Can I edit html for my site once built thru ezimerchant?

[discountpumps]

I have an existing site that I wanted to add ezimerchant to, however I find you cannot do this and have to build whole site again using templates. This is fine I guess, however, my site needs certain code to rank again up number one on search engines. Can I take my site built with ezimerchant and edit in frontpage or with raw code???

cheers

[dferguson]

Hi

You can add a 'shop' section to your existing web site using ezimerchant if you wanted to. This would enable you to keep your existing site and ranking and allow your customers to 'Go shopping' by creating a hyperlink to the subfolder on your server which contains the ezimerchant built shop.

Alternatively you can rebuild your entire site within ezimerchant and replace your current site with it.

Several other forum users have done this successfully and been really happy with their search engine results. Perhaps some of them may like to comment.

Also, what 'code' exactly are you talking about? There is no majic code that will make a site rank - if it did exist everyone would use it :-)

[discountpumps]

Yes, many factors involved. Sorry I meant over html code needed and would be differenty from ezimerchant templates thats all. No "special" code though no lol.

So adding a shop section I understand but doing it this way, you could not add a cart to your existing page, would take them to new page etc?

Also, if I used your templates, can I take the finished ezimerchant website into frontpage editor etc and enter other things like my own additional html code and meta tags etc? Is it editable with frontpage once done using your templates and site builder?

Cheers for help

[discountpumps]

Basically, can I take a site built using your templates and use frontpage to edit parts of it? (not edit carts or anything but the html of the actual page). Is it editable or once done on your templates, thats it?

Cheers

[discountpumps]

One more thing I should ask while I am here. (sorry could not find and edit post button to add all this to the last posts lol)

I have downloaded the trial version but WILL purchase full version within 30 days. Can I do my site with the templates etc in trial version and spend many hours with the trial version and then upgrade and buy it and nothing will change? I dont have to redo site done in your trial version again when I buy do I?

Important point lol. I dont wish to do it twice.

Thank you

[adrianlacy]

we rebuilt a no. 1 ranking site completely from scratch when we implimented ezimerchant.
Did not loose any noticeable positions and in fact picked up rankings almost immediately.
we maintained original high ranking additional pages for some time with a link to our new index page - actually removed data and inserted a hyperlink only (left outside of ezimerchant) after 3-6months - those pages were removed as rankings on new replacement pages increased.

as far as using frontpage - edit with fp from within ezimerchant, don't edit pages once uploaded as this change won't be in the file in the build folder of ezimerchant - next upload will wipe out your fp changes made externally.

Ezimerchant has a limitation preventing easy tagging of additional pages which I think may be resolved next version release. this is a pain as we can't target additional web pages with search engines as well, however google mainly concentrates on page content anyway

we use fp to make forms on our site which does require accessing that page directly with fp once uploaded for fp extensions? to work - on first upload or any changes to that page.

[niko]

We have a number of sites and all link to our ezimerchant site. This enhances your chances of catching a sale but does mean maintaining more than one site. Depending on the number of products and or whether you only have categories in the non-ezimerchant sites will depend upon the time spent.

[dferguson]

To answer some of these questions.

1. You should not edit the generated ezimerchant site in Front page or any other editor.

Why?

Because ezimerchant will overwrite any modifications you make the next time you generate and you need to generate often, everytime a change is made!

2. Our themes are simple HTML files and can be modified using most good HTMl editors - like Front Page, dreamweaver, or notepad for the brave.

3. There are really no more meta tags you want in your site. ezimerchant provides title, description and keywords as well as author and revisit after (if required). Adding more simply hasnt proven to increase rankings.

The additional pages in ezimerchant however use a single set of keywords and meta descriptions - which is not ideal and WILL be addressed in next major release.

[Faye]

I come from a background of using notepad to create html and stylesheets. I am trying to change the html to use css for layouts instead of tables but I am unable to find all the places where the code is generated from. Is it possible to use css to layout the site? I would like to include a valid doctype so my pages will display correctly but as code is generated from all over the place I am having trouble sorting it out. I have found these pages to edit category.htm, content.htm, productpage.htm, search.htm and viewcart.htm what others do I need to change?

[dferguson]

Hi Faye

You have found the main five theme files. These control the bulk of the layout of your website.

The BRIEF and DETAILED product layouts are controlled by what we call a STYLE. Essentially these are just basic HTML tables.

They are stored in c:\program files\ezimercpro\styles\brief (and detailed)

The files have a .tbl extension - but they are just simple HTML files containing a table.

You can include CSS classes in the main theme files, and they will flow into the styles as they are incorporated into the generated pages.

For more information please see this FAQ (http://www.ezimerchant.com/faq/faq-show.asp?p=1&v=0&c=0&f=50070).

[Faye]

Hi Faye

You have found the main five theme files. These control the bulk of the layout of your website.

The BRIEF and DETAILED product layouts are controlled by what we call a STYLE. Essentially these are just basic HTML tables.

They are stored in c:\program files\ezimercpro\styles\brief (and detailed)

The files have a .tbl extension - but they are just simple HTML files containing a table.

You can include CSS classes in the main theme files, and they will flow into the styles as they are incorporated into the generated pages.

For more information please see this FAQ (http://www.ezimerchant.com/faq/faq-show.asp?p=1&v=0&c=0&f=50070).

Thanks for the info :)
I have read the faq and started working on the code

Also, see Bush Tucker Shop (http://www.bushtuckershop.com) or Fertility Solutions (http://www.fertilitysolutions.com.au) as examples of CSS sites.

The Bush Tucker Shop site is most impressive. I am inspired to keep working on the code. Thanks again

[dferguson]

When your done, please post a link here so we can all take a look!

[TreppidX]

To answer some of these questions.

1. You should not edit the generated ezimerchant site in Front page or any other editor.

Why?

Because ezimerchant will overwrite any modifications you make the next time you generate and you need to generate often, everytime a change is made!

That's correct but if it's a page that does not change at all you could edit it and then copy it to a different location. Then when you generate the website just copy it to the build folder.