This tutorial will provide you with guide during the development and search engine optimization of your Joomla web site.
The information covered in this article may help you improve your search engine rankings.
What not to do ?
I would strongly suggest you do not introduce the following approach when optimizing your Joomla web site.
1) Do not include hidden text within your web site
Some web masters have being known to include hidden text using targeting keywords on web sites to move up the search engine rankings. Google can spot this and will penalize your web site.
2) Loading pages with keywords
Avoid spamming the search engines by including lots of keywords which have little relevance to the content of your web site or make no sense if a real user was to visit and read the content on your web site.
3) Avoid Doorway pages
Do not use doorway pages IE – individually optimization pages for specific search engines.
4) Avoid cloaking Cloaking involves dynamically generating thousands of keyword rich web page’s using server side scripts which only the search engine bots can see but the end user can not. Some Webmasters have introduced this approach to gain a high ranking which may work in the short term but in the long term it will fail and your site will be penalize or from the search engines
5) Avoid automated submission web sites
You may have seen web sites selling services which include submitting your Joomla! web site to hundreds of directories for a few dollars. We recommend you avoid using automated submission services which basically submit your site to hundreds or low ranking link farm directories which have no relevence to the services you are offering.
We recommend you consider the following.
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Submit your site to the established high ranking human editied directories including ODP Open Directory Project and Best Of The Web
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Submit your site to high ranking directories which are relevent to the services or content you offer.
What to do ?
1) Create high quality keyword rich content When writing content for your Joomla web site create it for users not search engines. Focus on creating content which is relevant to your web site (IE) if you run a Joomla template site then focus on writing content for joomla templates. Also Make use of your targeted keywords within the content and use H1 and H2 “bold” to highlight and reference keyword phrases. Use hyperlinks to reference the relevant web sites and also use anchor text.
2) linking strategy Think about who your target audience and web sites who have a similar interest to the service or content your are offering via your web site. Do your research, Search Google, Yahoo, MSN or visit the communities and build up a list of sites with similar interests. For example if you run a Joomla web site dedicated to Joomla open source then build up a relationship with other sites based on exchanging web links with them or news articles. Also when submitting your web link to a web site make sure the title and keywords relating to the web site are referenced in the web link, news article.
3) Title, description and Metatags Joomla incorporates some very useful functionality which compliments your content to ensure the title, description and metatags are relevant to each specific document. Make sure you make use of the functionality available within Joomla.
For example once you have written your news item complete the following.
A) Associate the news item with the relevant news category. B) click on the Meta Info tab. C) In the description field enter a relevant, clear and concise meta description which clearly reflects the content of the news item. D) In the keywords field click on the Add/sect/Title which will automatically assign the news category, keywords to your news item. You may need add additional keywords.
5) Site Title Tag The site Title Tag play’s one of the most important role’s in achieving a high ranking web site. Search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN and AltaVista place alot of focus on the site title tag. From the Global configuration option via the Joomla Administrator you can change the site name, Global Site Meta Description, Global Site Meta Keywords.
Think about the following when creating your site title. A) Ensure the site title is specific and relevant to the content of your web site. B) Your site title ideally should be between 64 and 66 characters which makes it Google friendly. Yahoo will accept up to 120 characters as per the W3 standards C) Add one or more of your targeted keywords in the site title.
6) Global Site Meta Description a) Write a brief description which clearly reflects the content of your web site b) The Meta description should be between 170 characters or 200 characters c) Include one or more of your targeted keywords which are included in your site title and keywords.
7) Keywords Some Search engines do not give as much weight to The keyword metatag as the site title or site description but it is recommended that you make use of it. a) Avoid keyword stuffing ( IE ) repeating your keywords. b) Add your one or more targeted keywords contained in your site title, site content within your Global Site Meta Keywords. c) Place your targeted ( most important ) keywords at the start of your Global Site Meta Keywords which gives the keyword more weight d) Separate keywords with a comma and no spaces.