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Joomla! Search Engine Optimization
Joomla! Search Engine Optimization

Joomla! Search Engine Optimization: Drive people to your site with this supercharged guide to Joomla! and Search Engine Optimization with this book and ebook.

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Joomla! Search Engine Optimization

Chapter 2. Configuring Joomla!'s SEO Options

Out of the box, Joomla! includes a number of options that can be configured to provide a basic search engine friendly site, and lays the groundwork for your on-going SEO efforts. In this chapter we look at the default options, what they mean, and how to optimize them. While the default SEO options in Joomla! provide you with basic features you need, such as Search Engine Friendly URLs, this is just the beginning of what you can — and should — do to optimize your site effectively.

The topics covered in this chapter include:

  • Creating basic Search Engine Friendly URLs

  • Optimizing URLs

  • Using URL aliases

  • Controlling the title tag

  • Creating and optimizing your metadata

Setting up Search Engine Friendly URLs

Let's start by getting a clear definition of what it means for a site to have Search Engine Friendly URLs.

Sites created with content management systems like Joomla! rely on interaction with the database for the display of content. Accordingly, the URLs...

Setting up Search Engine Friendly URLs


Let's start by getting a clear definition of what it means for a site to have Search Engine Friendly URLs.

Sites created with content management systems like Joomla! rely on interaction with the database for the display of content. Accordingly, the URLs often include query strings and other characters that are part of the interaction with the database. A simple HTML site doesn't have this issue; instead, its URLs are typically much simpler and lack the complexity seen in a CMS-powered website.

URLs containing query strings and other odd characters are hard for both humans and search engines to read. Ideal URLs are readable and tell us something about the content of the page. By default, the Joomla! system produces complex URLs containing additional characters that serve no useful purpose for the site visitor. Accordingly, your first step towards making Joomla! more search engine friendly is to get rid of the messy URLs and replace them with Search Engine...

Configuring URL aliases


The Joomla! Global Configuration Manager provides you with several options that enable you to create more effective URLs. There are two options to consider; they may not both be right for you, so it's important to understand their implications. The two options relate to whether your URL uses a suffix and whether the URL alias is in Unicode.

Both of the URL configuration options are located in the SEO Settings section of the Configuration Manager and can be seen in the image included in the section immediately above.

The first option to consider is whether you want your URLs to include a suffix. The suffix will be supplied automatically by the system and will reflect the document type. This will result in the system adding .html to the end of the URL. In other words, instead of getting the following URL:

http://www.yoursite.com/getting-started

When this feature is enabled, you will get the following URL:

http://www.yoursite.com/getting-started.html

To enable this option...

Creating URL aliases for your articles


Assuming you have set the system to use SEF URLs, as described above, Joomla! will automatically create the URL aliases for your content items. The automatic aliases are based on the article's title, and may not always be optimal for your site. While the default aliases may be fine for many people, if you are concerned about competitive SEO, you will want to exercise your own control over the aliases. Fortunately, Joomla! makes it possible for you to specify your own URL aliases.

Note

Unlike some other systems, like WordPress and Drupal, it is not possible to set up a formula that will automatically create aliases according to your specifications. In Joomla!, you will have to create them manually for individual pages or menu items.

The alias can be created either at the time the item is created or later. There are two possible avenues for setting the alias, though both may not be available, depending on the nature of the page's contents.

Note

Note that...

Controlling the title tag


The title tag is one of the key factors in your SEO success; indeed, many experts will single out the title tag as the single most important factor in SEO. If you ignore the optimization opportunity presented here, you are missing one of your best chances for gaining search engine rank and traffic from the search engines.

To begin, let's define what we're talking about when we refer to the title tag. In the context of SEO, we're talking about the contents of the<title> tag, which is located in the head of the HTML document, as you can see in the next screenshot; the<title> tag is highlighted in this screenshot of the source code for the default Joomla! "Getting Started" page. The title tag is often referred to as the page title, but be careful not to confuse this with the article title, which appears at the top of a page containing article text.

The title tag serves multiple important functions. First, the value given in this tag shows up on the browser...

Managing metadata


Metadata is used to describe the contents of a page. In the past, metadata played a key role in helping search engines understand the nature and content of pages, but today it plays a less critical role. Despite its decreasing importance, metadata should never be ignored; it is the one technical feature of pages that is purely intended to help understand and categorize the page content and therefore should always be used to further your SEO goals.

Metadata is added to pages through the use of meta tags, which appear in the head of the HTML document. While the W3C metadata standards provide for a wide range of possible meta tags, Joomla! only gives us easy access to a subset of the standard. The tags available through Joomla! are shown in the following table:

Joomla! label

Meta tag

Notes

Importance

Description

meta name="description"

Should describe the content of the page. Note that this tag is important as some search engines display this as the description...

Summary


This chapter covers the basic SEO-related configuration options inside the default Joomla! installation. At the end of this chapter, you should be able to set up Search Engine Friendly URLs and optimize to the extent permitted by the default Joomla! system. SEF URLs are a necessity and you should complete this task before going any further in this book.

Other content in this chapter focuses on how to create URL aliases for specific pages or menu items. This is a useful technique and one that you will want to use if SEO is a priority for your site. Make sure you understand the distinction between the title tag and your article titles and how to control them individually.

