Compass Designs .net

Joomla SEO is dead, long live Joomla SEO!

There are big misunderstanding's people have with SEO when it comes to Joomla. Whether I have been teaching or speaking at classroom training, CMS Expo's, Safari Webcasts or graduate school programs I have spent the last 4 years trying to overcome them.

In 2 weeks we'll be releasing a new Joomla SEO extension that will revolutionize how you think about SEO and your Joomla website. Its finally going to bury these misunderstandings and lift Joomla to its rightful place when people think of Joomla and search engine optimization.

1. If you have a website, you need traffic....

This is one of my mantras as I have worked with Joomla for the last 4 years. I have maintained EVERYONE is in the business of SEO.

Over the last 4 years I have also seen allot of misunderstanding about SEO. If you have a website you need traffic, doesn't matter if you are ecommerce, a school or a town library. If you can't get found in Google, how will your stakeholders come to your website?

2. Joomla SEO is not Search Engine Friendly URL's (SEF)

SEF was created years ago when Google couldn't read dynamic URL's. They can now (and have for several years). Now SEF is much more for human readability than search engines, and helping CTR on SERP results.

Using SEF does not mean your site is search engine optimized. I make a whole case about this in my Black Belt Joomla presentation.

3. Wordpress is not better than Joomla

This one annoys the heck out of me. So much so that I ran a test to prove this was a groundless claim, and offered a bounty to anyone that could prove otherwise. I still haven't had any takers.

4. SEO is the other side of the coin to Accessibility

Got traffic? That's nice.

Making it stick is to do with usability and accessibility. If people can't read or use your website, that hard earned traffic is going to bounce right off. Trying to game Google is a fruitless exercise, their propeller heads are smarter than you. Make your site accessible and usable and Google will reward you.

5. Its the Economy Stupid

OK, so it should really be "It's the content stupid".

They say "Content is King" for a reason. The reason is that when you search in Google, it is trying to show you relevant and useful content, not pages stuffed with keywords and ads. Great SEO starts with great copy.

So lets sum up....

• You need to do SEO...
• But SEO isn't about Joomla widgets and plugins or SEF...
• You need strong content that's readable...

• Want to learn more about how these problems can be fixed for the SEO of your Joomla site? Sign up below!

• Want to be first on the list to get an extension that will be the "must have" of every site that wants traffic from Google? Sign up below!

• Like filling out forms? Sign up below!

Related Reading

• Top 10 Joomla SEO tips for Google
• Usability, Accessibility, Web Standards, SEO and You
• An Incomplete Guide to SEO
• 14 Modern SEO Best Practices for 2009
• 2 tips to get sites indexed faster in google
• Better SEO Titles for Joomla 1.5
• Don't Use Metatag Tools in Joomla for SEO
• How to Optimize Images in Joomla
• Joomla 1.5, SEF, Traffic and Getting Naked
• Wordpress SEO is not better than Joomla. Period