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PrestaShop is the most popular online store management system in countries like Poland and others. It is currently used by over 17,000 people. stores, which translates into a 24% share in the eCommerce market in our country.

PrestaShop positioning - practical advice

In terms of size worldwide, PrestaShop currently ranks 8th with 3% “support” and close to 300,000. stores based on this software:

This system owes its popularity mainly to the distribution as Open Source and configuration possibilities. An advanced PHP developer will be able to do literally anything on PrestaShop. And although this system is free software, it is worth bearing in mind that for its proper functioning it is required to install appropriate plugins (free or paid) and to have basic knowledge of PHP, due to the limited possibilities of introducing changes through the CMS panel.

With basic knowledge and relying only on free plugins, we are able to create a functioning online store, but creating a professional website will require investment in paid solutions or employing a PHP developer for advanced configuration.

In the text below, we will try to present you the configuration options in Prestashop and perform the basic optimization of this CMS in termsof positioning.

In this article, Niketrainers.com.co will tell you:

How to set up a store based on Prestashop software?

There is no point in writing a guide for setting up a new Prestashop store when the official documentation describes everything step by step. Therefore, without unnecessary description of the download and installation method, please visit the website:

http://doc.prestashop.com/display/PS16/Instalacja+PrestaShop, from which you will learn how to set up your Prestashop store in a few minutes.

If you remember our WordPress guide: WordPress positioning – practical tips , you will notice that the installation and configuration of PrestaShop is very similar – we download the appropriate files, send them to ourFTP server and proceed to configuration.

The setup process is similar to installing new software on your computer and guides you through the process. After going to the end, you will see which items are being executed at the moment:

Create a settings.inc.php file and save the settings to it.
Create database tables.
Create a default store in the default language.
Populating database tables.
Saving information about the store.
Installing default modules.
Installation of demo data (products, categories, user, CMS page, etc.).
Installing the default template.

After completing all the above operations, the store is installed and ready for configuration!

Positioning your PrestaShop store – where to start?

After installing and configuring your store (and also after adding goods), we can move on to itsSEO optimization.

Considering that it is possible to start with a basic template, the first element related to further customization of the store should be the installation of appropriate modules.

Prestashop modules, often also called plugins (thanks to WordPress, which mainly popularized this nomenclature), are largely paid. Unfortunately, the prices are usually not adapted to the Polish user and can even exceed 100 euros. However, they allow users to extend the functionality of the store. Prestashop offers thousands of modules that can also be purchased from third parties. Each of them offers something different. And all this allows you to customize the store to their specific needs or their customers.

Enabling friendly urls

The friendliness of URLs has an impact not only on the reading of our links by indexing robots, but also on the perception of the site by users – after all, both the robot and the human will learn more about the content of the page if it is called / boots-musketeer than / category-12 .html. In PrestaShop , we turn on URLfriendliness in the Preferences> SEO & URL (or Traffic) menu:

Enabling TLS (SSL) in PrestaShop

If we have purchased a TLS security certificate for our domain (https protocol) in the Prestashop panel, we should enable its support for individual addresses. These settings are in the Preferences> General menu:

How to change meta tags in PrestaShop?

By default, after installing the store on Presta software, the meta tags of the home page will contain the following information: store name in the title tag, and in the meta description – “Store on PrestaShop software”. Leaving this element in this form can be considered a mistake, and it may also adversely affect the presentation of our website in the search results:

So how do you change themeta tagsin your PrestaShop store? For the home page , go to the Preferences > SEO & URL tab (alternatively: Traffic). Then we select the page marked as index and add the set title and meta description:

It is very similar in the case of the categories in our store. Here, however, we have to go to the Catalog> Categories tab. Next to the selected category, click on the edition and look for the Meta-title and Meta description sections on the loaded page:

We do the same in the case of product cards, but here, in the Catalog menu, we select Products. In the next step, select the SEO tab from the menu on the left and we can complete the Meta-title and Meta description:

NOTE: in a store based on PrestaShop, the Title tag is automatically added with the name of the store, so if we want to make changes to this element, we must go to Preferences> Store contacts> Store name in the menu:

If you want to remove the name of the store from a permanent element, you need to make changes to the code of the page

Global title and description schemes in Prestashop

The global description scheme in PrestaShop releases us from the obligation to complete this element manually, if we have a large product base. While title is generated automatically, we have to deal with description ourselves. We have two options to choose from:

Purchase of the SEO Expert plugin for 149 euro, in which we will set a specific scheme for this element: https://addons.prestashop.com/pl/seo-pozycjonowanie-naturalne/16939-seo-expert.html
Modifications of the website code and header.tpl file.

Below we will describe the second solution for people who want to try their hand at the Presty edition.

