SEO problems in PhocaCart

[SamusUA]

I created my first store a year ago. I liked the component for its freshness and good admin panel. But today I can write about his SEO shortcomings, as now they have become visible. I am not writing to scold, but to correct and make the component better. I don't want to change it for another!

1. Google sitemap missing (very important)
2. XML Feed - cannot replace sitemap
3. Ajax pagination seriously breaks indexing (very important)
4. Scheme.org is missing in products, Google does not see products (very important)
5. There is no Scheme.org in the comments, Google does not see the comments

A little more about the problems:

1. Phoca Cart is almost the only store on the market that does not have a Google sitemap. Opencart, Prestashop and other pro-shops have good sitemap in pack. Old stores for Joomla and WordPress have solutions from partners (paid and free). Phoca Cart is a new store and therefore there are no partner solutions.

2. I was trying to solve a sitemap issue via XML Feed. What I got in the picture:

Google accepted the map, but is reluctant to process it because it has no parameters:

<lastmod>2021-12-18T11:20:44+02:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
<image:image>
<image:loc>
<image:caption>
<image:title>

The correct sitemaps looks like this (PrestaShop)

The main problem is that Feed doesn't accept a colon in a tag, and it also doesn't know how to embed a tag within a tag.

Result:

I think this is easy to fix, and also easy to add to the line parameters:

<lastmod>2021-12-18T11:20:44+02:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
<image:image>
        <image:loc>
        <image:title>
</image:image>

You can do this through the checkbox on the third tab XML Feed . It is desirable that the store out of the box has a customized sitemap in the XML section or a separate one in the new section!

3. After enabling the Ajax pagination setting, Google does not index products even after half a year:

Translation: URL is not indexed by Google This page is not in our index, but not due to an error. More details are provided below: Link in site map - Yes Referring Page - Not Found Problems with the page - no

This setting needs to be made red and warned inexperienced users so people don't use it!

4 and 5. Sekhema.org micro-markup and its analogues (OpenaGraph) are very necessary for good indexing of site products. I don't think you need to wait for help from third-party developers. You just need to integrate it into the kernel. At least in a minimal way. It's ideal to do it through a plugin. Preferably with the ability to turn it off.

ПС: I kindly ask you to do this in the version for Joomla 3.10, since the transition to Joomla 4 is still very problematic. Thank you.

[PhocaCz]

Hi, thank you for your ideas:

1. I don't think, the sitemap should be the core component feature as there are many great sitemap extensions for Joomla. Why not use such extensions which specialize directly on sitemaps?

2. Yes, Feed feature is not a sitemap feature

3. This is why it can be set in options. You don't need to use ajax pagination. As default, it is not used.

4. 5. This should be the same as 1) there are a lot of extensions which can do this. It is similar to open graph data. The component itself does not produce open graph data but you can extend your Joomla by e.g. Phoca Open Graph plugin which produces the open graph data - even for the ecommerce extension. This is similar to Google Tags manager, etc. This is why Joomla is so popular. You can extend it through many different extensions. Why to create sitemap or schema feature in core ecommerce extension when there are great plugins for this. such plugins take care about such features.

So sitemap and schema should not be a part of core component because of many reasons (let professionals make better service than to reinvent the wheel again, even the maintenance is much better when the specific extension cares about specific feature only).

So the question is, are there some top rated sitemap extensions or schema extensions for Joomla? If yes, do they support Phoca Cart? If not, are the developers able to support Phoca Cart in future?

For me it is not a problem to add all this to feature request list, but the problem will be finding time to take a look at it. And take a look at it even means, there will be no time for core features :idea:

Jan

[SamusUA]

Thank you too! Yes, if everything is used according to theory, then it should be so in Joomla. But unfortunately this is not the case in reality!

