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WordPress SEO Post and Joomla Lessons

Filed Under: Joomla Seo, SEO Articles

Joost de Valk has written a great article on his new website about WordPress and SEO, Calling it "The Definitive Guide To High Rankings For Your Blog"  and I must say, he does a splendid Job in working through all the aspects of SEO for WordPress.

And indeed the Blogging world is raving about this article as well:

Here are few links:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-seo/7096/
http://www.searchengineguide.com/sage-lewis/yoast-should-boast-its-wordpress-seo-gui.php
http://www.jaankanellis.com/wordpress-seo-in-a-nutshell-by-joost/
http://sphinn.com/story/52017

And Yoast (that's right -> Joost ) also does a great Job in monitoring all those incoming links and as a true blogger reacting on every one of them :-) 

You will know by now that I use WordPress,Drupal, Typo3 and Joomla for a number of websites, so I can related to the technical aspects of his WordPress Guide as well as the real Search Engine Optimization stuff.

And this were you can learn as an Search Engine Optimization fanatic, looking at several aspects of this guide and pick the right stuff for improving any website.
That also means Your Joomla based website.

Some of the point you can look at are:
Basic SEO

Permalinks = Search Engine Friendly URL's

Titles
Descriptions
More text
Image optimization

Than there is more advanced stuff and some great advice on coding and more, you can really do well if you follow his advice on:

Point 5 – Conversion Optimization
Point 6 – Comment Optimization
Point 7 – Off site site Blog SEO, like using Twitter SEO 

I am looking forward to implementing some of his advice here on this Blog and on my other Joomla SEO Blog

Both are build with WordPress to Promote my Joomla sites about Joomla SEO and Open Source CMS SEO

And I must say, that Joost already has inspired me to write a similar post about Joomla and SEO, that is if you as a reader would like to see that as well, covering several technical aspect on how to do this advanced and basic SEO for Joomla.

An Other great article to read is Meet Yoast in which Joost writes about the redesign and the new domain name… also read the comments like "How does it feel to commit Technorati suicide" since your Technorati rankings won't follow you to the new domain like your FeedBurner readers will.

Thank you Yoast for a great post a great new site and insight into the basic off really well done SEO!

Tagged With: Blog, Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, WordPress 3 Comments

How Joomla helps with LSI and SEO

Filed Under: Joomla, Joomla Seo, Optimization, Search Engine, SEO, SEO Articles, SEO Optimization

Oke, you know what SEO means, and what Joomla is.. but this LSI?

Well, if you really are into Search Engine Optimization, you have come across this term “Latent Semantic Indexing” or in short LSI.

So, is this going to be such a long an technical post about algorithms and how they are build… no, its not..

But what you should know about LSI is simpel, it is all about related keywords!
Yes the ones you are so desperately seeking to improve your visitors numbers, but it goes beyond what you normally do.

To explain the term in a more down to earth manner, you should know that you are using it the whole day through en you didn't even realize it.
Say for example you are thinking of Joomla, what comes to mind? Components, Templates, Modules, Plugins, Content etc, all of these terms are related to the Content Management System Joomla.

Another example, you walk into an unknown supermarkt and want to buy a bottle of Coca-Cola, what do you do?
You look for a sign in the hallways marked “Soft Drinks” because you know it is related to your search.
But you don't have to think about it, you just know.

Latent Semantic Indexing

Google and other search engines use an algorithm that does something similar, it looks at the structure and words used on a website to determine the basic topic, on main subject of a website.

But is uses this related terms also in their personalized search results!
Lets look at the results a musician will get, someone who searches for Music, MP3, Records and sheet music and song lyrics in Google.
If he/she would now uses the search term “mambo”, the results will point him to websites about the Dance “Mambo”.

If I would use the same term “mambo” the results are highly focused on the Content Management System “Mambo” and there will be results about Joomla sites as well..
But that is because the main part of my searches are all about Internet and Content Management Systems.
You see these are all highly related results for both persons.

How does Joomla Help with LSI

 One thing that the search engines look for to identify the subject and relevance of your website for your Keywords is the way your website is build , or structured around the topic.

Now this is where Joomla has its strength, although some may hate it, and that is its structure for content.
You can have one, or more sections, but each section is build with categories that holds the content pages.

And to name and sort these categories, you look for, and use the structure that you see fit for your topic!
So for a Joomla Information website, you have categories about Components, Templates, Modules, Plugins and sometimes extend into Joomla SEO :-)
You see that the categorie structure forces you to think about your subject and use the most related and relevant words?

So in this case the so called weakness of Joomla becomes one of its strengths.
And yes I know, WordPress is great for Search Engine Optimization, but the use of Categories only becomes useful if your tightly restrict the use to just some categories.

Drupal is also great for Websites and Blogs, but you still have to come to grips with this Taxonomy thing..
And If you don't get it, how are you going to explain it to your customers?

