How do I add meta tags?

ablegeek · Post by **ablegeek** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:07 pm

How do I add meta tags on the static pages? I see no place where I can add metatags. I want to have different titles, descriptions and metatags for each page.

Thank you!

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 5:30 pm

What are you meaning by static pages? if it's pages like default.aspx, you can add them when you click to edit the Home Page in the Content and Layout- Header field

ablegeek · Post by **ablegeek** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:09 pm

Yes, by static page I meant a page like Default.aspx and not something like a product page.

From your comment I'm not sure I understand exactly where to put those matatags.

I went to the default.aspx page I selected "Edit Page" and I tried to add the meta tags in the Active Layout, Header or Content but each time the meta tags show inside the <body> tags of the page when I view the source and not inside the <head> tags where it should be.

I truly appreciate your help!

ablegeek · Post by **ablegeek** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 4:56 pm

Does anyone know how to get the meta-tags implemented? My web site is sinking on the search engine results because I don't have this implemented.
Thank you!

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 4:59 pm

Hello,

You need to edit the physical page default.aspx and add you meta keywords into the 'head' section.

ablegeek · Post by **ablegeek** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 5:05 pm

Hello,

I see no <head> in the default.aspx. Here is what I have:

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Layouts/Scriptlet.master" Inherits="CommerceBuilder.Web.UI.AbleCommercePage" Title="Home Page" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="CommerceBuilder.Web" Namespace="CommerceBuilder.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts" TagPrefix="cb" %>
<asp:Content runat="server" ContentPlaceHolderID="PageContent">
<cb:ScriptletPart ID="HomePage" runat="server" Layout="One Column" Content="Home Page" Sidebar="Standard Sidebar 1" Sidebar2="Standard Sidebar 2" Header="Standard Header" Footer="Standard Footer" Title="Home Page" AllowClose="False" AllowMinimize="false" />
</asp:Content>

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 5:40 pm

I wish it were more straightforward:

1. Be logged in as an admin that can edit pages
2. go to the store page you want to set meta tags for
3. toggle "edit page" in footer
4. observe what is being used as "active layout"
5. go to admin
6. go to website _> content and layout
7. locate the layout scriptet in use for the page
8. click the copy button, you will be taken to the edit screen for your copy
9. enter a name that is appropriate (e.g. HOME PAGE)
10. In the header field, enter your meta tags...

Code: Select all

<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Your descriptive sentence or two goes here.">

11. Click Save to create the new page layout (including meta header)
12. Return to the store page
13. toggle "edit page" in footer
14. set the layout to the one you created
15. Click OK to set the page to your new layout

54x54 · Post by **54x54** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:41 pm

<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Your descriptive sentence or two goes here.">
Just a comment.
for syntax I always close the tag like this:
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Your descriptive sentence or two goes here." />

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Sat Aug 09, 2008 7:07 am

I ran the W3c validator on one of our pages because I was having a display problem with an add-on menu. That got me thinking that Able is doc type of xhtml, so meta needs to be lower case and the tag closed like 54x54 said.
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_meta.asp
Define a description of your web page:
<meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials on HTML, CSS, XML, and XHTML" />

ablegeek · Post by **ablegeek** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:59 pm

Logan,

That method worked and I was able to add meta-tags though I don't see it as the most clean way of doing it and that's because you have to create a layout page for each content page.

I have another question for you?

When you create a new content page on the admin (Web site -> Content and Layout) there is text box for the Header. Why can't we use that one for adding the header elements?

I tried using it before the only problem I ended up with two header elements, one from the content page and another one from the layout I was using(Left Sidebar) . Is this a bug or I'm the one not using this correctly?

Thank you!

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:35 pm

Hmm.. you bring up a good point. It would have made much more sense if I had instructed you to modify the header of the content scriptlet rather than the layout.

If you made sure the layout scriptlet did NOT have a header specified, you should not get duplicates. This would be a cleaner approach.

ablegeek · Post by **ablegeek** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:50 pm

Logan,

I wish I could say I solved the meta-tags problem but I now found a new one. I went to edit the content using Website --> Content and Layout menu ( /Admin/Website/Scriptlets/EditScriptlet.aspx?s=mycontent&t=Content ) to add the meta-tags but it doesn't save them. When I go back to that content file the "header" text box where I placed the meta-tags is empty even though I specifically made sure I clicked the save button.
Thank you!

ablegeek · Post by **ablegeek** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:24 am

I finally figured it out. The <tile> tag should be added on the .aspx file found on the root. The other metatags are actually as HTML comments in the .htm file that's why I never noticed them.

