Chapter 12. Attracting Search Engine Traffic – SEO Tips and Techniques

You've created a great site. Now, it's time to get the world to discover that it's there! So far, you've focused on the site's content, navigation, extra features, and design. In this chapter, let's see what you can do to attract more visitors (or site traffic, as it's usually called). You'll deploy some essential techniques and basic settings in Joomla that can influence your search engine rankings. This is called Search Engine Optimization.

In this chapter, you'll learn about the following topics:

• Optimizing articles

• Adding metadata to your content

• Using search engine friendly URLs

• Creating internal hyperlinks

• Redirecting visitors to updated URLs

Working on search engine optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a subject surrounded with many secrets and myths—and with gurus claiming they have the definite answers to all questions. As search engines obviously won't reveal the secret algorithms they use to calculate the rankings of their search results, these definite answers do not exist. There's no SEO technique or mix of SEO techniques that will bring you overnight success. However, there are some common sense techniques that you can apply in your Joomla-powered site to optimize your visibility to search engines and to get them to pick up your content.

The first and foremost SEO rule is to make sure you offer great content. If you don't have a site that's regularly updated with quality content, people won't bother to visit (and they certainly won't bother to come back). Only if your site offers relevant content, it is worth optimizing that content for best search engine results.

Why do you need to accommodate search engines...

Optimizing articles to make them easy to find

When writing or editing articles in Joomla's article editor, what can you do to optimize your content for search engine visibility? Let's start with some simple good practices.

The article title – making it meaningful

The first thing to think about carefully is the article title, the very first piece of data you enter in the article editor. In Joomla, the title entered in the article Title field will be displayed in two key positions. It's of course shown above the article itself, but it's also displayed in the browser title bar or in the current browser tab, as shown in the following screenshot:

It's a good idea to use strong, meaningful, descriptive, and specific titles. Don't use similar titles for different articles. Make sure you know what people are looking for on your site; if possible, use relevant keywords in your article titles. If you're aiming at amateur painters, it's good to have clear titles carrying keywords that appeal to your readers...

Configuring HTML page titles

It's considered good SEO practice to not only add a specific page heading (contained in the H1 element), but to also make sure that each page has a descriptive HTML page title (the title element). Page titles are one of the most important ranking factors for search engines, so it's important to make sure that they contain relevant information about the content. The contents of the title element aren't displayed on the web page itself, but they're shown in the current browser tab.

Time for action – setting the HTML page title

By default, Joomla bases the HTML page title upon the menu link text (the menu item's Menu Title field). However, you can also control the page title text manually. If you want the HTML page title to be different from the menu item title, you can set a specific HTML page title in the menu link details. Let's find out how this works:

1. Navigate to Menus | Menu Manager and select the menu that contains the link you want to edit. In this example, let's select the Main Menu.

2. Click on any menu link to edit it. In the Page Display tab, enter the desired text in the Browser Page Title field. For testing purposes, you can enter something like Browser Page Title Set in Menu Item. This is shown in the following screenshot:

   

3. Click on Save & Close and then click on View Site to see the output on the frontend. Navigate to the menu item that you've changed to see the new title in the browser title bar (and in the current browser tab), as shown in the following...

Adding meaningful metadata

So far, we've focused on actual content. You've seen how you can optimize articles to present their content in a clear and well-structured way. However, web pages also contain information that's not shown to site visitors, but it is aimed specifically at search engine robots. This information is called metadata.

Metadata is information about the contents of the HTML document hidden in the document's source code. Browsers (and search engines) will read it; humans won't know it's there (unless they specifically look for it by selecting the View source option in their web browser). Search engines may present the content of the meta description tag in the search results page. Although meta keywords aren't of importance for many search engines anymore, it won't hurt to add meaningful metadata to your site.

In Joomla, you can enter metadata on the following four levels:

• Site-wide, through the Global Configuration screen

• For individual menu links

• For individual categories

• For...

Time for action – personalizing the site metadata

You'll find the controls to optimize your site for search engine traffic in the backend configuration panel. First, let's add some global keywords that characterize the site's content:

1. Navigate to System | Global Configuration. In the Site tab, there's a section called Metadata Settings.

2. Change the global Site Meta Description default text to a short summary of the content of your website. In our example, we'll enter CORBA is an international club of Collectors Of Really Bad Art.

3. In the global Site Meta Keywords textbox, enter a few keywords that match the content of your website. Make sure to use the words and synonyms that the visitor might use to search for your site's contents. You'll probably use a few words that are also part of the site description. In our example, we'll enter these keywords: bad art, ugly art, and bad paintings. The Metadata Settings section should now look similar to what is shown in the following screenshot:

   

4. Click on...

Using search engine friendly URLs

So far, we've focused on SEO techniques that you can apply when writing and formatting articles and when adding metadata. Another technique that can make search engines pick up the content of your site more easily is to make your URLs clear and readable.

You don't have to do anything to make this happen. By default, the Search Engine Friendly URLs option is set to Yes. In the SEO Settings window (found by navigating to System | Global Configuration | Site Tab), you can set the Search Engine Friendly URLs option to Yes if it is not already set. This is shown in the following screenshot:

The resulting URLs are readable and easy to understand. For example, http://www.example.com/index.php/getting-started. This is good news for site administrators, as they don't have to change any settings here. The default URLs are fine for search engines.

There's still some room for improvement. All default Joomla URLs still share the index.php file bit. You can get rid of this...

Adding extra links to the site's content

Search engines rate your site higher if it's an active part of the World Wide Web community. That means it's good to create links to other sites (outbound links) that offer relevant quality content on related subject matter.

