Making popup pages search engine friendly

[NormanRouxel]

Someone just posted that Google wouldn't index his popup pages.

This is fair enough as they're accessed via JavaScript URL's and Google, etc can't follow that.

I had a look at the popup code and found that by changing the Design / Text -1 / 2175 from

javascript:ShowPopUp('%s',%s,%s);

Which generates code that spiders can't follow like

<A HREF="javascript:ShowPopUp('info%5f7%2ehtml',400,400);">Click here for larger image...</A>

to

%s" onclick="ShowPopUp(this.href,%s,%s);return false;

then we'd generate

<A HREF="info%5f7%2ehtml" onclick="ShowPopUp(this.href,400,400);return false;">Click here for larger image...</A>


which should do the job as we now have a normal <A..> tag with a spider friendly URL.
The JavaScript popup still works and the main page shouldn't change
(to the popup URL) as we return false. Even better if your customer didn't have a JavaScript browser
they'd still get to the popup page.

Notes: This works on popups using Display By: "Clicking Product Image" and "Text Link" but you
should not use "Extended Info Button".

Tested with IE6, Netscape 7 and Opera 6.

Bugs. It seems to fail on IE with NorCascade installed (but is fine on Opera and Netscape).
The simple solution would be not to use this patch or use NorTree instead.

Norman


PS If you really need to use Extended Info Buttons then replacing
Act_ExtendedInfoButton.html with:-

<INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="NETQUOTEVAR:BUTTONLABEL" NAME="NETQUOTEVAR:BUTTONNAME" onmouseover=this.href="NETQUOTEVAR:LINK">

Seems to work but the generated code is too hairy for me to feel comfy with.

[Mike Hughes]

If you want the search engines to index your pop-up pages then you should probably include a link to your home page on the pop-up page. Otherwise anyone who comes to that page via a search engine has nowhere to go other than back to the search engine (and the PR of that page never gets re-cycled back into your other pages).

The problem of course is that you then run the risk of a customer viewing a pop-up and then continuing on your site in the pop-up window.

I was never sure what the best thing to do is, so I avoid pop-ups for anything important that I might want indexed.

Mike

[NormanRouxel]

The popup code as supplied by Actinic is quite clever.

When you hit the Close Window icon it checks to see whether it's been called from a Catalog page. If so it just closes.

If called independently of Catalog it does, in fact, take you to the home page of the site.

Norman

[Mike Hughes]

I like that.

My final question would be whether the search engines can follow that link to the home page. It would be really nice if they can.

Mike

[jacy]

Hiya Norman,
How's your Mums garden
I'm using extended info buttons with all my products and was interested in using the code you mention above. If it's going to help with the search engines then why not!!
But before i do what do you mean by it's to hairy for you? do you mean there could be errors if i use it?
would i just change

changing the Design / Text -1 / 2175

as mentioned earlier?


Cheers,

Mitch

[NormanRouxel]

OlderScot.

No that home page ling is via more JavaScript and Perl so it won't be followable. I'd recommend hard-coding a link (that may not be so useful if you're using business).


Jacy.

That "hairy" code works (in IE6, Opera6 and Netscape7 anyway - that's all I test with), but is slightly illegal JavaScript.

The button would work but would not be followable by search engines so it would be best to have a text or image link available as well.

It would be possible to replace that button template by an button like image I think. I'll have a think about that and see what would work.

Norman

[NormanRouxel]

I just tested this further and it seems to work OK if you are using an Extended Info button but of type Image (as per Design / Options / Shop Defaults).

I'd recommend this route rather than the Form Button type.

Tested OK with IE6, Mozilla 1.7.1 and Opera 6.

Norman

[Buzby]

I carried out these changes about a week ago. Both the picture link and “More” button work on all products and within 1 week Yahoo has increased its number of pages listed for me by around 50%.

I have however discovered a small bug and that is if you click on the button of a product that you found using the search function on the site you get a 404 error. The picture link still works though.

Any idea on a fix for this?

Many thanks

Jason
www.qualitysilver.co.uk

[Buzby]

Forgot to say that theses changes were made to V7

Regards

Jason
www.qualitysilver.co.uk

[NormanRouxel]

Try (as suggested above) using an Image as the Extended Info Button.

Norman

[swee]

Hi all,

Maybe i know which is the template that we can add "additional links" that can lead our pop page back to home page?

yours,
swee

[cdicken]

The templates for the pop-up pages are as follows:

Act_ExtendedInfo.html=Name and info text displayed right of image
Act_ExtendedInfoImageAbove.html=Name and info text displayed below image
Act_ExtendedInfoLeftText.html=Name and info text displayed left of image
Act_ExtendedInfoNoName.html=No name shown, info text below image
Act_ExtendedInfoNoName2.html=No name shown, info text right of image
Act_ExtendedInfoNoName3.html=No name shown, info text left of image

These can be found in the 'Site1' folder. You can add anything you want into these templates.

[swee]

Hi,

There are so many templates and i have chged the one called "Act_extendedinfo.html". as i thouht it was for the main overall popup Menu. however, after amending,saving,uploaded ( but prompt some error with the "SRC"), eventually when i open the popup window, there was no difference from the past. This was what i have added to the notepad:
<TR>
<TD valign="top"><a href="Http://www.hst.com.sg">Click here to Visit our <b>Homepage</b></a></TD>
</TR>
Are there anything wrong? or added at the wrong template?
But because it affects my uploading, i took it away and it was fine after the removal.

[cdicken]

The problem is Ron, you don't want a link to your home page within the pop-up page. The reason for this is that all that will happen is that the home page will load up within the pop-up page - and the main page will still be open behind the pop-up page. The whole thing would look a bit odd.

If you still want to do it, I suggest going to 'Design | Options | Layouts' and clicking the 'Edit' button next the bottom field ('Page Layout'). Locate the code that reads:

  <tr> 
    <td valign="top">NETQUOTEVAR:INFOTEXT</td>
  </tr>

and change it to read:

  <tr> 
    <td valign="top">
        NETQUOTEVAR:INFOTEXT<br>
        <a href="http://www.hst.com.sg/">Click here to Visit our <b>Homepage</b></a>
    </td>
  </tr>

[Buzby]

I have a home link on my pop up page, but this is set to open in a new window. I use this to get search engines to link back and so that if someone finds one of these pages via a search engine they can navigate to the home page easily.

Regards

Jason
www.qualitysilver.co.uk