Steve’s Blog

Simple Machines Forum, Joomla and SEO Part 1

Now that Joomla has been around for 18 months, some of its forums are starting to get pretty big. They are becoming potentially huge SEO assets for the accompanying websites. Although not comprehensive, this is a list of some of the biggest Joomla forums: Joomla.org: 720,130 Posts (SMF – not integrated) Joomla.de: 390,000 Posts (VBulletin) Rockettheme.com: 42,377 Posts (SMF – integrated) Joomla.fr: 27,035 Posts (VBulletin) Joomlashack.com: 17,166 Posts (SMF – integrated) Mosets.com: 16,166 Posts (VBulletin) J-Prosolution.com: 13,292 Posts (VBulletin) Joomlart.com: 9,109 Posts (VBulletin) One thing that immediately becomes evident is that only two of these eight forums are actually integrated…

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Dashes or Underscores? Setting up your Joomla SEO

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard the great news that the default version of Joomla 1.5 will produce more Search Engine Friendly URLs than the current package. The forum post has turned from happiness to suggestions about what the new URLs should look like. One of the key questions was whether underscores should remain in the URL or if dashes would be better. Should URLs be www.joomla.com or should it be www.joomla.com ? The answer is simple:  Dashes are better for searching. Matt Cutts, the Google engineer, gives a technical explanation of this on his blog. Dashes are…

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Why Does Google trust some Joomla Sites more than others?

Search for Joomla (click here to try it) and you get something that has been apperaring more and more in Google search results. Joomla.org is at the top with four extra links underneath: Obviously, this is a pretty good situation to be in for any site, not only in the number one position for a search term, but with top 5 results. So how do you get this benefit, which Google calls "Sitelinks". Well, there are certain requirements that your site needs to meet, which Google explains here. Basically, they say your site needs to be useful for visitors and…

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Why I’d Love Joomla Developers to Stop Encoding Components

Those of you who know me realise I rarely, rarely get worked up ….. I think this is the first time I’ve used this blog to blow off steam. Its so rare, I’ve even had to create a whole new blog category for this. Anyway, the last couple of weeks I’ve been frustrated one recurring problem – encoded components. This issue has come up in three different situations:

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Make Sure Your Joomla Site Runs Fast – Part 3

For a final part to our series on speeding up your Joomla site, I’d like to give a recommend two companies who are working on tools to make Joomla faster.   I make it a point to check the Joomla Extensions website every day to keep track of new developments but I’ve only seen two add-ons that significantly improve performance. Because of the price, I can’t recommend these for use this on all sites but if you do have a key website and some spare change, both of these extensions are worth the investment: As always – there are no…

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Joomla URL Week Part 2 – Default SEF URLs

This week we’re trying to answer one of the most common questions in the Joomla world: “What is the best URL setup for Joomla and why?” Yesterday I talked about default Joomla URLs and why they are a bad idea for your Joomla site. Today is Part 2 of the quest we’re going to look at the default Joomla Search Engine Friendly URLs. Lets see whether this set up is any more useful….

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Joomla URL Week Part 1 – Default Joomla URLs

Working in Joomla SEO and browsing the forums, there is one question I hear more frequently than any other: "What is the best URL setup for Joomla and why?"  Reading around, I haven’t been able to find a clear answer currently available. So to resolve this question, this will be "Joomla URL Week" here at Alledia.   Each day we’re going to break down one of the five most common URL setups with Joomla: Weekend: Default Joomla URLs Monday: Default Joomla SEF URLs Tuesday: Review of Artio SEF Wednesday: Review of Open SEF Thursday: Review of SEF Advance Friday: Conclusions…

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Joomla Extension of the Month – March 07

Working with Joomla SEO on a daily basis, I’ve been through every SEO tool available. There’s only one that has proved to be indispensible – the Joomla Search Engine Optimisation Patch from Joomlatwork.com. What does it allow you to do?   Have complete control over page metatitles Control whether Google takes a snippet from your page for the results page Easily add "follow" or "nofollow" links to individual pages Add custom meta fields Disable the Joomla meta generator tag All of these are key factors in giving your site a ranking boost. JPromoter from JoomlaEquipment.com does similar things. The disadvantage…

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