Icecat Release Notes 202: SEO, Product Management, and More

We are excited to bring you the latest updates in Icecat Release Notes 202, filled with significant improvements and new features designed to enhance user experience with the Icecat platform. This release focuses on three major areas: managing brand product title settings, enhancing the “Release Date” logic for export files, and introducing a new product page built on Server-Side Rendering (SSR). These updates aim to provide users with greater control, accuracy, and performance across the board. For additional details, please refer to the previous Icecat Release Notes.

Manage Brand Product Titles Settings at the Family Level

In this sprint, we are excited to announce a new functionality that empowers Icecat PIM (Product Information Management) system managers to manage brand product title settings at the family level. This enhancement introduces two new settings, available within the PIM system. These new settings offer users greater flexibility in tailoring product titles and descriptions.

How to Access the New Settings:

1. Search for the Required Brand: Navigate to the brands’ search page in the PIM. Using the search bar and the results, find the brand you wish to modify within the PIM system.
2. Navigate to the Brand Families List: Navigate to families settings directly from the brand search results by clicking on the corresponding “Brands families” link. The system will bring you to the page where all brand families are listed. Once the brand is located, navigate to the list of product families associated with the brand.
3. Open Family Details: Select the specific family you want to manage the product title settings. The family details page will display all settings related to the brand’s product families.

On the family details page, you will find two new settings:

• Exclude Product Family from the Product Summary Title and Summary Description
• Disable Family Deduplication

By default, these settings are disabled.

Our standard product title consists of the following parts:

• Brand name
• Family name
• Product model description

Exclude Product Family from the Product Summary Title and Summary Description

When this setting is enabled, the “Family name” part is removed from the generated product title. This can help streamline titles and descriptions by focusing on the brand and product model description.

Disable Family Deduplication

Enabling this setting stops the deduplication of the “Family name” from other parts of the title, such as the product model description. This feature especially helps users when the product model already includes the family name. It ensures that the family name remains in the title even if it appears in the product model description.

Additionally, we will not deduplicate if the family has a local translation but the product model name is written in a different language. Here’s an example to illustrate the deduplication process:

The Dutch example demonstrates that deduplication is not possible if the product model description is not localized, even if the family has a locale translation.

These new settings provide Icecat PIM managers with enhanced flexibility in managing how product titles and short and long summary descriptions are displayed, ensuring greater accuracy and relevance for different locales and use cases.

Enhancement of “Release Date” Logic for XML and JSON

We introduced a significant enhancement to the “Release Date” logic for both XML attributes and JSON key. This update aims to provide more accurate and reliable information to our channel partners.

Key Changes in the ReleaseDate Logic

Enhanced XML and JSON Attributes:

• XML Attribute: “ReleaseDate” in the “Product” tag.

<Product Code="1" HighPic="https://images.icecat.biz/image_link.jpg" ReleaseDate="YYYY-MM-DD">
	<!-- other attributes -->
</Product>

• JSON Key: “ReleaseDate” in the “GeneralInfo” section.

"GeneralInfo": {
	"IcecatId": {Icecat_product_ID},
	"ReleaseDate": "YYYY-MM-DD",
	// other attributes
}

Previous Logic:

1. If a product has a local release date, the XML attribute and JSON key display it.
2. If a product has no local release date but has an international release date, the XML attribute and JSON key display it.
3. If a product has no local or international release dates, the XML attribute and JSON key display the date when the product was added to the Icecat database.

We identified that point 3 in this logic provided inaccurate information to our channel partners. The missing manufacturer release date prompted Icecat to use its own database entry date instead. This did not reflect the actual release date of the product.

This enhancement prevents confusion by guaranteeing accurate release date information. By excluding the fallback to the database entry date, our partners can trust that an empty “ReleaseDate” signifies the absence of verified release date information, rather than a misleading placeholder.

Introducing the New Product Page on SSR

We’ve launched a new product page built on Server-Side Rendering (SSR) technology. This significant upgrade marks a major milestone in our continuous efforts to enhance user experience and improve SEO metrics.

New Product page Benefits:

• Reusing Blocks from Live Service: In our existing product page, we have reused many blocks from our Live service along with its business logic. This approach helps us avoid code duplication and simplifies maintenance, ensuring a more streamlined and efficient development process.
• Comprehensive Testing: Before the release, the new product page underwent rigorous testing. We conducted both automated and manual testing to address the previous product page’s lack of comprehensive test coverage. This ensures higher reliability and performance.
• React-Based Architecture: The new product page is entirely constructed using React. This unified framework enhances the page’s performance, maintainability, and scalability.

SEO and Performance Enhancement

The primary goal of this development was to improve the page’s SEO metrics. We conducted a detailed comparison using the Lighthouse tool on a sample product page to illustrate the improvements.

Lighthouse Tool Results

Old Product Page:

• Performance: 86
• Accessibility: 69
• Best Practices: 96
• SEO: 85

New Product Page:

• Performance: 100
• Accessibility: 96
• Best Practices: 100
• SEO: 100

These results highlight significant improvements across all metrics, with the new product page achieving perfect scores in Performance, Best Practices, and SEO. This ensures a faster, more accessible, and SEO-friendly product page for our users.

The release of our new product page on SSR is a significant step forward in enhancing the overall user experience and ensuring better SEO performance. By leveraging React and reusing blocks from our Live service, we have created a more maintainable and efficient product page that meets the highest standards of web development.

We believe these enhancements will significantly improve the functionality, performance, and user experience of our platform. By offering greater control over product titles, providing more accurate release date information, and improving page SEO and performance metrics, we continue to strive for excellence in meeting your needs.

Olena Vasylynenko