Re: Joomla 1.5 and SEO improvements discussion.

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Re: Joomla 1.5 and SEO improvements discussion.

Post by gamesport » Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:54 pm

you can add this to those links: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,27075.0.html

i read through all the arguments in the other thread, and without rehashing all the arguments in those threads, let me quickly show you a recent example of the penalty that is incurred without a seperate metadata for content items.

One i published an article about a "New Top Spin 2 Trailer Released" a couple of days later,  a google search for "Top Spin 2 Trailer", had my website thing on top 3 results. After about 9 more articles published within a week on my site, the Article, is automatically removed from my Latest News Module.

Now i can't even get the article on google search even if i put the full Title of the article, but yahoo search still has it on #7 for my initial search phrase

essentially what this means is that once the article link dissappears completely from my frontpage, google, starts to penalize it, b/c its still using the metadata from the homepage.

To test my theory,  do a google search for top spin 2 delay confirmed which is still one of the links that is still on the latest news module on my home page. you will get top tier results for my site.  I can guarantee, that as soon as i have enought articles that remove those links from the homepage, you will not see that result in google. Yahoo seems to be more lenient though.....

So i think what we need is to be able to have metadata for content items, that doesnt call the one for the frontpage. we need seperation  ;)
Last edited by Jenny on Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Thu Dec 29, 2005 8:58 pm

Gamesport, I think the need for this is recognised, otherwise this particular thread wouldn't have been started by Jinx, who is the lead coder for 1.1 :)

I think that what we need to do, at this point, is a simple and concise list of *what* is needed, perhaps not so much *why* it's needed.  Though supporting argument can be a good thing.  I'll take some time to review and go through those threads and "lift" things up.  Feel free to go through it as well.

My work group has been tasked with creating a proposal for the 1.1 development guys.  I am hoping to be able to present each proposal in the following format:

Requested format
Suggestion #x
    Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater

Suggestion Description
    It's a bad idea to do this because, and this is how it's best achieved...

Supporting argument
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nam vel nisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Integer vel eros at neque aliquam cursus.

References (if appropriate)
    How other systems handle this
    Drupal does this
    Typo3 does that
    Plume handles it that way
    Xoops handles it this way
    Other CMS bla bla
    Another CMS yadaydada


It would be helpful to me if people who participate in this thread included information in that way.

Please, only one suggestion per post, as this will make it easier to sort out.  Please, keep the supporting argument brief (1 or 2 paragraphs max).  How other systems handle a particular feature would be nice, if, and only if, you feel the way that particular system handles it makes sense.

//Edit: I am hoping to have *all* (ha!) the information by Thursday 5 January, which gives me a couple day to do a final compilation to hand in the proposal to the 1.1 Dev team by 7 January, as requested by Jinx.  So, your deadline to assist is 5 January 2006
Last edited by vavroom on Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by Elpie » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:22 am

REQUEST...

I realise that the proposal is for improvements to be included in 1.1 - I would ask, please, that improvements that are suggested by the community are put into two lists: that is, a proposal for 1.1 to include ONLY those things that are possible and reasonable for 1.1 and a second list of those changes that need to be addressed further down the track.

For example, human-friendly URL's is a high priority for many in the community, but cannot be achieved without a major overhaul of the architecture.  This involves both script changes and changes to the database, so there is no way it can be done for 1.1. 

I just don't want to see a proposal from this group being declined in total because of unrealistic expectations. ;)
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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by eyezberg » Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:04 pm

Elpie wrote: ...
For example, human-friendly URL's is a high priority for many in the community, but cannot be achieved without a major overhaul of the architecture.  ...
I *really* !! would HATE to see this thread turn bad, but I still feel I need to ask this: why, as SEF Advance can apparently do just this right now? What is it that needs to be rewritten then and why? Just wanting to understand..

Edit: and I mention SEF Advance because I'm using it to full satisfaction, have tried Xaneon on one site and was really happy with it too, and heard 404sef is good too.. so there is code out there currently which allows to get readable URLs without overhauling anything, or..?
Last edited by eyezberg on Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:12 pm

@ Elpie, thanks for your suggestion.  I think we'll still go with one list rather than two, as it might be too complicated for the non-dev to know exactly what is, or isn't, achievable in 1.1.  The request from both Jinx and MasterChief is to create a "roadmap" of sorts, so things can be planned right for the long term, but with hopes to achieve a lot of good stuff short term as well.  At least that's what I was led to believe :)

@eyezeberg, let's indeed not start a *debate* on this thread.  There's been tons of discussion about this all over the place arleady, I really see no point in continuing it.  We'll include all requirements, and go from there, ok?