If you put the <title> in the .htm file and also in the .aspx file you will end up with two titles ( as I initially did). My only complaint now is that the <title> tags shows under the <meta name="description" and <meta name="keywords" and as I remember the <title> tag should show on top of the described tags. I'm not sure if there is any price to pay for that from the SEO (seach engine optimization) point of view.
Sorry to be so picky but every litte details conts (on sales we are going to make or not).

Thank you for your help!

heinscott · Post by **heinscott** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:08 am

Not sure if this would be helpful to anyone, but, my boss was concerned about the difficulty in adding metatags, b/c he has a lot of employees that enter product info, but have no coding experience... So, he asked me to make something to make the process of entering, or changing metatags for the products/categories a little easier. I have a little piece of code I wrote that adds into the product menu, for changing this info. Here is a pic of what it looks like.

metatageditor.jpg

If anyone would be interested in adding this, let me know and I'll post the code here.

Scott

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:34 pm

That would be good to have. I've noticed that if you add a <title> to the normal edit product page, it duplicates because the page helper picks up the product name automatically, so this might help that issue.

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:00 pm

There is also a way to automatically add meta tags to every product page without having to specify them manually for each product. I do it this way and pull various fields from the product record like Manufacturer Name, Product SKU, Item Number, Product Name, Manufacturer Part Number, Variant Names etc.

It just doesn't work on non-product pages. Those I code manually in each aspx file I have for my content pages. I don't use the scriptlets really for anything except having the [[ConLib:]] placeholder.

I thought the SEO world was moving away from meta tag keywords and shifting more towards organic search results with site link statistics to determine page ranking?

heinscott · Post by **heinscott** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:30 am

You're right, Joe. Probably the only really important tag is the Title tag. Content, of course, is still very important, as well as high quality links from relevant sites. Can't hurt to get a little boost from meta keywords and decriptions, though, even though they are not weighted that heavily.

Here's a copy of my MetaTags.aspx code, for anyone who is interested.

Code: Select all

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="Product.master" Title="Meta Tags" Inherits="CommerceBuilder.Web.UI.AbleCommerceAdminPage" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="CommerceBuilder.Web" Namespace="CommerceBuilder.Web.UI.WebControls" TagPrefix="cb" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="ComponentArt.Web.UI" Namespace="ComponentArt.Web.UI" TagPrefix="ComponentArt" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data.SqlClient" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %>
<script runat="server">

    int _ProductId;
    Product _Product;
    
    protected void Page_Load()
    {
        if (!Page.IsPostBack)
        {
            Populate();
        }
    }

    protected void SaveHeader(Object s, EventArgs e)
    {
        _ProductId = AlwaysConvert.ToInt(Request.QueryString["ProductId"]);
        _Product = ProductDataSource.Load(_ProductId);
        _Product.HtmlHead = HTMLBox.Text;
        _Product.Save();
        Populate();
    }

    protected void RegenerateHeader(Object s, EventArgs e)
    {
        String Header = "";
        Header += "<title>" + PageTitle.Text + "</title>" + Environment.NewLine;
        Header += "<meta name='description' content='" + MetaDescription.Text + "'>" + Environment.NewLine;
        Header += "<meta name='keywords' content='" + MetaKeywords.Text + "'>" + Environment.NewLine;
        HTMLBox.Text = Header;
    }

    protected void Populate()
    {
        _ProductId = AlwaysConvert.ToInt(Request.QueryString["ProductId"]);
        _Product = ProductDataSource.Load(_ProductId);
        int titleStart;
        int titleEnd;
        int descStart;
        int descEnd;
        int keyStart;
        int keyEnd;
        String Header = "";
        String TitleTag = "";
        String MetaDesc = "";
        String MetaKey = "";
        Header = _Product.HtmlHead;
        if (Header.Length > 0)
        {
            titleStart = Header.IndexOf("<title>") + 7;
            titleEnd = Header.IndexOf("</title>");
            if (titleStart > 0 && titleEnd > 0 && titleEnd > titleStart)
                TitleTag = Header.Substring(titleStart, titleEnd - titleStart);
            descStart = Header.IndexOf("<meta name='description' content='") + 34;
            descEnd = Header.IndexOf("'>", descStart);
            if (descStart > 0 && descEnd > 0 && descEnd > descStart)
                MetaDesc = Header.Substring(descStart, descEnd - descStart);
            keyStart = Header.IndexOf("<meta name='keywords' content='") + 31;
            keyEnd = Header.IndexOf("'>", keyStart);
            if (keyStart > 0 && keyEnd > 0 && keyEnd > keyStart)
                MetaKey = Header.Substring(keyStart, keyEnd - keyStart);
        }
        HTMLBox.Text = Header;
        PageTitle.Text = TitleTag;
        MetaDescription.Text = MetaDesc;
        MetaKeywords.Text = MetaKey; 
    }
    