First, you need to log into your account on the FTP server and find the header.tpl file in the shop template you are using. By default, you should find there an entry responsible for generating title and meta description:

{if isset ($ meta.description) AND $ meta.description} <meta name = “description” content = “{$ meta.description | escape: html: ‘UTF-8 ′}” /> {/ if}

As you can see, the system automatically downloads meta description from a variable assigned to a specific field in the shop’s panel. Due to the fact that in the case of some subpages you could already assign appropriate content, we need to change this formula in such a way that this text is not overwritten by our “generator”. To do this, we’ll add the else condition: {if isset ($ meta_description) AND $ meta_description}

{else}

{/ if}

However, we still invoke the standard schema in this conditional statement. In the construction of our schema, we will use the $ meta_title variable. However, as you remember from the previous point, this element automatically includes the name of the store. Therefore, we need to “cut” this element from the title at this point. We will do it using the replace function, which we will replace the name of the store / domain with an empty place:

{$ meta.title | replace: ‘- Store Name’: ”}

We will now add a few more words to unify our description and get a simple meta description scheme:

{if isset ($ meta.description) AND $ meta.description}

{else}

{/ if}

At this point, you are only limited by your imagination and the number of 155-160 characters to adjust the description scheme for your site.

Optimizing Hx headers in Prestashop

The default H1 tag in the case of PrestaShop is the category names on the category pages and the product names on the product card. In the case of the home page, depending on the template, the H1 header may not be used (and we will be able to add it in the WYSIWYG editor when adding content to the home page) or some navigation element of the page will be marked with the header of this row (for example: the Recommended products header, which should be lower order, i.e. H2 / H3).

However, there may be situations (also depending on the template) where the H1 header will be hidden or not placed at all on the category pages. In order to add or show it, we will have to go to the FTP server and edit the appropriate file. In this case, it will usually be category.tpl. In its edition, we need to find (or add in the appropriate place, if it is missing) the code:

<h1> {$ category-> name | escape: ‘html’: UTF-8 ‘} </h1>

Unfortunately, this is currently the only method by which we can correct / edit H1 headings on category pages in PrestaShop. A few years ago, a plug-in for modification was available in the module database directly from the store’s panel, but it has been discontinued.

Image optimization

We wrote more about the importance of image optimization in terms of not only positioning but also conversion here <link to the blog post?>. In the case of PrestaShop, we have the option of using a paid plugin for this purpose, which will allow us to compress the uploaded photos and adjust them to the best relationship in terms of loading time, e.g. https://addons.prestashop.com/pl/wydajnosc-strony/27020 -total-image-optimization-pro-lossless-compression.html Unfortunately, no free module is available at the moment. Of course, we can do a lot on our own, using, for example, tools available on the Internet for lossless compression of photos.

Alt attributes in the PrestaShop store

The alt attribute is alternative text that is best added when uploading images to the website. Its appropriate supplementation is important both in terms of positioning and adapting our website for the visually impaired (appropriate programs in this situation “read” the description of a given photo to the person viewing our site). PrestaShop software allows us to use a paid solution in this regard, e.g. the SEO Image module developed by PrestaShop: https://addons.prestashop.com/pl/seo-pozycjonowanie-naturalne/26877-seo-image.html or from other suppliers .

An alternative solution is to put the appropriate variable (e.g. product name) in the alt attribute for specific product photos. Most often, these attributes will not be displayed on the product listing (on category pages), so to add alt product photos here, we need to find the product_list.tpl file on the server in the template directory of our store.

Now we have to find a product photo path that will be individual for each case. However, we should always look for <img src = ”… and the words“ product ”. When we find the appropriate line, in the alt tag we need to add:

alt = “{$ product.name | escape: ‘htmlall’: ‘UTF-8 ′}

How to generate an XML sitemap in PrestaShop?

Since version 1.7 PrestaShop has a pre-installed module for generating the sitemap.xml file and it is currently the most effective and easiest method for this software. This module can be found in the Modules> Selected menu, where we have to find: Google sitemap. When configuring this module, you can choose which pages should be excluded from adding to the map and how often the system should update the file.

Of course, the alternative to doing this will be to generate a sitemap manually using tools available on the Internet. However, it requires you to manually update the file and upload it to the server again, so we recommend using the automatic map generator.

30x redirect management

Redirects in Prestashop can be managed from the level of the (paid) module, which will additionally allow us to set automatic redirects (e.g. in the event of removing a product from the assortment).

However, if we do not want to spend 40 euros, of course, we have a .htaccess file, in which we can add new rules in the Apache language from the server level.

