Website Beginners Guide

Learn How to Start Your Own Internet Site & More

search

Search Engine Friendly? A WordPress, Joomla and Drupal Comparison.

Filed Under: SEO

First off, search engine friendly is not the same as search engine optimized!
This is something Joost de Valk already wrote about in his post Search Engine Friendly vs Search Engine Optimized

Search engine optimization does go a lot further then making a search engine friendly website, and building a Content Management system for websites that is search engine optimized…, that is just not possible…

What is possible is to look at the search engine friendliness of three popular Open Source CM systems.
Basics for this comparison are the options necessary that are in the system itself and not those things that can by done with Content, Images, Layout or other aspects.
So no info about H1 or H2, no alt or title tags for images and more.
No, you can read here about:

  • The possibility to influence the HTML title separate from the content title
  • The possibility to use the Metatags like Description and Keywords on individual content items
  • Create search engine friendly URLs, preferably with keywords in it, or other wise with as little possible use of parameters like id_?=12 or similar.

For all three system's the comparison is with the following technical hosting specification:

  • Linux (UNIX) based hosting
  • PHP 4 or PHP 5
  • Apache webserver with Mod_Rewrite active

WordPress, Drupal en Joomla

WordPress search engine friendly

WordPress

  • URL Rewrite is easy to realize with the “Permalink” option, WordPress can set the right .htaccess options in the file if the file is writable. My own mostly used option is to use the custom option /%postname%/ with which the post title is also the URL. You can change the URL by changing the text in the “Post Slug” option.
  • Title is naturally  the standard title of your post, but you want more control on the option for search engine, that is why your could use the  SEO Title tag plugin with just a minor change in your template.
  • Metatags in a basic WordPress installation there is no possibility to change the “Description” and “Keywords” per post or page. With the All-in-one-SEO-Pack plugin you will have all these options. You can also change the Title with this plugin, but I like the overview and options that SEO Title tag will give you.
    You can use both plugins at the same time if you disable the title rewrite option in All-in-one-SEO-Pack

Tip: Use the optional excerpt function to generate the Meta description, that will also give you better archive pages, since most of the templates use that data for the archive page creation.

Drupal search engine friendly

Drupal

  • URL rewrite in Drupal you need to use the site configuration option “Clean URLs” that also can change your .htaccess file if it is writable. But that just changes your URL to /node/1/ instead off q=1. And you need more…. That is why you need to install the “pathauto” module and you activate the modules “path” and “pathauto”.
  • Title this is just as with the other just the title of your content item, but with the Page Title module you just have a little more control about the title tag, but not a lot.
  • Metatags in the standard installation of Drupal this option is also not available, but with the Meta Tags Nodeword module you will get that possibility.

Tip: Set in the Pathauto module in the general settings the option at “Update action” to “Do Nothing” with this option you will later have the possibility to change the title without changing the URL.

Joomla search engine friendly

Joomla 1.0

  • URL rewrite in version 1.0.x of Joomla there is an SEO option in the main configuration screen, a standard htaccess.txt file is included in the package en needs to be renamed to .htaccess. With this option enabled URLs are made on the base of ID numbers like Domain-name/12/25/3/, but here you also want more… that is why you should install a SEF Component like sh404SEF that will give you much better URLs. And it will give you a good 404 error page that will also uses a proper 404 header. (Joomla standard will give an 200 OK and redirects you to the Homepage…)
  • Title with the same SEF component you will get the opportunity to use the title alias function for you URL so you can use your normal article title for you optimization. For an optimal use of titles, and also for your menu items, you can use the SEF Patch of Joomlatwork , there is also a paid version that will give you a separate HTML Title option for more control like the WordPress SEO Title plugin.
  • Metatags the description and keyword options are already in a standard Joomla incorporated for each article, but not for menu items, you will have to get the above mentioned SEF Patch to use that.