Joomla is a great Content Management System, that has its pros and cons, but I really think it is one of the best for a Small or Medium Business website to start out with and has te potential to grow with the Company.
And because of the rigid structure it will help you to keep your content and structure in focus, and thus relevant for Search Engines as well as your websites visitors!

If you liked the content of this article, please subscribe to the feed to keep up-to-date.
One word of warning though… I am off to a two weeks vacation, so you won't see any update for that time.

But after that, I hope you will read some nice Search Optimization things I have thought up during that time, happy holidays!

P.s. One way to find these words, is to go to the Google Keyword Tool and use the Site-Related keywords tab and fill in the nr One website in your Niche.. you will find some great related terms you did not think off before.

6 Comments

Working your Images into Search Engine Optimization

Filed Under: Joomla, Joomla Seo, Optimization, Search Engines, SEO, SEO Articles, SEO Optimization, Webdesign

Now everybody likes images, right…
Sometimes an image can make a better impact on your visitor then just text.
But what on earth have Images to do with SEO?

Images and SEO

Look at the images you use in articles on your website.
How did you put them in there, and what else did you do with it?

Some people don't think that what I am going to tell you is worth all the trouble…
I think you should work on providing the best content on your site for everybody, and make the most of it to get your site into the search engines.
Both can be accomplished by optimization your images and the use of them.
But first things first.

Naming your Images.

If you incorporated some images into your site, did you just uploaded your pictures from your camera, or what you received from your client?

Or did you rename them from DSC20071302.jpg or IMG_12548.jpg to something more meaning full like Keyword-Included-fits-the-picture.jpg
And please use – instead of _ for your picture names…

If you did the later, you have one point up from the rest of many websites.

The benefit not only goes to getting an extra keyword into your page, but its also much easier for the Search Engines to index your images on keywords searches.

Yes, people are more and more using these image based searches from Live.com, Yahoo and Google.
So you might get some of your visitors from there, although they might not be the real target visitors for your website… unless you have a website with mostly images..

Optimizing you images

If you have images makes sure the have the right size for your website.
That means that, if you have an image that is 1600×1280 pixels you should not squeeze it into an 540×320 box…, yes I know people do this all the time.

The image has to be loaded completely before it is rendered to the size you want it to display.
If you make the images in the actual size you want to use them, you have a much faster loading page then if you let a browser do it.
(A great free tool to do this irfanview, which give great result in maintaining sharpness)Software for Image optimization

The use of .jpg, .png or .gif depends on what type of image you want to use.
That is mostly a matter of trying several setting.
My choice for pictures is .jpg for icons and stuff its mostly .gif
Ground rule for me is: If there are a lot of different colours in the picture I use .jpg otherwise .gif

Putting in the Image Tags

Now you have come to the fun part….

If you place images on you website, I also depends on to tools you use to make those pages.
Some of the tools you use on creating webpages, or online wysiwig editors do assist you in putting in the right tags and parameters.
For Joomla you might find the JoomlaFCK editor to be one of the best.

Otherwise you have go into the HTML coding to place them.
Here are the three key parameters for your images:
– Size
– alt tags
– title tag

Always give the size height=” ” and width=” ” tags with your images !!
This way the browser you are using can reserve space for the image while loading it, in the mean time it will bring in the text.
Your visitor can start reading while the image is loaded, so the impression is a fast loading page.

The Alt tag is used for two reasons:
One –  the alt tag is displayed if the user has the image loading function set to off.
Two –  a text based browser will show the alt tag instead if the image itself, just like a “normal” search engine spider would look at the content of your page.

Title tag is what is shown as info tip when you hover over a picture, thus providing also more information to your visitors.

A complete image tag then can read like:
< img title=”title tag” alt=”alt tag” height=”96″ width=”128″ src=”http://www.itmentor.nl/images/stories/articles.jpg” / >

Things not to do with Images and SEO

Here are a few pointers on what not to do if you are optimizing your images for SEO.
– Don't use meaningless pictures, they should fit your topic.
– Don't stuff you picture naming full of keywords
– Don't stuff you “alt” and “title” tags full of keywords !! it will be noticed, provide meaning full descriptions.
– Don't use large pictures if its not necessary.

Wrapping it up:
Use that littly extra time, just a few seconds to implement this for every image you use.
Make sure spiders can access your image directory by removing the disallow part form your robots.txt file if you have one.

Have fun taking an sharing your pictures !
And if you need inspiration, visit www.flickr.com, tons of great pictures…

3 Comments

Why your Hosting Provider Helps with SEO

Filed Under: Joomla, Joomla Seo, Optimization, Search Engine, SEO, SEO Articles, SEO Optimization

First, Let me ask you, do you know how long the Googlebot or other Search Engine robots stay on your site?
No? then check you logs.

I can tell you for my websites it's under a second….

Look at your Performance

Now take a look at the performance of your website.
Does it load fast, or do you start with a flash intro, or with a big image map?

