Optimising SellerDeck Extended Information Pages For Search Engines

[G.W.Green]

SellerDeck Extended Information Pages are difficult to optimise manually for search engines, because key elements are either not present, or are not editable.
This article describes how to make the Page Titles editable, and how to provide Meta Keywords and Meta Description tags. Please note that the Meta Keywords tag is not used by Google and is generally regarded as of little value for SEO. It is included here for completeness, and because it is often requested.

1. Open the ‘Library’dialog from the ‘Design’menu and select the ‘Variable’ tab.
2. Right-click on Product and select ‘New Variable’, to add a new variable associated with Products.
3. Give the variable the name ‘ExtInfoPageTitle’, Description and Prompt ‘Page Title for the Extended Information Page’
4. Under ‘Place of Setting’, tick ‘Product.
5. Untick ‘Allow <Use Parent> as an Option’.
6. Set the Panel Name’ to ‘Extended Information’.
7. Tick ‘Searchable’ and ‘Modifiable in Duplicate’.
8. Click ‘OK’
9. Repeat these steps to add two further variables: ‘ExtInfoDescription’, with Description and Prompt ‘Description for the Extended Information Page’; and ‘ExtInfoKeywords’, with Description and Prompt ‘Keywords for the Extended Information Page’. Each with the same settings as above.
10. Click the ‘Layouts’ tab and scroll down to the ‘Extended Info Layout’ type.
11. Double-click on the layout used by the pages you want to optimise.
12. Find the line containing the following:
    
    <title>CompanyName ProductName</title>
    
    
13. Delete that content and replace with the following code:
    
    <title>
    <actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22ExtInfoPageTitle%22%20%2f%3e%20%20%21%3d%20%22%22">
    <actinic:variable name="ExtInfoPageTitle" />
    </actinic:block>
    <actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22ExtInfoPageTitle%22%20%2f%3e%20%20%3d%3d%20%22%22">
    <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /> <actinic:variable name="ProductName" />
    </actinic:block>
    </title>
    
    
14. SellerDeck will now use the content of the new Title tag wherever you enter some; otherwise it will continue to use the normal default.
15. Next find the line containing the variable ‘Metatags’. Delete it and paste in the following instead:
    
    <meta name="keywords" content="<actinic:variable name="ExtInfoKeywords" />" />
    <meta name="description" content="<actinic:variable name="ExtInfoDescription" />" />
    
    
16. This will cause SellerDeck to use the new Meta content for the Extended Information Page, instead of re-using that from the Section Page.
17. Click ‘OK’ and ‘Close’
18. Now go to the Extended Information tab of any product and enter a Description, Keywords and Title into the corresponding new fields in the ‘Product’ area. Check that ‘Extended Info Page Design’ is set to the Layout you just modified.
19. Apply Changes

Now Preview the Store and click on the Extended Information link for the product you just modified. You should see the Title you entered in the browser title bar. If you View Source, you will see your customised Keywords and Description tags near the top of the page.