A section for each product

[magga]

I have read in a few places on the forum that for various reasons it is good to have one section per product (which is what I want to do).

I have been messing around with this for about 3 hours now and I just can't get it working, have also searched the forums on numerous occasions.

I have created a section for a product then duplicated the product in the main products category and then hidden the section but it's hiding the product aswell - I read somewhere on the forums that this is supposed to be how you do it but it just isn't working.

If someone could guide me through this step by step it would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[leehack]

I think you may be a little confused.

It's simply a case of creating a new section or sub-section, adding a product and then repeating the process. So you end up with as many sections as products, ie one section per product - which is a well received method for SEO.

If you then want the product duplicated into other areas, select it, copy it and then paste as duplicate where you want it.

[magga]

Thanks, but doing it this way, every sub section appears aswell as the product. I just want to see the product and not the sub section.

This post relates to it also:

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=27165

[leehack]

Your sections/sub sections appear, as a section or a sub section is the equivalent to a web page. So each section has its own web page and on that page is one product. Its therefore easy to do the seo and market the page to one product only.

[magga]

I realise this, that is why I want to do it, but there is a way of doing it without all the sub sections appearing for EVERY product because I have seen an example (just can't find it).

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=27165

If you take a look at that post it kind of half explains it but I'm having the same problem that the other guy was having.

[Duncan Rounding]

I don't believe you can hide a section yet keep the product in that section visible - otherwise the section cannot be hidden as that product only exists in that section. And I don't think you need to anyway.

The simplest, and I feel most effective way, to do this is to create sub-sections, one per product, that contain the master products. Then in the parent section create cut-down duplicates of the products. The customer has the option then of buying directly from the section/page of duplicates or going to the master product section/page, viewing the full details and purchasing from there.

Your navigation can contain just the top level sections if you wish rather than the whole lot. The sitemap however will have all the pages listed.

The solution suits both SEO and the customer. I see no reason to try to hide the main product section pages from the customer and yet try and keep them for SEO. By creating one page per section you are also channelling the customer from having a wide choice to having just one option - buy.

You can see this in this in action on a couple of my sites in my signature.

[magga]

Ok I am getting somewhere now but still one problem:

When I go to my product categories I can see them fine, If I go into one of them then it displays the products but also displays all the seperate categories that those individual products are in (as each has it's own category).

My layout is currently like this >

Products > Section > Sub Section (Named same as Product) > Product

So every product has it's own sub section. I then also have the products duplicated here:

Products > Section > Duplicate Product

Can anyone help with this ?

[Duncan Rounding]

IN the parent Section try changing the Layout - Section - Bottom Sub Section List Layout and Top Sub Section List Layout to No Layout.