Website (Search Engine) Optimization with CMS Made Simple

[Rolf]

A small start to a (search engine) friendly website (using CMS Made Simple technology).

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 /

into:

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#Sub-dir e.g: /cmsms
RewriteBase /folder

Step 2: config.php
Change the permission of the config.php file temporary into 777.
Edit the config.php file like:

Code: Select all

#------------
#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';

Step 3: {metadata}
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]

by removing the # into:

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]

www,website.com will change into www,website.com/



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]

Or in case your website is in a subfolder /folder use:

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RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.website.com/folder/$1 [L,R=301]

Preferring: http://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 www.website.com then redirect to website.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.website\.com [NC]               
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://website.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Or in case your website is in a subfolder /folder use:

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RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://website.com/folder/$1 [L,R=301]

Also change the websites root in the config.php:

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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):

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<meta name="description" content="{description}" />

In the options tab of the page editor you can fill in the title or description of every single page at the line 'Description (title attribute)'.


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'}" />

It adds a content line into the page editor named Extra Keywords, you can fill in matching keywords (seperated by a comma) for every single page.
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:

Code: Select all

<div>
{site_mapper}
</div>

It creates a list of all active pages which are in the menu of your website.
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

A module to gather and present visitor-statistics of a site.

Visitor stats
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.



15. ...

[SimonSchaufi]

imho keywords are not used by search enginges any more

[replytomk3]

#8 - Sign in to Google Webmaster Tools and see what it says.
#9 - Install Visitor Stats and see what terms users see to find your site. Expand your site based on those terms (or make sure the pages visitors land on are high-quality pages)
#10 - Resist the urge to install advertising on your website. It will not initially give you any money. Trust me, I have tried. You need content first. For example, www.mkrd.info does not bring me a dime, but I have to pay for hosting.
#11 - use the statistics package from your hosting provider.

[nhaack]

Correcto...  :)

I would even go as far as not stating my keywords on my site at all (well... in the meta data) as in terms of competitive analysis, you reveal your targeted keywords (well, you could insert different words to disguise your real intention to your competitors). Engine do not use them anymore (well, at least the big three... correct me... two). I'm not sure about such engines as Baidu.

Another important point is your document structure (talking about headlines, title etc here and how they form a coherent image). What are you ALT-Parameters saying to the engines?

Concerning relevant ranking factors, I suggest the following for further reading: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

Best
Nils

[replytomk3]

nhaack, thanks for the website. Why then Geegle shows meta tags (and problems with them) in webmaster tools at all???

[Ziggywigged]

I've been working with a SEO company who says Google is tweaking their algorithm to make keywords a larger part of search results now.

[replytomk3]

Rolf, spelling should count, too. It's Optimization.

[nhaack]

I referred to Keywords, but in it's Webmaster Tools Google is referring to the Meta-Description and Title. That's a huge difference. The description is often the text displayed as a snippet in the SERP (search engine result page) (check "noodp" as a robots directive). You should have well written, unique and convincing copy there.

I've been working with a SEO company who says Google is tweaking their algorithm to make keywords a larger part of search results now.

Now that would be news . However, I do not think, that they will go back to giving keywords a big part in their ranking algo (I was talking about Keywords in the Head of your document as meta-keyword - not the use of keywords within the site as such). The use of Keywords within your site is vital (in title, headlines, copy, alt-tags, internal linking etc).

There are just so many (external) factors that seem to be far more relevant. Keywords used within your site (and also in your meta data) are basically onsite measures. OnSite measure will only cope for probably 20% (or less) of your ranking.

Far more important are Trust/Authority of the host domain, the link popularity, anchor texts of external links to your pages, social graph (ok, this one is still somewhat tiny).... amongst other

Best
Nils

[Pierre M.]

Hello,

2. Include a trailing slash to your url

I have never understood which problem this ugly trailing slash is trying to solve. I see negative value in it. Can somebody explain ?

Pierre M.

[nhaack]

Hi Pierre,

I'll try to

first of all, I'm not sure if this is still such a big problem. But it is still best practise to implement an according rewrite rule. I'll use the following two URL to describe a case

A) http://example.com/page

and

B) http://example.com/page/

Both URLs may point to different resources on the server (one is the file and one is the directory). When rewriting to a software like a CMS, it doesn't matter whether this is a file or a directory, but e.g. in hierarchical URLs you folder and not files as a path.

