Brochure Page Optimisation & Subfolders

[Dman]

Hi, I have tried to find a similar post/thread so apologies if replicating an old idea (someone else must also have thought along these lines).

Its always seemed to me that Google likes folders, as they show a level of organisation... which can obviously help when seeking relevent search results. I used to have an actinic v7 shop that had a whole bunch of 'info' pages in subfolders relating to the topic/products... genuine info not just gateway pages.

I had most of the Google traffic come in that way... I just had to build them in dreamweaver and upload them myself. Considering that Actinic deftly makes its own folders via FTP automatically, it seemed a pity it couldn't manage other folders too.

That experience has always made me wonder if brochure pages could be better organised because if your sites have a lot of supporting information as mine do, long lists of brochure pages in the file tree seems clumsy.

Creating Brochure Sections might help... or at least allowing them to collapse in a 'Brochure' top section like the default 'Online Catalog' for product sections.

Example: a Chocolate shop... with bunch of support/info pages... including a topic like 'history of choclolate' which has several pages...

If one could create a 'Brochure section' that in effect became a subfolder with pages inside it...


myshop.com/acatalog/history_of_chocolate/chocolate_aztecs.html
myshop.com/acatalog/history_of_chocolate/chocolate_bourneville.html

I think it would be easier to manage a lot of content and also provide Google with some highly visible optimisation.

Perhaps we could use Products Sections to do this if an option were added to 'Act as Sub-folder' ...


myshop.com/acatalog/history_of_chocolate/
myshop.com/acatalog/organic_chocolate/
myshop.com/acatalog/chocolate_eggs/

I do realise this may cause some people to have problems where there is a lack of an 'index.html' file, Actinic pages would automaticaly link but I think Search Engines would see a folder with no index file in a poor light.

...I could take care of that myself but I assume that Actinic has to account for people not realising possible problems like this... not sure how we could solve that.

Anyway, thats the idea... been on my mind for a couple of years and I thought I'd better get it out!!

[wjcampbe]

You can ignore Brochure pages and make a Shop Section called Brochure or Info or anything you want. Within that section you can build your sub section hierarchy any way you want.

You then use a block if to only show the added information section navigation on your Main page.

[Duncan Rounding]

It's an interesting point, I'd welcome the gurus opinion on whether having physical folders makes any SEO difference. It obviously can add additional keywords into the page name.

Personally I would like to see the ability to have sub (child) brochure pages the same as we have for sections with similar site navigation too.

[completerookie]

I would just like the flexibility !
If I choose to use folders, I could, if not, just bung everything in acatalog.

[RuralWeb]

It is true that g likes correctly structured file urls so the idea does have merit. Actinic has never paid much attention to brouchure pages and the addition of folders would be usefull as it cannot be that hard to replicate the section system of the main catalog. This has been discussed before but it was quite a while ago when g made algo changes to look at URL structure.

[Dman]

You can ignore Brochure pages and make a Shop Section ... then use a block if to only show... on your Main page.

Hi Bill, I have various types of info pages such as shopping tips, product reviews, recipes, security info... if I use the normal brochure pages its a looooong list.

Your idea would work well to solve that. I have been using Shop Sections in a v8 site to organise this info but didn't see this way of hiding it from automatic menus... I just have not got my head around those 'blocks'!

I think that Actinic is finally providing some really good flexibility and power for those of us that do not mind tinkering with code in the wee hours, but better brochure page handling would be a good addition for all those people that are 'code averse'

[RuralWeb]

as bill says it can be done with the catalog pages indeed I know some sites that only ever use the catalog pages. I also seem to remember jo being a fan of bills method.

[jont]

I have never been much of a fan of brochure pages either - my own sites use product sections sub-divided accordingly for greater flexibility (I even go so far as using modified products for fragment is some instances for better searching).

With automated menus take a look at using a modified site map list - this allows for some amazing hacking with blocks to create navigation menus.

[Duncan Rounding]

I also don't like the brochure pages, mainly due to the separate navigation which has always looked odd to me on sites. They could do away with brochure pages completely for me.

[RuralWeb]

I quite like them tbh and with a little more planning by actinic they will become more used IMO

[Dman]

16 months on...

This was a wish list suggestion, not a 'botch it' request :-)

I know everyone is trying to be helpful with creative ways of making Actinic do stuff that it doesn't do naturally, but as a wish list suggestion, I just want to know - 16 months later... has it gone anywhere.

Folders do make a difference - thats why all decent cms platforms use rewrites to create structures URLS and they make a real difference, Google likes to see organised content!

So not interested in workarounds I'm afraid (thanks anyway ppl), just wondering if the Wish will come true? :-)