In this topic you will find a list of some seo and other tricks. (in random order).
I hope by sharing this, it will help you improving your website and let it climb up the pagerank stairs and get even more visitors!
Please correct me if I'm wrong at some point (copied the code from different sites) or add some more...
I appreciate any feedback.
Search Engine Optimization shouldn't be a the most important thing on your website...
It is just a 'tool' to help you improve your website!
The first thing you have to do on a website is of course good written (unique) content.
If you haven't got any interesting to say on your site, what should a visitor do there...
He (she) is going to the next one, somebody else's.
// This list is completed with reactions of others, read their replies below //
1. Pretty URL: www,website.com/contact/ or w ww,website.com/contact.html instead of ww w,website.com/index.php?page=contact
2. Include a trailing slash to your url
3. The use of www. in your url, or not...
4. Meta: description
5. Meta: keywords
6. Tag: Site_mapper
7. Module: SitemapMadeSimple
8. Visitor stats
9. The use of alt- and title-tags with images
10. Anchor names
11. Do you really need ads on your site?
12. Usefull websites
13. Keywords in page-alias
14. RSS using as a sitemap for News, CompanyDirectory, etc.
15. ...
1. Pretty URL: www,website.com/contact/ or www,website.com/contact.html instead of www,website.com/index.php?page=contact (Linux Server)
Step 1: .htaccess
Copy the htaccess.txt file from the doc-folder into the root of your CMSMS website.
Rename this file to .htaccess.
Note: For editing this file online you need ftp-software like WinSCP.
Note: Not all providers accept 'Options +FollowSymLinks'
Sometimes using the standard .htaccess file ends in an Error 500.
In this case change it to: # Options +FollowSymLinks
Is your CMSMS website situated in a subfolder, like www,website.com/folder ?
Change:
Code: Select all
#Sub-dir e.g: /cmsms
RewriteBase /
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#Sub-dir e.g: /cmsms
RewriteBase /folder
Change the permission of the config.php file temporary into 777.
Edit the config.php file like:
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#------------
#URL Settings
#------------
#What type of URL rewriting should we be using for pretty URLs? Valid options are:
#'none', 'internal', and 'mod_rewrite'. 'internal' will not work with IIS some CGI
#configurations. 'mod_rewrite' requires proper apache configuration, a valid
#.htaccess file and most likely {metadata} in your page templates. For more
#information, see:
#http://wiki,cmsmadesimple.org/index.php/FAQ/Installation/Pretty_URLs#Pretty_URL.27s
$config['url_rewriting'] = 'mod_rewrite'; <------------ change 'none' into 'mod_rewrite'
#Extension to use if you're using mod_rewrite for pretty URLs.
$config['page_extension'] = ''; <--------- you don't need to change this, but you can add '.php' or '.html'
#If you're using the internal pretty url mechanism or mod_rewrite, would you like to
#show urls in their hierarchy? (ex. http://www,mysite.com/parent/parent/childpage)
$config['use_hierarchy'] = true; <------------ change 'false' into 'true'
#If using none of the above options, what should we be using for the query string
#variable? (ex. http://www,mysite.com/index.php?page=somecontent)
$config['query_var'] = 'page';
You should have the {metadata} tag in the head of your html template.
It creates the necessary base href in your pagehead.
You should have pretty url now. :D
Don't forget to change the permission of the config.php file back to 444!
2. Include a trailing slash to your url
Open the standard .htaccess file in the root of your CMSMS website.
