Website Beginners Guide

Learn How to Start Your Own Internet Site & More

How to Start A WordPress Website Consolidation Project

Filed Under: WordPress

I created lots of websites during the past twelve years working with Joomla and WordPress.

The problem was that I not only created websites for clients but also for myself leaving me with a whole lot of sites to manage.

So this year I wanted to scale down on the number of sites to manage by consolidating different sites into one big site. This is that new website: https://www.websitebeginnersguide.com

Which Sites to Consolidate?

Taking that decision is one thing, getting into action is something completely different.

First off all I needed to determine which sites would be good candidates to move to a different domain and if it was possible to do so with a minimal loss in Google rankings.

When the whole project is done, it should even improve on the rankings and the number of visitors, creating a website that is bigger than the sum of its parts.

Criteria to take into account:

  • Website topic should match the purpose of the new domain
  • Permalinks structure should also be the same to be able to do a 301 redirect form the old website
  • Export and import of data should be easily doable
  • Number of RSS feed subscribers

For me that meant that the first sites to consolidate where:

  • www.herbertvandinther.com
  • www.pathosseoblog.com
  • Others to follow

Setting the First Steps

First off all I needed to setup the new website with the same CMS, in this case WordPress.

Decide on the Layout / design of the site. I now use Genesis with the News Pro theme from StudioPress. Not cheap, even for a premium theme, but well worth every dollar I spend on it.

After WordPress basic installation was done, I checked the common plugin usage in both sites and make sure the permalinks settings were identical.

The main reason for this was that it is a lot easier to do a complete site redirect than creating a lot of single 301 redirect rules per site.

The actual moves were done by creating a WordPress export file from the old sites and import them into the new one. If you want to do the same, make sure you check the box to import the attachments as well, that saves time and prevents some image link problems.

Search and Replace Old stuff and General Housekeeping

Some of the things I did after the migrations

  • Using this plugin to change the URLs of the images and old links form http://pathosseoblog.com/ with the correct new uploads path.
  • Check Old comments to see if there is nothing left that point to the migrated domains.
  • Used Ajax Thumbnail Rebuild for resizing the images for use on archives and layout options.
  • Update the Contact form
  • Set SEO Options -> I was not sure on using a Plugin or the Genesis SEO Theme settings. I decided to go the Genesis SEO options to see if that would work out better than WordPress SEO. Update: WordPress SEO by Yoast is now the main SEO function for this site.
  • Installed the Google sitemap.xml plugin to get the standard xml file to put into my Webmaster Tools account. Update: Sitemap.xml is now handled by WordPress SEO Plugin.
  • Deleted the two other site entries in Webmaster tools. You could do better to just inform Google webmaster tools that the site has moved.
  • Set up a new Subscribe widget
  • Cleaned out old and duplicate post categories

Other this to look out for in the coming weeks:

  • Check the error logs for 404 errors that need to be addressed
  • Check Stats and Tools to find other problems that might occur
  • Decide what other domain could be consolidation candidates
  • Write new articles and guides especially for WordPress and Joomla Beginners
  • Regain focus and have fun!

Website Beginners Guide Base

So you want to know how your Joomla site is on SEO?

Filed Under: Joomla Seo

It has been a while since my latest post, but I really have been busy working on new website building projects.

So my time is already limited, because I do all this stuff on the Internet after my normal daytime job.

Why? because I like to share knowledge, get in touch with new idea's and try them to see what happens, and of course communicate with others about Joomla and SEO.(See the Blog-roll for my favorites!)

But today I found a little website that will gives you an impression on how well your are doing with your SEO efforts.

You do have some idea from your visitor counts I hope! But here is the URL to get a really nice overview of SEO Information like:

  • PageRank
  • Backlinks
  • Indexed Pages
  • Rankings
  • Social Bookmarking
  • RSS Feed counts and more

So go and check your own domain at http://www.xinureturns.com/

Below you can find a sample image of one of my websites.

Xinu Check page for SEO

O, and yes, I will try to post more with the coming weeks and months to come… most will be on Joomla 1.5 I think!

