The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites

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The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

              The Ultimate Magento

              SEO Guide 2013
              Comprehensive advice on optimizing
              Magento ecommerce websites
              By Pod1, a Group FMG company
              www.pod1.com
              www.groupfmg.com

              Updated November 2013

              1st Published April 2011

              All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
              electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
              publisher.	
  

©
	
   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design             © Group FMG 2013                                                                                      1|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

Table of Contents
       Magento	
  SEO	
  Guide	
  -­‐	
  Introduction	
  ....................................................................................................................................	
  3	
  
Magento	
  SEO	
  Guide	
  -­‐	
  Part	
  1	
  ..................................................................................................................................	
  3	
  
 URL	
  Management	
  .............................................................................................................................................................	
  3	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  URLs	
  Rewrite	
  Management	
  Feature	
  ...............................................................................................................	
  3	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  URL	
  keys	
  /	
  URL	
  identifiers	
  ...............................................................................................................................	
  4	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Force	
  trailing	
  slash	
  to	
  canonical	
  URLs	
  .............................................................................................................	
  4	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Canonical	
  Link	
  Element	
  ...................................................................................................................................	
  5	
  
Magento	
  SEO	
  Guide	
  -­‐	
  Part	
  2	
  ..................................................................................................................................	
  6	
  
 Page	
  Titles	
  &	
  Meta	
  Descriptions	
  ........................................................................................................................................	
  6	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Page	
  Titles	
  &	
  Meta	
  Descriptions	
  for	
  Content	
  Pages	
  .......................................................................................	
  7	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Page	
  Titles	
  &	
  Meta	
  Descriptions	
  for	
  Category/Listing	
  Pages	
  ...........................................................................	
  7	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Page	
  Titles	
  &	
  Meta	
  Descriptions	
  for	
  Product	
  Pages	
  ........................................................................................	
  8	
  
Magento	
  SEO	
  Guide	
  -­‐	
  Part	
  3	
  ................................................................................................................................	
  10	
  
 Webmaster	
  Tools	
  &	
  Features	
  ..........................................................................................................................................	
  10	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Google	
  XML	
  Sitemap	
  ....................................................................................................................................	
  10	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  HTML	
  Sitemap	
  ..............................................................................................................................................	
  10	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Default	
  Robots	
  Meta	
  Tag	
  In	
  Magento	
  ...........................................................................................................	
  10	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Add	
  Miscellaneous	
  Header	
  Meta	
  Tags	
  ..........................................................................................................	
  11	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  RSS	
  Feeds	
  .....................................................................................................................................................	
  11	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Google	
  API	
  -­‐	
  Google	
  Analytics	
  .......................................................................................................................	
  11	
  
Magento	
  SEO	
  Guide	
  -­‐	
  Part	
  4	
  ................................................................................................................................	
  12	
  
 Website	
  Launch	
  Checklist	
  ................................................................................................................................................	
  12	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Website	
  Visibility	
  in	
  Search	
  Engines	
  -­‐	
  Meta	
  Robots	
  Tag	
  ................................................................................	
  12	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Website	
  Visibility	
  in	
  Search	
  Engines	
  -­‐	
  Robots.txt	
  file	
  .....................................................................................	
  11	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Page	
  Title	
  Optimization	
  ................................................................................................................................	
  11	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Default	
  Meta	
  Tags	
  Optimization	
  ...................................................................................................................	
  11	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  Tips	
  -­‐	
  Create	
  Google	
  Sitemap	
  (sitemap.xml)	
  ...................................................................................................	
  12	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Set	
  Up	
  Magento	
  Canonical	
  Link	
  Element	
  Extension	
  ......................................................................................	
  12	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Add	
  Google	
  Webmaster	
  Tools	
  Verification	
  Tag	
  to	
  Magento	
  .........................................................................	
  12	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Add	
  Google	
  Analytics	
  Tracking	
  Code	
  Directly	
  to	
  Magento	
  ............................................................................	
  12	
  