For example, if we want our website to be available only from the .pldomainwithout the prefix in the form of the www subdomain, we must add the rule in the .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond % {HTTP_HOST} ^ www \ .example \ .com [NC] RewriteRule ^ (. *) $ Http://example.com/ $ 1 [L, R = 301]

Generating and editing robots.txt file in PrestaShop

The robots.txt file enables us to control the flow of Google robots (and other search engines) through our website. By default, this file is associated with blocking or granting access to our website to specific robots – both for the entire website and its individual subpages.

This file should be in the main directory on the server of our website and by default its entry is a directive:

User-agent: *

Allow: /

This entry means that each robot has access to any place on our website.

Additional provisions, such as:

Disallow: /index.php

They will prevent all robots from visiting the /index.php page, but will make it to the remaining ones.

If we want to exclude indexing by other robots, we have to use the notation:

User-agent: crawler-name Disallow: /

For example: User-agent: Yandex

Disallow: /

If we do not want Yandex robots to index our website and have access to it.

In PrestaShop, we have the option to generate a robots.txt file in the Preferences> SEO & URL tab (or: Traffic):

Structured data (rich snippets) in Presta

By default, in the templates of PrestaShop stores, the structured / structured data is already standard. However, if by some miracle we lack them, as usual, we have the option of using two options: manually adding the page in the code or using a paid plugin. Using the first method, we search for the products.tpl file and add the appropriate entries, using the structured data in the Schema.org standard. The whole thing is to mark the appropriate elements on the product card with the help of structural data, for example:

<span itemprop = “name”> Product name </span>

<div itemprop = “aggregateRating”

itemscope itemtype = “https://schema.org/AggregateRating”>

Rating <span itemprop = “ratingValue”> 5 </span> / 5

based on <span itemprop = “reviewCount”> 11 </span> customer reviews

</div>

<span itemprop = “priceCurrency” content = “PLN”> $ </span> <span

itemprop = “price” content = “99 ″> 99 </span>

</div>

However, the tags in the file are likely to look a bit different, due to the use of variables, i.e. for the product name:

<span itemprop = “name”> {$ product-> name | escape: ‘htmlall’: UTF-8 ‘| </span>

How to add descriptions (products, categories) in PrestaShop?

How to add a product description in PrestaShop?

The product description in PrestaShop is added to the card of a given product, by searching for it in the Catalog> Products menu and going to the edition:

Here we have the option of adding both a short description (which often appears next to the product photo) and a long description.

How to add a category description in PrestaShop?

We do the same in the case of the category description in PrestaShop. In the menu, select Catalog> Categories and go to the edition of a given category:

Depending on the template used, it may turn out that our category descriptions are hidden by default. In this situation, in the category.tpl file, we will simply have to add the code in the right place:

<div> {$ category-> description} </div>

PrestaShop integration with Google tools

Google Search Console Prestashop verification

We can verify Google Search Console in several ways. The first will be to place the appropriate file in the main directory of our website.

The second one is adding a verification tag in the <head> section of our website – to do this, place this code in the header.tpl file

The third method is verification based on the Google Analytics account, if the tracking code has been installed by us beforehand.

2. Implementation of Google Analytics tracking code in Prestashop

Installation of Google Analytics on the website can be carried out using the appropriate module (free or paid), in which we only provide the UA-ID. For this purpose, you can use the free, official PrestaShop plugin: https://addons.prestashop.com/pl/analizy-statystyka/27138-google-analytics.html or one of the paid solutions

3.enable the eCommerce module in Prestashop

You can use the free plug-in mentioned above to collect transaction data: https://addons.prestashop.com/pl/analizy-statystyka/27138-google-analytics.html or one of the paid solutions. Of course, both the verification / implementation of the tracking code and eCommerce can be carried out by placing the code in the appropriate place in the website code, but especially in the case of eCommerce it will require marking specific variables with transaction data (product name, SKU, price, quantity of purchased items), therefore this activity should be performed by a suitably experienced person.

Displaying abbreviated product names in PrestaShop

By default, PrestaShop uses the truncate function for product names (on the home page or on categories), which shortens the name of the product to 35-40 characters. In this case, instead of the full name of the product, for example: SQUARE SOFT OVERLAY FOR WATER COLUMN , the list of products will display only: SQUARE SQUARE OVERLAP SOFT … And theoretically for the customer it is only a minor difficulty, but a bit bigger in terms of positioning. All because the product name is an active link to a given product, which may affect internal linking.

It cannot be denied that this will also affect the saturation of the page with relevant keywords, because – depending on the length of the name – we lose a certain element describing, for example, a property or a specific feature of a given product.

To show the full names of products in the product_list.tpl file, we need to find:

{$ product.name | truncate: 45: ‘…’ | escape: ‘html’: ‘UTF-8’}

and removetruncate: 45: ‘…’ |