Steve’s Blog

First Member with 100 Comments Plus Free Membership and Tuition

Good Web PracticesThis blog has been live for about 18 months now and one of our users just hit a milestone … David from GoodWebPractices.com has 100 comments to articles here. He’s been a source of wonderful advice both on the blog and in the forums and its great to have him around.

David is also a blogger. There aren’t many people in the Joomla world who provide regular, high-quality posts. I can think of Barrie, Amy, Anthony and now its possible to include David as well. Make you subscribe to his RSS feed – its full of worthwhile Joomla tips and tricks.

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phpBB3 Integration Can Be The Joomla 1.5 Killer App

Forum and CMSDuring conversations with clients over the last few months, one key question keeps coming up: "should I use Joomla 1.0 or Joomla 1.5?" In fact, I can trace the first time I was asked that question back to October 2006.

Now that 1.5 has officially launched, I tend to point the non-technically minded to 1.0 and those who don’t mind dealing with a few bugs to 1.5.

However, until this week I don’t think I’ve found a compelling reason for anyone to use 1.5 rather than 1.0. That may have changed:

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See Your Site As Google Does

SEO-Browser.comI recently came across a cool SEO tool:

http://www.seo-browser.com

SEO-Browser.com displays a website the way search engines view your site.  The site is displayed with all images and formatting removed, leaving just the links, headings, and text.

Viewing a website the way the search engines do reminds us of and enforces the key elements of SEO.  

I have used this tool to show clients how their web site looks to the search engines.  Seeing your site as simply text demonstrates how important relevant text is.

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Joomla SEO Training in Chicago

Joomla ExpoUpdate: We now have classes all across North America. Click here for full details on our new Joomla Training site.

Its been a long time coming, but I am very excited to be able to announce our first Joomla training event in the US. Its going to be the day after the Joomla EXPO 2008 in Chicago.

The EXPO is on Friday 16th of May, and the training is on Saturday the 17th. The classrooms are right next to the hotel where the EXPO is being held.

I’ll be there in person to give the training session and you’ll be able to follow up with me in the weeks after the event … all SEO training attendees get a free Site Review membership. We also have some great trainers for the other sessions, recognized leaders in education as well as Joomla. Book your spot soon as the places are very limited.

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Joomla Hosting

Basic Hosting Packages 

This is a list of hosting companies who specialize in hosting setups that work well with Joomla.

Name

Logo

Cost

Space

Bandwidth

Reviews
1and1 Trusted by over 7 million customers! $3.99
 10 GB
  300 GB Click to read 1and1 reviews
BlueHost Bluehost Web Hosting $6.95 $6.95  1500 GB
 15000 GB
 Click to read BlueHost reviews
HostGator $4.95 350 GB 3000 GB Click to read HostGator reviews
LunarPages   $6.95 1500 GB 15000 GB Click to read LunarPages reviews

Managed Joomla Hosting Packages

Joomla Managed HostingThe companies above will host your site but not update it or keep it secure. Simplweb is a company that will manage and keep your Joomla site secure.

A Simplweb site from Joomla is powerful, sophisticated, and easy to use

Simplweb websites have rich features for you to get the most out of your site.

  • Easy Editing
    Add or change text, photos, videos or documents anytime, anywhere – easy as writing an email.
  • Rock Solid Reliability
    Built with exactly the same software that runs some of the biggest sites on the web.
  • Professional Design
    Choose from many gorgeous, flexible and professional designs tailored to your industry.
  • Search Engine Friendly
    Sophisticated code means your site is ready to be found by search engines right out of the box.
  • Easy Maintenance
    Manage, organize and grow your site effortlessly with multiple user access.
  • Expert Support
    Our expert team can help you with everything, from design and usability to marketing and page conversion.

Click here to find out more.

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Interview with Aaron Wall from SEOBook.com

Aaron WallToday we’re delighted a have the chance to talk with Aaron Wall from SEOBook.com. Aaron’s SEO Book has been around since 2003 and he writes probably the best one-person SEO blog in the industry.

As we did here at Alledia, Aaron recently shifted his business model from pay-to-download-my-book towards a more community-based training system. His new site is built with Drupal, so we asked him about SEO and Content Management Systems:

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Easter Special: 20% Discount on SEO Club Memberships

Easter EggHere’s an Easter special for all our readers.

Over the Easter weekend you can use the coupon code “easter” for a 20%? discount all membership plans.

This offer works for new and renewing members. It starts right now and ends on Sunday night.

Note: Membership prices are going up by 30% on April 18th (the club’s half-year anniversary), and so now is a great time to get in for only 50% of next month’s price.

Click here to join the Joomla SEO Club today.

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Slow Websites Will Cost You More Money

Google AdwordsGoogle have just announced that the speed of your site will start directly affecting your profits. If you’re using Adwords, fast landing pages will lead to a better Quality Score. Slow sites may well end up paying more for their clicks. More from the Google Adwords blog:

Why are we doing this?

Two reasons: first, users have the best experience when they don’t have to wait a long time for landing pages to load. Interstitial pages, multiple redirects, excessively slow servers, and other things that can increase load times only keep users from getting what they want: information about your business. Second, users are more likely to abandon landing pages that load slowly, which can hurt your conversion rate.

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