   Magento	
  SEO	
  -­‐	
  Set	
  up	
  Magento	
  Google	
  Base	
  feed	
  ...............................................................................................................	
  13	
  
Magento	
  SEO	
  Guide	
  -­‐	
  Part	
  5	
  ................................................................................................................................	
  14	
  
 How	
  To	
  Set	
  Up	
  Magento	
  Google	
  Base	
  Feed	
  .....................................................................................................................	
  14	
  
   Step	
  1:	
  Magento	
  Google	
  Base	
  Feed	
  Account	
  Configuration	
  ..................................................................................................	
  14	
  
   Step	
  2:	
  Adding	
  Required	
  ‘condition’	
  Attribute	
  To	
  Magento	
  ...................................................................................................	
  14	
  
   Step	
  3:	
  Magento	
  Google	
  Base	
  Feed	
  Attribute	
  Mapping	
  Configuration	
  ..................................................................................	
  17	
  
   Step	
  4:	
  Publishing	
  Magento	
  Google	
  Base	
  Feed	
  .....................................................................................................................	
  18	
  
   Magento	
  Google	
  Base	
  Feed	
  Errors	
  &	
  Troubleshooting	
  .........................................................................................................	
  18	
  
Magento	
  SEO	
  Guide	
  -­‐	
  Part	
  6	
  ................................................................................................................................	
  19	
  
 Additional	
  Recommendations	
  .........................................................................................................................................	
  19	
  
   Remove	
  the	
  Store	
  code	
  from	
  URLs	
  .......................................................................................................................................	
  19	
  
   Set	
  Correct	
  Redirects	
  ............................................................................................................................................................	
  19	
  
   Remove	
  Index.php	
  from	
  URLS	
  ..............................................................................................................................................	
  20	
  
   Image	
  Optimization	
  ..............................................................................................................................................................	
  20	
  
About	
  Pod1	
  .........................................................................................................................................................	
  22	
  

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design                © Group FMG 2013                                                                                                                  2|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

       Magento SEO Guide - Introduction
       In this guide I will highlight the best Magento SEO tools and extensions, how to use them effectively
       and what to watch out for when optimizing Magento ecommerce websites for search engines. I will
       focus on optimizing Magento URLs, meta data, pages titles, image alt tags, link titles, HTML code itself,
       redirects and other topics relating to Magento SEO and webmaster’s tasks, e.g. sitemaps.
	
  
       Magento SEO Guide - Part 1
       URL Management
	
  
       Magento SEO - URLs Rewrite Management Feature
	
  
       Search engine friendly URLs became a very important ranking factor for all ecommerce websites. The
       URL Rewrite Management is one of my favorite Magento SEO tools. It allows you to change (re-write)
       dynamically generated URL like
       http://www.yourdomain.com/catalog/product/view/id/7821218/category/568 to the search
       engine friendly URL like this one
       http://www.yourdomain.com/womens/categories/designer-dresses.html. By using this
       brilliant Magento SEO tool you can easily create URLs, which include all most important and relevant
       keywords.
	
  
       Note: Remember to disallow indexing of original URLs by search engine spiders in the robots.txt
       exclusion file. This ensures that there’s only one version of Magento URL indexed by search engines.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                               3|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

       Magento SEO - URL keys / URL identifiers
	
  
       Magento allows you to specify the URL key (also known as the URL identifier) on every static, content
       and product category page, see below:
	
  
       This means that you can choose the keyword you want and add it to the particular page’s URL
       independently from Magento’s page name.
	
  
       Another great thing is that all Magento URLs included in this path will automatically have their URL
       structure updated at the same time, For example, you don’t have to worry about URLs within the
       /dresses/ path when you change the category URL key to /designer-dresses/ - Magento will
       automatically update it to include the /designer-designer/.
	
  
       Note: Once you decided to change the URL key, you will need to find websites and pages which link to
       previous versions of those URLs (you can use Google Webmaster Tools to identify them) and redirect
       those old URLs to ne w URLs.
	
