I've been developing in Magento for several years, and I can tell you without a doubt that it's better to keep the H1 tag wrapped around the actual product name on your product pages. This should be default on all pages except the home page, where the H1 is wrapped around the IMG ALT for the logo in the header. I prefer to move the H1 on the main page so that it wraps actual relevant text, but it requires a little bit of editing of the Magento core, and like everyone has said, heading hierarchy doesn't count for much in Google's algorithm these days.

The best way to add specific keywords for product-level pages in Magento is via the Short Description, General Description, and the Product Tags. Tags are likely the most effective solution, as this functionality was designed for customers to make notes about products, so "White Business Shirt" would look natural there and make perfect sense.

You might also try very minimal internal linking from your homepage if you have a specific product you're attempting to boost your SERP ranking for. Something like "Our best selling <  a h r e f = product url  >business shirt<  /  a >."

To be honest, there's so many factors involved in correctly optimizing a Magento-based site, I'd recommend not wasting your time with H tags at all, especially masking and duplicating them.

You'll be much better off if you concentrate on optimizing your category hierarchy, writing unique product descriptions, dealing with duplicate content, configuring robot instructions, decreasing load times, etc...

Plenty to do... no need to mess w/ the H1 tag.

Hope this helps & good luck!

-Anthony

No problem at all. Glad I could help. I think you've got it under control. I tend to over-think things a little bit after a long night, haha.

Last two cents...

There's a Magento extension I use on one of my stores that's very similar to what you're thinking of.

On the checkout page, the very first form requires the user to enter the billing info (just name, email, address, etc... not payment info), as well as password, and has a checkbox that asks the user if they would like to "Register for Future Convenience."

Above this first form there's a simple a link at the top that says "Already Registered? Login here." which replaces the billing info form with a login form if clicked.

I think something like that would work perfectly for your situation, you'd just need the addition of a password field to the billing info section, and a link that replaces the billing section with a login form when clicked. Depending on which method/form is displayed your button text would either be "Login and Continue" or "Register and Continue."

For new users who need to register, the only additional step as opposed to a "Guest Checkout" would be filling out a password field.

Good luck man.

-Anthony

Hey Sebastian,

I took a look at your site and I see what you're saying about guest checkout. Very nice by the way. I'm definitely going to keep your contact info handy so I'll have it the next time I need a custom modules built.

I do think adding the login form to the basket.html page would be the best way to go in this case. The only problem with that is if the user clicks on the Checkout button and bypasses the View Basket page...

Again, my php skills are horrible but I guess the general idea for the rule would be something like this:

For basket.html - if userisnotloggedin then echo HTML for the login form above the current basket.html content.

For checkout.html - if userisnotloggedin then echo HTML for login form above the current checkout.html content.

The problem with this scenario is that if the user isn't registered, you'd aslo need to dynamically display the HTML from register.html on the basket or checkout page when a user clicks "Register Now", instead of redirecting to a new page.

Could get a little complicated but it should eliminate the 302 warning.

Also, when I created an account I noticed I had to confirm it, so unless you've had problems with fake accounts, I'd  remove that step from the conversion process.

Personally, I use the robots.txt file to disallow robot access to all of my cart, checkout, and account pages (login, register, or after login). The only drawback is you don't have the "Register" page indexed, but I don't think it's very likely that a user would land on a Registration page from a search engine result and proceed to register for a site without viewing any other content first.

Removing those pages from the index, combined with adding a no-follow tag to the View Basket and Checkout buttons links should get rid of the 302 error and any duplicate content issues without having to change your conversion flow, which seems to be very straightforward and user-friendly as it is.

It seems like you've got the skills to make it happen either way though, and keeping a user on the checkout page instead of redirecting them somewhere else never hurts.

I don't think the 302 warning will be affect your rankings much as it is, but to wrap it up... I'd either add the necessary Login and Registration forms to both the basket and checkout pages (only if the user isn't logged in) or disallow indexing of those pages and no-follow any links pointing to them, so the 302 isn't an issue.

-Anthony

Hi Sebastian,

What eCommerce platform are you using?