The final part of the chapter deals with the topic of metadata and shows you how to set up both global metadata and individual page metadata. Again, this is important if SEO is a priority for you, and you need to understand how to set the metadata for your individual articles.

Looking forward, in the next chapter we...

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Key benefits

  • Learn how to create a search engine-optimized Joomla! website.
  • Packed full of tips to help you develop an appropriate SEO strategy.
  • Discover the right configurations and extensions for SEO purposes.

Description

Joomla! is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build websites and powerful online applications. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process and techniques by which you optmize the content and style of your site in order to induce more people to view it.Joomla! Search Engine Optimization will help you develop and execute an effective search engine optimization strategy for your site. From planning to implementation, the book covers best practices in contemporary SEO.In Joomla! Search Engine Optimization you will learn how to develop a dynamic and productive SEO campaign. Covering both the basics of campaign development as well as the daily work it takes to maintain your SEO competitiveness, this book will show you how to produce a distinct and appropriate strategy for your particular site. In particular you will learn key phrase selection and competitor analysis and the correct groundwork for your dynamic SEO campaign. Joomla! Search Engine Optimization will then show you, by finding the right combination of extensions, how to supercharge your site. You will also be given a guided tour of key SEO services, like Google and Bing Webmaster, in order to implement a progressive and effective link building campaign. You will then learn key expert tips and tricks to enable you to build SEO-effective content which will take your site from invisible to unmissable with little effort.

Who is this book for?

This book targets site builders, webmasters and site owners. Advanced technical skills are not required, though the user should be familiar with administering a Joomla! website, including how to install Extensions.

What you will learn

  • Gain an understanding of how the search engines function.
  • Develop an SEO strategy for your site.
  • Select the most effective key phrases.
  • Configure your Joomla! site to be search engine-friendly.
  • The top extensions you can install to enhance your Joomla! Sites search engine optimization.
  • Execute a link building campaign.
  • Develop content that advances your search marketing goals.
  • What the most important factors to track with Google Analytics are.

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Publication date : Jul 09, 2012
Length: 116 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849518772
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Product Details

Publication date : Jul 09, 2012
Length: 116 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849518772
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Table of Contents

5 Chapters
An Introduction to Search Engine Optimization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Configuring Joomla!'s SEO Options Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Useful Extensions to Enhance SEO Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Getting Ready for Launch Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Managing SEO on a Live Site Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.8
(4 Ratings)
5 star 75%
4 star 25%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Francesco Abeni Nov 02, 2012
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is a good reading for anyone who manages a Joomla site and is interested in getting results from this site.I got a very positively impressed by this book. It is very nearly a "must-have" book:* it has clear and understandable explanations* it keeps adequate space to the most important concepts, without wasting time in secondary informations that the user can easily get elsewhere* it provides a full and coherent high-level view of the topic even in a relatively short bookThe only flaw is that in the last two chapters the author focuses a little too much on the SEO and leaves the Joomla topic aside, but we forgive him for this because his SEO explanation is clear and very useful anyway.If you're going to buy a book about Joomla this year, buy this one and your site will definitely get better.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Aug 05, 2012
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Joomla's built-in SEO features are a big improvement over previous versions. It's now possible to set up search engine friendly URLs, title and meta tags through the back end admin panel, without the help of extensions. (Note that in Joomla 1.5, it was almost a requirement to use the sh404SEF extension to get decent SEO.)Author Ric Streves does an excellent job explaining how to use Joomla's native SEO features and then takes it a step further and recommends numerous paid and free extensions that improve SEO in Joomla. A chapter is devoted to using free extensions to make Joomla even more SEO friendly.The final chapters apply to all websites, not only Joomla. They cover how to use Google's analytics and adwords programs to improve ranking and placement. He also discusses using social media and site linking. He points out what you should do as well as not do.Overall, a great book for those who run Joomla sites. You have a choice: you could spend a lot of time learning Joomla SEO on your own or you could buy this book and learn it in an evening.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
jlwalth Apr 13, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
All the information provided in this reference and study guide is a necessity for all of us who wish to excel in web development and marketing through the web.. Highly recommend to anyone that has a desire to advance their knowledge.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
W Boudville Aug 23, 2012
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Some of the book can be read as a good technical explanation of general search engine optimisation methods. You can learn how to use a robots.txt file or a meta tag to the same effect, that guides search engines with instructions about what to look for in your site.But for Joomla itself, there are many useful features. Like the ability to set metadata globally across your entire website, and yet also have this overridden for specific pages. The default when there are no page-specific metadata is to use the global settings. The screen captures, of which there are many in the text, show a very user friendly Joomla front end for you, the website editor, in which you can simply enter metadata settings, like the site description, content rights and keywords.The book also points out that you should refer to the joomla dot org website. This has many SEO extensions contributed by the Joomla community. There is an assessment of the top SEO modules for Joomla. In itself, this could pay for the book's cost by giving an authoritative guide to the main modules currently available.Chapter 4 on keyword effectiveness can be precious in distilling how to assess keywords and how to use Google and its Keyword Tool. Learn to use the Keyword Effectiveness Index [KEI] as an important metric. The section of this chapter on enhancing your organic search engine ranking is all too brief. It has concise advice on how to do this. The best of these is simply to write lots of good original content about your subject or items for sale. Ultimately, nothing beats good writing.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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