  
       Magento SEO - Force trailing slash to canonical URLs
	
  
       This Magento SEO feature can be found in System > Configuration > Web > Search Engine
       Optimization. It does exactly what it says it will do – it adds a slash at the end of every unique URL on
       the Magento site.
	
  
       It’s important from SEO perspective because it tackles a common duplicate content problem when the
       same page content is presented on two different URLs. Google and other search engines don’t like that
       as it looks like you’re spamming their index. Also, the PageRank values can be assigned to the duplicate
       version of the URL, the one you don’t necessarily want to promote.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                4|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

       Magento SEO - Default Pages
	
  
       The ‘Default Pages’ Magento SEO feature enables you to re-route all 404 Not Found pages to the
       content page of your choice, i.e. your homepage. Be careful with this feature though as both Google and
       your customers sometimes prefer to see a custom-made, attractive 404 page rather than be redirected
       to the page they didn’t want to see.
	
  
       Magento SEO - Canonical Link Element
	
  
       Canonical link element is a special HTML element, which should be added to the  section of the
       page. It tells search engines which URL, out of all duplicated URLs, to consider as the default/targeted
       version of the page.
	
  
       It is particularly useful when removing duplicate content issues relating to listings page pagination,
       when every page, e.g. ‘?p=1’, ‘?p=2’, etc., have the same title, Meta description and content. It’s also
       useful when you have the same product (therefore the same content) in several categories, each with a
       different URL.
	
  
       Magento has a built-in functionality for enabling canonical link element for product and category pages.
       Just go to System > Configuration > Catalogue > Search Engine Optimization and select ‘Yes’ next to
       ‘Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories’ and ‘Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Products’.
	
  
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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                  5|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

       Magento SEO - Default Pages

       Magento SEO Guide - Part 2
       Page Titles & Meta Descriptions
	
  
       In this section we will focus on Magento page titles and Meta description tags, which are both very
       important factors in optimizing Magento ecommerce websites. Magento includes numbers of SEO tools
       and features allowing you to have full control over editing or generating optimized page titles and
       descriptions, below are some of them.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                               6|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

       Magento SEO - Page Titles & Meta Descriptions for Content Pages

       Optimizing Magento content page titles is made very easy. You don’t need any development skills and
       you can edit the title by going to: Magento > CMS > Manage Pages > chose the page > General
       Information > Page Title. You can edit the Meta description in a similar way, just go to ‘Meta Data’
       instead of ‘General Information’.
	
  
       Note: Google will only look at first 67-68 characters of the page title and approximately first 255
       characters in Meta description. Anything beyond that will still be displayed in user’s browser but will
       be truncated in search engine results and discarded from search engine indexes.
	
  
       Magento SEO - Page Titles & Meta Descriptions for Category/Listing Pages
	
  
       You can easily edit category page titles in Magento by going to: Magento > Catalogue > Manage
       Categories > your category.
	
  
       Note: Remember to try to make each Magento page title and description unique so you don’t have too
       many duplicate content issues.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                              7|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

       Magento SEO - Page Titles & Meta Descriptions for Product Pages
	
  
       Magento displays the product name as a default page title. Although this is better than nothing, it’s not
       always good enough.
	
  
       One easy way to approach optimizing Magento product pages’ titles is to put all optimized titles and
       descriptions in the product import file (in html_title and html_description column/attribute). This will
       automatically overwrite all default page titles.
	
  
       Although this solution might work for Magento ecommerce sites which don’t update the stock very
       often, but it might not be the best solution for websites which have tens of thousands of products which
       change every day.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                8|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

       The best, quickest and the most feasible way of optimizing Magento product page titles is to automate
       them so page title are generated using product and category names in conjunction with static strings.
	
  
       The biggest advantage of buying external SEO extension or developing a custom Magento page
       title/description generation module is being able to specify the pattern you want to use for all Magento
       page titles / description across the whole site. For example, you can create a rule which says: for all
       product pages generate the title using this pattern: “%PRODUCT%, %SUB_CATEGORY%
       %CATEGORY%, Designer Clothes %STORE_NAME%”, e.g. “RONALD Cotton Lycra Top, Women
       Clothing, Designer Clothes Fashion Boutique”.
	
