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We all know that I'm coding challenged. Big Time. I'm looking at popshops as an alternative for setting up a storefront on my blog.
the free version says it uses Java Script. The paid version (at $5.99/month) makes a point of saying it uses "SEO friendly Php."
And I seem to remember something about this - Php is preferred for SEO, correct? Assuming I like PopShops after I try out the freebie, is the paid version the way to go?
The scripting language a web server uses really has no effect on SEO. So when someone says "SEO friendly PHP" they either don't know what they're talking about or what they really mean to says is "We use PHP that is optimized to display HTML in an SEO friendly way".
What matters is how the content on your site looks AFTER the script generates it...ie when it becomes HTML. The HTML HEAD tags, keyword density of the content on each page, etc is what's important for SEO.
As far as your question about Javascript vs. PHP, they are different beasts altogether. PHP is a server-side script (executed on your web server) whereas Javascript is client-side (executed on PCs) You can do things with JS that you can't do with PHP, and visa versa. They work well hand-in-hand.
Eg. PHP could be used to pull data from your database and display it as HTML (say a blog post). Javascript could be used to dynamically hide or display a section of your blog post (say the comment form).
Hopefully that helps :)
One more thing, depending on the web host you use, they often have "storefront" 1-click applications included for free with your hosting.
Eg. Dreamhost offers ZenCart.
Depends, on the javascript. Not all Javascript/ajax (same thing) just a different mockup can read the code. Example, if the code is a small string that sources content from a server to display the shopping cart on your site, 9/10 search engines cant read it, they just read the line of javascript, not the sourced content.
Now, if the javascript sources content, by including it inline, which means when the javascript runs and it's viewable by the entire source. Not, the code itself as the source. So it depends, and by the way ajax/javascript is very search engine unfriendly out of the box, it's all about how you use it. Example, if you use ajax/javascript to run a small collection of div's, (div's search engines will see, and source) but the ajax makes those div's seem dynamic and wild.
So it depends. But, I would always stick with php, as it should display the source (html) making it more search engine friendly than javascript. :)
Some web browsers block Javascript. So your shopping cart will not be visible in the user's web browser. This would cost you money. PHP is executed on the web server and then displays the output in your web browser. So, the user should always see your shopping cart.
Christ and Kane: Thank you for your replies, but I'm afraid that they went way over my head. (Though I will check into the free things offered from Hostgator - but I seem to remember that HG posted that all required "advanced" html skills. Which is right back to my level of ignorance).
Andre, I THINK I got what you were saying - stick with the php formats and avoid anything Javascript when possible. Which means that IF I like the popshops population of a storefront, it's worth six bucks a month to get it in php, is that right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jkgourmet
In a nutshell that is what I am saying. You may want to do some additional research into shopping carts. There are several available on the Internet. If you will be selling one or two products you may just want to use Paypal to do it. That way you don't have to have a credit card merchant account and worry about maintaining a shopping cart, which could get hacked etc.
I'm not selling my products. I do affiliate marketing of physical products thus the need for popshops or some kind of store set up but no need for shopping cart.
Good Point, I would probably estimate 60+% of regular suffers have javascript enabled. It's the one who either don't know or want to secure themselves, example: in FF, I block all scripts and active the ones I want to run, therefore immediately steaming off script attacks. But still a very good point.Quote:
Originally Posted by bar2k