Come join me in my journey to explore the various features and capabilities of IBM Websphere Commerce and understand how retailers can benefit from its really cool out-of-box functionality.
A
Sitemap is an xml list of all the pages in your store that is submitted
to search engines so that they will know what to crawl and index.
The Sitemap Generator has been enhanced in Feature Pack 3 to index
the new friendly website addresses and search landing pages.
With the WebSphere Commerce integration with sitemaps, you
can create a sitemap XML file, sitemap_ storeID.xml, that
contains a list of URLs for your site. This way, customers are able to easily
find your site when they perform a search, promoting activity to your site,
and increasing the probability of sales.
The sitemap_ storeID.xml file is placed in the following
directory:
The OOB command SitemapGenerate can be scheduled at regular intervals to generate the SiteMap XML. Please refer the link Creating and scheduling the SitemapGenerate job for more details on the scheduling.
Title and metadata information is valuable for allowing your store's pages to stand out on the internet. With the search engine optimization feature for WebSphere Commerce Version 7 Feature Pack 3, each web page in your store is provided with unique content to improve its ranking in search results.
The title and meta description data is comprised of:
Page title
The page title appears in the customer's browser's title bar For example: Large Adjustable Desk Lamp | Madisons Meta description
The meta description is used by search engines to provide a description of your site and the current web page's contents for a search results page. It is stored in the web pages HTML and is not viewable on the page itself. Meta keyword
The meta keyword is used for your store's static pages such as the contact us or help page for search engines to accurately rank and index the web page. It is stored in the web page's HTML and is not viewable on the page itself. Image alt text
Image alt text describes the contents of an image for search engines to accurately rank and index the image. It is viewable by hovering over the image on the web page and can be used for text to speech systems for the visually impaired.
In this demo video , we will learn how to define the TMD for the new static "Suggestions and Complaints" page which we have created in the Day 4 : Demo - Creating short SEO URLs for new static views.We will also understand the OOB tables.
Lets start the final legs of our marathon!
Demo Help Content
SQL Queries
insert into seopagedef (seopagedef_id, pagename, storeent_id, lastupdate, createdtime) values ((select max(seopagedef_id)+1 from seopagedef), 'SUGGESTIONS_PAGE', (select storeent_id from storeent where identifier = 'Madisons'), '2012-04-22 00:00:00.00', '2012-04-22 00:00:00.00');
update keys set counter = counter+1 where tablename like 'seopagedef';
insert into seopagedefdesc (seopagedef_id, language_id, title, meta_desc, meta_keyword, image_alt_desc, lastupdate, createdtime) values ((select max(seopagedef_id) from seopagedef), -1, 'Suggestion and Complaints at <seo: StoreName/>', 'Suggestion and Complaints at <seo: StoreName/>', 'Suggestion and Complaints <seo: StoreName/>', 'Image for Suggestion and Complaints at <seo: StoreName/>', '2012-04-22 00:00:00.00', '2012-04-22 00:00:00.00');
select * from seopagedef where storeent_id = (select storeent_id from storeent where identifier = 'Madisons');
select * from seopagedefdesc where SEOPAGEDEF_ID in (select SEOPAGEDEF_ID from seopagedef where storeent_id = (select storeent_id from storeent where identifier = 'Madisons')) and language_id = -1;
select * from SEOPAGEDEFOVR;
JSP Changes
The SuggestionComplaints.jsp used can be downloaded from this link. Place it in the following directory - /Stores/WebContent/Madisons/StoreInfoArea/
Search engines, such as Google, are one of the most
important channels for customers to reach your store. Using search engine
optimization (SEO) to improve page ranking can result in increased traffic and
revenue. We can understand its importance deeply and this is our attempt at understand the OOB capabilities of WCS 7 with regards to SEO and how it can be used for a Smarter Commerce.
The SEO functionality for WebSphere Commerce Version 7 Feature pack 3
or later improves online search page ranking for your store by creating short,
clean SEO-friendly URLs with meaningful keywords. This version includes enhanced
Management Center tools that business users can use to influence page ranking
by changing the URL and metadata information, an improved Sitemap generator
that indexes all the SEO-friendly URLs, and 301 URL redirect rules.
Search engine optimization for WebSphere Commerce provides
the following functionality:
Creating
simple, static URLs for store pages that shoppers and search robots can
easily understand
Optimizing
page meta data to improve search engine page rank
Creating
301 URL redirection when a web page has moved
Generating
Sitemaps to submit to search engine provider
We are starting a week marathon to understand each of key capabilities.So, pack up your energy drinks and get ready to run with me!
WC_eardir /Stores.war
WCDE_installdir /workspace/Stores/WebContent