To be honest, I think the best solution would be to allow users to checkout without being logged in. Most eCommerce stores allow Guest Checkout because a lot of customers don't want to be forced to create a permanent account in order to make a purchase. I'm pretty positive you'd see an increase in Conversion Rate if you enable users to make purchases as guests.

If that's not an option for some reason, you might try letting the user create the account during the checkout process rather than redirecting them to the normal account creation page.

I'm pretty sure there's a way to redirect users to a page without using a 302 via php, but I'm far from being an expert in that language. On my eCommerce site if a customer clicks a link like "Order Tracking" or "Order History" without being logged in they're first taken to the login page, and then after logging in they're redirected to the original page that was requested. I'm not showing any 302 warnings from these links though. I'm using Magento, and while I'm very well versed in that CMS, I've got very little experience with other eCommerce platforms and can't really help you out with anything technical.

Again, I definitely think the best course of action would be to allow non-registered users to make purchases, which would eliminate the problem entirely and increase conversions.

Hope this helps and good luck!

-Anthony

I agree with both Moosa and Aran. I don't think constantly changing your page titles on a site-wide basis is going to help your rankings. It may actually have the opposite effect, depending on how you interpret Google's mysterious and upcoming "Over-Optimization" penalty.

However if you're page title's need improving and doing so will help you increase impressions, I wouldn't avoid it. I just wouldn't make a habit of tweaking them and changing them too often.

Like Aran said, if you've running a special promotion, have a major announcement, incredible new content, etc... I absolutely think changing the titles on relevant pages to reflect those things is a great idea for increasing CTR and conversions.

Moderation is the key on this I believe.

Hope this helps.

Anthony

Hi Michael,

I'm not talking about the product pages that make up the site, just the actual cart and checkout pages.

I'm not sure what eCommerce platform you're running, but basically whatever page is displayed when a customer clicks "My Cart" and "Checkout" or whatever it happens to be on your site... the pages that are dynamically generated when user's add products and purchase items. There's no need to have a My Cart or a Checkout page ranking in Google that shows an empty cart or an error when somebody clicks the search result. Same thing for customer account pages like order tracking or order history... anything that's dynamically generated and requires a user to be logged in or have an active session on the site.

Hear hear. Thumbs up.

Hi Pete,

Good question.

First thing, don't worry too much about keywords in your meta descriptions. Google will make them bold, which might draw some attention to your listing on the results page, but keywords in meta descriptions don't actually improve rankings.

Instead, use the meta description area to entice the searcher to visit your site. What set's you apart from the competition... do you offer free shipping?... any special promotions? Using the Meta Description as an informative snippet and a call to action is much more effective in increasing CTR (Click Thru Rate) and Conversions than packing them with keywords.

Secondly, some pages (like the Shopping Cart or other customer specific pages), you don't really want showing up in Google, so it's best to instruct Google not to index these pages (either via the robots.txt file or meta-robots tag). If Google doesn't index the page, then there's no need for the Meta Description.

Lastly, I'd recommend investing the time in writing good Meta Descriptions for the pages that you anticipate will be receiving the most impressions and traffic, and use a default description of the site for the pages that will likely rarely appear in results.

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Anthony

Hi Sofia,

Two things you need to consider when troubleshooting this:

The actual robots.txt file (located in the root directory of your site) and the meta-robots tags in the section of your HTML. When you say you checked the source code and the robots instructions were missing, I think you were talking about the meta-robots tags in the actual HTML of your site.

Webmaster Tools is probably referring to the actual robots.txt file in your domain's root path, which would differ entirely and not be visible by checking the HTML on your site. Like Nakul and Brent said, if you'll let us know your site's URL and paste the content of your robots.txt file here, I'm sure one of us can help you resolve the problem fairly quickly.

Thanks!

Anthony

Hi Arti,

You'll just need to create a 301 redirect from www.yoursite.com/index.html to www. yoursite.com. This will permanently eliminate the /index.html version (which is a duplicate page) and fix the duplicate content error.

After that, build links to www.yoursite.com.

Hope this help. If you need more info on how to do the 301 redirect just let me know.

The best way to handle this is via the URL Parameters Setting in Google Webmaster or a robots.txt file.

Google added this functionality to handle the exact issues your'e describing, so there's no need to drastically change functionalities which would likely require editing core files in your CMS.

