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DotNetNuke Urls - Best practice for administrators, editors and developers
- 1. DotNetNuke Urls :Best Practice for Administrators, Editors and Developers Orlando DotNetNuke User Group 9th October 2012 Bruce Chapman
- 2. Brief History ofthe Url • ‘The goal of the Web was to be a shared information space through which people and machines could communicate’ – Tim Berners Lee, 1996 • WWW design: – An information system must be able to record random associations between any arbitary objects – Linking between two systems should be incremental, and not require onscalable operations such as the merging of link database
- 3. Brief History ofthe Url, cont. • 3 Standards of the World Wide Web – Addressing Scheme : URI – Common Protocol : HTTP – Format Negotiation : HTML • The URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) gives a cross-platform, generic, redefinable link to any resource. • URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a URI to a ‘thing’ on the internet.
- 4. Urls are theglue of the internet • The entire WWW is held together by links • Your DotNetNuke site is held together by links – get it right and don’t make a mess!
- 5. Early Urls • 1990s:Structured in folders with Documents – much like how document storage is done on many machines today http://www.cern.ch/WebOffice/Doc/OtherTools/Converters/Filters.html (actual Url from Cern, 1997) • 2000s: CGI Applications like eBay use the Url as a program command-line http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=137486649 (actual Url from eBay, 2000)
- 6. Mid-life Urls • Riseof Scripting Languages (asp, et al) gave us the one-page-fits-all approach http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en- us/dnofftalk/html/office01022003.asp Actual Url from MSDN, 2003 • Rise of Google in search engines counteracted the query-string approach, and introduced the human friendly Url
- 7. Modern Urls • SEOForces* have brought Urls back to the beginning, where they are: – Structured – Meaningful – Unique – Simple * precisely because SEO is all about being machine readable • DotNetNuke Forums Url, 2004 http://dotnetnuke.com/LinkClick.aspx?link=http%3a%2f%2fwww.asp.net%2fForums%2fShowForu m.aspx%3ftabindex%3d1%26ForumID%3d90&mid=1248 • DotNetNuke Forums Url, 2012 http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/Forums.aspx
- 8. DotNetNuke Urls forEditors • Your Menu structure is your Link structure – be thoughtful in the names of pages • Don’t use ‘Link Tracking’ – which generates LinkClick.aspx Urls • Use the ‘Page’ drop down in the Html Editor to get the correct Url link each time. • If using a staging / test environment, modify the link to be relative instead of absolute
- 9. On Page SEOwith Links For Editors • Site internal links are important for SEO • Your home page probably has the highest ‘link juice’, and can be used to direct importance to key landing pages • Links in content are good for establishing pages with key phrases
- 10. On Page SEOwith Links for Editors • Footers are a good way to drive links into content • Footers are also useful for mobile device users where scrolling can be more troublesome • Consider varying the footer for different parts of your site – Products, Blog, Forum – make the footer links relevant to the page
- 11. Off Page SEOLinks for Editors • Promoting the site means collecting links from other sites • ‘Linkbait’ content like blog posts or feature pages is a valid way of attracting links • The usual methods are writing lists, (top 10 ), using provocative adjectives, stirring up emotion • ‘10 useful DotNetNuke tips’ vs ’10 Promotion Causing DotNetNuke tips’
- 12. Off Page SEOLinks for Editors • If using this strategy, take the time to optimise the Url, so that the incoming links have maximum value. • For blog posts, this usually means writing the title with the best keyword combination • Keep it concise and short enough • You don’t get control over the link text, but you do get control over the Url
- 13. Off Page SEOLinks for Editors • Consider creating a ‘hidden’ landing page/pages to optimise the Url if the content is static http://example.com/my-important-key-phrase • Where possible, use a tool like Url Master to allow freedom with the page Url, which, when linked externally, will help ranking (and click- through) http://www.ifinity.com.au/Products/Url_Master_DNN_SEO_Urls
- 14. Choosing Extensions forDotNetNuke Administrators • Urls have a real effect on the success of a site • Bad Url strategies take time and money to correct • Most modules, menus and other extensions have the Url ‘baked in’ • Evaluation of extensions should include assessing what Urls are being locked in
- 15. Choosing Menus forAdministrators • Most menus use the DNN API to retrieve the Url for a page • Any Menu that doesn’t should be viewed with suspicion • Menus that use simple Html (unordered list) are crawled better by search engines • If using multi-language, check how the menu will adapt
- 16. Choosing Modules forAdministrators • Simpler Urls are better – period • Admin Urls don’t matter much at all, not crawled, not linked. • Products Listings, Blog posts, Catalogues – should all use simple Url with not much more than the item name • Excessively long Urls with extraneous information reduce linkability, increase the keyword/noise ratio in the Url
- 17. Choosing Modules forAdministrators • Watch out for proprietary Urls that aren’t using the DNN Url API • Giveaways include handlers (/myModuleHander.ashx) and items in DesktopModules path (/DesktopModules/MyProductPage.aspx) • Others do API-external modifications like looking for particular patterns and doing find/replace