  
       Pod1 Magento Ecommerce Design developed a custom module like that for all our Magento SEO
       clients.
	
  
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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                  9|Page
The Ultimate Magento SEO Guide 2013 - Comprehensive advice on optimizing Magento ecommerce websites
 

       Magento SEO Guide - Part 3
       Webmaster Tools & Features
	
  
       In this section we will expand on some of the less-known Magento SEO features, which are in fact
       essential in every webmaster’s and SEO expert’s day-to-day job.
	
  
       Magento SEO - Google XML Sitemap
	
  
       Magento has a great Google XML sitemap generation tool (System > Configuration > Google Sitemap)
       which allows you to customize pretty much anything there is to customize, including different
       frequency and priority value for different types of pages. For example, you may want to assign to
       category pages frequency ‘daily’ and priority of ‘0.8’, but you may want to set those two to ‘weekly’ and
       ‘0.5’ on all content pages.
	
  
       The tool also lets you configure generation settings, including how often the sitemap.xml should be
       updated, at what time during the day and who’s the main point of contact if something goes wrong.
	
  
       Once configured, all you need to do is go to Catalogue > Google Sitemap and generate new sitemap.xml
       file.
	
  
       Note: The path where you save the sitemap to must be writable – with appropriate server
       permissions
	
  
       Magento SEO - HTML Sitemap
	
  
       There is a very handy Magento extension module, which allows you to create a sitemap page listing links
       to all existing/active Magento pages - Advanced Sitemap
	
  
       Magento SEO - Default Robots Meta Tag In Magento
	
  
       You can quickly change the default robots Meta tag for all pages in System > Configuration > Design >
       HTML Head. Four options cover all possibilities: noindex,nofollow ; noindex,follow ; index, nofollow ;
       index,follow.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                10 | P a g e
 

       Magento SEO - Add Miscellaneous Header Meta Tags
	
  
       This feature (System > Configuration > Design > HTML Head) can have many useful applications but
       what we found it particularly useful for was adding Google Webmaster Tools verification tag without
       having to involve developers in such small and easy task.
	
  
       Magento SEO - RSS Feeds
	
  
       The default Magento configuration allows you to generate several RSS feeds, including ‘New Products’,
       ‘Special Products’, ‘Top Level Categories’. Just go to System > Configuration > RSS Feeds and enable
       those you need. Then go to www.yourwebsite.com/rss and click ‘Get Feed’.
	
  
       Magento SEO - Google API - Google Analytics
	
  
       The default Google Analytics plugin in Magento provides the basic tracking code. All you need to do is
       go to System > Configuration > Google API > Google Analytics and enter UA number of you site (as
       shown in your Google Analytics account settings). This will automatically generate the standard
       tracking code and add your UA. If you want to start tracking ecommerce data you may need this
       extension Fooman_GoogleAnalyticsPlus.
	
  
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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                              11 | P a g e
 

       Magento SEO Guide - Part 4
       Website Launch Checklist
	
  
       The launch of a new Magento website is always an exciting experience. After all the effort so many
       people had put into the strategy, IA, UX, design, development and marketing, it’s finally time to show it
       to the world and open floodgates for visitors. This is all great, but as everyone else is celebrating the
       launch, for SEO it’s just the beginning. There are number of checks and activities which need to be
       carried out straight after the launch. Below is a list of all known Magento SEO tips that are required for
       launch as well as some optional ones.
	
  
       Magento SEO - Website Visibility in Search Engines - Meta Robots Tag
	
  
       This really is SEO textbook chapter 1.1. Make sure your website is actually accessible to search engine
       ‘spiders’. In Magento, you can easily do that by going to Configuration > Design > HTML Head and

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                   12 | P a g e
 

       changing the value of Default Robots to ‘INDEX, FOLLOW’. You can test it by inspecting the source
       code and checking if the meta robots tag shows ‘INDEX, FOLLOW’.
	
