Optimized URLs in osCommerce
It has been a while since the search engines were not able to index pages' other than .HTML or similar. With the increase of computer facilities, the search engines do not make a discretion between dynamically created pages (like .PHP) and static pages (like .HTML) anymore.
So what would be the benefits of modifying product, category, and other pages URLs in osCommerce for search engines? The main reason to change URLs in osCommerce is search engine optimization. Yes, URL matters a lot to search engines, and, should it contain keywords typed in by the user in the search engine, it increases the chances of the website (or this particular URL) to be listed higher in the search results.
A URL is optimized for SEO when it contains important keywords that are related to the content of the page, and that the potential user would type in a search engine trying to find information and/or products offered on the website. So in the case of osCommerce optimized URLs would contain all or some of the product name, category name, manufacturer name for products and category name for categories, and also page names for additional pages, like Privacy Notes, etc.
For example, instead of http://demo.oscommerce.com/index.php?cPath=1, an optimized URL would look like http://demo.oscommerce.com/Hardware.html. And instead of http://demo.oscommerce.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_5&products_id=27, an optimized product URL would look like http://demo.oscommerce.com/Hewlett-Packard-LaserJet-1100Xi.html or like http://demo.oscommerce.com/Hardware/Hewlett-Packard-LaserJet-1100Xi.html.
Why osCommerce?
Having now worked with osCommerce for more than 7 years, while interacting with many companies and individuals, we have never found a person who wished to switch to another solution once they had an osCommerce-based online business.
Instead we've seen quite a number of people who'd like to move to osCommerce from some other, custom made or publicly available online store solution.
Its very easy to start selling online using osCommerce. Its standard installation already contains all features and facilities to build an online store and start online sales. For end customers it is easy to browse and search for products, use shopping cart, personal account with previous order history, checkout with several shipping and payment methods and all this in multiple languages. For Shop Administrators and online merchants it is first of all manageable product catalog with a tree of categories and products, a tool for customer and order management, sales reports – among others.
But the real key to the success of osCommerce lies in it being an Open Source solution, and in a community of more than 100,000 members who have developed more than 3,500 useful contributions (add-ons) to osCommerce. Taking compatibility issues aside an osCommerce store owner can add credit modules, features, images add-ons, informational boxes, additional languages, order total modules, payment and shipping modules, reports, templates / themes and other contribution to an osCommerce - based web site. More members join and more contributions get submitted daily.
Besides the standard version of osCommerce developed by its team there exist alternative versions. Some are free, some need to be paid for. Alternative versions usually contain a number of contributions already pre-installed, so that the store owner would get an even more featured solution for online business.
