How to change the number of products displayed on Oscommerce?

Wondering how to change how many products are displayed in searches and categories in Oscommerce.
Here is the answer:

1. Go to Oscommerce Admin.
2. Click the Configuration link (in the left sidebar).
3. Navigate to the Maximum Values configuration (also in the sidebar).
4. Under “Search Results” change the number to however many products you want to have one page.

How to remove the Customer Review Option from Oscommerce

There are only two easy steps.

1. Find the following code in catalog/product_info.php:
find the line that have button_reviews.gif in them
and comment it out by putting // before each line.

2. Find require(DIR_WS_BOXES . ‘reviews.php’); in catalog/column_right.php and comment it out.

Let’s discuss why it might be good to remove the customer review feature in Oscommerce.
There are several reasons.
The first is if you do not have many reviews on your products it can look to other customers that no one buys from you and maybe that you are not a good place to buy the product. It is best when starting a store to take off the review feature until your store reaches the critical peak of visitors that are willing to review your products. Or, you could seed the reviews with you own thoughts about the products. If you decide to remove the review feature you can always go back to having it again at any time by justing uncommenting the lines above.

How to set up 2CheckOut with Oscommerce?

This is an easy question.
Oscommerce comes with a 2CheckOut payment module.

To install it follow these instructions:
1. Get a 2CheckOut account. Skip if you have an account already.

2. Login to your Oscommerce Admin

3. Click the Modules link, then navigate to the Payment Modules

4. Once you are there, click on 2CheckOut.

5. Click the install button that comes up on the right side.

6. Next click the edit button that will appear on the right side.

7. Fill in all the fields, with the information required.

8. 2CheckOut is now installed!!

5 ways to make your Oscommerce store search engine friendly

All store owner’s need traffic and organic search engine traffic is the best way to get alot of traffic.
The following tips should help your ranks on Google, MSN and Yahoo to go up.

Tip 1: Install the SEO URLS Mod.
This mod makes your urls easier for the search engines to index.

It will change a url like this:

http://www.website.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=45

to this:

http://www.website.com/catalog/laptops-c-45.html

Product urls look like this:

http://www.website.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=45&products_id=5667

to urls like this:

http://www.website.com/catalog/dell-inspiron-p-5667.html

This helps users and search engines both and makes your store more user friendly.

Download it here

Tip 2: Install the Header Tags Controller Mod.

This mod will allow you to add meta tags and titles to each of your products.
This will help people and search engines know what your pages are about.

Download it here

cDynamic Meta Tags v1.6 is better if you do not want to go through every single product adding meta tags.

Tip 3: Upload a robots.txt to your site

A robots.txt is a file on your server that tells the search engines which files not to index. You need to have one because you do not want the search engines to index duplicate content.

Example (my robots.txt):
User-agent: *
Disallow: /catalog/affiliate_info.php
Disallow: /catalog/affiliate_affiliate.php
Disallow: /catalog/affiliate_faq.php
Disallow: /catalog/contact_us.php
Disallow: /catalog/account.php
Disallow: /catalog/create_account.php
Disallow: /catalog/shopping_cart.php
Disallow: /catalog/checkout_shipping.php
Disallow: /catalog/ask_a_question.php
Disallow: /catalog/popup_image.php
Disallow: /catalog/catalog/
Disallow: /catalog/images/
Disallow: /catalog/includes/
Disallow: /catalog/paypalipn/
Disallow: /catalog/pub/
Disallow: /catalog/privacy.php
Disallow: /catalog/contact_us.php
Disallow: /catalog/shipping.php
Disallow: /catalog/advanced_search.php
Disallow: /*action=
Disallow: /catalog/create_account2.php
Disallow: /catalog/create_account3.php

The Disallow: /*action= stops the search engines from indexing add to cart pages.

Tip 4: Write unique descriptions for each category and product

Many store owner’s are using manufacturer data for descriptions which would be okay but it is duplicate content which means you have to have a very good link reputation in order to get good rankings on product pages. The more unique product descriptions the better you will do.

Tip 5: Cull out the bad products

You may think that it is the more products the better but you may do better if you cull out the products that do not sell.
If customers are not interested in some of the items you sell they will just clutter up your store.
Here is a little known fact: The less pages you have indexed in Google the higher each should rank.

There are many more things you can do to raise your rankings on the search engines (I may post more about it at a later date)

How can you tell if a website is using Oscommerce?

You can usually tell whether or not a store is running Oscommerce by looking at the urls.
For example:
Oscommerce category urls look like this:

http://www.website.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=84

with SEO URLS:

http://www.website.com/catalog/computers-c-84.html

Product urls look like this:

http://www.website.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=55&products_id=309

with SEO URLS

http://www.website.com/catalog/canon-powershot-s3-p-5873.html

Sometimes the store owner will change the catalog folder to store or shop or even something else.
Also Oscommerce can be heavily changed, especially the design.
Other scripts such as Zen-Cart have similar urls so it may not be possible to tell for sure.

How to shut down your Oscommerce store while you are on Vacation

There are several ways of doing this.

Method 1: Install the Down for Maintenance Contribution

This is a good way if you want to completely shut down your store and if you do not care about SEO.
If you use this method your pages may be de-indexed in the search engines.
This method would also frustrate customers who want to buy. They may never come again.

Download the Down for Maintenance mod here

Method 2:
Add a Message to your home page letting customers know that the order will not be shipped until a certain date.
You should also add a message to the cart pages because not all customers will read the home page.
This method could be frustrating to customers as well but is better in my opinion the the other method.

How to put Adsense Ads on Oscommerce?

You have two options to add adsense ads to Oscommerce, actually more if you use sts (simple template system).
You can add adsense to your product pages with Adsense on Product Info Pages contribution.
This will add an Google Ad sized 468 x 60 right after your product information and before the line
” The product has been added to our catalog on… “
Or add an adsense Infobox to the sidebar with the Adsense in Infobox contribution.

If you sts you should be able to put adsense code wherever you want it.

I would like to mention that adding adsense ads to your store could decrease sales and conversions.