If you click on URL Parameters under Site Configuration in Google Webmaster you will find a list of queries and for each one there available options that instruct google as to how to handle these pages.

To do this:

1. Click Edit for the Paramater you'd like to configure (i.e. course, cooking, etc).

2. In the Dropdown Menu, select Yes. Changes, reorders, or narrow page contents.

3. Choose the option that best describes how the parameter affects the page content.

4. Choose how GoogleBot should crawl these pages.

• I usually choose "Let GoogleBot Decide" as it's Google your trying to please ;). I've designed and optimized several eCommerce store with multiple parameters and this option handles the crawling and indexing of these pages correctly 99% of the time. If you still experience Duplicate Content issues after editing these settings, simply choose the Ignore option.

Dynamic websites are very common these days and this tool is designed by Google specifically to handle parameters in the best possible way and allow Google to understand the URL structure of your site.. The "Don't have dynamic URLs solution" isn't a solution at all, as many modern functionalities rely on dynamic URLs, such as layered navigation in Magento or other eCommerce platforms. How do you suggest filtering products by price, size, color, etc without creating dynamic URLs? These functionalities IMPROVE user experience and navigation. The text in the address bar isn't always the important factor when a user is navigating a site.

Don't overthink it.

Take advantage of the functionality and only de-index pages that are causing duplicate content problems. If you notice specific dynamic URLs are appearing in SERPs too often then create a 301 redirect from that dynamic URL to a landing page with more user friendly URL.

Hope this helps.

Anthony

Hi Pete,

Good question.

First thing, don't worry too much about keywords in your meta descriptions. Google will make them bold, which might draw some attention to your listing on the results page, but keywords in meta descriptions don't actually improve rankings.

Instead, use the meta description area to entice the searcher to visit your site. What set's you apart from the competition... do you offer free shipping?... any special promotions? Using the Meta Description as an informative snippet and a call to action is much more effective in increasing CTR (Click Thru Rate) and Conversions than packing them with keywords.

Secondly, some pages (like the Shopping Cart or other customer specific pages), you don't really want showing up in Google, so it's best to instruct Google not to index these pages (either via the robots.txt file or meta-robots tag). If Google doesn't index the page, then there's no need for the Meta Description.

Lastly, I'd recommend investing the time in writing good Meta Descriptions for the pages that you anticipate will be receiving the most impressions and traffic, and use a default description of the site for the pages that will likely rarely appear in results.

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Anthony

I agree with both Moosa and Aran. I don't think constantly changing your page titles on a site-wide basis is going to help your rankings. It may actually have the opposite effect, depending on how you interpret Google's mysterious and upcoming "Over-Optimization" penalty.

However if you're page title's need improving and doing so will help you increase impressions, I wouldn't avoid it. I just wouldn't make a habit of tweaking them and changing them too often.

Like Aran said, if you've running a special promotion, have a major announcement, incredible new content, etc... I absolutely think changing the titles on relevant pages to reflect those things is a great idea for increasing CTR and conversions.

Moderation is the key on this I believe.

Hope this helps.

Anthony

Hi Arti,

You'll just need to create a 301 redirect from www.yoursite.com/index.html to www. yoursite.com. This will permanently eliminate the /index.html version (which is a duplicate page) and fix the duplicate content error.

After that, build links to www.yoursite.com.

Hope this help. If you need more info on how to do the 301 redirect just let me know.

Hi Sebastian,

What eCommerce platform are you using?

To be honest, I think the best solution would be to allow users to checkout without being logged in. Most eCommerce stores allow Guest Checkout because a lot of customers don't want to be forced to create a permanent account in order to make a purchase. I'm pretty positive you'd see an increase in Conversion Rate if you enable users to make purchases as guests.

If that's not an option for some reason, you might try letting the user create the account during the checkout process rather than redirecting them to the normal account creation page.

I'm pretty sure there's a way to redirect users to a page without using a 302 via php, but I'm far from being an expert in that language. On my eCommerce site if a customer clicks a link like "Order Tracking" or "Order History" without being logged in they're first taken to the login page, and then after logging in they're redirected to the original page that was requested. I'm not showing any 302 warnings from these links though. I'm using Magento, and while I'm very well versed in that CMS, I've got very little experience with other eCommerce platforms and can't really help you out with anything technical.

