Joomla SEO Tutorial and Tips Part 1

Joomla search engine optimization, or simply SEO, can be considered a artform for many, and a nightmare for others. Enjoy these search engine tips for Joomla.

Welcome to part one of my little Joomla SEO guide! No matter how much you know about search engine optimization, you can never know enough! Please continue on to this light SEO primer specifically geared for Joomla web sites.

1. What is Search Engine Optimization, and why do I need it?

Search Search engine optimization, SEO for short, is the practice of configuring, developing and maintaining your web site with the idea of visitors finding your website through search engines. We wont get into all the details just yet, but SEO doesn't JUST improve your search engine rankings, it also makes your Joomla site easier to navigate, more accessible, and more appealing to your visitors.

Great SEO takes time, effort, practice, and maybe a little luck - but even if you aren't interested in a significant effort to appease the search engine gods, it never hurts to develop good habits early on.

2. Joomla inherit SEO shortcomings

Joomla, being a dynamic content management system, has a handful of inherit difficiencies regarding search engine optimization. The most significant concept to grasp if you havn't allready is that Joomla content is stored inside a database rather than residing on a server and accessible to search engines for indexing. Without going deep into how search engines work, lets just assume that the more popular search engines such as Google, MSN and don't fully understand your Joomla site without a little help.

The most noticable Joomla SEO hurdle would be the lack of search engine friendly URLS, or SEF URLS for short. Your default Joomla installation will result in urls which look like:

http://www.mycooljoomlasite.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=1

Lets forget about search engines for a moment and realize that this URL says nothing about the content your linking to. Relatively speaking, its safe to say that if a human cant understand your links, a search engine cant either.

http://www.mycooljoomlasite.com/videos/flying-squirels.html

Much friendlier, no contest. Now both the visitor and the search engines understand the URL. So the question is - how do I incorporate SEF Urls into my Joomla website? This question can be briefly answered in two parts:

A. Enable SEF Urls in the Joomla administration area. (Site-->Global Configuration-->SEO)

B. Rename your htaccess.txt to .htaccess (located in your Joomla installation root directory)

Successfully doing so will result in URLs which look something like this:

http://www.mycooljoomlasite.com/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,3/Itemid,1/

A little more search engine friendly, but not very descriptive. To fully optimize your links, you'll need some third party help in the form of components, modules and mambots/plugins. Which brings us to...

3. Joomla SEO Components

The bad news is Joomla does a poor job alone on search engine optimization, the good news is theres plenty of help. I'd like to keep this guide as succinct as possible, so I wont get into specifics just yet, but the concept is relatively easy to explain:

Third party SEO components simply provide a means to translate your not-so-friendly URLS to virtually anything youd like. If your in a rush, I personally recommend the patched version of JoomSEF - I'll try and evaluate the various other popular SEF components later, as well as their usage. Once installed and properly configured, these SEO extensions will help you optimize your site for search engines and visitors alike.

4. Conclusion

Joomla SEF can be a test of your patience and a great consumer of time, but the benefits are well worth it. A well structured and optimized site will typically rank better in search engines, and improve the overall quality of your Joomla site. Regardess of whether your hosting Joomla site devoted to flying squirrel videos, or selling the latest flying squirrel accessories - it never hurts to improve your search engine optimization strategy.