The Holden Creative guide to Joomla! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a compilation of personal experience and many free sources. For more information try Joomla SEO and Alledia. You may also wish to check on the status of the Joomla SEF Patch. For Joomla 1.0 installations, sh404SEF is probably the best SEF/SEO patch - but it isn't 100% stable.

1) Delete all default Joomla content.

Make sure that any image you use on the site has a short, sensible name - ie "bmw_logo.jpg" not 234234.jpg. In your content, try use to search-friendly keywords. This much should be obvious, really.

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.

Editors Note : If you are using Global Keywords (in the global configuration) - then don't bother with article keywords. While it is recommended to use the keywords meta-tag, it's not important - or worth the time - to do article keywords in most instances.

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.

Other Ways to Find Keywords : Check out the Links

At Yahoo!, the following searches can be used to find pages that link to other sites/pages:

Linkdomain:url.com
This command will show you all the pages that link to any page hosted at the domain url.com.

# Linkdomain:url.com word
This search will show all pages with the term "word" that link to pages hosted at the URL. You can use this to find topical linking pages that may be providing benefit for specific areas.

Joomla RSS Feeds

Many SEO experts believe that incorporating targeted and relevant RSS content feeds from high ranking web sites within your web site as part of an overall SEO strategy can enhance your search engine ranking across the SERP’s including Google, Yahoo and MSN. It’s a known fact that if you keep your web site updated with fresh new content then Google will reward you but creating new content on a daily basis can be a challenging task and this is where RSS Feeds can help.

Activate your Syndicate module.

You can do this from the Joomla administrator console which will enable users to click on the relevant RSS feed button and include your content on there web site. The benefit of doing the above is that the robots will index the site where your xml feed appears and following the links to your site therefore improving your search engine position based on link backs and relevance.

Submit your RSS feeds

The next approach is to submit your site to a growing number of XML feed sites who accept and publish XML feeds which are then distributed across hundreds of web sites on the net. If your XML feed gets accepted then you may attract lots of new traffic and your position across the search engines will increase.

Where can I publish my RSS feeds ?

We have included a number of web sites who currently accept RSS feeds but if you search Google you can find hundreds of web sites accepting RSS feeds.

• http://www.syndic8.com/
• http://www.completerss.com/AddFeed.aspx
• http://w.moreover.com/cgi-local/site/sourcesubmission.pl
• http://pingomatic.com/?oldpinger
• http://www.rssfeeds.com/suggest_wizzard.php
• http://www.stepnewz.com/sn/suggest_feeds.asp
• http://www.feed-directory.com/addfeed

Use Alternative Read More

This is a big one. For an article, check out 'parameters-->advanced'. You will see a text filed labeled 'Alternative Read More Text' This allows you to generate a custom 'Read More..' for each article.

Example :
Default --> 'Read More..'
Alternative --> 'Read More about Joomla 1.5..'
This is a big plus for SEO and should be used wherever possible.

Check out your Menu Links

If you have a menu item titled 'Services' - and you can call it "Custom Bicycle Services" - why not do it? Google will prefer the latter.

Page Titles

Examples and Recommendations for Title Tags

Page on Red Pandas from the Wellington Zoo:
- Current Title: Red Panda
- Recommended: Red Panda - Habitat, Features, Behavior | Wellington Zoo

Editors Note : This is not a default feature of Joomla, but can be added by extension. JooFox Content Titles for Joomla 1.0, and the SEF Patch for 1.5

Section --> Category

Make sure your section and category names are relevant to the topics at hand

Name your Web Site Header Image

This isn't a big deal, but every little bit helps. Rename your header image file, and edit your CSS and template's index.php file to match.

Change the name from 'header1.png' to 'broadcast_services.png' and then give the file the appropriate alt/title tags - ie ' Broadcast Services : Television Services in Greater Sioux Falls'.

SEF URL's

Search Engine Friendly URL's are a very important part of Search Engine Optimization.  Both Joomla 1.0 and 1.5 have some limited native ability at SEF URL's.  Joomla 1.0 is pretty weak in this regard, while 1.5 is stronger, but not perfect.

Fortunately, there are some ways to achieve a good SEF URL with Joomla.  With Joomla 1.0, try sh404SEF.  With Joomla 1.5 try the Joomla SEF Patch.  While the patch requires, well, a patch, it has been very closely developed with the core Joomla team - and is expected to be added to the native code, at some point.