- 18. Choosing Modules forAdministrators • Using the DNN Apis allows the content to upgrade along with the core platform • Ignoring the Apis locks into a particular structure and version of DotNetNuke • As the platform improves, so will the Urls for the module • Third-party Url plug-ins work with the DNN Api, modules which don’t use the Api may not be compatible
- 19. Choosing Modules forAdministrators • Some modules vary content slightly with different Urls – consider using Canonical Link • Some modules have built-in Canonical Link control, look for this • SEO Related – gold standard in modules is to allow specification of the Url, Title and Description separately to other content
- 20. Choosing Modules forAdministrators Compare: • www.ventrian.com/blog/tabid/243/articleType/Articl eView/articleId/30158/what-dotnetnuke-module-is- dnnforge-news-articles • www.ventrian.com/blog/tabid/243/Id/30158/what- dotnetnuke-module-is-dnnforge-news-articles • www.ventrian.com/blog/what-dotnetnuke-module- is-dnnforge-news-articles
- 21. Planning a sitemigration • Three categories of site migration 1. Previous technology to DotNetNuke 2. Change in domain name 3. Re-organisation of content • Migrations usually include using 301 permanent redirect to move Urls • 301 Permanent Redirect gives a signal to search engines and browsers to look for content in new location
- 22. Planning a SiteMigration • Plan for when it should happen – pick a quiet time to implement, and pick a quiet time for the project • You can always maintain same Url and show new content. For highly-ranked pages, always a safer strategy. • There is no problem with a mix of Url, styles, extensions, whatever. The concept of a ‘site’ is really only a set of pages with the same domain
- 23. Planning Redirects • Createa list of all ‘from’ and ‘to’ Urls • Google Webmaster / Bing Webmaster tools provides good starting point • Best way is to use spreadsheet with ‘from’ and ‘to’ columns • Be thorough and get good results • Plan for a catch-all for some content • Find the highest ranking/best performing pages and work backwards
- 24. Planning Redirect Strategy •Tools for redirects: – IIS7 Rewrite Tool (web.config/regex) – Other IIS plugin – Dnn siteurls.config file – Third party plug-ins – 404 handler based – General Purpose module like Url Master
- 25. Previous Technology toDotNetNuke • For DNN Based solution, Must re-map prior page extension to ASP.NET runtime – html / htm / php / asp / cfm – Easiest way is to use ‘runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests’ (rammfar) • Native IIS7 redirects do not require remapping • Alternatively, add individual file handlers for requests for that extension
- 26. Change in DomainName • Adding new portal alias and changing the ‘primary’ portal alias will work • Can use IIS7 Rewrite Tool • Same principle as redirecting non-www to www • Make sure site is working OK on new Url before switching over
- 27. Re-Organisation of Content •For minor changes, using the ‘Permanent Redirect’ option in Dnn will work • Tools like Url Master allow non-technical staff to enter and create redirects • It’s OK to ‘retire’ whole subsections by redirecting to a single page, but not optimal
- 28. Post-Migration Checking • Monitor404 pages (remember Analytics etc do not log 404s) • Daily check of search engine ranking for important pages • Expect a temporary drop in rankings across the site • If strategy was correct, rankings should return better than before
- 29. Urls for theDeveloper • For new modules, plan your Urls as part of your design • For existing modules, you can always add better Url schemes with new versions • Always provide the option to switch off redirects if you add this
- 30. Urls for theDeveloper • Best practice for module development is provide a default value derived from content, but then allow overriding by power user • Example: – new product Url : example.com/Products/Widget – allow admin to override : example.com/Products/Widget-for-widgeting-platform
- 31. Urls for theDeveloper • Don’t make assumptions about Dnn Url and try and make changes • Worst mistakes are – case-insensitive comparisons – looking for specific patterns (/default.aspx) and replacing – there are APIs for this – Intentionally creating duplicate content (example.com/product and example.com/category/product)
- 32. Urls for theDeveloper • For commercial modules, don’t forget multi- language Urls. Allow flexibility in Urls for different languages: – example.com/products/white-wine – example.com/produits/vin-blanc – example.com/producto/vino-blanco • Again, allowing override relieves many requirements for administrators
- 33. Urls for theDeveloper • Don’t stuff too many things into the Url, try to keep it simple but unique • There’s no need for /view and /edit – the view is implied • Allow for Url change. Keep a history and redirect where changes occur • Consider use of Canonical Links • Always, always give administrators options
- 34. Urls for theDeveloper • Building Providers: – Search Engine Sitemap Provider API – Friendly Url Provider for Url Master • Don’t ignore other aspects of SEO that are unrelated to the Url – customisable titles + descriptions • Be aware that social features like Journal may ‘save’ Url, so must always support old versions of module Urls
- 35. Best Practice forUrls in DotNetNuke • Summary – Urls are very important for the usability of the internet – When editing, take care with Urls – When selecting and installing modules, check out if the Url strategy is flexible and usable – When developing DNN modules, think about flexibility, customisation and SEO