Change:
Code: Select all
# 301 Redirect all requests that don't contain a dot or trailing slash to
# include a trailing slash
# except for form POSTS
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/$
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !POST$
#RewriteRule ^(.*) %{REQUEST_URI}/ [R=301,L]
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# 301 Redirect all requests that don't contain a dot or trailing slash to
# include a trailing slash
# except for form POSTS
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !POST$
RewriteRule ^(.*) %{REQUEST_URI}/ [R=301,L]
3. The use of www. in your url, or not...
Preferring: www,website.com
Add the lines before the arrow into the standard .htaccess file:
Code: Select all
RewriteEngine on
#
#Sub-dir e.g: /cmsms
RewriteBase /
#
# Link to http://website,com then redirect to http://www.website.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.website.com/$1 [L,R=301]
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RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.website.com/folder/$1 [L,R=301]
Add the lines before the arrow into the standard .htaccess file:
Code: Select all
RewriteEngine on
#
#Sub-dir e.g: /cmsms
RewriteBase /
#
# Link to www.website.com then redirect to website.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.website\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://website.com/$1 [L,R=301]
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RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://website.com/folder/$1 [L,R=301]
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#Document root as seen from the webserver. No slash at the end
#If page is requested with https use https as root url
#e.g. http://blah.com
$config['root_url'] = 'http://website.com';
4. Meta: description
Add into the head of your html template, right behind the {metadata} tag (or in the metadata box on the 'page defaults' page):
Code: Select all
<meta name="description" content="{description}" />
You can also use the autometa module: http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/autometa
Creates meta tags "keywords" and "description" on-the-fly if these tags are not found in the page metadata field. Keywords are taken from Search module. Description includes first characters of the page content.
5. Meta: keywords
There is a discussion of search engines use the meta keywords or not... (read reactions below) Nobody can give us the right answer probably, a few tips to use meta keywords (what do got to loose):
Add into the head of your html template, behind the {metadata} tag:
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<meta name="keywords" content="keyword-for-all-pages, {content block='extra keywords' oneline='true'
wysiwyg='false'}" />
In front of the content tag you can put keywords that will be used for all pages.
You can also use the autometa module: http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/autometa
Creates meta tags "keywords" and "description" on-the-fly if these tags are not found in the page metadata field. Keywords are taken from Search module. Description includes first characters of the page content.
6. Tag: Site_mapper
Create a new page, named 'sitemap'.
In the content of the page you place:
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<div>
{site_mapper}
</div>
Link this page in the footer of your site.
7. Module: SitemapMadeSimple
Install Calguys SitemapMadeSimple module: http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/sitemapms
It creates a sitemap.xml file in the root of your website and tells the search engine which pages are there on the site and when it was changed the last time.
Submit your sitemap to your search engine.
8. Visitor stats
How do visitors find your website? Which pages do they visit and which one they don't...
By logging and 'reading' this info you can improve your website menu, layout and content.
You can use free stats like Google Analitics or OneStat, but CMSms has some really nice tools too:
Statistics
http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/statistics
Visitor statsA module to gather and present visitor-statistics of a site.
http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/visitorstats
Provides visitor stats for your pages including ip, hostname, useragent, and referrer. It also shows the path that a visitor takes through your web site.
9. The use of alt- and title-tags with images
When adding images to your website, never forget to fill in the alt- and title-tags.
Besides it will break the W3c-validation of your page, search engines use these texts for finding matching pictures to image-searches. Another way to get the attention of your visitors.
10. Anchor names
When placing anchors on your page, don't use anchornames like numbers or so. But use names which are related to the content. Names a search engine can use to get people to your site.
11. Do you really need ads on your site?
I think there aren't a lot of website anymore without using ads in some sort. We all want to make a lot of money by doing nothing ;)
But how many of us succeed in this?
Ask yourself, is the little profit you make with these ads enough for letting it 'destroy' your webdesign...
A click on an advertisement scores a few cents, but this visitor leaves your website at the same time :-\
12. Usefull websites
1. websitegrader.com - Free Marketing Reports for your website
2. seomoz.org - Search Ranking Factors
3. Google - Google Webmaster Tools
4. Google - Google Keywords Tool
13. Keywords in page-alias
Try to put your most important keywords also in your page-aliases
http://www,website.com/keyword-1.html
http://www,website.com/keyword-2.html
14. RSS using as a sitemap for News, CompanyDirectory, etc.
Beside the sitemap.xml created by the sitemapmodule in #7 you can also use RSS-feeds for newsarticles and some other modules.
You can submit a RSS-feed to Google Webmastertools.
CGFeedmaker has some default templates for News, CGBlog, etc.
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