Here is more to read: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/misc/rewriteguide.html (scroll down a little for trailing slash problem).

As with the way you use the URL settings within CMSMS, as long as you keep it the same everywhere, you have no problems.

The problem arises when people link to you, type in the url somewhere else and miss or add an extra slash. Now you have external ressources pointing at the same page with different URLs. Take a FF plugin like "Live HTTP header" and check a page without the rewrite rule (e.g. a fresh install). You'll notice that you'll be provided with data from two adresses (or just bookmark them).

So by implementing the rewrite rule, you make sure that each time the page is requested (in any case), it is redirected to the preferred URL. As such, search engines (and visitors) will receive the correct URL for the content.

When implementing, you should use a 301 Redirect (permanent)!

But let's go back to the duplicate content issue. Search engines became pretty good at identifying duplicate content, still, it would calculate relevancy for both pages. Let's assume you have 2 links pointing to each address. So now, in the eye of an engine, you have two equally strong pages with the same content and you compete with other pages in the index that have e.g. 3 Links. So you'll be behind. If you can tell an engine "Hey, please use this address", your page will count 4 links and be stronger than the other. And this is where the redirect rule with the trailing slash comes in.

This is very simplified but should be enough to get the point.

You could also implement the rel=canonical link-element into your templates and use your preferred URL style here. It will have an effect that could probably be described as soft 301-redirect.

Best
Nils

[Rolf]

Thanks you for all your reply! I will try to add your input into the first article. 

The first thing you have to do on a website is of course good written (unique) content.
If you haven't got any interresting to say on your site, what should a visitor do there...
He (she) is going to the next one, somebody elses.

And SEO shouldn't be a goal on itself of course, SEO should be little - technical - tricks to improve your website and get more visitors (at least trying too). Don't use dirty hidden tricks - like white text on a white page - you will be getting kicked by Google e.o. 
We can't all be number one!!!

I recently started using www.websitegrader.com to check my sites.

Even thought I knew - like SimonSchaufi stated - Google doesn't use the meta-keywords info anymore, there are probably still other search engines who will.
I was triggered by the next quote from websitegrader.com to use it on my sites again. What do you have to loose...

We believe that though the search engines don't weigh keywords as heavily as they used to, they're still important to get right.
By using a high number of keywords, it is possible that you are diluting the effect of your most important keywords.
We would suggest keeping the keywords to 10 or less.

#10 - Resist the urge to install advertising on your website. It will not initially give you any money. Trust me, I have tried.

Applaud You are soo right! Advertisement doen't improve your website, and when someone is clicking on one, he is gone from your site.
I've got some sites with ads, but I was thinking the other day about the aim I got. Not to make money, but to give information and helping other people.
I think I'm removing the Google ads from my sites also. There are only a few who get really money out of it... and there names aren't Replytomk3 and Rolf 

Another important point is your document structure (talking about headlines, title etc here and how they form a coherent image). What are you ALT-Parameters saying to the engines?
...
Far more important are Trust/Authority of the host domain, the link popularity, anchor texts of external links to your pages, social graph (ok, this one is still somewhat tiny).... amongst other
...

Thanks nhaack, nothing to add here


Thanks again all, grtz. Rolf

[Pierre M.]

Hello again,

The problem arises when people link to you, type in the url somewhere else and miss or add an extra slash.

Thank you, I hadn't thought about this. I understand what the issue can be for some URL-unaware webmasters.
Hopefully I've always exposed /actually/pretty/urls/to/page.html so nobody ever tried to clog things by adding an ugly trailing slash

My tip would be :
2. Keep your website a (simple) mapping of unique pretty URLs to unique content pages.

Pierre M.

[dazzyweb]

Hi
I have added slash's to all the urls like in step 2 and that works fine
The problem i have is with the sitemap
The site map lists all the urls without the slash at the end (except the homepage).

Seems this can cause problems for submitting to google etc without including the slashes at the end of the urls in the sitemap

[Rolf]

I have added slash's to all the urls like in step 2 and that works fine
The problem i have is with the sitemap
The site map lists all the urls without the slash at the end (except the homepage).

Seems this can cause problems for submitting to google etc without including the slashes at the end of the urls in the sitemap

If you want all urls end with a slash you need to add a / here:

Code: Select all

$config['page_extension'] = '/';

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[Rolf]

May I know what have I do wrongly?

What did you do in the first place? Did you follow all the steps. Please give more info...

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