We talked in a previous Miva Merchant SEO Tip post about how we set up the title tags on category and product pages by drawing in the category or product names respectively. We’re now changing our minds and thanks to an update that Miva Merchant recently streamed out, you can now customize the title tag EVEN FURTHER by adding it to the Meta Tag Settings. This will enable you to do a much better job of writing keyword specific title tags that will help improve your rankings for those all important keyword phrases that are 3-5 words or more, which convert at a very high level.
STEP 1: CREATING THE TITLE TAG FIELD WITHIN THE META TAG SETTINGS AREA
1. Login to your admin (duh).
2. Click on your store name in the left column.
3. Click on the link title “Meta Tag Settings”.
4. Click the ADD button.
5. Input “title” into the field for Meta Name (without the quotes).
6. Input “Title” into the field for Prompt (without the quotes).
7. Leave the drop down box on “Text Field”.
8. Click Update.
STEP 2: CREATE YOUR CUSTOM TITLE TAGS FOR ALL CATEGORIES & PRODUCTS
BEFORE you implement the code that draws the new title tag field into your category and product pages, you want to go through and customize your title tags for ALL OF YOUR CATEGORIES AND PRODUCTS FIRST!!! Reason being, if you skip this step and move on to step 3 or 4 (below) you won’t have title tags until you customize them. Right now, your store is likely set up to draw your store name and category or product name into the title tag. You need to create all of the new custom title tag content in the Meta Tag Settings title field before you change the templates to use it, otherwise your title tags will be blank.
Here’s how you do it:
1. Click on EITHER Categories or Products in the left column of your admin.
2. Click EDIT to the right of the Category or Product you want to create a new title tag for.
3. Click META Tag Settings once that category or product edit screen loads.
4. The title tag field should be the last text field listed in this area. Enter your customized title tag, hit update, and its created!
REMEMBER, make sure you do this for every category and/or product in your store, BEFORE you move on to step 3 & 4 below. We don’t want you to end up with products and categories that are void of title tags. It may take you 1 day, it may take you 2 months, but make sure you create the new custom content FIRST. There are other ways to do it more gradually, but we’re covering the basics here. If you want a more seamless and easy-going integration, contact us through our main website www.aarcmediagroup.com.
STEP 3: ADDING THE CODE THAT DRAWS THE CUSTOM TITLE CONTENT INTO THE TITLE TAG INTO THE CATEGORY TEMPLATE
Our feeling is the best way to use this feature is to FIRST draw the category or product name into the title tag (as we did in our earlier post) and use this custom title tag feature to draw in additional terms or keyword phrases. Here’s how we did it on AarcMediaGroup.com.
1. Click Pages in the left column.
2. Find the CTGY/Category Display Template and click the EDIT button. (Note: if you’re using a Category Template Module, you’d edit it through its interface instead, and you may have to update the module to its newest version to make sure it supports the title tag feature).
3. In the template, find the following code:
Replace your ENTIRE title tag with a new title tag like this:
STEP 4: ADDING THE CODE THAT DRAWS THE CUSTOM TITLE CONTENT INTO THE TITLE TAG INTO THE PRODUCT TEMPLATE
1. Click Pages in the left column.
2. Find the PROD/Product Display Template and click the EDIT button. (Note: if you’re using a Product Template Module, you’d edit it through its interface instead, and you may have to update the module to its newest version to make sure it supports the title tag feature).
3. In the template, find the following code:
Replace your ENTIRE title tag with a new title tag like this:
And that’s it. If you have questions, feel free to post a comment, and we’ll reply almost immediately.
Ted Hust is the President of Aarc Media Group LLC which owns and operates AarcMediaGroup.com, BonitaJ.com and LaxFactor.com. Ted has been working in the web design world for 13 years and has specialized in Miva Merchant design and development for over 10 years.
Thanks for this tip, I didn’t even know this feature existed. I made a slight change to your suggestion, I placed the new meta field between the original meta fields. The result is that the text in the new title field is placed between the product title and store name. If the title field is empty then the title remains unchanged.
I am running 5.06 and cannot find Meta tag Settings under edit store per step 1 of this process. I would love to implement this SEO tip.
They’ve got to be there somewhere. Are you saying that your installation is fully updated (meaning in the bottom left of the left column nav it reads “Up To Date”, and that you clicked your store name and still do not see them? If you’re sure they’re not there, feel free to hop in an online chat through our site, http://www.aarcmediagroup.com/ (it should be in the right column here as well, and whoever answers the chat can hop in your install and take a look if that makes it easier.
Make sure you register your site in google. It shows you if you have duplicate title or other meta tags. This allows you to make the changes in order for all of your pages to get indexed.
Hello techlectics, Great idea! Do you mean like this:
Category templates – &mvt:store:name;:&mvt:global:metacategoryfieldcache:fields:title;:&mvt:category:name;
Product Templates – &mvt:store:name;: &mvt:global:metaproductfieldcache:fields:title;:&mvt:product:name;
Would anyone like to answer the above question? Thanx