The New and Improved Joomla DS Feed Syndication Component

Filed Under: Joomla Seo

If you have read this Blog for a Longer period of time (or have gone through the Sitemap..:-)) you might have read about the DS Syndication Component in my post Overcoming the Joomla RSS Feed Problem Well, there is a new version of this component since August of this year and I must say it is better then before! Putting in multiple categories in to one Feed. Not limited to the Frontpage any more.. choose to show HTML, Images or not in your Feed, using your special images. You can create multiple feeds with different categories and different images for the feeds. There is also a module that can show each of these feed images to subscribe to or just the ones you selected Running your Feeds through Feedburner I always like to run my Feeds via Feedburner, because they have some great options! So for my new website a used the DS Syndication component to get two separate Feeds Joomla and WordPress Feeds from Hummerbie.com And I have written a Tutorial for you on how to use the DS Syndication Component and where to find it! You can find it on Improve you Joomla RSS Feed and if you don't know why you should have Feeds? Read Why Every website should have a Feed

How Search Engines Help finding Keywords

Filed Under: Optimization, Search Engine, Search Engines, SEO, SEO Optimization

You now how to find keywords for your website, right? You know about Google external ad tool, WordTracker, trillian and seobook.

But there are more easily and very targeted keyword suggestions to be found.
The Search Engines themselves will show you what they think are the most relevant keywords…
It is like looking into their database and finding what they think is relevant for you visitors.

You just have to now how and where to look.
I did some research for a new page of a new site to check out the Singer Anastacia

Google Suggests

First Google, as this is one of the biggest engines, their you can use Google Suggests to find extra keywords.
You just type in you target keyword and you instantly get a drop-down box that shows you related search suggestions.

Google suggestions for Keyword Anastacia

Yahoo homepage

You have to use the search box on the Homepage of Yahoo to get the next items to show.

here it works the same way as with Google Suggests, just type in you search word and you get a related items drop-down box.

Yahoo search and keyword suggestions

Live.com Search

Microsoft's Search engine Live.com also has suggestions for your keywords, but the just show up after you did the search.

In the results page you will find a nice listing on the right hand sidebar.
And they throw in some songs suggestions to take into you list..
Live.com search and keyword suggestions

Ask.com Suggestions

Yes, you can find the best suggestions on Ask…
They give you a complete left sidebar with all kind off suggestions, even other related items…
You can find extra words to target in the “narrow your search” items.
Find other artists to include in extra pages to build somewhat of a themed site with “Related Names”
Find extra keywords in the “Expand your Search” items.

Aks Keywords and Related search sidebar

Af course you will have your own favorite, but for my the Ask results pages was on of the best to use…
You could try the more.. link as well….

Ask and More related searches

Naturally you have to combine the results from all the resources you can get to come to what you think are the best keywords to target, but that's what makes it so nice to do Search Engine Optimization.. finding new ways to get relevant visitors to your websites!

Why Joomla SEO isn’t that easy

Filed Under: Joomla Optimization, Joomla Seo

If you want to do a really good job at doing the right stuff for your website, then don't use Metatag generators or even worse On the fly Plugins or Mambots that create Metatags stuff for you.

They might seem a good idea and if you really don't have the time, or the knowledge to do proper Search Engine Optimization, then use a Metatags generator.

You can find several ones at the Joomla extensions site.
You can also find some on the fly Metatags generators, who change everything for you if you change a few of the first lines of your page.

Here is why I don't link to use them:
– They are not as good as you in creating good titles
– They are not as good as you in giving a good an well thought through Description of the content of the page
– They are just stuffing some keywords in the keyword tag, and you still have to change them for maximum results.

Joomla Metatag generator components

With Metatag Generators components, your database is filled in the right places, and you can mostly edit the tags, either on the page meta-info tab itself or in the generator pages.
OpenSef comes with such a Metatag Generator included in the SEO Assistant tab.
Also, the Metatags generator of iJoomla works well.

For both generators, I suggest you set the options in the configuration fields to NOT overwrite the already filled in Metatag fields.

If you have a large website with multiple editors that don't know how to write Metatags information, it will be a valuable extension.
But if you run your own site, don't use them, think for yourself. You are the expert on your sites topic.

On the Fly SEO?

There are several Plugins that create “on the fly Metatags�.
What they do is basically read the first positions from the text area of your page and take that as the title, and mostly some more lines to create a description Metatag.
With the words included in the text, the keywords are extracted.

For some people, it will work great, less effort, and instant results…..

What I don’t like about it is that you don't have control over the more important parts, it overwrites all your previous work.

But should you call this Search Engine Optimization for your Joomla Site?
Or are you just fooling yourself and taking the easy road?