Tip: Choose with any SEF component you use alway the option /category/title and not /section/category/title to get a little shorter URLs. /title/ alone is also a possibility but not as good, because you can run into trouble like things like /Drupal/installation manual.HTML and /WordPress/installation manual.HTML (Drupal en WordPress are here been used as categories)

Joomla 1.5

  • URL Rewrite is in Joomla 1.5 done with the SEO settings in your Global configuration, but you have now three options, unfortunately in each of those options, there is always an item ID number in the URL.
    • SEF on, will give you directly URLs with the title in it, but with index.php in the URL. (can also be used on windows hosting)
    • SEF with the use of .htaccess, this will also give you the URL with title, but than without the index.php
    • Use suffix, this options sets a .HTML at the end of your URL
    • Attention! Joomla 1.5 uses the title alias, but you have to set the “-” between the words in your URL options, otherwise you will get a %20% in your URL if you leave it blank.
  • Title here Joomla will use the standard article title, if your want more control, than you can use the new Joomla 1.5 SEF patch from Joomlatwork.com (Dutchies ;-)) and I have to add here that Richard of Joomlatwork already has stated that the SEF patch will be update with each release until it is in the Joomla core!
    If you use the SEF patch you get an extra SEO tab in your configuration screen, don't forget to set the minimal [TITLE] option, otherwise your title will show your URL as title.
  • Metatags are also like the “old” Joomla version built-in for articles and site wide via your Global configuration. But like with the old version, here is the same advice to get more control use the SEF patch of Joomlatwork.com .

Tip: For both versions of Joomla versions an advice, do not use the Global Metatag settings! With version 1.0.x you will get the text of the Globals on top of the page Metatags which will leave you with pretty much the same Metatags in the search engines as snippets, version 1.5 does this a lot better, and will not fill it with the standard if you use the page description.However is does set this if the page description is empty…

WordPress Drupal of Joomla

Conclusion: None of the three is out-of-the-box ready as search engine friendly Content Management system. With all three there needs to be done some extra work to realize the desired options.

For me they all have there own usage:

  • WordPress works great for smaller websites and even bigger Blogs
  • Joomla is fine for SMB websites and, with some extra extensions can be used for bigger sites as well.
    Especially the easy and user friendliness is great for less “technical” webmasters.
  • Drupal can do almost everything, but for me is somewhat staying behind the others because of the lack of user friendliness for those who have the maintain and edit the page content.

But the most important factor in the choice of system is still what your customer wants and the ease of use for him/her… if the site has to become a success, then it must by their website, and to achieve that they have to be able to easily maintain the site themselves!
For search engine optimization…, well, that is why there are specialists, those who will look at the details… and each of them will have there own preferences for a certain system.

O yes, tips and  other options… the comments are open :-)

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!!

Is Google Custom Search Engine a new SEO Tool or Threat

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

Google has brought us webmasters a new and exicting tool !

Google Custom Search Engine, with this option you can promote some websites you think should be better found because of the content they have on a the specific subject of your website.

You think they don't get enough results on that special search term, but you know there content is of high quality and they should be in the top results……

Well, now you can help those website to get into the top, on your own search engine that is…

The process of creating and implementing the Google Custom Search Engine is pretty simpel, leave it to Google to make it work that way.

I even placed it in my pathos-seo.com Joomla website without any problems
And there is also a Tutorial on How to Integrate Google CSE Custom Search Engine in Joomla

So, a new cool feature..
But what is in it for Google?

  1. They get to Us with a new feature we can use, so we give them credit for it , so they create some Goodwill.
  2. Google gets an extra platform from us to place their Adwords Adsense promotionel links, that brings (us* and) them more money….
  3. We provide them with highly rated websites on specifick keywords….they analyse their database and find there are some websites with authority that people put into the sites section of there custom search eninge…social networking on a new level…
  4. The database gives better search results, that benefit us all.

So if your website is stored in the favorites sites section of a Custom Search Engine, does that boost you ranking?
If so, how many links do you need?

How much weight does it get in the long run, and do our Search Engine Optimization technics still bring the same results?

Is it a new factor we should look at as a Blessing, a Tool or a Threat?

* If you have an adsense account and set the right option in your control panel. 

Why are Search Engine Spiders so Important

Filed Under: Search Engines

Why are Spiders so Important

Spiders are one of the two the most important programs for Internet Search Engines.

A Spider, or Robot or Crawler, is a piece of program that the search engines send out into the web.
They read page after page, follow hyperlinks to other sites and read and read and read….
All what the read goes into their Back Pack end is taken back to the Search Engine at came from and give his food to his family.

Alls these pages out of the Back Pack are off great value for the Search Engines, it is going to be their “Content”.
Search engines run their other important program (their algorithm) to index and sort and rank the pages.
Based on the results of these calculations are the pages that you get served when you do a search on the main page of sites like, Yahoo, Google, MSN etc…

Naturally, the better the combination of Spider and Algorithm, the better your search result will be.

