Joomla 1.6 is stable and very good to start a new website on, but for Search Engine Optimization you have to set some basic parameters for optimal results.

So here is a short overview of basic Joomla 1.6 Do’and Don’t for Search Engine Optimization. Let’s start with the Do’s…

Global Configuration SEO Settings

Like the SEO Setting that you can reach via -> Global Configuration -> SEO Settings.

Joomla 1.6 SEO Settings

For Search Engene Friendly URLs should always be active to convert your article title to a clean URL.
The big difference with previous versions is that this will work even without .htaccess by adding /index.php/ into the URL!

If you don’t want that you should activate the second option Use  URL Rewriting and follow the advice given in the Exclamation mark! That means you have to change some settings on server level or start using .htaccess on an Apache Based hosting program (Most of the hosting providers use Apache)

Adds Suffix to URL means that the extension .html is added to the URL. So instead of http://www.example.org/using-joomla you get http://www.example.org/using-joomla.html

This is a small change but it gives you the benefit that people will see that this is a content page and not a category directory, so it creates a real clear endpoint.

Metadata Settings

In the Global Configuration you can also set some basic Metadescription and Keywords, but I never use that option. But keep the last two options active!

Joomla 1.6 Metadata Settings

As I mentioned you have to keep the last two options active because you want to see the following options in you articles writing panel.

Joomla 1.6 Article Metadata Settings

Use the Metadescription on every page for the best results, just write a short excerpt of the page with the keywords you want to target and make it like a small advertisment for you page. Google and other search engines can use these text just under the Title of your page and it can give you a better click through rate from the search page.

Keywords is debated because Google and Yahoo won’t use them. I do put in some main keywords, but never more than five, you don’t want to stuff that field! Stuffing will get you worse rankings…

Joomla 1.6. SEO Don’ts

With Joomla 1.6 you don’t have the previous unclear function’s like Section’s and Categories in those sections. Instead you can now have nested categories.

Joomla 1.6 Category Nesting

And although it is a good thing to have a better user experience and people can create content a lot easier, there is also a drawback.

You can now have a category in a category in a category in a category… and that can make the URL for you article very, very long as every category name will be in that URL.

For example http://demo16.cloudaccess.net/index.php/using-joomla/extensions/components/content-component

Don’t go overboard with this feature! Just do like you did before, make a small number of main categories with only one level deep extra categories so your URLs stay short! Also keep the naming off this categories short..

Keep these thing in mind and your basic is set for SEO, all that is left now is for you to create Quality Content that Google and your visitors will like :-)

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.

I received a review copy of Joomla 1.5 Multimedia from Packt Publishers and was expecting to read a lot that I already knew about Images and the image manager in Joomla!.

But instead it was an eye-opener about the possibilities that Joomla! and some special extensions gives you to create a complete multimedia experience for your visitors.

This book is a great addition to your search engine optimization efforts as we all now that video, mp3, podcast en mobile web interfaces are becoming more important everyday.

Joomla Multimedia

Joomla! 1.5 Multimedia will have some information for you that you can skip through if you are building Joomla! websites for a longer period of time, but the main part of the book will help you to further improve your and your customers websites.

I am not going the repeat the complete list of chapters of this book, you can follow the link above to get a better content listing than I can do… what I will tell you which chapters captured my special interest:

• Chapter 3: Text, Characters and Fonts: This shows you some good information on how to improve accessibility and still play with fonts in your design.
• Chapter 5: Using Audio: How to set up podcasts and the handling of mp3 files which is very good in combination with normal blogging.
• Chapter 6: Using video: Of course information about Video including a few extensions that will aid you in your efforts to use video in Joomla!
• Chapter 7: Collaboration with external resources: You don’t need to produce all the videos yourself, you can also pull from other resources and this chapter shows some very neat information about how to do that the right way.

Chapter 8 about templates is also good, but for me personally not that interesting, Chapter 9 gives you a complete step-by-step overview of the building of a Multi Media Joomla! based website and can be a great help if you start out to implement the other ideas that come from this well written book.

Don’t take my word on it, check out this sample Chapter 4 from the book: Adding and Managing Image Content.

For my, this book will stay on my desk for a longer period of time as I am going to use a lot of information from it :-), thank you Allen Walker and Packt Publishing for this great new book.

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.

If you liked the tool mentioned in my previous post about Joomla and SEO, you might also want to read this article on my other Blog.

This one is about the new Content analysis page in Google webmaster central:

Google helps with Meta description and title errors

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.

It has been a while since my latest post, but I really have been busy working on new website building projects.

So my time is already limited, because I do all this stuff on the Internet after my normal daytime job.

Why? because I like to share knowledge, get in touch with new idea’s and try them to see what happens, and of course communicate with others about Joomla and SEO.(See the Blog-roll for my favorites!)

But today I found a little website that will gives you an impression on how well your are doing with your SEO efforts.

You do have some idea from your visitor counts I hope! But here is the URL to get a really nice overview of SEO Information like:

• PageRank
• Backlinks
• Indexed Pages
• Rankings
• Social Bookmarking
• RSS Feed counts and more

So go and check your own domain at http://www.xinureturns.com/

Below you can find a sample image of one of my websites.

O, and yes, I will try to post more with the coming weeks and months to come… most will be on Joomla 1.5 I think!

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.

