SEO Backpack Q&A

SEO Backpack generated a lot of interest and many OpenCart store owners wanted to know more about it. These are the most frequently asked questions regarding our new SEO extension.

What are the main differences between SEO Backpack and SEO Pack PRO and other third party plugins? Can I use them both at the same time?

First off, I would like to state that SEO Pack PRO is not a product developed by our team. We are offering the module in our marketplace, however, the extension itself is created by privatemtx and is supported by them.

SEO Backpack is a standalone product, created by developers at iSenseLabs. With that said, both modules have some similar features, which make them incompatible with each other. This means that you have to use either SEO Backpack or SEO Pack Pro, but not both of them.

As for the differences - both modules are conceptually similar and here I’ll mention the features that are unique in SEO Backpack.

  • SEO Score Gauge - We created an algorithm to calculate and display your SEO score directly on the dashboard. No technical knowledge required.

  • SEO Crawler - Our in-house built crawler measures your on-page SEO performance. It fetches your site’s URLs several times for running various tests. The results show potential weak points you need to improve and are displayed in a personalized report.

  • Search Engine Analytics - this is a homebuilt functionality that allows you to identify which pages are most likely to be indexed by search engines. Currently supports Google, Bing and Yandex.

  • Compatible to all major themes - We tested SEO Backpack on more than 10 themes prior to its release including: Journal, Fastor, Sellegance, Oxy, ShopMe, Pavillion and more.

One thing that SEO Backpack shines with is the easy-to-use admin interfacе. Another opportunity that we wanted to exploit was transparency.

We found out that in a lot of the other third party SEO modules you are clicking buttons but not understanding what is the outcome of the actions you take. This is why we address transparency with reports and notifications about every action you take.

This means that every time you fix something in your store's SEO, you will learn what you’ve resolved exactly and how.

Although we mentioned this above, the SEO Score Gauge is another big thing for the module. Whenever you fix a reported area of improvement on your site you get immediate response by getting a higher SEO Score.

The full list of features you can find here.

We focused on bringing a completely new set of SEO features to the OpenCart ecosystem while making our module more human and intuitive to use. It gives feedback and information on every action you take and why it's important for your E-Commerce store.

I already had SEO URLs on some of the pages, however, they disappeared after I installed SEO Backpack. Can I get them back?

This happens because SEO Backpack is using a new and better approach to storing SEO URLs. This means that you will be able to create multi-lingual SEO URLs, which is not possible by default with OpenCart.

Fortunately, you will be able to get your old URLs pretty easily. When you install the module and open it, you will see a warning at the top of the page, notifying you that there already are SEO URLs in your store.

You will be asked if you want to transfer them using the new logic we developed.

If you want to keep them, you can click on the "Migrate SEO URLs" button, which you will see in the message. Alternatively, if you want to start over, just create new SEO URLs using the module default functionalities and the warning will disappear.

Is SEO Backpack compatible with NitroPack?

Yes.

Both modules are developed by us and are 100% compatible with each other. If you are using another caching extension, our product should be compatible with them as well, as long as it does not modify the URL creation functionality in OpenCart.

Does SEO Backpack work with stores using more than one language?

Yes.

SEO Backpack is fully multi-lingual and can generate all meta tags (title, description and keywords) for each one of your store languages.

What is more - by default, in OpenCart you can have only one SEO URL for your products, categories, manufacturers and information pages.

However, when you install SEO Backpack, you will be able to have different SEO URLs for every language that you have installed on your store!

How can I put “.html” on the SEO URLs, generated by the module?

Our module comes with a URL builder, which you can use to generate URLs for your products, categories, manufacturer and information pages. By default, the URLs does not have “.html” extension at the end of the address, however, you can easily change that.

Here are the steps that you need to take:

  1. Open the admin panel of the module.

  2. Navigate to “URLs & Linking”.

  3. Click on the “SEO Links” tab and then on the “Advanced” menu.

  4. You will see four input fields, which represent the URLs for the products, categories, manufacturers or information pages. You simply have to add “.html” in the end of each field and you need to save the changes by clicking on the “Save Changes” button.

It’s as simple as that!

My product names look the same in every language that I have installed on my store, so my SEO URLs will look the same. Is there a way to add the language code in the URL too?

We understand that all product URLs in your store should be unique, so we have covered that. While we generate URLs, we are checking if the new URL already exists in the database.