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:17 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Meta keywords and meta description separation.

Suggestion Description
Offer a way to change the appending behaviour of meta keywords and meta description, so global meta information does not get automatically appended to that of individual content item.

Supporting Argument(s)

References
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,27075.0.html
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg107781
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,4329.0.html

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.
Last edited by vavroom on Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:18 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Change meta keywords and meta description handling on the frontpage.

Suggestion Description
Currently the front page displays the global meta info, along with the meta information from every content item displayed on the front page. 

The frontpage should deliver only the global meta info, or a method for including meta info only for the frontpage, similar to that of individual content items should be included.
Supporting Argument(s)

References

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.
Last edited by vavroom on Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:19 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Ability to manage page title behaviour

Suggestion Description
If dynamic titles are selected, Joomla! currently delivers titles in the following format: “Site name – Article title.”

A better format would be: “Article title – Site name”.

Better yet would be offering users the ability of selecting which behaviour they want, with the default behaviour being “Article title – Site name”.

Even better, would be the ability to offer a page title override.  This may not be possible using patTemplate as suggested by Jinx, as each content item may need its particular page title override.

Supporting Argument(s)
“Make sure your page title is appearing before the sitename on your page as this will increase clicks when you are ranked” – Jimboot

“What about if we want, for some reason (any reason)  to create an strategy for SEO, and we decide as a company to experiment with the titles and metas (inverting order betwen global and item, to hide them etc.). I would be better for me, a Joomla user and padawan (notice the star wars word) to have more control, flexibility in this matter... let's forget at this moment if this feature is good or not for SEO, just focus on the ability of Joomla to control as many aspects as we want from our content. That's why I think Joomla must include this option, that's why Joomla it's a CMS, Is'n it?” – consiglieri

“Usability (and marketing) - links to home pages which appear in favorites lists as "Home" are a usability and marketing problem.  Who among us has not looked and looked for the link to that web site whose name starts a W, only to finally find it listed alphabetically in the "H" section (Home), if you find it at all?  Bad marketing and bad usability.” - kenmcd

References
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg107995
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg109960
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,18041.0.html
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,4329.0.html

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.
Last edited by vavroom on Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:20 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Generate code output that validates to XHTML/CSS

Suggestion Description

Supporting Argument(s)
“It will.  The more HTML there is, the more diluted the content is.  Many SEO sources stress code-to-content ratio, and it's one of the big benefits of CSS w/ regards to SEO.  Bots love accesibility and a low content-to-code ratio usually provides just that.” - gharding

References
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg107920

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.
Last edited by vavroom on Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:23 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Provide a core Sitemap component

Suggestion Description

Supporting Argument(s)
A sitemap will help Search Engines crawl your site.  The SE will find the sitemap and “venture forth” from there.  Google has its own “Google sitemap” system, which they use, but all SE will benefit from a sitemap.

Non SEO related argument in favour of a core Sitemap component is compliance with WAI’s WCAG 1.0 Priority 2 Point 13.3 – “Provide information about the general layout of a site (e.g., a site map or table of contents).”

References

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:24 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Use headers for article titles

Suggestion Description
Instead of delivering article titles in a table cell with a class of “contentheading”, they should be delivered in a (discussion on Usability & Accessibility work group leads us to favour at the moment).

Supporting Argument(s)
Search engines put more weight if the title is found in a header level element than within the text.

References
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg108213

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:26 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Eliminate duplicate URL’s for same content

Suggestion Description
The system currently oftens reaches the same page via different URL’s.  This can increase the number of page that have to be indexed (unecessarily) by SE.  For example, http://mysite.com, http://mysite.com/index.php, http://mysite.com/ component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/ all lead to the same page.  It may also trigger a “duplicate content penalty” with some SE.

Supporting Argument(s)
“I have been thinking for a while that duplicate URL and therefore duplicate content penalty is a bigger problem, but I have no element to back this up, except that my sites are listed with a lot of "similar pages" when doing "site:www.mydomain.com", (and also that the above-mentioned SEO sites are full of posts about it!)” - shumisha

References
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg123286

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:27 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Generate “human friendly” URLs

Suggestion Description
The system should have the ability to generate URLs that make sense to the human eye and reinforces keywords within content.  For example:
http://mysite.com/sectionname/categoryname/title.html

Further, the system should provide flexibility for the user to select whether to display or not the section name, the category name or the page title.  It should also allow for an override of the URL for each content item.