  
       Magento SEO - Website Visibility in Search Engines - Robots.txt file
	
  
       Robots.txt file is a standard text file which should live in the root directory of the Magento site, e.g.
       http://www.kabiri.co.uk/robots.txt. It includes simple commands, which tell search engine robots what
       to index and what to exclude from indexing. There are many tutorials on the web, e.g.
       http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/robots.shtml.
	
  
       You can disallow indexing by adding the URL you want to exclude or the whole path/directory
       containing URLs you want to exclude to the robots.txt file, e.g.
       http://www.kabiri.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/7828/category/568 is not indexed because Magento
       robots.txt file has the ‘Disallow: /catalog/’ command which excludes all URLs from within the catalog/
       path.
	
  
       When you launch a new Magento website, good tip would be to make sure that the Disallow command
       DON’T block the access to the site. Note that the default value of robots is allowing all traffic, unless you
       block it with Disallow. It’s also worth mentioning that you shouldn’t try to resolve duplicate content
       issues using only robots.txt file – it’s much better to make the content unique or use the canonical link
       element (discussed above).
	
  
       Magento SEO - Page Title Optimization
	
  
       Another Magento SEO tip is to make sure your Magento category pages and content pages are
       optimized and include relevant search terms (discussed above).
	
  
       Magento SEO - Default Meta Tags Optimization
	
  
       Go to Configuration > Design >HTML Head and fill in the Default Title and Default Description fields.
       This will ensure that new pages will have a generic but at least well optimized title and description in
       case you forget to enter the specific page title and description. It does create some Meta data duplicate
       content issues but it’s far more beneficial to have some keywords in the title.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                    11 | P a g e
 

       Magento SEO Tips - Create Google Sitemap (sitemap.xml)

       Magento has a great Google XML sitemap generation tool (System > Configuration > Google Sitemap)
       which allows you to customize pretty much anything there is to customize, including different
       frequency and priority value for different types of pages. For example, you may want to assign to
       category pages frequency ‘daily’ and priority of 0.8, but you may want to set those to ‘weekly’ and ‘0.5’
       on all content pages.
	
  
       The tool also lets you configure sitemap generation settings, including how often the sitemap.xml
       should be updated, at what time during the day and who’s the main point of contact if something goes
       wrong.
	
  
       Once configured, all you need to do is go to Catalogue > Google Sitemap and generate a new
       sitemap.xml file.
	
  
       Note: The path where you save the sitemap to must be writable – with appropriate server
       permissions
	
  
       Magento SEO - Set Up Magento Canonical Link Element Extension
	
  
       As discussed above this is a brilliant feature automating generation of the canonical link element.
	
  
       Magento SEO - Add Google Webmaster Tools Verification Tag to Magento
	
  
       Need to add Google Webmaster Tools verification Meta tag to Magento website without having to
       involve developers in such small and easy task? No problem. Go to System > Configuration > Design >
       HTML Head and paste your Webmaster Tools verification code in Miscellaneous scripts section. Done!
	
  
       Magento SEO - Add Google Analytics Tracking Code Directly to Magento
	
  
       The default Google Analytics plugin in Magento provides the basic tracking code. All you need to do is
       go to System > Configuration > Google API > Google Analytics and enter UA number of you site (as
       shown in your Google Analytics account settings). This will automatically generate the standard
       tracking code and add your UA. If you want to start tracking ecommerce data you may need this
       extension Fooman_GoogleAnalyticsPlus.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                 12 | P a g e
 

       Magento SEO - Set up Magento Google Base feed
	
  
       This is definitely one of the optional Magento SEO tips but you may as well set up the Magento Google
       Base feed straight away as the feed’s history seems to be one of the ranking factors for Google Shopping
       listings. See the detailed step-by-step guide on how to do it below.
	
