Joomla + SEO + Google - Joomla!Days NL 2009 #jd09nl

Joomla! + SEO + GOOGLE Joomla!days Netherlands 2009 Jessica Dunbar

What we will learn

How can Google help you optimizing your site, and how does that work when you use Joomla? A quick tour about search engine optimalization and available tooling from Google to make your website rank higher."

Webmasters Feelings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXODTDZAyxQ

Google 101

Guidelines

Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.

Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.

Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.

Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images. If you must use images for textual content, consider using the "ALT" attribute to include a few words of descriptive text.

Make sure that your <title> elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.

Check for broken links and correct HTML. VALIDATE!

Domain Name Vs. Business name

Organic Vs. Paid SEO only effects organic placement

Crawling

Crawling is the process by which Googlebot discovers new and updated pages to be added to the Google index.

Indexing

Googlebot processes each of the pages it crawls in order to compile a massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page.

Title Tags and ALT attributes

. In addition, Google process information included in key content tags and attributes, such as Title tags and ALT attributes. Googlebot can process many, but not all, content types.

For example, cannot process the content of some rich media files or dynamic pages.

Images

<img src=“image.png” alt=“image keyword” />

Hyperlinks

<a href=http://testsite.com title=“Title for this link”>Keyword in anchor text</a>

Serving

When a user enters a query, Google machines search the index for matching pages and return the results Google believe are the most relevant to the user.

Google works hard to improve the user experience by identifying spam links and other practices that negatively impact search results. The best types of links are those that are given based on the quality of your content.

Content

Do’s & Don’ts of Content

Grhammer Correct

Organize

DON’T

dump large amounts of text on varying topics onto a page without

paragraph, subheading, or layout separation

Use relevant language

The Plan

Make a content plan; who, what, when, target audience etc.

When you blog, write like you are directly speaking with that person, visualize him/her

Use words, phrases that people search for

Organize your Content

Like a librarian:

Books needs labeling correctly (correct title, category and meta tagging).

Put the right content in the right spot of you site.

Use Google Analytics and Webmaster console to learn from your users

Language

The critical first step to any successful interactive campaign is to clarify your target audience and uncover what makes them tick. Quite simply…you can’t get their business until you get their attention.

Our work is intuitive, blending the user perspective with bold design and inventive copy that gets their attention and keeps it. For the future of your business, invest in a targeted, proactive approach to web site development & internet marketing.

BECOME THE USER

Heading tags

Not to be confused <head>

<h1>, the most

important, and ending with <h6>, the least important.

Titles and Descriptions A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is. The <title> tag should be placed within the <head> tag of the HTML document. Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site.

What’s Wrong

http://joomlamarketing.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5:joomla-license-guidelines&catid=25:the-project&Itemid=2

Joomla SEF

JOOMLA SEF

http://joomlamarketing.info/joomla-overview.html

Perfect!

Extensions

sh404SEF

Artio SEF

SEF Advance

GOOGLE HATES

Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.

Don't send automated queries to Google.

Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords.

Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

Site Navigation

TOO DEEP

3 click rule

Text links vs. dropdowns & pictures

Breadcrumbs

Sitemap

Most important links

Sitemap Don’t

Out of date

Orginization

Useful 404 errors

Make sure to use useful 404 errors

Good practices for promoting your website

Blog about new content or services

Don't forget about offline promotion

Know about social media sites

Add your business to Google's Local Business Center

Back link

W3.org

VALIDATE

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joomla.org%2F

Use Webmaster tools

see which parts of a site Googlebot had problems crawling

upload an XML Sitemap file

analyze and generate robots.txt files

remove URLs already crawled by Googlebot

specify the preferred domain

identify issues with title and description meta tags

understand the top searches used to reach a site

get a glimpse at how Googlebot sees pages

remove unwanted sitelinks that Google may use in results

receive notification of quality guideline violations and file for a site reconsideration

web analytics services

get insight into how users reach and behave on your site

discover the most popular content on your site

measure the impact of optimizations you make to your site (e.g. did changing those title and description meta tags improve traffic from search engines?)

Recap