Custom Page Titles?

davcraiguk
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15 years 5 months ago #14722 by davcraiguk

Custom Page Titles? was created by davcraiguk

The current page title (title tag) for a product is 'product_name'. I would like to change this to have a fuller more menaingful page title in the browser and for SEO.

I thought of:
1. creating a custom field on the products page in the back-end and calling it say... 'custom_title'.
2. Hide it from the front-end
3. Alter the code in the custom view of show.php...but what?

Can I use here...

Code:

$document->setTitle( $custon_title );

But first it needs called from the table. I am not a PHP'er but can tweek - at little.

Can you help with the bit to retrieve it from the Db?

Will it be overwritten by the default code in view.html.php? ' $document->setTitle( $page_title );'

David Craig
Hikashop 1.5.0 Business edition
www.charitycanvasprints.com

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nicolas
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15 years 5 months ago #14737 by nicolas

Replied by nicolas on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

You can do like this:
$doc =& JFactory::getDocument();
$doc->setTitle($this->element->custom_title);

in the show file of the view product that you can edit via the menu Display->Views. No need to load the data from the database. As a custom product field, the data is already loaded.

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davcraiguk
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15 years 4 months ago #15556 by davcraiguk

Replied by davcraiguk on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

This is working a treat! Google is now showing the custom made longer descriptive page titles for products rather than a short product name. This as a real testimony to the authors of Hikashop and the flexability of its architecture.

Just while I'm on a few tips for SEO that might help others.

Make your actual image file names descriptive with dashes (not underscores) between words e.g. a-really-good-description-with-keywords.jpg
Use the field labeled 'Name' ('file-name' in the hikashop_file table in the db) in the product images page to put a good description of the image. This is used to provide the text for ALT image tags in the code. Google loves these descriptive tags.
Use a sitemap. Xmap works and the guys here have witten a beta hikashop exentsion for it. Search the forum
for Xmap.
Move your keyword rich product description to the top of the product page just under the product name and above the product image. The characteristic/variants should be below this. This means Google sees the important product info first. Do this in the Hikashop Display/views and choose the product view and the 'show' link. Search the forums, there are examples there of moving bits around on the products page.
Joomla SEF urls works OK. In my experience using thrid party extensions SEF url extensions make little difference to the quality of Google returned actual results and is a pain to maintain.
If you also have Joomla articles, use good descriptive article titles. Also descriptive alias with dashes between. These are used by Joomla SEF to build the URLs

Hope these tips help someone.

David Craig
Hikashop 1.5.0 Business edition
www.charitycanvasprints.com

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nicolas
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15 years 4 months ago #15572 by nicolas

Replied by nicolas on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

Thank you for your feedback on SEO. I'm sure it will help others.

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Webguy
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15 years 2 months ago #21765 by Webguy

Replied by Webguy on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

Thanks for the info above, quite interesting.

Using similar code, can I make my page titles look something like...

Site name - Category name - Product Name

How would I accomplish that please?

Cheers

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nicolas
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15 years 2 months ago #21776 by nicolas

Replied by nicolas on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

You could use something like that in the same view :
$doc =& JFactory::getDocument();
$class = hikashop::get('class.category');
$cat = $class->get($this->element->category_id);
$doc->setTitle('My website name '.$cat->category_name.' '.$this->element->product_name);

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harleylever
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14 years 4 months ago #48666 by harleylever

Replied by harleylever on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

Hi,

I have the custom field created. But I cannot seem to get the custom title to show up in the browser.

Where exactly to I put the code in the show file of the product page? I placed this

Code:

<?php
  $doc =& JFactory::getDocument();
 $doc->setTitle($this->element->custom_title); ?>

right after the $apps code, but cannot make the titles appear. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

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nicolas
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14 years 4 months ago #48692 by nicolas

Replied by nicolas on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

Are you sure that you're editing the correct file for the correct template ?
If you're editing the file for another template than the one you're using, you won't see the change.

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harleylever
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14 years 4 months ago #48694 by harleylever

Replied by harleylever on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

Thanks for the fast response Nicolas!

I believe so. I selected Displays > Views > show file (under frontend procuct show).

Is this correct?

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nicolas
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14 years 4 months ago #48697 by nicolas

Replied by nicolas on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

Yes, but check that it is the correct template as you will have one show file (under frontend procuct show) per template on your website.

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Sue
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14 years 3 months ago #54847 by Sue

Replied by Sue on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

Hello Nicolas,

I asked this question and you directed me to this post.
Since then I have been trying to do what is explained here but it's nit working.
Either I don't understand it or I don't do it correct.

To get custom page titles and override the default from Hikashop,
What file do I have to edit?
Is it the file "listing" of the view 'product'/'category' or the show file of the view product
And does it matter where i put this code: $doc =& JFactory::getDocument();
$doc->setTitle($this->element->custom_title); ?

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nicolas
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14 years 3 months ago #54941 by nicolas

Replied by nicolas on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

It depends...

If you want to change the title on the product pages, it's in the show file of the view product.
If you want to change the title on the products listing pages, it's in the listing file of the view product.
If you want to change the title on the categories listing pages, it's in the listing file of the view category.
You should add the code at the top, just after the first <?php tag
Finally, for categories and products listing pages, you will have to use a custom category field since the title will have to be entered in the current category of the elements displayed on the page.

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Sue
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14 years 3 months ago #55006 by Sue

Replied by Sue on topic Re: Custom Page Titles?

SO i tried editing the files but something happened. :S
When i edited the listing file of the view product and saved it I couldn't
see any of the views.
I end up getting the message that the product could not be found.