  
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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                              13 | P a g e
 

       Magento SEO Guide - Part 5
       How To Set Up Magento Google Base Feed
	
  
       Step 1: Magento Google Base Feed Account Configuration
	
  
       Firstly, the Google Merchant Centre account has to be linked to the Magento store.
	
  
          1. In Magento, go to System > Configuration > Google API > Google Base.
          2. Enter details of the account you wish to use to publish your products feed on. Select the default
             target country and select Yes in ‘Update Google Base Item when Product is updated’.
	
  
       Step 2: Adding Required ‘condition’ Attribute To Magento
	
  
          1. Go to Catalogue > Attributes > Manage Attributes and click Add New Attribute.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                               14 | P a g e
 

       2. Populate all fields with following
	
  
           values:
       3. Then click on Manage Label / Options in top left.
       4. Type ‘condition’ in Admin and ‘Condition’ in all store views.

       5. Then click Add Option, type ‘new’ in all fields and add position ‘1’ and select ‘Is Default’.
       6. Click on Add Option again and type ‘used’ in all fields and add position ‘2’.

       7. Confirm by clicking Save Attribute.
       8. Go to Catalogue > Manage Attribute Sets and select the attribute set you want to add the new
           ‘condition’ attribute to.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                               15 | P a g e
 

          9. Find the ‘condition’ attribute in the Unassigned Attributes section, drag & drop it to ‘General’ in
              the Groups section.

          10. Confirm by clicking Save Attribute Set.
          11. In order to populate the new ‘condition’ attribute, go to Catalogue > Manage Products, select
              products you want to update, select Update attributes from the Actions drop down and confirm
              by clicking SUBMIT.
	
  
          12. On the next screen, find Condition, change it to new and confirm Save.

       There’s also a video guide for setting this up available at:
       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_M3knNCB20

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                16 | P a g e
 

       Step 3: Magento Google Base Feed Attribute Mapping Configuration
	
  
       The list of required and recommended attributes for products can be found here:
	
  
          •   http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=171380 (UK)
          •   http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=160083 (US)
          •   http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=171382 (GERMANY)
	
  
       First we need to map Magento product attributes to required/optional Google Merchant Centre
       attributes. To do that go to Catalogue > Google Base > Manage Attributes and click on Add Attribute
       Mapping.
	
  
          1. Select Target Country, Attribute Set and Item Type (usually Products) for your feed and click on
              Add New Attribute.
          2. Add as many Google Base attributes as you want and map them across to Magento product URLs
              on the left, e.g. Magento ‘SKU’ to Google Base ‘id’.
          3. PLEASE NOTE THAT MAGENTO MAY POPULATE SOME OF REQUIRED GOOGLE
              BASE ATTRIBUTES WITH “DEAFAULT/BUILT-IN” MAPPING ATTRIBUTES,
              meaning you may not need to map all required attributes as Magento will automatically assign
              them a correct value, e.g. ‘description’ gets assigned values of product description, ‘image_url’
              gets assigned a value of image URL automatically, etc. In fact, most of the time the only attribute
              you have to manually map across is the ‘condition’.
	
  
          4. Finish by pressing Save Mapping.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                17 | P a g e
 

       Step 4: Publishing Magento Google Base Feed
	
  
       This is where we finally send products to Google Base / Google Merchant Centre.
	
  
          1. Go to Catalogue > Google Base > Manage Items and choose the Store View you want to publish
               products from.
          2. Click on View Available Products
          3. Select all products you want to publish. Make sure that products you select are the ones with a
               destination URLs and are not part of any grouped products and have all required attribute
               values, e.g. price.
          4. Select Add To Google Base from the Actions drop down menu
          5. Confirm by clicking Submit
          6. You may be asked to fill in the captcha authentication.
	
  
       If everything goes well you’ll see the notification that your products were successfully added to Google
       Base.
	
  
       Magento Google Base Feed Errors & Troubleshooting
	
  
       If you encounter the ‘Expected response code 200, got 400. Type: data. Field: item. Reason: Please
       verify and claim your website's URL, until you do so you cannot upload any product listings’ error
       you will need to log in to Google Base account directly and verify account ownership.
	
