CMS and/or HTML

[williemanillie]

I use Joomla to manage my site. It's perfect for the type of work I do. I have attempted numerous times to improve my ranking in Google with no luck over the last two years.

I am aware dynamic sites are more difficult to maintain. The alternate option is creating HTML content. My schedule is limited to convert everything to static html.

Are there products, techniques, or suggestions you can provide to address this issue? The only positive results that definitely worked are page or site titles. Thanks.

[holyhttp]

The main issue with dynamic web page is certainly the url with appended query parameters and session id which can create a mess as far as SEs are concerned.

The solution adopted in my customers web sites is resort to Apache Mod_rewrite making all web pages behave and be named just like static html pages.

It would be such a hassle trying to manage over 200 pages and I believe that's the main motivation behind a CMS and dynamic web pages.

[justsomedude]

I have been tremendously successful getting rankings with Joomla in very competitive areas. My formula is Joomla + SEF Advance (Sakic.net) + SEF Hack (free). These will convert all of your existing pages to SEF friendly URL's. Your pages will look like www.yoursite.com/this-is-my-page. You can customize SEF advance and I recommend using - instead of _. Obviously, there are other factors in play - content, directories, backlinks, etc. Also, if you can, code your pages rather than using the WYSIWYG. Lastly, take a look at SEO friendly templates such as the ones from Joomlashack.

Good luck! Don't get discouraged. Joomla is very SEO friendly with a little tweaking.

[pdstein]

Joomla also has an option built into the site configuration settings which you can turn on for search-friendly URLs. I haven't personally tried it out yet, but you might want to try that before adding additional software/hacks for that purpose.

[justsomedude]

Joomla also has an option built into the site configuration settings which you can turn on for search-friendly URLs. I haven't personally tried it out yet, but you might want to try that before adding additional software/hacks for that purpose.


Yes, this has to be turned on -- but this will not replicate the work of SEF Advance. It's definitely worth the investment if your are serious about page titles and SEF friendly URL's. The SEF Hack is also important because it removes extra code and allows you to customize your homepage title. I'm guessing your homepage title is Site name - Home. Obviously, this is not good.

[balidog]

These will convert all of your existing pages to SEF friendly URL's.

Na, na, na!
We bought your advance tool, but all(!) component links
are still a mess!!!
This tool only turns content sites into SE friendly sites...

I'm not a developer or programmer. Additional changes or hacks I cannot handle.

Fazit: Not 100% happy with your tool

[justsomedude]

Na, na, na!
We bought your advance tool, but all(!) component links
are still a mess!!!

First off, it's not "my advance tool". I use it on all my sites. Yes, it does make component links friendly - it even allows you to create Google news friendly URL's.

Please elaborate on why you would say the component links a "mess". That is simply untrue.[/code]

[balidog]

It is very true, here some proofs of our component pages:

All our flash games(not just this two):
http://playfreeonlinegames.biz/option,com_mamboflashgames/Itemid,73/
http://playfreeonlinegames.biz/option,com_videopoker/Itemid,206/

Classified ads:
http://playfreeonlinegames.biz/option,com_mambads/Itemid,138/
http://playfreeonlinegames.biz/index.php?option=com_mambads&Itemid=138&func=view&cacat=8&casb=2
http://playfreeonlinegames.biz/index.php?option=com_mambads&Itemid=138&func=add

Register:
http://playfreeonlinegames.biz/index.php?option=com_registration&task=register

What an excuse you have now?

That's all not very SE friendly. Our site must seem like stupid for google, with all those different page title codes...

[justsomedude]

What an excuse you have now?
You're either not running SEF Advance or you're not set up right.

Here's a sample of my SEF friendly URL's using Joomla with SEF Advance:
http://www.treomobile.com/news/accessories/

http://www.treomobile.com/news/hardware/palm-treo-750v-announced-2006091282/

It's safe to say these are Google friendly. By the way, look at the page titles. Also Google friendly.