(Caveat: this needs to be handled without significant increases on server loads)

Supporting Argument(s)

References

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.

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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by dan1dyoung » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:48 am

vavroom wrote: DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Ability to manage page title behaviour

Suggestion Description
If dynamic titles are selected, Joomla! currently delivers titles in the following format: “Site name – Article title.”

A better format would be: “Article title – Site name”.

Better yet would be offering users the ability of selecting which behaviour they want, with the default behaviour being “Article title – Site name”.

Even better, would be the ability to offer a page title override.  This may not be possible using patTemplate as suggested by Jinx, as each content item may need its particular page title override.

Supporting Argument(s)
“Make sure your page title is appearing before the sitename on your page as this will increase clicks when you are ranked” – Jimboot

“What about if we want, for some reason (any reason)  to create an strategy for SEO, and we decide as a company to experiment with the titles and metas (inverting order betwen global and item, to hide them etc.). I would be better for me, a Joomla user and padawan (notice the star wars word) to have more control, flexibility in this matter... let's forget at this moment if this feature is good or not for SEO, just focus on the ability of Joomla to control as many aspects as we want from our content. That's why I think Joomla must include this option, that's why Joomla it's a CMS, Is'n it?” – consiglieri

“Usability (and marketing) - links to home pages which appear in favorites lists as "Home" are a usability and marketing problem.  Who among us has not looked and looked for the link to that web site whose name starts a W, only to finally find it listed alphabetically in the "H" section (Home), if you find it at all?  Bad marketing and bad usability.” - kenmcd

References
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg107995
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg109960
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,18041.0.html
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,4329.0.html

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.
I seem to remember Mambo 4.5.3 already did this, and i also remember somewhere on the developer.joomla.org or forum.joomla.org that this request was turned down.

I will try and find the details and add to this post

[EDIT]
Found it
http://developer.joomla.org/sf/go/artf2076?nav=1


Thanks

Dan
Last edited by dan1dyoung on Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:51 am

dan1dyoung wrote: I seem to remember Mambo 4.5.3 already did this, and i also remember somewhere on the developer.joomla.org or forum.joomla.org that this request was turned down.
It is my understanding that the "slate is clean", and the proposal should include the required features, along with solid arguments.  Might still get turned down, but not if *I* have anything to say about it.  It's our job to make sure the argument in favour is solid, logical, and inescapable :)
dan1dyoung wrote: I will try and find the details and add to this post
It's already referenced in the list of links in that post.  :)

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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by dan1dyoung » Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:22 am

Sorry,

I did not see it in the posts as there is a lot to read, and i was sure it was on the tracker at developer.joomla.org as i have now linked to, but it says it will have to wait until 1.2???

http://developer.joomla.org/sf/go/artf2076?nav=1

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:34 am

No worries.  Without turning this thread into a debate thread, which is really something I want to avoid, I happen to disagree with Jinx on that particular issue :)  The proposal will be formed, and once submitted, healthy debate will then take place :)

vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:51 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Introduction of Dublin Core Metadata elements

Suggestion Description
Implement Dublin Core metadata elements as per http://dublincore.org in addition to current/improved meta keywords and description handling.

Supporting Argument(s)

References

How other systems handle this

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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by louis.landry » Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:22 am

I will suggest on the issue of dublin core metadata, that a discussion take place to decide upon a subset of the DCMI elements applicable to joomla content.  Also, once this subset has been determined, the need will arise to map current content parameters to its respective element as well as determine what information should be put in each element not mapped to a current content parameter.  I like the idea of this, but can quickly see there will be some of these that are taken care of globally through the JDocument class and others that will necessitate being populated within the component itself.  The content component is going to be HEAVILY reworked in 1.2 and this would be the time to make these decisions.


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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by Elpie » Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:24 am

vavroom wrote: DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Introduction of Dublin Core Metadata elements

Suggestion Description
Implement Dublin Core metadata elements as per http://dublincore.org in addition to current/improved meta keywords and description handling.

Supporting Argument(s)
The UK's "E-government Interoperability Framework" specifies Dublin Core metadata (although it adds six other meta tags on top).
NZ Government uses it, as does Finland, Denmark, Canada and Australia. The US has full implementation in some states, partial in others.
Anyone working with national or local government, or government agencies in these countries needs to be able to use Dublin Core.
Although not yet in wide use outside of government and large business, its implementation in Joomla would also provide some future-proofing.
References
http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/metadata.asp
http://www.esd.org.uk/standards/egms/
http://dublincore.org/news/adoption/

[Edited to add the .pdf of the NZ Govt Standard]

How other systems handle this
http://www.boxuk.com/server/show/ConWeb ... maxus.html
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Last edited by Elpie on Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by compass » Sat Dec 31, 2005 3:32 am

[edited by me cos I didn't follow the guidelines!  :-[]


My addition to the pool of suggestions would be this...