So what do you feed these important spiders?

Simple, content…high quality content …
Af course this is always the base to get good rankings.

But you can help them even better, by providing them keywords that they can use to put your pages on the right search word result page.
Feed them a proper description of the page, so they can use that instead of boiling up their own.

But still, even better use your HTML tags like < h1 > and make the important texts stand out like “Bold” or “Italic” and even “underline”.
And sometimes-, and use these sparingly, give it a Yellow background to highlight that very special Item.

Spider and Search Engines give them also the proper importance when they find those tags.

I hope I give you some inside on the importance and relation of spiders and your search engine ranking.

Write your Page Description

Filed Under: SEO for Your Website

Making Your First Impression on Your Visitor.

The Description tag is what people read on the Search Engine Results Page.

So make sure this First Impression is bringing in Your Visitor.

The Description Tag is right up there in the Search Engine!!

If you look at your own way of searching in Google, Bing, or Yahoo, you will probably do the same thing most of us do.

You will search on one keyword or more and check the results…

What do You check to see if the site has the information you want?

What do you read right there on the results page?

Exactly!! The lyrics are right below the Title of the Page you got served…

And what is the Site You will most likely visit First?
And again Right on the Money, You see NOW why this description is so important!!

NOTE: Google might serve you a portion of the page, a paragraph, or a text part.

But if there is no real part that is special on the site, you WILL get the description.o write your description with the keywords you seek and you use on the page.
But take time to write that First Impression!!

Make sure you talk to your visitor right there!! So YOU will have the site they want to visit FIRST.

First Impression of Early Microsoft years

So did You also Look at this Picture First, before reading the Text?
And what was your First Impression then of these Guys and Girls?

P.s. You must at least recognize Bill Gates in the bottom left corner.

Get your Title right

Filed Under: Seo Basics, SEO for Your Website

The first thing You HAVE to do is get your Title right

This one is really important.

The Title of your page is the First thing that search engines look for and display in the search results.
So you got to nail this one, or you lose every run.

The title of your site page article must be like a Newspaper Headline.

It must indicate to your readers what you want to tell them and tickle their curiosity to read on beyond the Title header.

Your web page title is the One Thing that stands out in the Search engines.
It is getting your ranking into shape and attracting your visitors to come in, together with your description meta-tag.

How to write good Titles?

Think up a good headline before you write your article!
Put yourself in the driver's seat of the web surfer you would like to have as a visitor on Your site.
Thinks how you would search for the topic you want to address in your article!
Then do your keyword research and find out what people REALLY use as search terms to find information on that subject!!.

Then write your page title with the found major keyword, or a nice combination of keywords as a major part of the Headline.

P.s. Your title should not be longer than 64 characters.

Do It Yourself Site SEO for Joomla Optimization

Filed Under: Joomla Seo

Search Engines and Joomla

Greatly Improve Joomla Websites with Search Engine Optimization

When I build my first Joomla site, it was pretty easy, at least that's what I thought.

I Read everything about Sections, Categories, Components, Modules, and Mambots.
Also about the Free Joomla Templates, which many of you are still seeking.

The best thing was, I got my site online, filled it with rich content, after all, everybody knows now ‘Content is King' and Voilà, ready..they will come!

Pages were read, every day after going live, the Joomla statistics showed me how many hits every page got!
Until I got hold off a free external Statistics Counter……
After a week I figured it out, the one person reading my pages was ME!

Getting the right visitors

This site is up and running to prevent You from making the same mistake.
You need to optimize your site so Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing can find you, index you with ease and get you to the positions you deserve.

You will find a ton of information about Search Engine Optimization SEO and SEF on this site, not only for Joomla but for every website that wants to rank high in every Search Engine.

There is a special section on SEO for Joomla with Search Engine Optimization Information for this Cms.

Joomla SEF

Why is this Search Engine Friendly ( SEF ) so important for a Site that runs a Content Management System?
And is this really that important?

First, for some search engine spiders, it is still very difficult to index dynamic URLs.
So a URL that reads like
http://www.domeinname.com/index.php?component_name&SectionID=1
Is really not going to be indexed as well as:
https://www.diysiteseo.com/joomla-seo-optimization/the-best-joomla-sef-component.html

Which has more of the keywords in the URL and doesn't have strange things like ? & and + in it.

Don't forget, all the information on this site is focused on Quality Content, not Black Hat optimization !!