Again, I definitely think the best course of action would be to allow non-registered users to make purchases, which would eliminate the problem entirely and increase conversions.

Hope this helps and good luck!

-Anthony

Hey Sebastian,

I took a look at your site and I see what you're saying about guest checkout. Very nice by the way. I'm definitely going to keep your contact info handy so I'll have it the next time I need a custom modules built.

I do think adding the login form to the basket.html page would be the best way to go in this case. The only problem with that is if the user clicks on the Checkout button and bypasses the View Basket page...

Again, my php skills are horrible but I guess the general idea for the rule would be something like this:

For basket.html - if userisnotloggedin then echo HTML for the login form above the current basket.html content.

For checkout.html - if userisnotloggedin then echo HTML for login form above the current checkout.html content.

The problem with this scenario is that if the user isn't registered, you'd aslo need to dynamically display the HTML from register.html on the basket or checkout page when a user clicks "Register Now", instead of redirecting to a new page.

Could get a little complicated but it should eliminate the 302 warning.

Also, when I created an account I noticed I had to confirm it, so unless you've had problems with fake accounts, I'd  remove that step from the conversion process.

Personally, I use the robots.txt file to disallow robot access to all of my cart, checkout, and account pages (login, register, or after login). The only drawback is you don't have the "Register" page indexed, but I don't think it's very likely that a user would land on a Registration page from a search engine result and proceed to register for a site without viewing any other content first.

Removing those pages from the index, combined with adding a no-follow tag to the View Basket and Checkout buttons links should get rid of the 302 error and any duplicate content issues without having to change your conversion flow, which seems to be very straightforward and user-friendly as it is.

It seems like you've got the skills to make it happen either way though, and keeping a user on the checkout page instead of redirecting them somewhere else never hurts.

I don't think the 302 warning will be affect your rankings much as it is, but to wrap it up... I'd either add the necessary Login and Registration forms to both the basket and checkout pages (only if the user isn't logged in) or disallow indexing of those pages and no-follow any links pointing to them, so the 302 isn't an issue.

-Anthony

Hi Pete,

If you are referring to Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions, the answer is mixed. Most major search engines have ignored Keyword Meta Information for some time now, so it's best to leave those fields blank. There's no benefit in adding them, and in one respect it can actually be detrimental...

Why share the hard work you've put into keyword analysis with your competitors by advertising your targeted keywords to the world??

As far as the Meta Description, that's a different story. While there's a no inherent boost in ranking provided by keywords in Meta Descriptions, this area can have a huge effect on your page's CTR (Click Through Rate) which can indirectly effect rankings. Remember this description is displayed directly below the Meta Title in SERPs. You should use the Meta Description to accurately describe the page, and to entice the potential visitor to click the link. Some keywords will surely help, as Google will make any words in the Meta Description that match the search query bold, which can draw attention to your page, but it's probably more effective to use this area as a call to action...

Why should I click on your link rather than the other links? Do you offer free shipping? Is your customer service excellent? Are you offering a special promotion? The Meta Description is the place to let your potential visitors know about these things. Be concise, as Google only displays the first 156 characters, and avoid using the same description for every page.

Meta Description - Make 'em count.

Meta Keywords - Leave 'em blank.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Anthony

Hi Michael,

I'm not talking about the product pages that make up the site, just the actual cart and checkout pages.

I'm not sure what eCommerce platform you're running, but basically whatever page is displayed when a customer clicks "My Cart" and "Checkout" or whatever it happens to be on your site... the pages that are dynamically generated when user's add products and purchase items. There's no need to have a My Cart or a Checkout page ranking in Google that shows an empty cart or an error when somebody clicks the search result. Same thing for customer account pages like order tracking or order history... anything that's dynamically generated and requires a user to be logged in or have an active session on the site.

Hear hear. Thumbs up.

Hi Maarten,

I'm not extremely familiar .htaccess or the typo3 CMS, but it could be the issue is simply a result of misconfigured file permissions for a specific directory or path.

I'd check the permissions on all of the paths that are affected by the .htaccess and make sure they're readable and executable (7,5,5).

This could explain why you get the 200 status w/o the .htaccess but the 403 error with it.

Good luck!