  
       If you encounter the ‘Expected response code 200, got 400, Field Type: Duplicate Description’ error
       then your attribute mapping is wrong. Try editing the mapping or deleting mapping which causes the
       problem. It may be the case that you tried to map attributes which Magento maps automatically
       therefore you don’t need to do it.
	
  
       If you encounter the timeout error then you need increase Magento’s default upload timeout period.
       This is slightly more complicated and you should consult your development team in order to resolve
       that problem.
	
  
       The official ‘Google Base Integration in Magento’ video can be found here:
       http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/video-google-base-integration-in-magento/

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                                18 | P a g e
 

       Magento SEO Guide - Part 6
       Additional Recommendations
       Remove the Store code from URLs

           It is desirable to have meaningful words in the URL minus codes. Makes it look more relevant to
           users when they see it in Search engine results. To prevent store codes from getting added to the
           URL:
              a. Take this path: System -> Configuration -> Web
              b. Click on the First menu that says “URL Options” and set the “Add Store Code to URLS”
                   option to “No”

       Set Correct Redirects

           301 Redirects help with passing the link (SEO) value to the new pages than 302 redirects. Also, in
           most cases what we need is a 301 redirect (intended for permanent moves) as against the
           requirement of 302 redirects (intended for temporary moves). By default, Magento has this set to
           302. Follow the below steps to change it:
              c. System -> Configuration -> Web
              d. Select the menu ‘URL Options’.
              e. Set “Auto-redirect to Base URL to “Yes (302 Found)

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                            19 | P a g e
 

       Remove Index.php from URLS

          Removing ‘index.php’ from the URLs will make them more Search engine friendly and readable. To
          achieve this:
              f. Take this path: System -> Configuration -> Web
              g. Click on the second menu that says “Search Engine Optimization” and set the “Use Web
                   Server Rewrites” option to “Yes”

       Image Optimization

          Category & Product images can attract search traffic to the website
              h. Naming the images with relevant terms such as ‘Color blocked Jersey Blouse’ instead of
                   ‘Image033’ adds more SEO Value.
              i. Specify meaningful descriptions to be used as ‘Title’ and ‘Alt tags’ when adding product
                   images. Search engine spiders will not be able to read and understand what the image is
                   about. Elements like ‘Alt tags’ provide this information to them.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design   © Group FMG 2013                                            20 | P a g e
 

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       About Pod1
       Pod1 is an award winning, e-commerce focused creative digital agency.

       Since 2001, and out of our London and New York offices, we've been providing device-neutral, integrated
       e-commerce and marketing experiences for luxury brands and retailers to help them sell more online.

       We are a Magento Gold partner and have delivered over 50 world-class solutions on the Magento e-
       commerce enterprise platform.

       Passionate about the work we do, we've built an enviable reputation on the high quality of our thinking,
       our delivery and client satisfaction.

       We are true partners with our clients, sharing their commercial objectives and delivering on them
       through innovative online marketing initiatives to help drive targeted traffic to their online global
       flagship stores.

       Clients we've successfully worked with include: TAG Heuer, DvF, Rocco Forte, Salvatore Ferragamo,
       Links of London, Beauty.com, Nanette Lepore, Net-a-Porter, Matthew Williamson amongst others.

       Visit www.pod1.com for more information.

       Connect with us:

       Web:                         www.pod1.com
       Twitter:                     @pod1
       Facebook:                    facebook.com/Pod1Group
       LinkedIn:                    linkedin.com/company/pod1
       Instagram:                   instagram.com/pod1
       Pinterest:                   pinterest.com/podone

       Author: Pod1
	
  
       Contact: www.pod1.com
	
  
       Updated November 2013
       1st Published April 2011

       All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
       electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
       publisher.

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   Pod1 2013, Ecommerce Web Design          © Group FMG 2013                                                                                      22 | P a g e
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