This document provides an overview of search engine optimization (SEO) best practices for Joomla websites. It touches on topics like choosing keyword-rich domain names and titles, using search engine friendly (SEF) URLs, optimizing content with keywords and descriptions, improving link building, and managing XML sitemaps and the robots.txt file. The goal is to help websites rank higher in search engines and attract more organic traffic through proper on-page SEO implementation and technical configuration in Joomla. The presentation ends with an invitation for questions from the audience.

1. Proper SEO with Joomla!
Paul van Jaarsveld – @kalemanzi
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2. Summary
Basics and Vanilla Joomla SEO
● Touching on 3rd Party SEF
● Q&A + forum
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3. What's in a name?
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Good domain name = headstart
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Domain age – older = better
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Choose keywords you want to rank for
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Market, geo location, uniqueness eg. jbaysurfphotography.com
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Pitfalls: abbr.
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Pitfalls: _ or -
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4. SEF URLS
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index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=9
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http://dentalstudio.co.za/equipment-used/painless-injections
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How to setup Joomla for SEF URLS
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Alias in articles / menu items
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SEF Components – SH404, Joomsef, AceSEF
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Extention specific plugins
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5. Title tag
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Keyword rich, but not stuffed
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30-70 characters
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Google puts lots of weight on title
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Google uses title tag direct for results page
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Joomla title tag (global + menu based)
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Consise and unique to page / content
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6. Description meta tag
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Unique per item
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Clearly tagged facts
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Quality tags – descriptive
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In Joomla (Global + Article / category)
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Automatic generation
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Intro text
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7. Keywords meta tag
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Google – not since 2009, others do
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Unique per item + 3 global
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Take keywords used in content
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Quality + related (eg. NOT Rec studio + sex)
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In Joomla (Global + Article / category)
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Auto generators?
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8. TEXT / Copy
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Content is KING!
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Search engines serve people, people read content
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Entice users to read more
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Copy should be natural. Read it out loud
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Avoid keyword stuffing
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9. Images and rich content
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Prodical of Joomla SEO
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Search engines cant see pictures
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Alt tag + description tag
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Describe what the picture is about
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Inside Joomla
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Flash – Bling vs SEO friendly
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10. 404 and 301
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How do you manage 404 pages – docs.joomla.org
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We have moved
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301 redirection – normally .htaccess
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301 redirection – Joomla 2.5 redirect manager
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All SEF components include 301 and 404 management
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11. Who are your friends? Inbound links
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Eg. Real estate valuation
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Quality inbound links from credible sources!
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Comment on other people's blogs (not nofollow)
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Use RSS features to syndicate content
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Pump RSS into twitter / facebook
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Social bookmarking for each article
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Avoid link farms, questionable content
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12. Sitemap, robots.txt and noindex
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Easy to find content (bots, people)
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Set boundaries
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Use the robots.txt to stop bots
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<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
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Crawl rate – Google WM Tools
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Crawl rate yahoo + MSN in robots.txt
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Calendar extentions problem
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13. Thankyou!
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Questions
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Comments
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Suggestions
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