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Allow more control over page descriptions

Suggestion Description
Currently a description is generated for a dynamic page from all the contributing content items (I think). One should be able to put some sort of description somewhere (menu link?) that is a summary of the page rather than appending them.

Supporting Argument(s)
This probably is good for SEO if one ONLY considers the spider part of the equation. However, SERP does not equal traffic, which is what you want really. Your click through rate (CTR) will depend on the description that appear on the search engine results, and how well a human scans it.

References
Personal experience

How other systems handle this
Not a clue.
Last edited by compass on Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by trompete » Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:52 am

vavroom wrote: DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Provide a core Sitemap component

Suggestion Description

Supporting Argument(s)
A sitemap will help Search Engines crawl your site.  The SE will find the sitemap and “venture forth” from there.  Google has its own “Google sitemap” system, which they use, but all SE will benefit from a sitemap.

Non SEO related argument in favour of a core Sitemap component is compliance with WAI’s WCAG 1.0 Priority 2 Point 13.3 – “Provide information about the general layout of a site (e.g., a site map or table of contents).”

References

How other systems handle this
If you know how a system successfully handle this, please contact me so I can add that information to this area.  Alternatively, post a response to the thread, with the CMS name and how it is handled.
Further suggestion:
Provide a callback interface for components and modules to provide meta-data (descriptions...etc) for sitemap entries.

Supporting Argument:
This would enhance the sitemap a bit as to provide more than a link and a title for each entry.
Developer, bsq_sitestats module.
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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by compass » Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:58 am

DRAFT
Suggestion Summary
Allow more control over component page titles

Suggestion Description
Not even sure where you can set these, if at all. At the mercy of the 3rd party developer

Supporting Argument(s)
title=googlegoodness

References
Personal experience

How other systems handle this

Not a clue.
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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by Elpie » Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:07 am

This may be a useful link: http://forum.mamboserver.com/showthread.php?t=6711  ( Metadata for Sections, categories and modules)
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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by kenmcd » Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:38 am

Hi Nic,

Some independent third-party experts input about page titles . . .

Regarding Ability to manage page title behaviour
http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... #msg157889

Supporting Argument(s)/References


The Title Tag
From Search Engine Visibility, New Riders Publishing, 2003

The title tag is very important in terms of search engine visibility because it serves multiple functions:

- Title-tag text is considered primary text by all the search engines, meaning that all the search engines record this text and place a considerable value on it.
- Title-tag text is the first text shown in search results. The text is highlighted in the search results as a hyperlink to your web site. This hyperlink is the call to action — it's letting your target audience know that there is a link to information pertaining to the words they entered in a search query.
- Title-tag text is the text shown in Bookmarks and Favorites.

Thus, a title tag serves two main functions. The first function is for search engine visibility. All the search engines consider title-tag text when calculating relevancy. The second title-tag function is a call to action. Your title-tag content should encourage your target audience to click the link to your site.

As a general rule, write a unique, descriptive title of 5 to 10 words for each page — or 69 to 75 characters. Remove as many filler words as possible from the title. Titles should contain your most important keywords and phrases and accurately reflect the content of your web pages.

All title-tag text should be unique because every page of your web site contains unique content. Does your About Us page contain the same information as your Products pages? Probably not, and your title tags need to reflect the differences in page content.

Unless your company name is well known and has excellent branding, it is best not to place your company name in the title tag. To get or maintain branding and to modify your site to accommodate your target audience, do not put your company name in the beginning of the title tag unless you have a keyword in your company name.


On the All-Important Title Tag
From Building Your Business with Google For Dummies, Wiley Publishing, 2004

You might think that asking several SEO experts what they think is the most important optimization detail would yield a fierce and diverse argument. Amazingly, one simple answer emerges with remarkable agreement. The good news is that the single most important optimization trick is also one of the easiest to accomplish.

