SEO friendly URLs in Joomla?

[Bruceamazing]

Yo,

Hope this is the right forum to paste this in ,,

but does anyone know if joomla has a module or fixed its previous problem - that I still have .. of including a number in front of the keywords in the URL. Previously it had just numbers until a friend helped me install the Keyword to URL module (yay). worse still is the resources module. It is goog using it rather than creating a new page and doing it a lot more manually, but currently the on-page link includes my websites URL first then their site as a sub-domain - understandably potential reciprocal link people don't want to swap with me, if google cant read their link directly from my page.

any fixes?

 

[scm03]

I started using joomla but found wordpress to be more user friendly CMS for a non-techie such as myself. I vaguely remember having an issue with the search friendly url. I cant remember how I fixed it though. try out wordpress if you havent already. that was my ultimate solution.

 

[darkfury]

Been a while since I've used Joomla - but I do remember certain templates not playing nicely with SEF and certain templates working very nicely with SEF.

 

[Bruceamazing]

hi,

thats right, am using the SEF module for my own site, but doesnt seem to fix the resources box issue, and would prefer using the module rather than adding links manually in a table.

alternatively, its a long stretch but have just read about hotboy's use of xsitepro - that a few people seem to be using and enjoying. wonder if thats a better solution again?

 

[freller]

I used to use Joomla a lot, but not any more.

Joomla always has been a pig to SEO and it's not changed much recently - it often breaks with different addon components and modules, or even just when updating the core. Save yourself a lot of pain by moving to WP or plain HTML/CSS.

 

[webchick11]

I use Joomla for most of my sites - the latest release has a wonderful SEO section in the Global Configuration settings specifically titled: SEO settings (right hand side of the screen).

All you need to do is click yes for "search engine friendly urls", "apache mod_rewrite", and yes to "add suffix to urls". No need for any seo extensions.

You also need to change the htaccess.txt file in the main directory of your site (via file manager in cpanel) to .htaccess in order for the above to work. Your urls will then have nice file names instead of numbers.

 

[Bruceamazing]

webchick - thanks for the advice, i use the meta-data boxes in joomla, but seems that a few people are divided as to whether it is useful for seo at all. i was going to look at wordpress buy my tech guy went with joomla instead.

maybe xsite pro will automate much of the things a money making site will need? anyway thanks a lot, i have forwarded your post to my techie ...

B

 

[blackmagicmaster]

joomla is great platform for sites very quality looking templates and all available with seo and every other powerful functions only thing i hate about it its having learning curve !! not simple like wordpress !!

 

[spacer005]

I like joomla for putting a site together rather quickly and so far it seems due well with ranking as far as seo if you take your time and do it right. - IMO

 

[blackhat-dudette]

As an SEO expert, Joomla is the pits!

I hate it, many a client site has been broken (then fixed) by making the smallest of changes.

And the worst bit, When you make an SEO friendly title tag, 9 times out 10 it changes the menu text.

AAARRggghhh,
Stay away x

 

[blackmagic_80]

I will have to agree with BH dudette that at times Joomla proves to be a nuisance as far as SEO is concerned. Also with all those duplicate url and other issues it takes a fair bit of tweaking .

That said, if you are good with robot.txt and .htaccess , most of the joomla SEO issues can be solved. Do watch your webmaster stats carefully and monitor if broken links are reported or otherwise. While i love Joomla ( having developed over a couple dozen portals) I will say it does provide some challenge for SEO.

Havent tried xsitepro so cant comment but Wordpress is as good as it gets with SEO and wide range availability IMO.

All the best with whatever you choose to do!

 

[blackhat-dudette]

Glad someone else agrees Blackmagic.

I find website baker is pretty good as far as SEO editing goes, thats what I offer my clients as a CMS option to their sites.

 

[Bruceamazing]

so ... its a few down votes for joomla, a big word up to wordpress ..

and no one has tried xsitepro? just thought since the download was floating around here that with its spiffy video that you guys would be all over it?

The main reason I am asking all these Q's is that i want to start a small to mid portfolio of sites, and would like them on the one most useable, editable, seo platform. Have heard that not everyone likes wordpress, and i liked the xsitepro vid because it seemed to suggest that it was full of very well designed templates with many options.

I have put too many pages on my own joomla site to swap over, so this is why i am trying to get it moderately right now, saving heart ache and pain later.

 

[ukescuba]

@blackhat-dudette just curious as to what makes you an seo expert?

Can you expand more on your issues with Joomla, from your statement your obviously not doing something right changing your title shouldnt change your menu text? What type of training have you had or what resource did you learn Joomla from?

For me I find Joomla to be quiet the opposite, having built a very successful business around Joomla/SEO over the past 5 years.

 

[bizminder]

I use Joomla for most of my sites - the latest release has a wonderful SEO section in the Global Configuration settings specifically titled: SEO settings (right hand side of the screen).

All you need to do is click yes for "search engine friendly urls", "apache mod_rewrite", and yes to "add suffix to urls". No need for any seo extensions.

You also need to change the htaccess.txt file in the main directory of your site (via file manager in cpanel) to .htaccess in order for the above to work. Your urls will then have nice file names instead of numbers.

Not sure how much that will help, but Jhoomla has not really improved. Wordpress has some amazing features.

 

[macpaulos]

I'm a complete noob with Joomla and Wordpress. I started learning due to a friends recommendation. Sometimes I wanna kill that same friend but I'm glad he pushed me towards Joomla. My sites look far more better than my wordpress sites ever did. Easy to integrate forums and many other things. As with WP you need to find a nice plugin to do what you want. For SEO I use the SEF404 (on Joomla) the free and old version. Does exactly what I need, no issues at all. Dunno what problems people have with Joomla and SEO. If I can do it, I'm sure anyone can!

 

[Shishko]

I can highly recommend joomla as I use it for myself probably a year and rank very good

You can use the already installed seo plugin, go into global configuration and then enable seo friendly urls, notice that for mod-rewrite, you need to change the htaccess.txt to .htaccess anything else pm me.

For all of you that complaint about seo plugins for joomla, you are newbies, there are a lot of extensions for joomla which are really great. There are seo extensions that auto generate descritption and keywords by analyzing your article and that's enought.

Best regards

 

[merovatis]

I agree 100% with Shishko.

 

[Eddie]

Joomla! rocks!

Here is a list of various SEF related Joomla! extensions:

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/site-management/sef

 

[gypsy777]

sh404sef and SEF patch from joomlatwork.com and you're set.