Search Engine Optimization is more than just letting a program work some stuff into some fields for you.

You have to do research on Keywords, Optimize your text, site structure and more, and that is hard work!
Just running a Plugin or component might look nice to you now, but will it last in the long run and will it provide the right Search Engine Results you are after?

Working the “C” in Joomla

Filed Under: Joomla Seo, Search Engines

There is no “C” in Joomla?, of course there is, You know there is a C !
Joomla is a “C”ontent Management System.
And that is where the majority of your SEO is done!

Content is what they want.

No, You should not look for what you can do to play the the Search Engines, devote your time to focus on your visitors.
Most of the mayor search engines like Google, Yahoo en Live now want you to build quality content for you visitors.

And Building a quality site is just what makes Joomla a great tool to work with.

Looking at Joomla, you have a Content Management System that lets you Build large sites, with the possibility to give you site the right structure.

A structure that you can make out of Sections, which you then divide into categories.
And in those categories you put your content, your pages.

Once you defined you structure, start building, a few pages per week, will get you a site in one year that holds more than a hundred pages!

And building a page is easy in Joomla, push “new” in you content overview and start writing…

Use all the features that you can, from Title to Metatags Information, its all there.

Writing to Boost your ranking

You saw the way you can build and structure your site.
Try and do your writing the same way:

Your Writing is Your Best SEO

Make sure you write your headlines with passion, and make your paragraphs easy to identify.

Use short sentences where possible and look at the overall page impression.
Can you “scan” the page? Can you find your keywords in the bolded paragraph headings.

Use H2 and if necessary H3 HTML headers, But use the H1 not more then One or two times on a page.

But the most important thing you can do, is to write information that your visitors are looking for.
Whether your write about product, services or Information or a special subject, always but out the best you can.

Look at yourself, what do you want to read about if you are looking on information on you sites topic.
And then write about it!!

For Joomla SEO you need to be a Rocket Scientist!

Filed Under: Joomla Optimization, Joomla Seo

No, Not really af course..
You just have to work hard and in the right way, getting the technical stuff ready and write good quality content and lots of it.

But I just couldn't resist..
There is a lot of controversie at the moment about some statements and counter statements in the SEO blogosphere where post are made about if Search Engine Optimization is Rocket Science or just simple to do if you follow the standard Optimization Guidelines (SEO Basics Explained)

My mind just flipped matching two post together, the previous one, and the one I am talking to you about below.

I am reading (and get RSS Feeds) form several SEO Blogs, one them is the http://www.alledia.com/blog/
And they have done an Interview with Barrie North and they started with the first question about how he got into Joomla and what's his background.

I started out as a rocket scientist. No – really!

And Barrie mentioned that he started out as a Rocket Scientist and that he has his Masters in Physics!

If you have read this Blog for a while you should know that I think Barrie is one of the best in Joomla SEO.
So the combination is easily made :-)

But besides this little Mind spin of mine, the Interview gives you some idea about the person Barrie North and his drive to share his information on Joomla.

He also points out that SEO isn't what it used to be, that “old school” seo is indeed dead.
And I must admit that I also think SEO is a really fascinating concept and I want to add that you need to analyse your results to improve your knowledge.
So in that sense you could say its a bit like science….

Further there are some quality links to SEO resources in the Interview, so just go and read it yourself, just follow the links to Interview with Barrie North.

 

The influance of your Joomla Hosting on Search Engine Optimization

Filed Under: Joomla Seo, Search Engines

What does your hosting company have to do with your Search Engine Optimization efforts?

Well, a lot more than you might think!
Let's take some points to consider selecting your Hosting or if You need to move to another.

Your hosting company provides you with a platform to run your Joomla (or any other website) on.
Mostly they will offer your hosting on Linux, with Apache web server and a MySql database.
This is great stuff, most of the time running stable and without problems.

Now here are the things to look for:

1 Your site needs a really long time to load, even if you have almost no images.
2 Your site has frequent outages, and the helpdesk is not really helpful in getting the solution.
3 You cannot make and use your own .htaccess file (a must for Rewriting the URL to better page names)
4 The neighborhood (other sites hosted on the server) is not so good, in the worst case even a spammer.

