Quote:
Originally Posted by RedEvo
The problem with ecom systems IMHO is they decide how to do stuff, they have to. If you don't like way they do stuff you either have to hack - with all the implications of having a non standard install, or put up. You are also stuck if the system doesn't support a particular payment method such as buy now pay later.
Add to that iffy URL's, Titles, onpage tagging and I prefer to craft pages - using Joomla, present products in a way that converts (hopefully) and generally not haveto live with any aspect of a page simply because the ecom system 'does it that way'.
I guess it's down to control.
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Thats not true at all
The whole of Virtuemart is modular, so you can turn bits on and off as needed. Like the shipping, parts of the admin, Gateways, Coupons, etc.
That also includes if you have tech ability (or you can buy/download custom made ones) to produce a new module to make it work differently.
I have made a site (which i cant link to as im a wee nipper
) but if you search for "spot-ontv" in Google its top, which has a Buy Now Pay Later system.
Its a Payment Gateway and a custom made component that works like a normal gateway at the end of the cart process, but it shows a form, that collects all the info. The new component is used to store the info for later on so the admin can collect it.
There is also one of the best SEF systems i have ever used in my career called Artio. It allows you to build the URLs up from the categories and products in virtuemart. so it will be something like this
/category-name1/category-name2/product-name
You can modify the way they are structured completely, how many category levels you want adding etc.
It also has a custom function, where you can edit all the auto made URLs, to what ever you want. So you can rewrite the URL as
/sausages-and-eggs/
if you like.
The titles are adjustable per page and so are meta tags, so I'm not sure what you meant by that. You can add in a global setting of title and meta data, and then modify it per page/category/product.
The reason I'm being as strong on this subject, is because when i read through forums, i find that people give wrong information about products usually because they haven't used it properly, and then give wrong feedback/advice, which is actually worse than not giving any info at all.
If i was as green as grass to all of this and was asking for a little help, i would believe that responses were some where near correct and it could persuade me to do something different which may not be the right choice. But if there was no response at all, then i would have to look else where and find the correct info elsewhere by people who have used it properly.
The response of using a separate system because it is better for SEO is completely wrong in every way. It has no affect at all on SEO, the system doesn't do anything with seo in any way, it is simply a system that fills in the code of XHTML templates. So as long as the template is well structured, and you can control the meta tags (which makes almost no difference on Google anyway) and you can manage the URL. It is the same as even making a page by hand in notepad.
The CMS just makes it easier for the admin to build and maintain the site, nothing else, the templates do the SEO work.
This isn't my opinion, this is how websites should/are built. No customer wants to sign up 4 times to get into 4 parts of the site (Shop, Blog, Support, Forum for example), when there is another system (available for free) that is a one stop shop type of product.
SEO is only a small part of getting a customer, prob about 20% or less, because once the customer clicks on the site, they need to be handled carefully to persuade them to hand over their hard earned cash. And making them sign up all over the place multiple times is not one of the ways.