Sales dropped 70% this month using custom 404 erro
Printed From: ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions
Category: ProductCart
Forum Name: Using ProductCart
Forum Description: Running your store with ProductCart
URL: https://forum.productcart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4761
Printed Date: 07-March-2025 at 1:48am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Sales dropped 70% this month using custom 404 erro
Posted By: fs2787
Subject: Sales dropped 70% this month using custom 404 erro
Date Posted: 27-September-2011 at 4:23pm
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We have been using ProductCart for almost a decade and using custom 404 error handler to rewrite the URL of dynamic pages so that they look and behave like static .html pages. It has been working great until this month when we saw our sales drop 75% for no apparent reason. If you browse one of our product page http://www.emantechnology.com/store/pc/Pansat-2700A-21p38.htm" rel="nofollow - http://www.emantechnology.com/store/pc/Pansat-2700A-21p38.htm it shows everything is OK, but this is how Google index it. http://www.emantechnology.com/Pansat-2700A-21p38.htm" rel="nofollow - http://www.emantechnology.com/Pansat-2700A-21p38.htm Somehow Google dropped the /store/pc directory completely; therefore, all links are broken and customers no longer able to find us. Looking at the page cache for some of the product pages that were indexed, it looks like they were indexed around September 4th. Using Google type in Pansat 2700A and you will see us on the second page with an incorrect link to our product page. Did Google changes its search algorithm? Anybody know what is going on? Please help. |
Replies:
Posted By: whizzinpc
Date Posted: 28-September-2011 at 1:35am
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You will need to use ISAPI rewrite to correct this. Are you able to get it installed on the server your on? If yes, you can easily put a rule that will always 301 redirect those pages to the correct url that includes the store/pc/ folders. Also, I would recommend using absolute URL's on your template. It will prevent the spider from continuing on without the store/pc. I think the problem starts from a link that points to your site without the store/pc/. The spider doesnt notice that there is anything wrong with the site because everything loads except the css and navigation links work... so it keeps crawling away. |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 28-September-2011 at 3:20am
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Hi, I can see this behaviour on the emantechnology site, but not on our demo stores, which implies there is a problem with the SEO / 404 setup. I'd start by investigating that. I'd also advise submitting a site map to Google to try and remediate the impact (but CHECK the links within it before submitting it!!)
------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: fs2787
Date Posted: 28-September-2011 at 1:41pm
| I think you might be right. I thought the same thing, the spider could start from a link that point to our website without the store/pc/. From there it keeps crawling away. What I don't understand is we haven't touched or modified anything regarding 404 error redirecting and it has been working for many years. I will go ahead and resubmit the new site map and see if it will fix the issue. |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 28-September-2011 at 1:52pm
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Hi, It's probable be that the link to your store is recent & hence the spider will have only recently visited without including the /store/pc. The submission of a site map is only a temporary and partial solution. You need to solve the underlying problem. ------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: fs2787
Date Posted: 28-September-2011 at 4:04pm
| What is the best way to go back to using dynamic link? It has been a while since we did the modification to use custom 404 error. We are still on v3.051b, because we have made so much changes to the code that we are reluctant to upgrade; moreover, we felt that v3.051 has all the features we ever needed. |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 28-September-2011 at 4:06pm
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V3.051b ?!? Do you mean V3.51b.
------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: fs2787
Date Posted: 28-September-2011 at 4:49pm
| Sorry, I meant v3.51b. |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 28-September-2011 at 6:48pm
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Hi, I would very carefully review http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/seo-urls" rel="nofollow - http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/seo-urls and check your store is set up exactly as described. ------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: whizzinpc
Date Posted: 29-September-2011 at 6:30pm
Some of the sample stores from wiki page also experience the same effect when productcart/pc/ is removed from the URL. It seems to me that this is a common problem. Some sites are giving correct 404 and some are just loading the page with all images and css missing. I wonder what could be causing this on the server side. |
Hamish wrote:Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 30-September-2011 at 3:06am
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Hi, good spot,I'm really surprised by that as I'm amazed this has never come up before. Time to don a deerstalker hat and pick up a briar pipe and magnifying glass!!
------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: ProductCart
Date Posted: 30-September-2011 at 3:14am
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We can't reproduce the problem when running recent versions of ProductCart. Maybe it was an issue in one of the first few versions of that feature? We are talking about several years ago, and that feature has been improved substantially over time. If you used the latest code, for example, ProductCart would automatically be adding a Canonical URL to each page, and the Canonical URL would contain the correct address to the page. So that alone would fix the issue. You should update the store to the latest version, but if you don't want to do so, you should at least compare the files that deal with the Keyword Rich URLs and synchronize them with the latest version so that the Canonical URL is properly added. ------------- The ProductCart Team Home of ProductCart http://www.productcart.com" rel="nofollow - shopping cart software |
Posted By: fs2787
Date Posted: 30-September-2011 at 12:34pm
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We love to update the store to the latest version but we have made so many changes to the old code that any major updates will require significant amount of time to convert over. Is there an easier way to add Canonical URL to each generated product page under v3.51b. |
Posted By: razor150
Date Posted: 25-January-2012 at 4:01pm
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I know I am replying to this late but there is a way to break even the new SEO URLs. http://demos.productcart.com/demos.productcart.com/demos/standard/pc/Automotive-tool-industrial-c81.htm" rel="nofollow - http://demos.productcart.com/demos.productcart.com/demos/standard/pc/Automotive-tool-industrial-c81.htm " rel="nofollow - RTE_textarea.asp?mode=edit&POID=18981&ID=187" rel="nofollow - It is by adding a directory to the URL. I found this when checking my stats and keyword searches and noticing google was indexing my site weird. Obviously I have a bad link somewhere that I can't find. To fix this I created a 301 redirect in ISS. Not a big deal since it is caused by bad links and it has an easy work around. Just thought I'd point it out. " rel="nofollow - |