osCommerce is one of the GPL open sourced projects, which has had a tremendous effect on the ecommerce industry. However in its initial install configuration it is most definately not seo friendly. There are many incarnations of the cart available, and most people within the osCommerce Fraternity will have heard of the creLoaded cart.

Out of the box, creLoaded has a much larger base of modules built in, aimed at making the end users life easier, however there are still areas which could do with serious work. I will be giving you the top tips completely free of charge of what needs to be fixed for SEO purposes, and what you need to ensure your cart has to rank highly in the search engines.

1. SEO URL’s: Without these URLS, you are left with one of two default options! Querystring or a poor attempt at rewrites based on making it easy for the oscommerce. What you really need to look for is a module which will include the category name, and the product name in a proper structure relevent to the website and its categories.
2. HTML Sitemap: Whats the first thing a user will look for if your website is difficult to navigate? a map of the site. A HTML sitemap is one of the more usefull tools you will add to the website, enabling users to process where they want to go quickly
3. Advanced Search Functions: The Default install in osCommerce is very….. average! However there are a number of modules, and the creLoaded cart comes with one as default - definately reccommended to improve your users experience.
4. XML Sitemap: Lets make the search engines spiders job easier, by telling them where the pages are, and how better than using the search engines own agreed format? An dynamic XML Sitemap will allow your website to build a list of all URL’s upon request by the search engines, meaning they always hae the latest, and most upto date information on the location of all of the content visitors may want to see.
5. Content: Your products should always have relevent information about them! Even if your products is completely self explanetory, for example a pair of scissors. You need to spend time describing every single product, as this gives the search engines the reason to send the valuable traffic to your website over your competitors.

I hope these 5 basic tips help you to optimise your web cart solution, however if you feel you need further help implementing this, then please feel free to contact us on 0845 052 1340