SEF and site maps - what to use
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- FotoHijinx
- Sr. Rocketeer
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Hi guys
Thought I would pick your brains...
Which SEF extension do you use and which site map extension.
And, should I bother setting this up when it is on a www.test.sitehere.com or wait till its moved to its final position?
Your advice will be invaluable.
thanks
Irene
Oooh, another question - what about website stats - what do you use? - You've been a naughty boy, now go to my room!
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- Penn Wooding
- Elite Rocketeer
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I use Xmap for my site map. For SEF, I just use the basic patch that is freely available. I don't bother using extensions such as SH404SEF because I really don't think they are needed on 1.5 now. The SEF patch I use gives me more control over my meta data and enables me to have a nice page heading.
I am also in the midst of setting up a website on a temporary URL, I won't go live until it's completely finished. After all, you wouldn't move into a new house if the windows were not installed.
At the moment I'm just using awstats that you get with your C panel. However even though that gives you a daily hit count and also keywords, I don't think it tells you exactly what people have been typing into a search engine on a daily basis, it just lists all the keywords for the month. If you want something that will give you a little bit more detail then Google analytics is quite good - http://www.Oscarfishlover.com - the website for great Oscar Fish advice and help
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- FotoHijinx
- Sr. Rocketeer
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Hi Penn
Thanks for that info.
So once you have moved your site to its final place do you have to re-run Xmap or something? - You've been a naughty boy, now go to my room!
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- Penn Wooding
- Elite Rocketeer
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You can build your site where ever you like and then when it's finished, just pack it up using JoomPack for instance and then dump it on to the new URL and it will be ready to go.
I am changing a 1.0 site to 1.5 at the moment. I have created a temporary URL on the hosting where it will reside. Once the site is finished all I need to do is change the name servers and there should be very little downtime at all. I won't have to mess around moving the site to its new server.
So you can take as long as you like building your new site and your old one is still there for everyone to see. - http://www.Oscarfishlover.com - the website for great Oscar Fish advice and help
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- FotoHijinx
- Sr. Rocketeer
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- Yeah, thats how I do my sites as well.
- You've been a naughty boy, now go to my room!
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- Emma griffith
- Hero Rocketeer
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Hi, I would have to disagree with Penn on the use of such plug-ins such as SH404SEF, I am not sure what patch is being referred to but it is also the continuity of SEF throughout the site and especially if you happen to use many modules.
SH404SEF although not perfect for large Virtuemart sites is still one of the most usable and configurable plug-ins out there, the ability to specify content title, meta title, and the ability to show sections and categories far exceeds anything the native SEF component can do, remember it is not just the SERP that we need to think of but also the end user.
Also when using such plug-ins the simplicity of being able to alias content, and handle duplicate content issues one really should look at the use of third party SEF.
Say for instance you are using K2, now I know there is no SH404SEF plug-in yet but it is on the way, Joomla 1.5 was a good improvement over 1, but it still has far to go and the handling of SEF is a big part of it.
It is not today we need to think of but 2, 3 or maybe 4 years down the track, better to be prepared now then run into URL problems later, big headaches then.
My two cents
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- FotoHijinx
- Sr. Rocketeer
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Hi Emma
glad you could join us - your 2 cents is always welcome - the more people join in, the better idea I'll get as to what to use.
I was thinking about going the SH404SEF way too. - You've been a naughty boy, now go to my room!
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- Penn Wooding
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I think the point I'm trying to make is that Joomla 1.5 has a perfectly adequate search engine friendly URLs system built into it. For the majority of websites adding an extra component is unnecessary. The less components you have installed the better in my opinion, I would have thought that it would lower the security risk at the end of the day.
This is the URL of one of the pages of my website
www.tetraplegicliving.com/brixham/fishing-brixham-breakwater
The URL reflects the content on the page which is what I want.
This is the URL of another website that has VirtueMart installed. It uses a small piece of script to generate some reasonably good URLs considering it is VirtueMart
www.demon-clothing.co.uk/shop/details/10...ue-harrington-jacket
And on Google.co.UK, this particular page is number one for the phrase "Navy blue Harrington jacket". - http://www.Oscarfishlover.com - the website for great Oscar Fish advice and help
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- Emma griffith
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Hi again, I think you will find that having SH404SEF installed actually increases security, there are built in security features not available on the default Joomla install. The default Joomla SEF is ok, but that is as far as I would go ok, you have a far greater compatibility with third party modules when using SH404SEF.
For an every day blah blah site then sure the core SEF can be fine, but if you have a site in a competitive market, you will often want every drop of juice you can wring out to help the ranking and the added functionality that SH404SEF gives you.
For the site you mention on the front page of Google, you could consider that term 'navy blue harrington jacket' almost a long tail search term and there are only 15,800 results so not very competitive. If we then drop it to 'harrington jacket' the site is nowhere to be found and there are only 264,000 results so still would be quite easy to optimise for If you were using SH404SEF you could target the larger search term far easier.
Long tail search terms or specific search terms are far easier to rank for in the SERP's if you have long term SEO goals of optimising for 'primary terms' 'secondary terms' and long tail you will really need the functionality of a plug-in like SH404SEF, after all it is the most used and reviewed plug-in for Joomla so maybe there is something in that.
Cheers
Emma
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- JEM
- Preeminent Rocketeer
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I was quite disappointed with sh404SEF and Artio.
I agree, for the 'everday' site, the Joomla core SEF is fine.
In fact this 'everyday' RT site uses, beleive it or not, ONLY Joomla core SEF.
The problem lies in components not being 'SEF friendly', i.e., not being written to the core standards.
If you have to use a 3rd party component that is not Joomla core friendly, you have to use a 3rd party component.
But that's where the problem lies.
The 3rd party developers need to write plug-ins for the components.
Some provide them for free, others for a price.
But they always seem to be behind the curve in development.
And, an update for one plug-in may may not be compatible with another.
I have two sites that uses 5 different 3rd party components.
Each time one is updated, I update it, but the plug-ins take weeks to be updated.
But doing so can wreck some, a lot, or all of the SEF.
SIMPLE advice, try the core SEF, if it works, go with it.
If it doesn't try a 3rd party component, but do so with CAUTION.
Create a dev site and make sure EVERYTHING works before you apply stuff to a live site.
And once you get things working, when a component is updated, test it before you apply the changes or wait to updated until the plug-in is updated as well.
Just my 2 yen....
- Thanks,
jim
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