Of course, it's great if other quality sites contain links to your site. One way to get the world to notice your site is to notify Google, Bing, and others that they're welcome to index your content; all search engines have a service that allows you to submit your site. Another way to get others to link to your site is by submitting your site to several useful directories. Other sites or blogs might want to link to your site if you offer good and relevant content. You can also consider writing articles for related sites, on the condition that these sites allow you to link back to your site.

It's also worthwhile to add internal links (that is, links within your site). By adding these, you'll make it easier for both visitors and search...

Time for action – adding a list of links to popular articles

Let's add a list of links to popular articles on the example site. This can be done as follows:

1. Navigate to Extensions | Module Manager. Click on New.

2. Select the Most Read Content module. In the Module Most Read Content screen, enter the details for this module. In the Title field, enter Popular Articles.

3. In the Position field, select the Footer3 [footer3] option to show this module at the bottom right-hand position of the Ice Future template (covered in the previous chapter). This is shown in the following screenshot:

   

4. Leave the other settings as they are. By default, the settings in the Menu Assignment tab will make the module display on all pages. The basic options are set to show a list of five hyperlinks from all articles.

5. Click on Save and then click on View Site to see the output on the frontend of the site. This is shown in the following screenshot:

What just happened?

You added the Most Read Content module to your site to display...

Adding microdata to your content

By adding microdata to the HTML code of your web pages, you can help search engines to understand the actual content of those pages. Microdata is a set of HTML tags that add structured information to text strings on the page. They explain, for example, that two words used on the page are a person's first name and surname, or that another string of words is that person's job title, or that a particular place mentioned on the page is an address, or a region, and so on.

Microdata isn't displayed on the web page, but it's read by search engines. By offering information (such as names and places) in a structured way, microdata allows search engines to interpret content and display it in a more meaningful way in search results lists. This gives a better preview of the sites listed. The idea behind microdata is that people searching the Web should find the content they're looking for easily.

Joomla 3.3 will automatically add microdata on your Joomla-powered site....

Redirecting visitors after pages have been moved

Joomla features a component called Redirect Manager. It works in conjunction with a plugin called Redirect, which is enabled by default. The Redirect Manager and plugin keep track of any Page Not Found errors that occur when visitors are trying to visit pages in the current domain that have been removed or deleted. On the Redirect Manager screen, these URL errors are listed. This way, you can keep an eye on the old URLs that still attract visitors, but just generate Page Not Found errors. For each of these URLs, you can choose to redirect future visitors to the right pages.

This feature can be quite useful, especially if you're migrating to a new site. URLs from your old site are bound to change, resulting in broken links from other sites that still point to expired URLs. Using URL redirection will also help search engine spiders to detect valuable content, instead of just hitting a dead-end error page.

Time for action – creating page redirects

Let's assume you've replaced your old site with a brand new one. We'll try out how the Redirect Manager component works by entering a nonexisting, old URL and telling the Redirect Manager what new page it should show instead. This can be done as follows:

1. Navigate to Extensions | Plugins and search for the Redirect plugin. Click on its status icon to toggle the status to Enabled.

2. Go to Components | Redirect to open the Redirect Manager: Links screen, as shown in the following screenshot:

   

   Through the course of time, this screen will automatically be populated with broken links (expired URLs). These are URLs that visitors have entered or clicked on in their browser and that have generated an error page. Clicking on an expired URL will allow you to enter a redirect URL. However, if you've just installed Joomla or if your site isn't live yet, the Redirect Manager: Links screen won't contain any expired URLs.

3. Click on New to open the Redirect Manager: Link...

Getting to know more about your site's traffic

In this chapter, you've focused on optimizing your site to get search engines to notice its content and to entice people to explore it and to visit your site regularly. However, the best way to improve your sites visibility is to get to know your visitors really well. Where do they come from? What search words do they use to end up on your site? What are the articles they favor? A great free tool to help you discover all there is to know on your site traffic is Google Analytics.

Using Google Analytics will help you understand what makes your visitors tick and can make it easier to effectively adapt your content, the language, the keywords you use, and even your choice of subjects to what your visitors care for. It's easy to use Google Analytics to analyze Joomla sites, and it's free. Make sure to get an account at www.google.com, then go to www.google.com/analytics and sign up for this service. Add the domain you want to keep track of. Google...

More SEO resources

Using your favorite search engine to do a web search for Joomla SEO will help you on your way when you want to know more about optimization techniques. If you want to delve a little deeper into the principles of SEO for your website, make sure you have a look at the Google starter guide on SEO at http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf.

You might also want to have a look at the following sites:

• Read through the SEO tips for Joomla on the Joomla Blogger site at http://www.joomlablogger.net/seo.

• Take a look at the Joomla community magazine on SEO at http://magazine.joomla.org/issues/issue-feb-2012/item/675-5-great-SEO-Resources-Be-Your-Very-Own-SEO-Expert-for-Free.

• Browse the SEO, metadata, and SEF categories of the Joomla extensions directory at http://extensions.joomla.org to get an idea of the many extensions available. This will assist you in optimizing your site's search engine visibility.

Pop quiz – test your knowledge of Joomla...

Summary

In this chapter, we've covered some search engine optimization techniques that will help in getting your site's content picked up by search engines. We learned the following topics:

• First of all, making sure your site contains valuable and relevant content is the best way to optimize search engine visibility.

• It's important to use the appropriate heading elements to organize the article text (such as H3, H4, H5, and H6). Another way to tell search engines what your site is about is by adding metadata.

• Joomla generates search engine friendly URLs; the browser address bar displays readable URLs that match the content of the page.

• Linking is very important. It's good to link to other sites, it's great if other sites link to your site, and it's also useful to create links within your site. Joomla allows you to automatically create internal hyperlinks—lists of links to popular or recently updated articles.

• The Redirect Manager in Joomla helps you to direct visitors and search engine spiders...