Alledia.com really are experts at SEO for Joomla, so when they talk search engines, we listen.
1) Don’t install any sample data when you set up a Joomla! site.
When you launch your Joomla! Site, it’s very easy to forget to delete all the demo articles that come with it. That will give you pages, links and newsfeeds that are irrelevant to your topic. Delete your sample data and don’t forget to empty your trash as well!
2) Your Site Name should be your site’s name.
There can be a temptation to cram as many keywords as possible into the “Site Name” field. It doesn’t help and when users register at your site, they get an email saying “Welcome to Widgets, Buy Widgets, Cheap Widgets, Bargain Widgets!” You don’t want that.
3) Turn off your PDF links.
When we analyze Joomla! Sites, we often find PDFs ranking higher than the original pages. Because PDF pages have no menu links, they’re a dead-end. Users can’t move from the PDF to the rest of your site. So turn off those links.
4) Don’t waste your site’s link juice with lots of social bookmarking links.
Lets face it, very few pages have a chance to hit the Digg home page or do well on Reddit, so only place those buttons on your best articles. Your visitors appreciate clean, uncluttered pages — and so do search engines.
5) Redirect the www and non-www versions of your site to the same place.
All you need to do is add this little piece of code to your .htaccess file. Note: Replace MyDomain with your domain name and .com with your domain extension.
| ## Can be commented out if causes errors.
Options FollowSymLinks # mod_rewrite in use RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^MyDomain\.com$ [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.MyDomain.com/$1 [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^.*MyDomain\.com [NC] RewriteRule (.*) http://www.MyDomain.com/$1 [R=301,L] |
6) Turn on your cache.
Search in Google and you’ll see a size for each site. Smaller, faster sites are more popular with visitors and with Google. One easy way to make your site act small and load faster is to turn on your cache in Global Configuration.
7) Enter a full description for all your sections and categories.
These pages are great for organizing your site… and for improving Page Rank. If you organize your sections and categories carefully, your site becomes very easy for both people and search-engine spiders to navigate.
8) Less is often more
Having thousands of Joomla! pages indexed in Google isn’t always a good thing, especially if those pages don’t bring value. Some components, for example, can produce lots of extra pages that are completely worthless. One easy way to check if your site is putting garbage on Google is to search for site:mydomain.com. If you find pages that don’t have good content, you might want to remove them.
9) Empty your global configuration metadata.
I’m sure you’re all big fans of Joomla!, but I’m equally sure that “Joomla! – the dynamic portal engine and content management system” doesn’t describe your site. Take it out.
10) Be confident.
Joomla! is fantastic software that allows you to easily create lots of high quality pages that are great for your SEO. If you keep a close eye on your site and take the time to learn how Joomla! works, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have top-flight search engine rankings!
Need more SEO advice?
]]>Here are some of my favorite News Portal sites. I love the way the
sites use the different zones. For example, a few use the module zones
to display videos, banners, polls, etc. I also noticed a lot of people
are using the new “Featured Articles” feature and the new JomComment feature.
If you want to see a longer list of clients, click here and then on the Clients tab.
Don’t have iJoomla News Portal yet? Purchase it here.
What’s your favorite News Portal site? Post it below.
]]>– My favorite iJoomla product. Okay, I admit it. I’m biased. But I still love it. It’s so easy to use and very, very helpful. I put it on every site I create. I can toss videos into my articles, RSS feeds, modules, and anything else I want. You can read more about it here, view demo here or buy it here. We recently released a new version with TONS of new features like round sidebars, automatic sidebars and more.
– JP Lightbox is the easiest and most painless way to put an image gallery right inside your content items. With just a simple mambot you’ll be able to add a tag with the image’s location. Open one image, and you’ll be able to scroll backwards and forwards without having to close the window. You can see it in action here or buy it here.
– I wish I’d thought of this one first — it’s such a great idea. Jos Replace swaps one string with another, like Search & Replace in Word. But it works right across your website, saving you hours of hunting and searching. And you can create autotext as well. If there’s a long word or phrase that you keep repeating, with Jos Replace, you can create a shortcut and type in shorthand. That’s all good news, but there’s more. There are tons of other ways to use this extension, and best of all, it’s free. Download it here.
– This little module puts scrolling images on your site, just like a little film. Just specify the images you want to use and make sure they’re the same size. You can also link the image to a URL. Check it out on iJoomla.com on the left side under “featured clients”. You can find more information here and buy it here.
– Adding code to your content is a problem. Even if it parses properly — and often it won’t — it’s still a poor idea and a bad practice to put code inside your content item. The solution is a little gem mambot called “Mos Snippet.” Enter up to 30 pieces of codes, give them a name like “code1,” then add the mambot tag to your content item, like this: {snippet code1}. That’s it! Your content items stay clean and you get to use the code! It’s free and you can download it here.
– If you’re looking for a way to squeeze a lot of content into a small area then you should check out Tabs & Slides from JoomlaWorks.gr. This little gem creates a tab right inside your content items. Very cool… and free too! Download here.
– Slick RSS lets you show RSS feeds in any module position. So far, so normal. Here’s the cool bit. This RSS feed module has a preview feature and even lets you set the colors of the preview window and the fonts! I use it all the time and I love it. More info and download here, see it in action here.
– This admin module lets you show icons with links to different sections of your admin interface. If you have a lot of components, some of which you can’t access easily, it’s a lifesaver. We’ve used this module on our demo site; you can login to see it here and download it here.
– Looking to give your site a really special slick look? FrontPage SlideShow has a bunch of neat templates and the results are stunning. You can see a demo here and you can buy it here.
– This corky little module lets you display content items inside the module with an interesting and flexible layout. It’s really just another way to display your content but it’s too cool to leave off the list. You can download it here.
So that’s my top 10 “coolest extensions” list. What’s yours? Add yours here.
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