Possibly switching from Oscommerce... (long)

[rustyclockwork]

Hello everyone,

 

My Oscommerce site had been number 1 or 2 on Google on any given day since 2008. I run an antique restoration business. Always used casual white hat methods, never any black hat or link farming etc. Mostly the work was performed directly on the site. Back in July, my site was hit with the Google update... it's indexed, but so far back now in placement that I've noticed a significant change in new customers from around the country. On Bing and Yahoo, it's holding at #2 (at least from my demography).

 

I'm running an older version of Oscommerce, and it has at least 20 mods done to it, about half were to help with SEO, the others were to customize the look and functionality. One of the more recent changes to my site were an attempt to implement a web-based database of info pages, each page having a historical section on long-defunct companies related to my restoration business.

 

I'm wondering if Prestashop will give my shop a much-needed refresher, if it will be SEO friendly out of the box (version 1.5?), and if I can implement these information pages as easily as I did on my Oscommerce site.

 

Has anyone had experience with Oscommerce and have switched to Prestashop and never looked back?

 

Thank you for your time,

 

Jason

[benjamin utterback]

PrestaShop and SEO are not only Friendly, they're Best Friends Forever!

 

So, we all know Friendly URL, but you can Also Customize each URL and have Customize URL Routing done automatically kinda of like youstore.com/{manufacturer}/{category}/{product name}

 

What I really like is the fact that you can edit the Meta values of various .php files like your "About me" section "best sellers" "new products" etc... You can customize Meta values pretty much anything

 

Of course you can do the same for all your products as well.

 

Another side note, is that the Layered Navigation Module (Filter by different characteristics) will exponentially increase your Google URL references, for each combination of filters chosen by your customer.

 

Take a look at this link, http://www.duratex.co.uk/22-anti-slip-products You see under product filters? If you select any filter, the URL will actually update according to your filters. That's cooler that Miles Davis if you ask me, and a very powerful URL referencing tool.

[rustyclockwork]

Hi Benjamin,

 

Cooler than Miles Davis? Ok, I will have check that out!

 

It seems like a really great shopping cart system, do you know of any modules (Oscommerce calls them contributions) that allow easy creation of information pages? Similar to adding a product, only it creates an information page?

 

Thank you for your prompt response!

 

Jason

[benjamin utterback]

Hey Jason,

 

Well, definitely! You can create any combination of CMS pages and Categories. That is what you mean right?

 

Oh and btw! You don't need any module for that. The CMS module comes with every installation. I think you'll find that answer being given a lot when it comes to PrestaShop.

[rustyclockwork]

Hi, this is an example of what I'm wanting to do, when I want to show an item or page, and not have it for sale... basically just an information page.

 

This one page in particular, is talking about a small sander that we use in our shop. I modded my Oscommerce for certain products to not show the price or the add to cart button if I entered in no price in admin... this basically makes an info page, but is definetley not Google Shopping friendly, I don't use that service anymore.

 

http://www.oldfoundry.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=35_42_51&products_id=144

 

So I can create pages like this with no special mods?

 

Thank you, this shopping cart really sounds neat.

 

Jason

 

PS - That particular page is the first page we have implemented the newer Google Authoring tag thing (and Google still won't index it)

Edited August 7, 2013 by rustyclockwork (see edit history)

[benjamin utterback]

Yes, you can do that. You can have Catalog Mode for that will not display the prices and grey out the Add to Cart button. No Modification needed.

 

However, remember that the Add to Cart Button is grayed out, not removed completely. If you want to do that, you would have to do some minor modifications.

[benjamin utterback]

Hi Jason,

 

Did you have any other questions regarding this migration? Let me know how I can help.

 

Cheers!

 

-Benjamin

[rustyclockwork]

Hi Benjamin,

 

Thanks for the message, I'm not live yet with the new prestashop install, but so far, it's really nice how it works... I had to do a TON of work to Oscommerce in order for it to have the appearance and functionality that Prestashop already has.

 

My site uses red background with yellow text, is there a way for the CMS text editor in back office to be modified via CSS so that the white background text screen can be a different color?

 

I like Prestashop so far, haven't started the Authorize.net implementation yet, but hopefully there won't be any trouble.

 

Thank you,

 

Jason

[benjamin utterback]

Hi Jason!

 

Well, if you want to do it through the global.css then you can. Here is a good guide on how to change it in 1.5, make sure to note the version that these code changes work for, and always have a backup of your mySQL database and PrestaShop files. http://www.prestasho...kground-colour/

 

Here is another one, http://www.prestasho...ain-page-shell/

 

This stackoverflow thread can be used to learn how to change the font color http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15347320/how-to-change-colors-in-prestashop-1-5-3-default-theme

 

I hope this helps!

 

You could do it this way, but having a good theme is better! Have you seen any themes you liked in the Addons store?