Miva Merchant SEO Above the Fold

Getting the most out of SEO is a Miva Merchant store owner's goal and text above the fold is important.

Good Miva Merchant SEO means doing some adjustments to your basic ReadyTheme. If you're using stock Shadows ReadyTheme, here's a small tweak that will mean a lot to your customers and for your SEO.

by Scot Ranney • September 21, 2018

Miva Merchant, SEO

What does the term "above the fold" mean? On a website it refers to what you first see when you visit a web page, before you scroll down to see more.

For eCommerce sites it's important to have some kind of product description above the fold because it gives customers a quick summary of what the product is about without having to do anything, and it gives search engines content near the top of the screen. Sometimes search engines rank content near the top of the screen higher than content at the bottom of the screen. The summary is also a great place to stuff some SEO key search terms and phrases.

Unfortunately a lot of Miva Merchant store ReadyThemes are not set up this way and stores are losing opportunities to get more SEO traktion and conversions.

It's quite easy to do, though, follow these steps and you'll be done in less than five minutes.

Make a Custom Field

Create a custom field by clicking on the UTILITIES menu item and then clicking on the CUSTOM FIELDS tab. Click on the box at the right hand side of the navbar to open up the custom fields dialog box.

Miva Merchant SEO Above the Fold Create a Custom Field for Product Summary

Click the ADD box to save the custom field.

Edit a Product

Add the new custom field and then find a product to edit in your store, click on the CUSTOM FIELDS tab, and enter a short description in space next to your new summary custom field.

Edit the Product Display Page (PROD)

Edit the product display page by clicking on the USER INTERFACE option in the menu and then find the Product Display Page (PROD).

Find the top of your product display and then put the following code in it. This code will display the summary custom field if it exists. That way there isn't a blank line.

<mvt:if expr="NOT ISNULL l.settings:product:customfield_values:customfields:summary">
<p>&mvt:product:customfield_values:customfields:summary;</p>
</mvt:if>

In the newer Miva Merchant ReadyThemes such as Shadows, you can put the code right above the product header and it will show up beautifully. Like this:

<mvt:if expr="NOT ISNULL l.settings:product:customfield_values:customfields:summary">
<p>&mvt:product:customfield_values:customfields:summary;</p>
</mvt:if>
<mvt:item name="prod_ctgy_hdft" param="prod_header"></mvt:item>

Here is a before and after shot of the product page on a site that I added a product summary field to. The site is called Invincible Music. If you're into meditative music, mantras, celtic, and those kinds of styles, check it out.

Before

Here's a product page before on stock Miva Merchant Shadows ReadyTheme. Notice that there is nothing above the fold, the initial display, for search engines or customers apart from the breadcrumbs, and those aren't going to help you put in search terms and phrases.

Miva Merchant SEO Above the Fold Problem - Scot's Scripts

After

Here's what the product page looks like after the summary. Not much difference, but it means a lot to your customers and for SEO to have a short product summary where they can see it without doing anything like scrolling.