What we currently have in reality:

1. No third-party component is capable of making a Sitemap, Schema.org or OpenGraph for Phoca Cart as high quality as the market and competition require. SEO has reached the first degree of importance for E-commerce!
2. There is only one component ($95 - 4SEO, https://weeblr.com/joomla-seo/4seo) that can do this somehow. But it has flaws! Requires constant manual control, which does not allow you to work with stores with more than 200-300 products. You can make a lot of mistakes with it.
3. An online store without a sitemap and microdata does not make sense. Google won't rate it. If someone writes these components later, they will most likely be paid. This automatically makes your free store - paid. It also greatly complicates its installation and support. It is better to pay you for quality and in one place, and not in three different companies!

It's not for me to give you advice. You are a respected programmer with a lot of experience, and I am a designer and SEO specialist. But if you asked me what to do, I would write the following:

1. Stop work on all new features and functionality expansion (excluding bug fixes).
2. Create a sitemap in the form of a separate section or plugin, similar to CMS PrestaShop.
3. Integrate Schema.org micro-markup (for products) into the core, even settings are not needed there, it just needs to be written for E-commerce. Take CMS PrestaShop as an example.
4. Integrate schema markup Schema.org (for product comments). Only one setting is needed - disable. The micromarking of the RATING of reviews and the product is important.
5. Integrate OpenGraph microdata (for products) into the core, or with a plugin. The main thing is that the plugin does not break the speed of the pages.
6. Thoroughly test all this with tools: Google Lighthouse and Google PageSpeed. Necessarily!!!
7. Tell the world that PhocaCart is the best SEO-optimized online store in the world for Joomla! Success is guaranteed! (Joke :) )
8. Continue work on the most important features for the launch of a new store.
9. Move such functions as POS, XML-feed, Bonus points, Coupons and Export into a separate release of PhocaCart-PRO and sell it for $99. These functions do not matter at the start. They matter to advanced users. They have already passed the first level of complexity and know how to make money on E-commerce. They have money for development! SEO, Sitemaps, Schema.org microdata and OpenGraph are of great importance just at the start, when launching a new store. Because some should be bundled and free.

Thanks for understanding. If you're interested, I'll tell you more.

[PhocaCz]

Hi, thank your for your ideas.

5. Phoca Open Graph plugin fully support Phoca Cart, so detail of product just have standard open graph data
6. Yes it is done, but this much depends on used template (you can get very different results when using different templates and different features like using external fonts, etc. I got e.g. good results here: https://www.phoca.cz/jtd/ (but not sure if it is still OK there as another important tasks are in work now)

I fully understand your ideas but unfortunately, we are now in time where I need to overwrite core features to Joomla 4. When this will be done, then we can care about SEO. Without core features, there cannot be any work on SEO. So unforutnely, I need to finish core features first.

And of course if anyone is able to work on some SEO feature, I am 100% ready for implementing it or supporting it (when this will be external extension)

Thank you, Jan

[SamusUA]

I understand you, you are the chief architect, you choose the direction of the project. I just want to draw your attention to the idea that SEO has come to the forefront of importance in E-commerce.

In my opinion: a store with 3 features and good SEO is better than a store with 103 features and bad SEO. A store with bad SEO is just a collection of unindexed or low-ranking pages. Because SEO should be a priority!

The same PrestShop is very seriously moving in this direction: he even created a product layout that visually imitates Google's issuance, for clarity. I hope you read this and pay attention to SEO too!

https://demo.prestashop.com/#/en/back

Thank you.

[PhocaCz]

Hi, yes, but Phoca Cart is a part of one system - of Joomla CMS, so it does not care about a lot of features like ACL, login, emailing, etc. And the same is with SEO. Phoca Cart is a part of Joomla CMS and Joomla CMS should care about SEO as whole. In fact there are now extensions which cover all mentioned requirements. So the question is not to create specific SEO parts but to find the best SEO tools in Joomla CMS to cover all the requirements. :idea:

In fact, you cannot do a tool which cover SEO for Phoca Cart only. Phoca Cart is a part of Joomla CMS, so you need to find a tools which covers SEO for whole website (which means whole Joomla CMS)