SEO is one aspect of a website that should not be overlooked. Actually, it is not enough just to put a website online. But, we should ensure that this site can be found or reached by the Internet users via search engines. This is the role of SEO. For the SEO of a new Joomla site, several basic actions allows you to optimize the basic SEO of your site. We’ve put them together for you in this article.
How to improve the SEO of a Joomla! site
Improving the SEO of a Joomla site involves activating, configuring and modifying several parameters.
SEO parameters
Joomla! allows access to settings that help improve the SEO of a Joomla site. These are accessible in from the administration panel in the « System » menu then in the general configuration of the site, in the « Site » tab. It is:
- URL rewriting which allows you to generate shorter and more readable URLs if enabled
- Rewriting « on the fly » of URLs which allows you to remove the mention « index.php » in your URLs if activated.
- The name of the site in the titles
Another configuration is also to be done in for the individual articles. In the Articles overview page, go to « Settings », then to the « Integration » tab. A visible option « URL Routing » allows for cleaner URLs. Activate it.
Metadata for articles
After setting the default site settings, comes the step of individual settings for each item. Browsers use these parameters to define the relevance of an article
- The title of the page. This is the title of your page in web browsers. Usually, it is created from the title of the article. You can however change it. Please ensure that it is relevant and that its length is below 65 characters.
- Meta description (description in Joomla!). It can be the product of manual entry or a menu item, however manual entry is preferred. This element appears below the title in search engine results and its length is limited to 160 characters.
- Meta Keywords: Google ignores this item.
Avoid duplicate content
Duplicate content is another point to be careful of. Search engines have algorithms to detect whether the content of a page is original or duplicate. You may have this problem if you have copied content from a third-party site, or if your site is accessible from multiple links. To do this, please ensure that your site is not both accessible from the www and without the www. You can correct this problem by configuring a rule in the .htaccess file. However, this is a setup that can prove difficult for beginners.
Caching for fast download
This technique helps improve the performance of your site. By configuring this parameter in the .htaccess file of your site, pages will load faster for the Internet users who revisit your site. The principle of caching is based on keeping part of your pages at the browser level of your visitors. Thus, when a new search for a page already visited, the browser retrieves the one in its cache, checks its validity and displays it on the screen.
Relevant site structure
Well structuring a site allows Internet users to navigate comfortably in this site. It also allows the webmaster not to get tangled up in finding a page or an article, for example. It is a question of correctly defining the branch of your site, starting from the home page, then to the menus and so on. Please subdivide your articles into categories so as not to confuse everything. The resulting sitemap helps search engines index your site. Its manual generation can be difficult especially for beginners. In this case, it would be better to use extensions in order to achieve this quickly. Please submit this plan in the Google Search Console to notify Google.
Submit your site to Google Search Console
It is also necessary to submit your site to Google so that they know about its existence.
Conclusion
In conclusion, referencing for a Joomla! site and for any site in general is essential for the sustainability of this site. This also involves finding a meaningful domain name and reliable Joomla web hosting. So before installing your Joomla, make sure to pay attention to this aspect.