"The title might be the single most important on-page SEO element, because (1) it tells search engines what to find on that page, and (2) search engines use that title in the search engine results page. So if you have your company name in the title of your page and it does not accurately describe what that page is about (example:your product) then the search engine will not rank that page well for your product. In addition, if you do rank for that page, the search engine user (searcher) will see just your company name and say, “What does this have to do with my search?” and skip over to a more relevant listing."
-- Barry Schwartz, http://www.rustybrick.com

"How many times have you looked at a web site where the page Title in your browser reads “Welcome to [company name]’s website” or simply “[Company Name]”? Nothing wrong with that, I hear you say? Well if you want to achieve high search engine rankings, there’s PLENTY wrong with it. You see, while it may not be common knowledge amongst webmasters or (shock, horror!) even some web designers, most search engines index the content of the Title Attribute and consider it to be one of THE most important factors in their relevancy algorithm. What you place in your Title can make or break your ranking for particular search terms on the various engines. If you don’t include your most important search phrases within your Title tag (and target the content of each Title to the content on each page), you are overlooking a vital opportunity in your quest for higher search rankings.

"Having said this, you should try and keep your Title to a maximum of 200 characters, as that is the average limit most search engines will truncate to. If you really insist on including your company name in your title and you’re willing to sacrifice good keyword real estate to do so, put it at the very end of the tag, because search engines give more relevancy “weight” to content at the start of your tag."

-- Kalena Jordan, http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com

"As for what is known as ‘on-page’ optimization, which involves the source code on your website, probably the most important thing to get right is the Title tag. This has to be the most weighted tag on a webpage, and if your keywords do not show up in it, then you can expect poor rankings."
-- Alan Webb, http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de

"The two most important aspects when optimizing a site for Google or any other crawler-based search engine are the title tag and content of each page. One should make sure that the keywords that are relevant to each page are represented in the title tag of the page as opposed to saying something like “Welcome to oursite!”. One must also make sure they have well-written HTML text that also represents the keywords they wish to target. With Google, more often than not, content is king."
-- David Wallace, http://www.searchrank.com


Summary
- Do not have "Home" in your home page title
- Have unique and content-relevant page titles
- Put content title/keywords first, then company name (if at all)


Joomla wish list:
- home page Title tag may be fully customized
- section pages show section title in title tag
- category pages show category title in title tag
- content pages show content title in title tag
- content/keywords first, then site title  (or selectable as previously discussed in the artifact)
http://developer.joomla.org/sf/go/artf2076?nav=1


Nic,
Based on the above one might think proper management of the title tag is important.
If this is not convincing enough, there is more available out on the web.
This was just easier to grab semi-quickly.
KM
Last edited by kenmcd on Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:14 am

Thanks Ken, if you allow me to, I'll edit your post, fish out the information and put it in the appropriate post.  I really, REALLY want to keep this thread as organised as possible and avoid having to end up fishing information all over the threads as I've spend my entire morning doing to come up with the wee drafts I put up already :)

Thanks

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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by kenmcd » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:41 am

vavroom wrote: Thanks Ken, if you allow me to, I'll edit your post, fish out the information and put it in the appropriate post.  I really, REALLY want to keep this thread as organised as possible and avoid having to end up fishing information all over the threads as I've spend my entire morning doing to come up with the wee drafts I put up already :)

Thanks
Nic,

I may be a good idea to make a thread for the content and keep this thread as the DISCUSSION thread, like the FAQ RESOURCES threads.

Feel free to edit-away on my posts as you see fit to achieve the goal of better SEO in Joomla.

KM
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vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:50 am

Well, as I stated before, as the content gets fleshed out and turned into the actual proposal, we'll then have a good discussion thread to perhaps rate in order of importance, etc... 

Thanks

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Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by Atropos » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:54 am

Great Job organising all the information Nic. It is very clear and concise.

Just curious on the status of these features. I think every single one you drafted would be a great addition to the next version. Are any of these changes going to be made for 1.1? I know you said you were going to submit these recommendations to the core team by January 7th. What was the verdict?

I think this thread is excellent because it highlights very important features relevant to SEO in Joomla. I am just hoping some of these changes get done :)
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vavroom

Re: Joomla 1.1 and SEO improvements

Post by vavroom » Thu Jan 12, 2006 1:08 am

Thanks Atropos.  It's as clear and concise as I could get it, alas, it's not complete.  I was hoping that other people would come in and participate, help with providing information, particularly as to how other systems handle each issue.  But it looks like I've been left almost entirely alone to do this (thanks to those who *have* given input).

I actually blew the deadline and shall extend it, and perhaps try to get some traffic to this post somehow.  At this point, I don't know what the status of the individual items are.


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