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‘Make Filtering the Default View’ – Changes in SellerDeck v14.0.1

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    ‘Make Filtering the Default View’ – Changes in SellerDeck v14.0.1

    Introduction
    The filtering function introduced in SellerDeck v12.0.0 includes an option to ‘Make Filtering the Default View’ in the Filtering tab of the section. This displays the page by default in its filtered state. In the browser this differs in two ways from the standard view of the page:
    1. Instead of appearing in the order in which they are listed in the section, the products are displayed initially in the default sort order defined in the Results tab of the Search And Filtering Settings. The shopper can select a different sort order from a drop-down menu on the page.
    2. The page shows the products defined by the settings in the Filtering tab. By default this is the products in the current section, ie the same set of products as the standard page view. But it can be changed to include products from subsections, or from completely different sections; and to include only products that have set values for particular attributes or variables.

    Structural Change in v14.0.1
    Prior to v14.0.1 the feature operated through a Javascript call to the search script, which displayed the products dynamically in a modified version of the search results page. This page had a script URL like (for example) http://test.sellerdeck.co.uk/bruce/c...AGE=Rings.html
    SellerDeck 2014 (v.14.0.1) introduced an improved version of the feature, in which the content defined by the filter is inserted into a static HTML page that is generated on upload. This offers a number of advantages over the original method:
    1. The load on the server is reduced because the content is generated once, and not regenerated dynamically whenever a shopper visits the page.
    2. Pages load faster.
    3. Whether filtering is the default view or not, pages can always use the same universal URL (eg http://test.sellerdeck.co.uk/bruce/html/v14/Rings.html). However the older dynamic URLs will still work, and the value of any existing links that use them will be preserved.
    4. URLs are slightly more search-engine friendly, with the main keywords having greater density and prominence.
    5. The universal and dynamic addresses both return the same content. Canonical tags are used to consolidate page rank into the the one universal URL, improving the page’s search engine performance.

    Upgrading
    If you upgrade a site from an earlier version, the software will automatically generate the new pages on first upload. Site navigation will use universal URLs for any new sections created subsequently.
    If ‘Make Filtering the Default View’ is enabled for any existing section, the existing dynamic URL will be preserved in the site navigation, and a message will appear in the Filtering tab:



    To improve site performance and SEO, we recommend converting these sections to use universal URLs in the site navigation.


    Important: if, in implementing filtering, you set up 301 redirects from the static addresses (like /acatalog/Rings.html) to the dynamic ones (like cgi-bin/ss000014.pl?FILTERPAGE=Rings.html), these MUST be removed before continuing. Otherwise search engines will encounter a circular redirect from one URL to the other, no content will be indexed, and the pages will lose all their search rankings.

    To make the change, find the ‘Optimise Links’ button in the top right-hand corner of the ‘Results’ tab of the Search and Filtering Settings (accessed via the ‘Settings’ menu):



    On clicking this button a dialog will appear giving more information about the conversion. On clicking ‘Continue’, all sections will be converted to use static URLs. This step is non-reversible, and the ‘Optimise Links’ button and Filtering tab messages will be suppressed afterwards.
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