DIRECTORY STYLE LINKS FOR MIVA MERCHANT CATEGORIES AND PRODUCTS - REVIEW OF SEARCH FRIENDLY LINKS

In the beginning, Google didn't like Miva Merchant category and product pages with more than one ampersand (&) in their urls.  They recently started accepting these category and product urls with more than one ampersand.  Even so, some search engines such as Inktomi still do not seem to care for Miva pages.  Our search engine reports for clients show that a new way to serve Miva Merchant pages is seeing even better rankings than its standard urls and and even their static counterparts.  What sort of magic could allow a Miva Merchant store owner to keep all of their pages dynamic and yet appear static?

The answer is Search Friendly Links by Copernicus Business Systems.  This is a third-party module that allows dynamically-generated Miva Merchant pages to appear as if they were static directories.  It works in conjunction with an .htaccess rewrite rule.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !-s
RewriteRule ^miva/(.*) /Merchant2/merchant.mvc?page=$1

The default variable after your domain is page, but you can see that I have changed it to miva.

Some examples are:

• http://www.icr.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=001 now becomes http://www.icr.org/page/001/SFNT
• http://www.vanzy.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PLST&Store_Code=V now becomes http://www.vanzy.com/page/V/PLST
• http://www.winebuys.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SRCH&Store_Code=winebuys now becomes http://www.winebuys.com/page/winebuys/SRCH  If you use Viking Coder's Search Manager module, it will be http://www.winebuys.com/page/winebuys/SRCHM
• http://www.higherpowersupplies.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=HPS&Category_Code=1PW now becomes http://www.higherpowersupplies.com/page/HPS/CTGY/1PW
• http://www.theworkwearstore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TWS&Product_Code=J11&Category_Code=BT now becomes http://theworkwearstore.com/page/TWS/PROD/BT/J11

What about affiliate urls?  That is exactly what we wanted to know!  We consulted with Copernicus about the possibility to add additional variables such as the affiliate screen and affiliate id, so we could provide clients with search friendly links and track them with Viking Coder's Affiliate Manager module.  Now http://www.jmhonline.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MMA&Category_Code=mm&AFFIL=searchmiva becomes http://www.jmhonline.net/miva/JMH/PROD/mm/MMA/AFFIL/searchmiva

It will also work with product counts, stack depths, and more.
http://www.jmhonline.net/miva/JMH/PROD/mmsh/mmsh/Product_Count/1

You can manually insert directory style links for categories and products into modules that support OpenUI tokens such as Category, Product, and Other Page Template modules.

Concerns:

• Currently no way to include the session url in manually inserted links (<a href="/miva/JMH/SFNT"> like regular links used with an openui token (<a href="%VAR(g.sessionurl)%Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=mmsh">).
• Some search engine spiders get "lost" or "confused" with these directory style links and report numerous files and graphics not found when they are actually there.  There doesn't seem to be any ill effects from this, but it is a nuisance.  However, it is well worth it.  It has been reported that the Inktomi paid inclusion spider will try and add a trailing slash to product urls thinking there will be an index page, but directory style product urls will not work like this.  A fix is reportedly in the works for this particular instance.  A temporary workaround is to just submit your storefront which will work even if there is a trailing slash added.
• Incompatibilities with certain modules.  If a module supports OpenUI tokens such as Category and Product Page Template modules by Viking Coders, there should be no problems.

Features We Love:

• Directory style links can be turned on for the category tree, category screen, and product screen at the same time, individually, manually, or via openui tokens giving quite a few options.
• Google loves these types of links in regards to indexing and ranking (high rankings are not obtained with this module alone but can be achieved with proper optimization).
• Ability to work with other third-party modules like Affiliate Manager and Qwktracker for tracking purposes.

Our current rating of Search Friendly Links is 4 out of 5 bananas.  We highly recommend it.

PURCHASE NOW OR READ MORE INFO! Search Friendly Links comes in non-compiled and compiled versions, is compatible with the OpenUI Look and Feel module, and is only $49.95. 

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