I just first want to say, thanks for taking the time to read this!
I have an e-commerce website running the content management system DotNetNuke, which I believe is built on the asp.net platform in a windows server environment. The specific module that powers my e-commerce store dynamically generates pages for each of the store categories, as a user browses through the products available. As you may be aware, modules such as these must be placed on a specific page, and all the dynamic content generated by the module must reside on that "parent page".
The problem is that while the module does allow me to add HTML text for H1's and H2's on these dynamic pages, it does not support adding page meta tags such as "title" and "description". As a result, all of the dynamic pages generated by the module pull their meta tags from the parent page, making it difficult for Google to understand what I'm trying to show the user. This also causes google to show all these generated pages as having "duplicate title tags" in my analytics.
The temporary fix: I have removed the title tags from all of these "parent pages", in hopes that google will decide to generate it's snippits from the H1 and H2 tags residing on the dynamic pages. Was this wise?
Now for the question: Is there any kind of solution available which would allow me to manually assign meta tags to a page I specify in my hosting environment? As I stated earlier, I am able to add body HTML code to pages. Is there any way to force a page title tag from code placed in the body? Is there a better way to do this? You can view my problem in action at www.yandasmusic.com
Thanks for your time and patience! Alex
The temporary fix: I have removed the title tags from all of these "parent pages", in hopes that google will decide to generate it's snippits from the H1 and H2 tags residing on the dynamic pages. Was this wise? Blockquote
No, not particularly wise. The page title is important.
The first route you should take is speaking to the module developer. They should know about replacing page meta information on a per-product basis.
You can get (limited) results by varying the page title/description using javascript when the page loads. Just keep the js simple and use the DOM information already on the page (ie, read the product name).
I posted a blog about this recently : http://www.ifinity.com.au/2012/10/04/Changing_a_Page_Title_with_Javascript_to_update_a_Google_SERP_Entry
The javascript fix will probably work if you set it up correct. But you really need to convince the module developer to change the way the module works, as bdukes has posted.
Don't bother with the Meta Tags - none of the search engines really read/use them because they are so easily spoofed. Just concentrate on the title and description of the page.