SEF/SEO advice
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Hi,
I've just come across some websites that suggest making joomla more friendly to search engines by using neater urls.
I've heard the terms SEF & SEO bounced around. what is the difference between the 2? What modules / hacks would you guys suggest in making my site more freindly?
I'm hosted on an apache server if that matters?
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
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there is a component called 404sef which is a good one and something i recommend if you've got a site with lots of content - i use it on a couple of sites
seo mean search engine optimisation and to be perfectly honest you'll get lots of conflicting views on what is good and what is not good.
my advice would be this (and the most important part comes at the end):
if you're going to sue 404sef use - instead of _ for seperating words and put everything in lower case
if you want to change how your meta data is displayed you ca also do this:
in includes/joomla.php look for this line
$this->_head['title'] = $title ? $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'] . ' - '. $title : $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'];
and replace it with this:
$this->_head['title'] = $title ? $title .' - '. $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'] : $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'];
the above will improve homepage meta data - in so much it will show what you put in global. the below will make sure your title comes before your site name on individual pages:
look for this:
and replace with this:function appendMetaTag( $name, $content ) { $name = trim( htmlspecialchars( $name ) ); $n = count( $this->_head['meta'] ); for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) { if ($this->_head['meta'][$i][0] == $name) { $content = trim( htmlspecialchars( $content ) ); if ( $content ) { if ( !$this->_head['meta'][$i][1] ) { $this->_head['meta'][$i][1] = $content ; } else { $this->_head['meta'][$i][1] = $content .', '. $this->_head['meta'][$i][1]; } } return; } } $this->addMetaTag( $name , $content ); }function appendMetaTag( $name, $content ) { global $mosConfig_MetaDesc, $mosConfig_MetaKeys, $option; $name = trim( htmlspecialchars( $name ) ); $n = count( $this->_head['meta'] ); // to correct description display (avoid coma after full stop). if (strtolower($name) == "description") $delimiter = " "; else $delimiter = ", "; for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) { if ($this->_head['meta'][$i][0] == $name) { $content = trim( htmlspecialchars( $content ) ); $this->_head['meta'][$i][1] .= (strlen($this->_head['meta'][$i][1]) > 0 && strlen($content) > 0 ? $delimiter : '') . $content; // we're changing default behaviour for home page if ( $option == "com_frontpage" && strtolower($name) == "description") $this->_head['meta'][$i][1] = $mosConfig_MetaDesc ; if ( $option == "com_frontpage" && strtolower($name) == "keywords") $this->_head['meta'][$i][1] = $mosConfig_MetaKeys ; return; } } $this->addMetaTag( $name, $content ); }
i do the above for my sites and i sometimes use 404sef. but the absolutely most important thing without a shadow of a doubt and i'd put my wife on this is content. if you dont have the content you'll get nowhere ...
content is king wihtout a shadow of doubt - www.c3p0.se - sweden
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- Cory Webb
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 32
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I like this component. It works well and gives you a lot of control over your URL's. It has some advanced features, but I think it's easy enough for a novice to use. Plus, it appears they are a RocketTheme customer.
open-sef.org/
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- Zorro
- Sr. Rocketeer
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Yep. Plus, 404SEF isn't being developed actively any more, as opposed to OpenSEF. The latter is definitely the way to go. I'm testing the latest RC on a development site, and while it's not quite ready for production, it looks funkin' good already.
Kind regards,
Zorro
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- Shane Cooper
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 23
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Damo - thanks for the great suggestion. I think I'm going to look into working this into several sites.
Also, not to state the obvious, but along with the global Joomla Desc/keywords, don't forget that each page/content section and article can also hold meta tags and keywords. I've used these and found that they augment the globals.
Plus... Content is king!!!! (echo... echo...echo...) - www.thescoopgroop.com
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
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hi shane
currently with joomla if you have meta keywords/descriptions on individual items they get put to the front of the global meta data when on frontpage
the first code change above switches that around so you have a more effective homepage and the keywords that you add for individual pages do their job where they're supposed to .. - www.c3p0.se - sweden
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- Shane Cooper
- Jr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 23
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Ah... I've noticed that.... way cool! I'll be making changes to several sites using this trick. Waaaay Cool!
Thanks! - www.thescoopgroop.com
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damo wrote:
i do the above for my sites and i sometimes use 404sef. but the absolutely most important thing without a shadow of a doubt and i'd put my wife on this is content. if you dont have the content you'll get nowhere ...
content is king wihtout a shadow of doubt
Will this change the page titles too that are displayed on the top of the browser ?
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
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have a look at
www.astonvilla.biz
basically titles come before site data on individual itmes so search engines read that before reading your site name every time ... makes a huge difference - www.c3p0.se - sweden
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