Using SEO for Products in PrestaShop 1.6

The Search Engine Optimization options within PrestaShop 1.6 are a short but very important section for your products. SEO provides information that help search engines find your website when customers search the internet. For example, if a customer were to search Google for "tie dye t-shirts" and the customer's search criteria matches your meta data, then they may go to your online store. The following tutorial describes and explains how to apply SEO to the products that you add to your PrestaShop 1.6 shop.

In order to use SEO for your products, the FRIENDLY URL option in Preferences - SEO and URLS- SETUP URLS must be set to "YES".

Video on using the SEO tab for Products in PrestaShop 1.6

The following video explains the SEO tab and displays the different settings that you would see in the PrestaShop 1.6 administrator dashboard. The tutorial following the video gives you a text version that you can use to reference the Administrator at your own pace.

1. Login to PrestaShop.
2. Hover over the Catalog in the menu at left. Click on Products when the pop-up menu appears.
3. In order to add SEO to a product, you must either be adding a new product or editing an existing one. Click on a product to edit, or proceed to the next step if you are adding a new product.
4. 

   The first item that must be set is the Meta title of your product. This title is used in search engines and in the front end product page of PrestaShop 1.6. If you leave it blank, then the product name used in the Information tab will be used. The number to the left of the field is the maximum length of the Meta title. The number will count down as you type in letters in the field.

   Click in the field and add your desired Meta title. In order to change the language, click on the drop-down menu to the right of the field.
5. The Meta description is used in search engines to give a quick description of your product. Keep the length of the description to 160 characters (including the spaces). Click on the field and type in a Meta description. You will see the same character count down to help give you an idea of the number of characters you are using in your description. In order to change the language for the Meta description, click on the drop-down menu to the right of the field.

6. The final option is called the Friendly URL, which is also called the Search engine friendly URL OR SEF. The easiest way to explain a friendly URL is to say that a human can read it.

   For example, you may see a URL that looks like this: http://example.com/product/xb23459-v7D-1.html. As you can see, the number and letter sequence is not very easy to understand. A better URL would look like this: http://example.com/product/tie-dye-tshirt.html. The URL is much easier to read and interpret!

   Click in the field to add a friendly URL. When you add a URL, you are simply adding the very END of the URL. Type in your friendly URL using a few words separated by hyphens. You can change the language using the drop-down menu at the far right.

   If you need a little help, use the Generate button in order to create a friendly URL based on the product name. You can always edit the URL after it has been generated. When the URL is complete, you will see the complete URL in the yellow block immediately below the Friendly URL line.

7. Click on one of the SAVE options at the bottom far right of the screen. Clicking on the Cancel button will bring you back to the Product list page.