Joomla/Virtuemart SEF Questions

[burgertronic]

Hi, i've taken on a client that want's me to make an ecommerce site, which is a first for me, after some research i decided i wanted to use Joomla/Virtuemart.
I have decided to do the site in two phases, the first being an online catalogue where people can view the products but have to ring up to order the products (It will be replacing an existing online catalogue which is written in HTML and has good search rankings), the second phase is to turn on all the shopping cart functionality so people can buy stuff using the site (6 to 12 months down the track).
I've split it up because i feel i've bitten off more then i can chew and want to spend the time making sure i don't ruin there search ranking, then worry about the rest.

My Questions (If you have an answer to any of them it would be greatly apretiated).

1. Is this a good way to go about a VirtueMart site for a newbie?

2. Is it best to set SSL up imediately or can i do that later when I enable the shopping cart?

3. Can i just place my Joomla site in the public_html folder, like i would for a site that does not use SSL?

4. I see so many posts about problems with sh404SEF, in regards to search rankings will it make a much of a difference?, Is it worth the trouble?, And are most of the problems minor and fixable?

5. Are there any advantages to a dedicated IP?

6. Are there any other SEF extensions i should use to ensure decent search rankings?

Thanks.

[Chris B]

I will answer the one joomla related question in your post.

You can use Joomlas SEF with VM, I am using it and it works fine.

You will find Virtuemart support over there --------->>

[davidtowers]

Sounds like an exciting project for you!

I set up a site using Virtuemart and used the sh404sef extension to ensure that it was SEO friendly. Sh404sef allows you to control page titles, meta data and URLS so I'd definately recommend you consider it.

You should definately try and preserve the high rankings of the existing online catalogue which is written in HTML, and you can do this by using sh404sef to create custom URL names.

Hope that helps a little,

David

[burgertronic]

I will answer the one joomla related question in your post.

You can use Joomlas SEF with VM, I am using it and it works fine.

You will find Virtuemart support over there --------->>

Chris are you using the latest versions of Joomla and VM....Thanks for your reply

[burgertronic]

I set up a site using Virtuemart and used the sh404sef extension to ensure that it was SEO friendly.

Thanks David, Can I ask what version of Joomla and VM you used, and do use use any other any other extensions/plug-ins for the purposes of SEO or usability... Thanks again for your post.

[Chris B]

Chris are you using the latest versions of Joomla and VM....Thanks for your reply

Yes bud, Joomla 1.5.7 and VM 1.1.2

[davidtowers]

I set up a site using Virtuemart and used the sh404sef extension to ensure that it was SEO friendly.

Thanks David, Can I ask what version of Joomla and VM you used, and do use use any other any other extensions/plug-ins for the purposes of SEO or usability... Thanks again for your post.

Sure I actually used Joomla 1.0 with the stable build of VM.

I would now however go for Joomla 1.5 with the new version of VM, it looks so much better.

The plugin I used for SEO was literally just sh404sef and it sufficed!

[Chris B]

The plugin I used for SEO was literally just sh404sef and it sufficed!

Causes errors with 1.5.7 and VM 1.1.2

Goto VM's forum and search "sh404sef "