Using the extended info pages as separate store pages

[TraceyHand]

Seemed like a good idea at the time and didn't take too much effort to set up (tinkering aside!) but OMG the time it now takes to check the files before upload!
Used to be able to do an upload in maybe...3 minutes...now, it's taking over 15 minutes just to check the files!

I compacted the database thinking this might help but it didn't really. It's just taking aaaaaaaaaaaages now.

I'm pleased with the results but if it turns out to be inconveniently slow, I may consider changing back (5 minute job to switch back too thankfully!)
Problem is I have to download and upload with every order to maintain stock levels accurately...so it's not as if I can only upload once a day or anything

Oh well...just a word of warning if you are contemplating going down this route....it's sloooooooooooooow

Oh, and I've submitted my new "extended info pages" feed to Google Base...so we'll just have to sit back and wait now.

[Darren B]

Thanks Miss Bumps, i have been thinking about creating single product pages, but i might aswell let you be the guinea pig and save me loads of work

[pinbrook]

i still would always go for single products in a section over ext info pages every day of the week

but its interesting to see one of the side effects noted. the biggest no no for me is diffculty in getting ext info indexed

[TraceyHand]

i still would always go for single products in a section over ext info pages every day of the week

but its interesting to see one of the side effects noted. the biggest no no for me is diffculty in getting ext info indexed

and I would choose that method too if my goal was to produce a store whose features were single product pages.
However, the extended info pages on my site don't have much in the way of additional product information as such, but a larger photo (which was the original "larger photo" pop up) plus the related products marketing so there's not really anything being missed out for using them that way in this case, IYSWIM

And with my store already being quite "deep" as far as sections go, the biggest turn off for me, with single products in sections, was adding another compulsory "layer"...whereas this route adds no extra clicks than using the (optional) extended info the "normal" way.

The speed however, (or lack of!) is certainly giving me second thoughts.
It's still an experiment really, and one that is easily reversied at that, so I'll see how it works in practise over time.

Jury is still out

[paulhesford]

Extended info Pages in site map

Hi
I am also trying out extended info pages for single product pages

From different posts it seems people think that these pages wont be s.e. friendly its early days with my trial (about 2 months). Areas imo which need to be covered to make them s.e. friendly

1. Product Names in the URL - Powerbeck Whey Protein
2.Relevant Meta Tags i did this using method as described here and just added Bodybuilding Supplements

In terms of the meta's, we use this in the extended info layout

<meta name="description" content="<actinic:variable encoding="strip" name="ProductDescription" />" />
<meta name="keywords" content="<actinic:variable encoding="strip" name="ProductName" />, blank media, dvdr, cdr" />

Seems to produce relevant results. The blank media, dvdr, cdr is just text we added on as keywords for each product.

3. Changed links from home page and any marketing lists so they don't go through cgi bin
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=25817

also changed any links which just say "more info" to include relevant key words within the link tag

4 Added a bread crumb link back to product list page

5 I now want to add extended info pages to the site map as a product list

Thanks Paul

[wfl]

Single pages using the ext info works fine.

Speed is a mega issue but, I believe, it is currently being addressed. Hopefully the solution will arrive before Christmas

Setting up the info per page for indexing is not a problem. Simply create some new variables such as; ExtInfoPageTitle, ExtInfoMetaContent and if you want ExtInfoMetaKeywords and populate them for each page.

We have a routine using a spread sheet to create a flat file that we then send back to Actinic via the FlatFileConvertor. It only needs doing say weekly. The spread sheet gets the product table from Actinic via ODBC and then using a variety of spread Functions creates a the content for these new variables.

Finally we don't use Actinic's site map, a) because of its limited scope and b) because we have a lot of content outside of Actinic in article and knowledge bases. We use xml-sitemap and a scheduled cron job on the server that keeps all of the various formats up to date.