If you have read this Blog for a Longer period of time (or have gone through the Sitemap..:-)) you might have read about the DS Syndication Component in my post Overcoming the Joomla RSS Feed Problem Well, there is a new version of this component since August of this year and I must say it is better then before! Putting in multiple categories in to one Feed. Not limited to the Frontpage any more.. choose to show HTML, Images or not in your Feed, using your special images. You can create multiple feeds with different categories and different images for the feeds. There is also a module that can show each of these feed images to subscribe to or just the ones you selected Running your Feeds through Feedburner I always like to run my Feeds via Feedburner, because they have some great options! So for my new website a used the DS Syndication component to get two separate Feeds And I have written a Tutorial for you on how to use the DS Syndication Component and where to find it! You can find it on Improve you Joomla RSS Feed and if you don’t know why you should have Feeds? Read Why Every website should have a Feed

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.

If you want to do a really good job at doing the right stuff for your website, then don’t use Metatag generators or even worse On the fly Plugins or Mambots  that create Metatags stuff for you.

They might seem a good idea and if you really don’t have the time, or the knowledge to do proper Search Engine Optimization, then use a Metatags generator.

You can find several good once at the Joomla extensions site.
You can also find some “on the fly� Metatags generators, who change everything for you, if you change a few of the first lines of your page.

Here is why I don’t link to use them:
- They are not as good as you in creating good titles
- They are not as good as you in giving a good an well thought through Description of the content of the page
- They are just stuffing some keywords in the keyword tag, and you still have to change them for maximum results.

Joomla Metatag generator components

With Metatag Generators components, you database is filled in the right places, and you can mostly edit the tags, either on the page meta-info tab itself, or in the generator pages.
OpenSef comes with such an Metatag Generator included in the SEO Assistant tab.
Also the Metatags generator of iJoomla works well.

For both generators I suggest you set the options in the configuration fields to NOT overwrite the already filled in Metatag fields.

If you have a large website with multiple editors that don’t know how to write Metatags information, it will be a valuable extensions.
But if you run your own site, don’t use them, think for yourself. You are the expert on your sites topic.

On the Fly SEO ?

There are several Plugins that create “on the fly Metatags�.
What they do is basically read the first positions from the text area of your page and take that as the title, and mostly some more lines to create a description Metatag.
With the words included in the text the keywords are extracted.

For some people it will work great, less effort, and instant results…..

What I don’t like about it is that you don’t have control over the more important parts, it overwrites all you previous work.

But should you call this Search Engine Optimization for you Joomla Site?
Or are you just fooling yourself and taking the easy road?

Search Engine Optimization is more than just letting a program work some stuff into some fields for you.

You have to do research on Keywords, Optimize you text, site structure and more, and that is hard work!
Just running a Plugin or component might look nice to you now, but will it last in the long run and will it provide the right Search Engine Results you are after?

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.

There is no “C” in Joomla?, of course there is, You know there is a C !
Joomla is a “C”ontent Management System.
And that is where the majority of your SEO is done!

Content is what they want.

No, You should not look for what you can do to play the the Search Engines, devote your time to focus on your visitors.
Most of the mayor search engines like Google, Yahoo en Live now want you to build quality content for you visitors.

And Building a quality site is just what makes Joomla a great tool to work with.

Looking at Joomla, you have a Content Management System that lets you Build large sites, with the possibility to give you site the right structure.

A structure that you can make out of Sections, which you then divide into categories.
And in those categories you put your content, your pages.

Once you defined you structure, start building, a few pages per week, will get you a site in one year that holds more than a hundred pages!

And building a page is easy in Joomla, push “new” in you content overview and start writing…

Use all the features that you can, from Title to Metatags Information, its all there.

Writing to Boost your ranking

You saw the way you can build and structure your site.
Try and do your writing the same way:

Your Writing is Your Best SEO

Make sure you write your headlines with passion, and make your paragraphs easy to identify.

Use short sentences where possible and look at the overall page impression.
Can you “scan” the page? Can you find your keywords in the bolded paragraph headings.

Use H2 and if necessary H3 HTML headers, But use the H1 not more then One or two times on a page.

But the most important thing you can do, is to write information that your visitors are looking for.
Whether your write about product, services or Information or a special subject, always but out the best you can.

Look at yourself, what do you want to read about if you are looking on information on you sites topic.
And then write about it!!

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.

No, Not really af course..
You just have to work hard and in the right way, getting the technical stuff ready and write good quality content and lots of it.

But I just couldn’t resist..
There is a lot of controversie at the moment about some statements and counter statements in the SEO blogosphere where post are made about if Search Engine Optimization is Rocket Science or just simple to do if you follow the standard Optimization Guidelines (SEO Basics Explained)

My mind just flipped matching two post together, the previous one, and the one I am talking to you about below.

I am reading (and get RSS Feeds) form several SEO Blogs, one them is the http://www.alledia.com/blog/
And they have done an Interview with Barrie North and they started with the first question about how he got into Joomla and what’s his background.

I started out as a rocket scientist. No – really!

And Barrie mentioned that he started out as a Rocket Scientist and that he has his Masters in Physics!

If you have read this Blog for a while you should know that I think Barrie is one of the best in Joomla SEO.
So the combination is easily made :-)

But besides this little Mind spin of mine, the Interview gives you some idea about the person Barrie North and his drive to share his information on Joomla.

He also points out that SEO isn’t what it used to be, that “old school” seo is indeed dead.
And I must admit that I also think SEO is a really fascinating concept and I want to add that you need to analyse your results to improve your knowledge.
So in that sense you could say its a bit like science….

Further there are some quality links to SEO resources in the Interview, so just go and read it yourself, just follow the links to Interview with Barrie North.

Want to read more? Check out Joomla & SEO Blog.