Steve’s Blog

OpenSEF Will Be Back

Great news for those of you with OpenSEF installed on your sites. Zorro over at blogged about this. Those of you like me with high-school German or less can read the remarkably good translation from Google. This is great news because OpenSEF is a remarkably useful component that a large number of people still rely on. The attempt to find new developers with NuSEF hasn’t managed to get off the ground. The new domain (not ready yet) will be and the developers will be Ken McDonald from OpenSEF plus Richard from Joomlatwork.

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New Version of sh404SEF

Of all the Search Engine Friendly URL components released under the GPL, sh404SEF is the most active project. Yannick Gaultier has taken the old 404SEF codebase and added a host of new and improved features. The latest update is no exception: New Features in Version 1.2.4.s  The ability to create SEF URLs without .htaccess or mod_rewrite. Compatibility with MosTree, MyBlog and Docman. sh404SEF works with sef_ext.php designed for both SEF Advance and Open SEF, which means it works with more extensions that any of the alternatives. Better handling of duplicate URLs. Previously it just grabbed the first one, which meant…

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Great SEO Improvements in Joomla 1.5

 One of the questions I hear most often on the Joomla SEO Forums and at Joomla.org is: "Will Joomla 1.5 be any better for SEO than 1.0.12?" The answer, we’re pleased to say is yes. Behind the scenes work is being put into some possible SEO changes for 1.5: What may change in 1.5? Those of you who have used the SEF Patch from Joomlatwork.com will recognise many of the same ideas at work. That’s because the improvements are being done by the same person – Richard from Joomlatwork. See these screenshots for a dramatic view of the potential changes:…

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Business opportunities in the Joomla world

I’ve been following the Joomla GPL debate really closely, but have stayed away from blogging about my opinion. I’m not a 3rd party developer, nor I am I knowledgeable enough about the GPL to add more to the debate than others already contributing. What does fascinate me and cross into my direct sphere of knowledge is the issue of GPL business models. I’ve already rambled a little about business under the GPL and would love to pick the brains of you guys too:

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How to Add Funky Fonts to Your Joomla Site

We’ve had a 24-hour make-over on Alledia. Throughout today we’re using the SimSun font for all headlines on the site. Its made possible by a cool technology called sIFR (or Scalable Inman Flash Replacement), created by Mike Davidson. It solves the problem that disappoints many people when they first start designing websites – browsers only accept a limited number of fonts. Some people try to get around this obstacle by using images for text, but this technique is bad for SEO, invisible to screenreaders and difficult to change. sIFR uses Javascript and Flash to solve all those issues. However, one…

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Add your Virtuemart Products to Froogle

I’m very careful about recommending products on this blog, plugging only about 10% of the stuff that gets sent. Thats mainly because so many developers harvest email addresses and send out a mass mailing. Just a two-line, personalised message and a sample of the product is enough to get my interest. It also helps if something comes from a friend who doesn’t know you’re going to give them a mention. Today, I got a very pleasant surprise from Ian from NewWorldDesigns.co.uk, who’ve worked with for a long time. His first commercial product came out today and its a great start…

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Joomla Extension of the Month – July 07

This month’s award goes to one of the best Joomla extensions and one that is almost certainly the most under-appreciated. JACLPlus is a hack that allows you to create an unlimited number of new user groups and give them fine-grained access to different content areas on your Joomla site. It works with a few extra components such as Docman and Repository, but by-and-large it is a solution for improving user access to the core of Joomla. Instead of simply restricting people according to "public" or "registered", you can now create user levels of a complexity that rivals Why is JACLPlus…

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Automapping and Duplicate Content

This post is a follow-up to our previous discussion of automapping, and why it can be really useful in helping you avoid duplicate content problems on your Joomla site. For those of still thinking about how to handle duplicate content, head on over to the official word from Google. One of their key tips is "Understand your CMS". As the saying goes, "a bad workman blames his tools." Joomla sites can rank well but to make that happen you do need to understand something about how they work. If you haven’t already, make sure you understand what Itemids are and…

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