Hello all. Completely new to Virtuemart but I have been left to pick up the pieces from somebody else's design. To be fair, it all works well but SEO is poor and Google seems to pick up entries from anywhere but the actual item.
Attached an example but other items I've checked can go up to 20 entries without listing the –detail page.
Question is, is this something with the way we have Virtuemart set up with the URLs including everything like the example. https://www.sjstv.co.uk/all-categories/t-con-boards/2581/6871l-3966e-6870c-0532c-t-con-lg-43lh604v-detail
Or is it on the Google end of things with the parameter settings or something?
Any suggestions welcome.
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=79799.0
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=104795.0
what was the search that produced this result?
Thanks for the helpful tips on using the forum.
Using Joomla 3.3.3
VM 3.0.2
Search was for the manufacturers part number, 6871L-3966E, which is the best way to find the correct part. This one is fairly recent but as other sellers start listing it, we will slip down the Google list.
QuoteJoomla 3.3.3
VM 3.0.2
you wont have that problem as a hacker will have taken you off line
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/02/hurried_crims_target_30000_sites_to_pop_unpatched_joomla/
https://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5678-joomla-3-6-4-released.html
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=95513.0
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=123808.0
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=118683.0
but what were u expecting to see in the SERPs?
that is the link to that part
Thanks. I didn't know any of that. Looks like I have a steep learning curve. :o
Virtually all of the results for any product links to the category, sitemap etc. It's difficult to find an entry that links to the actual product page. Found this one but expected all our items to be listed like this.
Other websites similar to ours only have the product link listed, not all the categories, print, email pages etc. As a complete novice, it seems that Google is looking at the wrong info.
Hmmm.. I admit.. it is hard to see why google returns e.g for a search of 6871L-3966E
https://www.sjstv.co.uk/all-categories/by,category_name/results,2141-2340?virtuemart_product_id=350
&
https://www.sjstv.co.uk/all-categories/by,category_name/results,2161-2200?virtuemart_product_id=367
as 6871L-3966E isn't even on these pages even in the source
the correct page https://www.sjstv.co.uk/all-categories/t-con-boards/2581/6871l-3966e-6870c-0532c-t-con-lg-43lh604v-detail and 6871L-3966E appears 4 times
the html title is there and the canonical link
<meta name="title" content="6871L-3966E (6870C-0532C) T.Con LG 43LH604V">
there is even a sitemap with the search phrase
makes no sense to me
Oh dear. If you don't know, then I have little chance of understanding it. Could it be something in the parameters?
This is what I've found.
I'd do No URLs for
limit, start, limitstart, error, print, searchword, searchphrase as a start
Done that and also set 'Itemid' to Every URL. Is that a good idea?
Guess it's just wait and see now. Many thanks for your help.
I think all No URLs, if you use SEF but not "start".
With SEF active, In all other cases, the same page should be already be indexed with right SEF link.
SEF. I hadn't thought about that. Had a look and JoomSEF is enabled but Virtuemart is a €10 extension which has never been installed.
So buy the extension, turn off everything in Google apart from 'start' which leave as Google Decides. Is that the right way to go?
throw away any and all SEF extensions.. they are not required for Joomla3/VM3
they just further complicate matters, produce eventually a huge over head of url mappings etc etc.. waste of time and money
the native SEF works perfectly out of the box as u can see from the url
https://www.sjstv.co.uk/all-categories/t-con-boards/2581/6871l-3966e-6870c-0532c-t-con-lg-43lh604v-detail
OK. So back to plan A and wait a few days to see what Google does I guess.
Not sure how it will help for the actual products to be listed but will wait and see.
in any CMS or shopping software there are multiple ways to access the same page depending on how u get there
your products are in Google.. just not prominently enough displayed and all sorts of weird ones have been indexed .. like search results .. and are returned
I can find some of your products in google.
try my tool : http://shop.st42.fr/en/tools/virtuemart-2-sitemap.htm to add the site map(it work with vm2 and vm3)
Well thought I would come back to this just to update.
Tried everything recommended but no change. It is actually worse. GJC is quite right in that it is something fundamental that is wrong.
I'm sure that Studio 42 is clever but just plugging his products doesn't help me in this case.
"but just plugging his products doesn't help me in this case. "
I think that studio42 was trying to help -
His FREE plugin might not help you - but it might get you a sitemap - that google will be able to traverse with more ease than it seems to be doing now
That's fair enough. I thought a sitemap was just a sitemap. I didn't realise there were different versions.
I don't think that joomla natively produced a sitemap for VirtueMart products/categories
This is studio's attempt to help with this case.
I do not use it, but maybe there is some feedback on it somewhere in the forums.
My sitemap is not better then another(perhaps faster), but if you don't use a sitemap, google need to have some reference to get the link to your products.
So if you don't have a sitemap. Google do:
>HOMEPAGE
Search for
>HOMEPAGE>first Level links
then get
>first Level link>2nd level links
...
If he found at first bad SEO links, this have priority and perhaps you never have the right link added in google results, because this was found before.
It's why it's important to use a sitemap.
Because right link are send to google and google have not to follow all your internal links.
If you have already bad links in Google then you need to add .htaccess rules to redirect each to the right link, so google stop to use the poor links or/and add this in the Google black list.
If you have bad/old links - I found this tool very useful for handling the redirects - I use it myself
https://www.selfget.com/products/redj.html (https://www.selfget.com/products/redj.html)
They used JSitemap. Not sure if it is a good idea or not as it looks complicated. Maybe getting rid of that and using Studio 42s would be a better idea?
Hadn't thought about the .htaccess file. The selfget looks good. Would using that do away with the need to edit .htaccess?
I use JSitemap Pro with its VirtueMart plugin enabled and have no problems.
QuoteWould using that do away with the need to edit .htaccess?
It will handle most things but is not a direct replacement for all .htaccess redirects
OK thanks. I will check out both and see where I get with it.