Note 1. The spiders and bots only have a short time to index your site, before they move on…. they won't wait for a slow loading page…
Note 2. Problems with a website, are registered, not only by normal users but also by spiders.
To many unreachable URL's can get you thrown out because they think there is no site anymore.
Note 3. Your .htaccess helps you in getting the right URL's from your Joomla SEF component or even the standard SEF functionality.
Note 4. Servers that have Bad neighborhood websites, normally share an IP range, so if this range is identified as, let's say, “not so nice websites” there is a BIG change your site is influenced by them, thus dropping your ranking.

What you really, really want for your hosting
– fast servers, with a good infrastructure and good track record.
– Not too many websites on one server
– A good control panel that lets you manage every technical aspect of your website
– “Clean” servers, check if your hosting provider has a policy of banning “bad” sites.

And … a good “value for money” for You to give you a good feeling that you are in the right spot with your hosting.
So You see, speed and 24/7 access to the website is a real important aspect of Search Engine Optimization.

A Good Joomla Hosting is Siteground.com on which you get all of the above and more, go check it yourself.

 

Search Engine Optimization is Simple

Filed Under: Joomla, Joomla Seo, Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

What is this SEO all about?

Well, you and some other hundreds of thousands of people are wondering about the same thing.

But actually doing search engine optimization its not that difficult, it is about getting your website into the so called “organic search” results of the Search Engines, that's it!

You can have long discussions on how to do it, but the final results will be the same, getting ranked among the Top 10 Results of the keyword search you think your public will look for and then find the information you are providing!

Ok, let's read that again….
Results? That means the Search Engine Results Page.
Top 10? Most people who use Search Engines won't go further than the first page….

Silly people…they should know that you are on page 1267 of Google, so want don't they just look there?

The Most Important Part of Search Engine Optimization

Keyword you think?
This is actually the most important and hardest part of Search Engine Optimization…
Get into the mindset of the audience you want to get to your site, think like them, dress like them, eat like them, work like them, live like them, and finally Search Like Them!

If you can only manage the last part, you are on the right track!

Find those keywords that your potential visitors are looking for via Keyword tools like Google's Keyword Planner Tool. Once you found them get started by targeting them in your search engine optimization and content plan.

And If you are wondering if a Content Management System like Joomla or WordPress can do this?
I can tell you now, right here, YES they can!

Starting a Content Plan and Site Structure

Your site structure is one of the most important assets when it comes to ranking in the search engines. You site structure should reflect the topic of your website.

For example a website with WordPress as it's main topic should have at least these site topics:

  • WordPress Themes or WordPress Templates
  • WordPress Plugins
  • WordPress Tutorials
  • WordPress Blog and/or WordPress Website

For a site about Joomla! those topics could be:

  • Joomla Templates
  • Joomla Tutorials
  • How To Install Joomla
  • Joomla Components / Extensions

WordPress Website Structure

Setting those basic content structure in WordPress is done via Post Categories.

Got to Posts -> Categories and create the categories that you would like to write about on your site.

Once you have done that create a WordPress Menu (Apprearance -> Menu -> Create New menu) give your menu a name and save it. After saving you can add categories to it in a way you like and would help your visitors.

WordPress Menus ‹ Website Beginners Guide

Once saved you can place is as one of the sites primary or secondary navigation menu or as a custom menu widget in your sidebar.

Joomla Website Structure

In Joomla you can do the same as mentioned before, create the categories structure for your website.

Because of the way Joomla is build it just takes more steps to have your topics menu.

Go to Content -> Category Manager -> Add New Category.

Joomla Categories

Once you set-up the categories you add them to a menu.

First create a New menu via the menu manager.

Joomla - Menu Manager

Add the categories in a way you want them to be shown on the site (Blog layout, List or Page with all categories of you choice listed).

Menu Manager - New Menu Item

Then publish the menu module on the location you want it to appear on the site. See blow for a finished menu example.

Joomla Menu Garden Ideas - Crazy Beez Landscape Gardening

Creating Content for SEO

Now that you have your basic structure set-up start writing your content and keep your main topics in mind.

You can now easily place your articles in their respective categories. While creating your content also think about writing compelling articles titles and meta descriptions.

Your titles are you most powerful tools for attract visitors to you site as they will be shown in the search results pages. A good title will want the searcher to click on it to read the article you created.

A good meta description might help to get theme to read more… Just make sure you deliver or over-deliver on the topic that your articles is about.

Now you are set to grow your rankings based on your site structure and you can get some ideas for your website articles based on that structure.

Do you have any ideas on your own about the above mentioned SEO set-up? Let me know in the comments section below!

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