Virtuemart Meta Descriptions Using Joomla Site Description Sitewide, Need Advice

wizardofaus · October 07, 2013, 14:48:28 PM

Whenever I feel too complacent about my growing body of knowledge on Virtuemart, something comes up that reminds me how little I really know about the whole shebang. This time, the reminder came in the form of an SEO consulting firm who, wanting to score some points, pointed out that we were probably getting dinged in search engines because our meta description was the same on every page. This came as a great surprise, in no small part because it clearly wasn't supposed to be that way - from the point of view of our backend, each category had a different meta description set up, as did each item, and so forth. Add to this the fact that I found out on Friday, about an hour and a half from the end of my shift while in the company of my boss, and didn't really have a good solution before end of day, and it made the rest of the day a race to try to figure out how to solve the problem - after all, even assuming our existing metas are terrible, if the system isn't working any changes won't show up either.

But now, I've had a weekend to relax, take a few steps back from the problem, and realize what I do know versus what I do not know.

What I do know:

My site is at www.anchortex.com. It pulls its meta description from the Joomla Global Configuration site meta configuration. It is using this meta description for every page on the site, overriding what is configured in Virtuemart Shop, and overriding what is configured in the category and item pages and anywhere else. Meta keywords and meta titles -are- showing up properly on all pages. I have an auxiliary site that is used for testing purposes, so that I can perform tests without affecting the live site if necessary. I am currently using Joomla 2.5.14 and Virtuemart 2.0.24, and have a template override in place (specifically, JSN Gruve Pro, tailored for our shop).

What I do not know, aside from why the problem is happening:

Can a template override affect meta description usage? (That's honestly the first thing I checked for - if it can, I can't find how it's doing it and need a better pointer for where to look.)

I use InterExt, which I use because JSN Gruve Pro loads a second copy of a javascript file as part of its coding (and honestly it's easier to get the plugin to deal with fixing the problem than to debug it), and JCH Optimize to shrink down CSS/JS issues; I'm not sure whether either of these would somehow be relevant to the problem at hand.

I also use JotCache to handle site caching because Joomla's internal cache doesn't seem to handle well under pressure - especially when meshed with CherryPicker, which allows use of Custom Fields as filters. The flip side of that is that /admin/components/com_vm/models/product.php and components/com_vm/router.php are replaced with modified versions to make sure the filters work as intended. Due to the law of unintended consequences, I don't know whether this affects my problem.

If anyone can provide any advice, I'd appreciate it.

AH · October 07, 2013, 15:30:07 PM

Whenever I visit your categories I see a unique meta description

This is different for the categories I visited. So no idea what the SEO "consultants" are talking about?

wizardofaus · October 07, 2013, 16:13:22 PM

Hmm... in-teresting. What I'm seeing on the military category, for example, in the source code is:

<meta name="description" content="Anchortex is a leading GSA supplier of safety apparel and equipment to military, public safety, and industrial professionals across the USA. Shop online or request quotes for your company, agency, or department." />

which is the same on the root, and everywhere else - in Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.

Now my confusion grows a little more...

AH · October 07, 2013, 18:43:17 PM

I must have struck lucky in the categories
Here is the meta head from

https://www.anchortex.com/public-safety-clothing-footwear-police-fire-ems/wildland-fire-fighting-apparel-brush-gear

Code Select

<head>
<base href="https://www.anchortex.com/public-safety-clothing-footwear-police-fire-ems/wildland-fire-fighting-apparel-brush-gear">
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="content-type">
<meta content="Wildland Fire Fighting Shirts and Pants - WFF Brush Gear " name="keywords">
<meta content="Austin Cushing" name="author">
<meta content="Wildland Fire Fighting Shirts and Pants - WFF Brush Gear - Anchortex GSA" name="title">
<meta content="Wildland firefighting shirts and pants (brush gear) by Topps Safety Apparel and Lakeland NFPA 1977 clothing." name="description">
<meta content="Joomla! - Open Source Content Management" name="generator">
<title>Wildland Fire Fighting Shirts and Pants - WFF Brush Gear - Anchortex GSA</title>

And for another:-

https://www.anchortex.com/work-wear/industrial-coveralls-non-fr

Code Select

<head>
<base href="https://www.anchortex.com/work-wear/industrial-coveralls-non-fr">
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="content-type">
<meta content="Industrial Coveralls - Automotive Coveralls - Jumpsuits - Speedsuits " name="keywords">
<meta content="Austin Cushing" name="author">
<meta content="Industrial Coveralls - Automotive Coveralls - Jumpsuits - Speedsuits - Anchortex" name="title">
<meta content="Find traditional mens coveralls and jumpsuits by Red Kapand other leading brands, with low prices and fast delivery. " name="description">
<meta content="Joomla! - Open Source Content Management" name="generator">
<title>Industrial Coveralls - Automotive Coveralls - Jumpsuits - Speedsuits - Anchortex</title>

Check these categories and see what you have configured in VM for the metadata and what you have set in Maximenu for them.

I am assuming you are not using the maximenu auto plugin for VM - I cannot test this as I do not have it. But I have been using the Maximenu and manually setting the categories to meet my specific needs ( Slow I know, but lots more control!!!

)

jenkinhill · October 07, 2013, 18:46:56 PM

The meta desc is not consistently shown. eg

For commercial mats: <meta name="description" content="Find Andersen industrial safety mats to reduce job injuries and increase worker safety. Excellent selection, low prices and fast delivery from Anchortex Corporation. " />

For Sorbents and Spill Cleanup: <meta name="description" content="Fast delivery and low prices on absorbent spill cleanup supplies for chemical, oil, blood, and other liquid spill clean-ups. Military and government RFQs and P.O.s welcome." />

For Norix Behavioral Healthcare Furniture: <meta name="description" content="Norix behavioral healthcare furniture looks good while remaining highly durable and safe to staff and patients, and is available from Anchortex Corporation to facilities across the United States. Anchortex Corporation is a GSA contractor." />

But then there is this-

For Fire Fighter Station Wear: <meta name="description" content="Anchortex is a leading GSA supplier of safety apparel and equipment to military, public safety, and industrial professionals across the USA. Shop online or request quotes for your company, agency, or department." />

For Military Field Equipment: <meta name="description" content="Anchortex is a leading GSA supplier of safety apparel and equipment to military, public safety, and industrial professionals across the USA. Shop online or request quotes for your company, agency, or department." />

As Hutson says, check your menu parameters.

wizardofaus · October 07, 2013, 20:35:01 PM

Hrrrrrm. Very interesting.

The meta descriptions aren't defined in Maximenu but in the categories themselves -- but this gives me the perfect pointer on where to look more closely, as those two categories that have meta data visible are ones I've created (and created menu items for), and the others were created farther back in development before I got hold of the system. Neither menu item has any meta data defined via the menu system in it (Sorbents and Spill Cleanup or Fire Fighter Station Wear), as I just doublechecked to make sure - but hopefully this is just what I needed to figure out the problem. Thank you both very much, I knew there had to be something I was missing. (And if nothing else, I can try manually defining things in the menu and seeing if that works instead.)

AH · October 07, 2013, 21:53:05 PM

Good to see that you now have something to go at.

News:

Virtuemart Meta Descriptions Using Joomla Site Description Sitewide, Need Advice

wizardofaus

AH

wizardofaus

AH

jenkinhill

wizardofaus

AH