Website Beginners Guide

Learn How to Start Your Own Internet Site & More

cache

Basic SEO Settings in Joomla 3.x

Filed Under: Joomla Seo

With the new Joomla 3.x version, you get a completely different Administration panel with basic SEO Settings.

Joomla! 3.x Global Configuration
Joomla! 3.x Global Configuration

Once you are logged in, go to the Global Configuration. It will open with the Site tab on which you can manage the main site setting. You will also find the SEO settings and the Metadate settings on this Tab.

Joomla Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Settings

Joomla! 3.x Search Engine Optimization Settings
Joomla! 3.x Search Engine Optimization Settings

As you can see there are no checkboxes but slider buttons. This makes it clear to what option is active and what's not.

You should always use the Search Engine Friendly URLs, so set that to on.

If you want to use URL rewriting, make sure you are on a hosting server that supports .htaccess. With that option on, you get the best results.

If you are unclear about an option and need more information, hover over the text in front of the slider buttons and you will see direct help information.

Joomla URL Rewriting Explained
Joomla URL Rewriting Explained

With the add suffix option on your get a URL suffix .html as ending part of your URL.

The last option is for getting your site title into the Page HTML title. Either Use No or After. You want the article title as the first part of your HTML title for best results, use the after option for branding purposes.

Joomla! 3.x Metadata Settings

Joomla! 3.x Metadata Settings
Joomla! 3.x Metadata Settings

The Metadate settings are also on this Site Tab.  Site Meta Description and Site Meta Keywords in a global setting has always been a point of discussion for me, I don't like it.

You are better off writing the Meta description on content items and not fill in the same date for every article from this setting. Clean it! Meta Keywords are no longer used by several Search Engines like Google.

The Author Meta Tag is good so set that to yes. Showing the Joomla! version will only help Hackers and Crackers, so set that option to No. As an administrator, you can see the version you are running once logged in.

Joomla 3.x Cache Settings

Using a Cache can really make a difference in your page load. For SEO you want your pages to load as fast as possible as it is a measurement that is used by Google.

It also gives a better visitor experience. Your page load time can determine if a visitor will open and stay on your site or not.

You can find the Cache Settings on the System Tab

Joomla! Cache Progressive Settings
Joomla! Cache Progressive Settings

You get to choose from

  • OFF – Caching disabled
  • ON – Conservative caching
  • ON – Progressive caching

Check with your hosting provider if they have a caching component active on their server. If so you want to keep this caching off as it might interfere with the server caching component.

If you run into trouble with the Progressive caching try the Conservative option. Check your speed via http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/ and run some tests with different settings.
The Cache Handler is set to File, which is basic. There used to be a Database option, but that doesn't make sense.

Cache Time is something you need to think about. If you have a news based website where you post several times a day, keep it limited to your standard posting timeframe.

For me, a 24 hour period works just fine so time is set to 1440 / 60 = 24 Hours. After that, the cache is cleared and with a new visitor rebuild again.

So these are the basic SEO settings you need to get into place in Joomla 3.x. Next time: How to SEO your menu and content items.

How To Boost your Joomla site Loading Performance

Filed Under: Joomla Optimization, Joomla Seo, Search Engines

I recently came across a post of Alledia about this new Joomla Cache Component.

And since I want you to have a really good performing website I checked it out for you.

It blew me away…

Point is that you can speed up your website by using the cache funtion of Joomla itself and thus gaining some speed in loading you pages.

This component is going to boost your performance (page loading time that is) not simple by 0ne or two percent… no you see loading times drop by double digits percentages!

But there are some things you need to know before installation:

  • The speed gain is for not-logged-in users, that means the visitors to your site, not the members!
  • Some Core files are hacked, but the installation makes backup files and there is an uninstall option
  • You get a text “Powered By Page_Cache by Ircmaxell” under the Footer of you site, but for just $10 dollar you can buy a license file that takes that away… or hack the component code yourself, which is also okay by the developer (You got to Love this Guy..)

Installing the component 

Installation of the component is pretty easy, you just create or copy a few extra files and change permissions on them before installation.
[Read more…] about How To Boost your Joomla site Loading Performance

Making a faster Joomla website

Filed Under: Seo Basics

Make Your Joomla websites run faster

 

Any Joomla website can be made to run faster, or at least give your visitor that experience.

 

There are two features in Joomla that can speed up, or slow down your site.

 

Joomla cache!

First there is one feature in the Joomla Configuration Panel that is often overlooked and not used.
This feature is the cache mechanism that Joomla uses.

What is Cache?

Caching means that the pages that are generated by the server are stored in the cache folder.
When the page is called again, even by somebody else, the page is retrieved form this folder, without having to go to the making of the page again.
So this will provide a much faster loading of the page.
An other benefit of this is that your server load goes done, because the pages are already generated.
So what is the drawback? You need space on the server to do this.
Now it doesn't not take much space, but if you are already on your limit, don't use it.
Otherwise, test and see how much it takes, I think you will leave it on!

How to enable cache and what values to use.

The cache is enabled it the back-end configuration panel.
Just look for the cache Tab and set it to "enabled".
The time is given in seconds, standard this is 900 which corresponds to 15 minutes.

I personally think this is to limited for a standard website, for a news site its fine.
On Most of my sites I use 12 Hours, which is 43200 Seconds.

 

For a site that is not updated so much you can even set it to 24 hours that is 86400 second.

 

Enable the Module Cache

If you have the cache enabled you have turn on caching on the modules.
Go to the Modules section and then look at the published modules check if they have a caching ability and active it if they have, especially the Menu's.

 

Joomla Statistics

 

The statistics Joomla provides are very basic, but still they can slow down the loading of the pages, most certainly the first page somebody loads.
Mostly you provider will give you the opportunity to use the log files for you analyses, and this brings even more information that you need to analyse your website.

 

What information do you loose?
Well that is that you don't see what people what browsers they use, which Operating System and from what domains.
Also there are no statistics on the articles, but than again you probably don't have this set because it generates a lot of data.
If you need to see what people are searching for on your site, you can set this to on.
The standard setting is just for browser,OS and Domain.
So if You really need this information, leave it on.