath your web site title on the results page.

Image shows google result with meta description (before work begins)

It can therefore be used to:

  1. explain in a nutshell what your site is about
  2. persuade potential visitors to click through to you
  3. give potential customers confidence about your business
  4. stand out from competitors
  5. build a brand

Check out this article for  more in-depth examples of branding using the meta description.

Zen Cart Error: Sorry, we are not shipping to your region at this time.

That old error from Zen Cart came back again.

I have recently moved the site and had to make the 2 changes in code for PayPal to send the correct country code to the shopping cart in order to calculate the shipping.

For those running 1.38a and do a fresh install here is a reminder of the changes:

Zen Cart forum fix for:

/includes/modules/payment/paypal/paypal_curl.php

and the zen cart fix for:

line 1825 in /includes/modules/payment/paypalwpp.php from

It was only over the course of a few hours since going live that this error was spotted and all is working well now. Once again apologies to anyone inconvenienced by this.

Tracking Down Problems in Zen Cart. Basic Troubleshooting.

Zen Cart

Zen Cart

Recently I decided to change the way categories are displayed on my gifts website and, with an FTP client, removed the files that run BetterCategories.

Unfortunately Zen Cart would only display a white blank page and return a 500 error. I knew the server was working as this blog and my images were being served correctly so it was obviously a problem with a file I had removed by mistake.

But which file?

Fortunately I discovered a handy troubleshooting file on the Zen Cart website. Following the instructions I discovered a missing file from Image Handler that prevented the website from working. I uploaded the file and now its back again. Phew!

Handy tip: When you use a Zen-cart mod save a copy of the mod in a directory on your PC. I have a folder called zencartmods so I know which modules I am using and can easily find any missing files.

Back to designing my christmas look.

Want to Add More Custom Pages into Zen Cart?

Do you need to add more pages to Zen-cart to customise for your own use?
E-Z pages are useful but take up space in your database so instead I prefer to simply add new pages that would have the url as page_4, page_5 etc. Using this method it is also easy to create titles and descriptions for them.

I am using page_6 as an example but you can use any name you wish, this may be wiser to do so for SEO purposes.

It is easy using the Define Pages Generator mod for Zen Cart.
Unlike most mods this is not a php script that you upload to the server. Instead it is a simple programme that creates all the pages you need which you then upload. If you supply your template name it even creates the correct directory structure to drag and drop the files in to an ftp client.

At the moment I wish to create an additional links page that will be page_6. All it takes is 3 simple steps:

  1. Create a temporary directory to store the new the files in (I just use c:/temp on my computer).
  2. Run the define pages programme and tell it to create page_6, give a template name and put the files in c:/temp.
  3. Look in C:/temp you will see an includes folder. Simply upload these to your host’s includes folder.
Using Define Pages Generator for Zen Cart

Using Define Pages Generator for Zen Cart

Your zen-cart will now have an additional page for you to customize. Now all you need do is give it a title and description.

Simply edit the file on your server:
/includes/languages/english/YOUR TEMPLATE/page_6.php and fill in whatever text you wish for both the navbar (which appears  on the top bar of your web browser and the navigation crumb on Zen Cart) and the header (the title of the new page).

The actual page content is found at /includes/languages/english/html_includes/YOUR TEMPLATE/define_page_6.php where you can either edit the page directly using html and upload a new file or make the define_page_6.php file writeable and use the zencart editor from admin.tools.define pages editor.

Don’t forget to link to it so people and search engines will know the new page exists. Easy :)

Need to remember an anniversary, birthday or other special occasion?

It’s easy with our free date reminder service. Simply:

  • create an account
  • enter your special date
  • enter a note to remind you what the date means

10 days before that date arrives we will email you a reminder. Our date reminder service is great for any occasion and completely free of charge.

If you run Zen cart why not offer it to your customers also? You can download it from Zen Cart’s website and use it fairly easily as long as your web host supports cron jobs.

PayPal Express and Zen Cart – Shipping Not Available Error

Earlier I commented on the fix for PayPal Express and Zen Cart but unfortunately it broke again. I asked PayPal to investigate as it looked as if the wrong country code was being passed – they were helpful but did not find a problem so it was back to the shopping cart php code.

Customers could not find a shipping option when returning from PayPal to AllGiftsDirect.co.uk so they abandoned their carts. Credit card payments were fine, it was only PayPal Express that had a problem.

After looking at the previous post ( by the way, using a blog to track Zen Cart changes is extremely helpful, there is no way I would have remembered which pieces of code were altered) I changed line 1825 in paypalwpp.php back to the original suggestion:

‘ship_country_name’ => urldecode($response['SHIPTOCOUNTRY']));

This was mentioned on the Zen Cart forum post number 57. PayPal express is working fine again.

It was working fine, nothing changed but it then stopped functioning correctly, so I made a small change and now it is back working again.

Aren’t computers so annoying sometimes? Apologies to any customers who found it as frustrating as I did :)