    

</script>
<asp:Content ID="Content3" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" Runat="Server">
 <div class="pageHeader">
    <div class="caption">
        <h1><asp:Localize ID="Localize1" runat="server" Text="Meta Tags"></asp:Localize></h1>
    </div>
 <div class="Content" style="padding:40px; border:1px solid blue;">
    <table width="90%">
        <tr>
            <td width="20%">
                <asp:Label Font-Bold="true" ID="HTMLBoxLabel" runat="server" Text="HTML Header"></asp:Label>
            </td>
            <td>
                <asp:TextBox ID="HTMLBox" TextMode="MultiLine" runat="server" Columns="100" Height="100"></asp:TextBox>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td width="20%">
                <asp:Label Font-Bold="true" ID="TitleLabel" runat="server" Text="Title Tags"></asp:Label>
            </td>
            <td>
                <asp:TextBox ID="PageTitle" runat="server" Columns="100" Height="20"></asp:TextBox>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td width="20%">
                <asp:Label Font-Bold="true" ID="MetaDescriptionLabel" runat="server" Text="Meta Description"></asp:Label>
            </td>
            <td>
                <asp:TextBox ID="MetaDescription" runat="server" Columns="100" Height="20"></asp:TextBox>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td width="20%">
                <asp:Label Font-Bold="true" ID="MetaKeywordsLabel" runat="server" Text="Meta Keywords"></asp:Label>
            </td>
            <td>
                <asp:TextBox ID="MetaKeywords" runat="server" Columns="100" Height="20"></asp:TextBox>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
    <center>
        <asp:Button ID="Regenerate" Text="Regenerate Header" runat="server" OnClick="RegenerateHeader" />
        &nbsp;&nbsp;
        <asp:Button ID="SaveIt" Text="Save" runat="server" OnClick="SaveHeader" />
    </center>
 </div>
  
</asp:Content>

Scott

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:21 am

I think in Able 7 having the meta description is important because otherwise when you see your links in Google, for example, they display things like basket, account links. I'm not saying they don't spider the content, I'm just saying Google didn't display it and displaying something meaningful for links is important for the customer to see.
See this post:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=7463&p=31212&hilit=meta#p31212

Brewhaus · Post by **Brewhaus** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 6:40 pm

I am coming back with two <title> tags on our site, because I have added a tag in the description portion of the Home Page Content and Layout. Where is the other title tag created (which file) so that we can eliminate this?

jmestep · Post by **jmestep** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 1:04 pm

Code that generates meta tags is in App_Code/PageHelper.cs.
Code that generates the title for products is in page like Product.aspx under Page_Load event
Page.Title = _Product.Name;

Brewhaus · Post by **Brewhaus** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:05 pm

I am sorry- I should have been more specific. The page that is coming back with two title tags is the home page. I have added a title tag to the 'description' field of the Home Page under Configuration. If I do not put one there, then the title is blank. But, add it leaves me with two- the one that I specify, and one that is being auto-generated. I would like to get the latter removed from the home page so that I do not have two, as apparently this can be a no-no with some search engines.

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:00 pm

Not sure why the title wouldn't appear - it's coded into the Default.aspx unless you've modified that page.

But regardless, you can't "override" one HTML meta tag by specifying another. It might work in certain browser constructs, but you've already hit the nail in that search engines aren't going to like it even if it does work.

To my knowledge, there is no "Auto-generated" title. The title is whatever is directly specified in the first line of the Default.aspx page file.

Brewhaus · Post by **Brewhaus** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:50 pm

I had removed the title from the Default.aspx page, but it still created a tag, just a blank one (""). I removed the title tag from the 'Head' section of the Home Page in Content and Layout, and we seem to be fine.

Now, how can I go about removing the generation of title tags for product pages so that I can specify them in the Head section for each product or category, and not end up with two title tags?

AbleMods · Post by **AbleMods** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 10:28 pm

Whatever product page you're using will have the Title parameter at the top, just like the default.aspx page did. You're probably using ~/Product.aspx as your default product page unless you've changed that.

Brewhaus · Post by **Brewhaus** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:55 am

I am just concerned that I will run into the same problem as with the home page- I removed the 'Title="Home Page"' from Default.aspx, but a blank title was still generated. Is there a way to stop Able from generating a title tag so that we can just enter one in the Head field for each product or category?

AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

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