Google-Friendly Shopping Carts

[answer42]

Hi. For three years we have been using an asp-based shopping cart called StoreFront 5.0. All of our product detail pages end in ".asp". We are now shopping around for a robust shopping cart solution that incorporates all of our existing features (customer reviews, customer points program, gift certificates, etc) in addition to customizable back-end reporting and inventory managment.

My question is this: Given that we have good Google rankings for our product-specific pages, will I lose those once my new product pages change address? For instance, I currently have www.mysite.com/detail.asp?product=1000 for product 1000. But when it changes to some other type of page (hence URL) like www.mysite.com/product.aspx?product=1000 (I have no idea how asp.net works, so the address might be totally different), or--better yet--http://www.mysite.com/detail/1000.htm, will I lose the original .asp detail page rankings?

Also, does anyone want to recommend a Google-friendly shopping cart?

Thanks!

[aaron2005]

I like this guys product though I currently have no need for a cart: www.appliepiecart.com

Tell-um Aaron sent you! ;)

[ADAM Web Design]

First of all, if you've got a shopping cart already built, why rebuild it or try to get something else? You've got the features you want already, and it's yours, so you're in very little danger of anyone being able to fully copy the concept (maybe the layout, but certainly not the server-side code behind it.)

Sounds like you're more after a custom 404 page with some form of redirect. Checkout this kickass custom 404 article from the guys at 4guysfromrolla.com.

Using a custom 404 would allow you to take your existing product pages, remove them, and have the 404 redirect to the new and improved product pages.

I'm not sure if there's a .NET version kicking around, since I'm only familiar with classic ASP.

[ADS(o)(o)]

Agree with Adam, we moved to another shopping cart to update our dinosaur cart that had no tech support. We 301 redirected as much as possible, for 8 weeks things went quiet then gradually returned, but e-commerce is a tough marketplace nowadays. If you have an all singing all dancing cart, I would leave well alone

[answer42]

I appreciate the feedback. It is time to move to a new solution, though. We need to move from asp to asp.net, and we need a well-rounded ecommerce solution that can do all orders of reporting, inventory management, PO creation, etc... all this in addition to customizable shopping cart with gift certificates, coupons, returning customer points, wish list, etc. So, I really think it is time to move. My problem is that my product-specific pages all have high ranks, but they are in asp and I am worried that changing those URLs will mean a change in those rankings. Do I really do a 301 redirect for all 900 products?

We do have a custom 404 page, which actually acts as a search result page, too. It's pretty cool, but no amount of 404 tweaking will solve other issues, like dropping tax and shipping amounts at checkout.

Thanks