| Creating a website that is not accessible to search | | | | site. |
| engines, is like writing a book with no titles, | | | | How to solve these problems using the 1.5 Core |
| punctuations, or paragraphs. Although the information | | | | along with the SEF patch First the assumption is that |
| is there, it is hardly possible to envisage. This is a | | | | a person following these directions is a novice joomla |
| problem that has presented itself to the Joomla | | | | developer. If not, read an article on how to install and |
| community since the days of it's ancestor Mambo. | | | | use joomla before this one. |
| Web Developers were constantly forced to weigh | | | | Navigate to the global settings link on Joomla. There |
| the ease and organization of a Content Management | | | | should be SEO or SEF options. Select SEF URL's and |
| System with the priority of search engine presence. | | | | the apache_mod rewrite (if you have an apache |
| With the advent of Joomla 1.5 and a small amount of | | | | server). If you checked now you would notice when |
| work, even a novice web developer or business | | | | you click on a link in your website you no longer see |
| owner can optimize Joomla 1.5 with the SEF Patch. | | | | a nonsensical URL, but rather Category, Article, or |
| This Patch was released to augment and "hack" the | | | | Section alias (I.E. [ Now robots will be able to |
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) files that already | | | | associate the title of your site with its included |
| exist in Joomla 1.5's core, and upgrade them to | | | | content. |
| complete more functions such as applying Meta tags | | | | In most cases the links will not preserve the CSS and |
| to Sections and Categories, removing the Joomla | | | | template. To fix this issue, you must log onto your |
| Generated metatags, place html titles on pages, | | | | site using an FTP such as filezilla or cpanel's file |
| insert robot commands, and institute bot specific | | | | manager, and change the "htaccess.txt" file to |
| commands. | | | | ".htaccess" by renaming it. Now when you return to |
| Understanding Some Search Engine Basics | | | | your site it should be working correctly. |
| One of the method's that a search engine uses to | | | | This core enhancement from 1.0 still leaves much to |
| determine where a site ranks for a certain keyword | | | | be desired as a user can still not add HTML title tags |
| is by determining its relevancy to that keyword. Meta | | | | to Sections or Categories. SEF Patch can fix this. This |
| Tags, are Tags that the search engine reads to | | | | article will explain how to install and optimize SEF |
| determine what content that a page should be | | | | Patch 1.5, but for a full explanation of what this patch |
| relevant to. It also reads the site title, and URL to | | | | can do visit: Joomla patch I am in no way affiliated |
| see where they fit in to the description. | | | | with the SEF patch website, but as a Joomla |
| For example if XYZ service is the service that a John | | | | Developer they are one of my preferred SEO |
| Doe's website provided and a potential surfer were | | | | options. |
| to search for XYZ Service, John Doe would be most | | | | Download the patch, and unzip it to an empty |
| likely to come up high in the rankings if the following | | | | directory in your computer. Log into your FTP |
| were true: ~his site is or as a back up if its taken [ It | | | | program once again, select the root directory of the |
| is important that John Doe's website contain the | | | | Joomla install, and drag the folders and files over. Be |
| name XYZ service somewhere in the URL. ~His site | | | | careful not to insert them into another folder. Select |
| title contains pages named after keywords | | | | overwrite all files when asked. This will now overwrite |
| associated with xyz service. (I.E. if xyz service is a | | | | the specific core files that are pertinent to that |
| restaurant than he would want pages with the title | | | | installation with the optimized patch. |
| tag of xyz menu, about our xyz service, our xyz | | | | Log back into your Joomla account, and you should |
| locations.) ~One of the keywords in the Meta Tag | | | | see a New SEO button on your global setting field. |
| should be XYZ service, as well as other relevant tags | | | | Now when adding content you will have an HTML |
| that are likely to appear in the content of the site. | | | | title option available, as well as a robot command |
| (i.e. the if local the location of the service, style of | | | | (index, follow). |
| xyz service offered, other variations of names for | | | | Warning: It is best to apply this patch before adding |
| xyz service.) ~The search engine will then look to | | | | content. If you already have content delete all meta |
| match the keywords with the content of John Doe's | | | | information and alias titles before patching. Some |
| associated page. For the index page it is important | | | | people have reported duplicate titles if this isn't done. |
| that the article content contain many if not all of the | | | | You can also disable the Joomla meta generator, |
| keywords. Each page should have the keywords and | | | | which is useless to the average website. |
| content that make it relevant to a search. (I.E. th | | | | When adding menu items, (sections, categories, or |
| restaurant menu page should have content and | | | | articles) you can now add meta content, titles, and |
| keywords that are pertinent to the search XYZ | | | | tags for them as well. This is an highly beneficial |
| service menu, XYZ service food, etc) | | | | feature for multi-level sites that utilize the section and |
| These simple-yet necessary- website functions are | | | | category features. |
| an integral part of the average SEF page. Joomla | | | | Once this is completed your site has now advanced |
| uses databases and something called dynamic | | | | greatly in its readability by search robots. It's as if a |
| content to generate pages. It uses long url's that | | | | person took that book without the correct spelling |
| have no sensible meaning (ie. xyzservice.com | | | | and punctuation and ran it through a grammar and |
| index?232+.php?dd%?) A search engine doesn't | | | | spell checker. It comes out a great deal more |
| associate this with anything pertinent to a site, and | | | | comprehensible, as will your website. |
| can even have a hard time indexing and crawling the | | | | |