If so, we are adding a random number in the end of the slug so it can be unique. However, if you want to make the URLs unique by adding the language code, here is what you will need to do:

  1. Open the admin panel of the module.

  2. Navigate to “URLs & Linking”.

  3. Click on the “SEO Links” tab and then on the “Advanced” menu.

  4. You will see four input fields, which represent the URLs for the products, categories, manufacturers or information pages. You simply have to add “[lang]” somewhere in the fields and you need to save the changes by clicking on the “Save Changes” button.

So, for example, if you add “[lang]” in the end of the field, this is how your URLs will look:

  1. store.com/iphone-en - for the main language (English in this case)

  2. store.com/iphone-cz - for the second language (Czech in this case)

I am using Journal2 and when I install SEO Backpack, I cannot open my product pages due to an error related to the JSMin library. How can I fix this?

This happens when you have activated the Structured Data for the product pages in our module. We are using the latest standard in placing structured data on pages - JSON-LD. This, however, does not apply for the JavaScript library in Journal2 - JSMin. The library is quite old and not officially supported anymore. JSMin is not able to optimize correctly the whole page when the structured data from our module is enabled, thus making the page inaccessible.

Fortunately, the fix is quite simple - you just have to disable the Structured Data for the product pages in SEO Backpack and you will be good to. This is because Journal2 already has structured data implemented in the product pages, so you will not lose any functionality or SEO enhancement.

Does the module have anything to do with the first load of the pages? Is it decreasing the performance?

Our module should not have any impact on the loading of your pages. It should not decrease the performance of your store. It replaces some of the functionality that OpenCart already has, and since it is not adding new queries but is replacing them, it will not have an impact on the loading of the pages.

Does this module work with multistore?

All features work across all stores, with the exception of the URL generation. This is currently working only for your main store. You can still add URLs to your other stored but you have to do it manually.

Does this module have automated H1 H2 tags?

It is impossible to have automated H1 and H2 tags in the current way that OpenCart is working. The H1 and H2 tags need to be taken from somewhere in order to be created. If there aren't any parameters to use, SEO Backpack cannot automatically generate this kind of data.

To put this into perspective, currently, the H1 tag is the name of your product/category for example. Meaning that you already have the H1 tags. With SEO Backpack, you get the chance to customize them.

Is the module compatible with import/export extensions? What happens when importing SEO URLs?

If your old products already have URLs, they will stay the same. The importer will not have an effect on them. When you install our module, it creates a separate table for SEO URLs and all URLs are stored there from the moment of installation. With that said, all URLs should be kept there because the importer should work with the old SEO table. If you have to create SEO URLs it should be only for the new products, the old one should keep their addresses. If you have products with no URLs when you import them, you can simply open our module and click the button "Generate" for the product SEO URLs. This will generate URLs only for the products with missing URLs, the rest will be untouched.

I already have an SEO module. Can I install your module as well?

No, you can have only one SEO module. Prior to installing the module, make sure you disable/delete any other third-party SEO modules.

I am running a caching extension, should I clear the cache every time I make changes?

Yes, you need to clear the cache every time you make changes/generate new SEO addresses.

I am using your CustomPages extension. How can I set custom SEO URLs for the created pages?

What you need to do is first locate the route of the page. For instance, this page http://example.com/index.php?route=custom/special has a route custom/special Then go to the module settings and access URLs & Linking > Custom URL Redirects > Add New Custom URL and fill in the form as:

  •  OpenCart Route: custom/special
  •  URL Address: custom_special. 

After that, you will be able to access that page from this URL http://example.com/custom_special

I have installed SEO Backpack and applied the changes that the module suggests and now none of my links are working. What should I do?

This means that the SEO URLs are not enabled from the OpenCart Back-end settings or your .htaccess does not exist. To use SEO URLs, you need to rename the .htaccess.txt to .htaccess (it is located in the root folder of your OpenCart store) and the Apache module mod-rewrite must be installed. (Please read the installation instructions).

Is there anything I can do/should do with the extension to make Google understand and index my new links? When will Google Index the new URLs?

In this case, you would need to ask Google to reindex the pages. To do so you can follow the instructions on this article and then wait a few days so the Google bots can index the new pages.

The theme I am using already has rich snippets. Should I use those or the SEO Backpack snippets?

It is recommended to use only one set of rich snippets, and the best option will be the one which has more data on it. How to decide which one to use? You can run a test by enabling the SEO Backpack snippet and then run a Google structures data tool to check the fields. Save the result. Then disable the SEO Backpack rich snippet and enable your theme/extension rich snippet. Check the result and compare it with the previous one. You should enable the option which generates more data.

 

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