Take a real hard look at how long it takes to load your website! O, and before you do, clear your explorer cache first…. you need to see the loading time a new visitor experiences.

Did you see it, fast loading or go reaaally sslloow…..
If its fast, is that because you made it that way, or is your hosting provider up to speed with high performance servers and not overloading them with other websites.

And if its slow, the same question, did you make it that way, or are you on a cheap hosting package on which your provider is putting you on outdated servers with a small broadband connections to the Internet Backbones?

Performance and Search Engine Optimization

If you look at the results, are you satisfied, or do you have some work to do?

I asked you at the beginning of this post if you know how long the robots stay on your website.
How much of your site is being read and indexed do you think in the time its there…..

Af course if your hosting company provides a really fast server, you get more out of the robots visits.
But more important than that, what do you think your visitors experience?

A fast loading site, af course filled with quality content, will keep your visitors staying longer at your site, then if they have to wait and wait, a n d  w a i t…

And the longer they stay on your site, the search engines will think its a good site for the topic users searched for.
The more pages they view on your site, the more you climb in the SERPs for that keyword.

Choose the right one 

If you are unhappy with the performance, work with your provider!
Tell him about your problem, most of them are very knowledgeable if you talk about your website loading performance.

They might give you some good advice on how to improve your performance.

If your are still not happy, and your site is optimized for speed, then look for an other provider.
Switching is not that much of a pain anymore these days.

Improving Joomla performance 

For Joomla you can start by using the Cache function in the Global Configuration.

Then switch one the cache functions in you menu and modules.

Your provider will thank you, because it reduces the stress on there servers, since the content pages are already done.

P.s. There is more You can read on Making a Joomla site faster

1 Comment

Use your Description Metatag to get more visitors

Filed Under: Joomla, Joomla Seo, Optimization, Search Engine, SEO, SEO Articles, WordPress

If you start asking people if they fill there metatags, most of them now don't fill them.

Because they have read somewhere that the Metatags aren't used anymore for ranking in the Search Engines..

How wrong they are, and what a great opportunity for you!

Keywords Metatag

The Keywords are the main problem that webmasters think they are no longer relevant.
This Metatag was previously heavily used by spammers, who filled the tags with everything possible or by repeating there main keyword over and over again.. this is now called keywords stuffing and can get you banned from Search Engines like Google and Yahoo.

But this Metatag is still in use by some search engines, but should only be filled with up to ten keywords that are also included in the body text of your page.

Description Metatag 

And we have a winner…
The Description Metatag is used by most search engines to be displayed right onder your page title on the Search Engine Results Pages.
Google sometimes takes the Metatag, and sometimes a part of the text if it thinks this is more relevant to the search.

This Metatag contains a small description of the page. This description is placed there by you in a separate item from your content management system.
It should be different on every page.

Writing the Description Tag

If your write the Metatag, please keep your visitor in mind.
Place yourself in their search, and see if you can come up with a smart “advertising” text for your page.

Include your keyword in the Description

Using the keyword you want to reach in the description field works for you position, but use it no more then one or two times.

It seems that there are some studies on search behavior that show that sometimes people are clicking more on a link that has a good description of the page rather then the higher positioned one.
You should write a text that pulls people into the click, and will deliver the content they search.

Try it yourself, search on your own keyword target and see what you normally would click on….

This post and its description tag

You can see the title of this post, but the Metatag is nog really visible on this page.
If you look at the source code, you are able to read it, just like search engines will display it.
See it for yourself :-)

In Joomla there is a special item on each page where you can fill the descriptions and keywords.
Install the SEF Patch from http://www.joomlatwork.com/ to get the tags right and use the same Metatags for Menu items.
You can even fill your descriptions in with the OpenSef SEO assistent Metatag Generator.
But you should write your own if you are serious about SEO for your website.

For WordPress, you need to install a Plugin.
The one you could use, that is the same on this site, works really easy.
You can download it from Another WordPress Meta Plugin 

1 Comment

Tell Google and Read about your website in the Google Index

Filed Under: Joomla Seo, Optimization, SEO, SEO Articles

Google knows a lot about your website, and you can find out what it is, if you want to.

You can even tell Google something it doesn't know….

Lets talk about this great file called sitemap.xml and what you should do with it.

Webmaster Central

If you go to the Google website, you will find a small line below the search box that says “About Google” if you click it, you get a screen on which there is a section “For Site Owners”….nice, that means for you!

Now if you own and operate a website, that makes you a “webmaster” and there is a special link to Webmaster Central, sounds like a railway station right?

Well lets see what trains are in the station for us.

Site status wizard

This is just a simple tool to check if your site is included in the Google index, and when it was last crawled by the Googlebot.

But there is more, check out the other options like Google's Blog for Webmasters and the Webmaster Help Center.

The main focus for this post is af course…drumm roll…

Webmaster Tools !!

Free tools for you as a webmaster to see whats is happening in Google country and learn about your website information in Google's index.

[Read more…]

2 Comments

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