How to SEO Your Joomla Website

Joomla is one of the most popular content management systems (CMSs) within today’s marketplace. It is estimated that more than 2.5 million websites currently employ Joomla and these numbers are expected to increase.

It can still be tough to appreciate the SEO benefits that Joomla has to offer.

What are some professional recommendations?

How can this content management system be used to push your online presence to the next level?

These are some of the questions that we will be addressing throughout this article. If you are new to Joomla or if you have been looking to implement a handful of professional tips, keep reading!

We asked Ian Carroll what he thinks are the best ways to increase the search visibility of your Joomla site. Ian has been a Digital Marketing and SEO specialist for over ten years and he currently runs Digital Funnel who are specialists in SEO in Cork, Ireland.

Here are some of his tips:

Adopt a URL- Friendly Approach

We are all aware that domain names can make or break a website in terms of recognition. According to Emilia Flores, the co-founder of UkBadCreditLoans, Joomla web addresses can appear long and clumsy if SEO-friendly settings are not activated (sometimes known as “SEF URLs”). This can be adjusted by enabling search-friendly URLs within the global settings of your browser.

The address will be shortened and much easier to read; ideal if you are hoping to attract more inbound traffic.

If you want to find out how much a domain went for in the past, you can always check out namebio.com, one of my favorite tools. You can check past auction prices there.

What About index.php?

Although many webpage addresses end with the phrase “index.php”, this is not necessarily the most SEO-responsive option. Thankfully, this suffix is easy to remove by accessing the settings section of Joomla and enabling the URL rewriting option. If you happen to have recently created a new website, an extra step may be needed.

This involves clicking on the htacess.txt file and renaming it to read “.htaccess” (without the txt).

Eliminated URL Identification Numbers

You may have noticed a long string of numbers within your Joomla URL. These are used for identification and tracking purposes. Unfortunately, they will often appear confusing to the average visitor. It is normally best to delete these numbers from the website address. Here are the steps which should be taken:

• Choose the “Options” icon from within the Content/Articles section.
• Highlight the “Integration” field.
• Modify URL Routing so that it displays as “Modern”.
• In the “Remove IDs from URLs” field, click “Yes”

Be sure to refresh the website in order to ensure that the changes have taken place before moving on.

Avoiding Slow Loading Times

One of the many benefits associated with Joomla is that it has be preconfigured with a responsive web design. In other words, it will enable the contents of a site to display correctly when viewed with a mobile device. The only issue is that Joomla can be somewhat slow when purchased “out of the box”.

There is still a way to fix this situation. This involves what is known as Gzip compression. Enabling the Gzip compression feature will cause a server to automatically compress files before they are sent to a recipient. Files that require less space will allow your site to load faster. Here are the steps to take:

• Navigate to the System/Global configuration settings of Joomla.
• Click on the “Server/Enable Gzip Compression option.
• Leave the settings page and reload the website.

If you wish to determine if Gzip has increased the page load speeds of your website, there are numerous free online utilities which can be employed.

Leverage the Power of Joomla Extensions

While the previous recommendations were rather technical in nature, this next one is straightforward. Joomla provides its users with numerous functional templates to choose from. While many of these are intended to enhance the end-user experience, others have been design with SEO in mind. The Joomla community recommends these official tools:

• EFSEO
• sh404sef
• SEO-generator
• RSSEO

Of course, feel free to perform your own research; numerous cutting-edge templates are being developed on a regular basis.

Proactively Monitoring Your SEO Changes

This next recommendation is actually just as valid for any CMS service. In order to appreciate whether or not the modifications outlined above are working, be sure to monitor the performance of your site. Factors include page load times, the number of inbound hits, bounce rates, and the average time users spend within the site.

As you might have suspected, all-around tools such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics can work wonders. These are free plugins, and they will provide you with real-time insight.

Keyword Concerns

It is impossible to discuss Joomla SEO without highlighting one of the most important strategies. Selecting and embedding the right keywords is crucial if you hope to enjoy success. Although every SEO platform will offer its own set of utilities, a bit of manual research can go a long way. In fact, most experts believe that using more than one keyword research tool will provide you with a better competitive edge. Here are some professional tips to follow:

• Understand which keywords are the most related to your industry.
• Narrow this list down so that it targets your niche sector.
• Examine the keywords used by your closest competitors.
• Try to include long-tail keywords, as these are more specific, and they often result in higher conversion rates.

Once the correct keywords have been discovered, you can then begin curating quality and user-oriented content.

Additional Optimisation Techniques

While Joomla is quite an advanced CMS system, let’s remember that additional optimisation strategies should always be used. This type of on-page SEO is crucial for several reasons. It provides a user-friendly edge to the content being offered. It can help pages load faster. Finally, HTML optimisation will allow your website to rank higher within search engine results pages (SERPs). Here are some crucial steps:

• Ensure that the correct HTML tags are utilised.
• Insert keywords into page URLs.
• Include page titles and meta descriptions.
• Optimise image and video file sizes (using the compression option mentioned earlier).

Streamlining your Joomla website is the best way to guarantee a memorable end-user experience. It will also ensure that you are remaining up to date with the latest SEO requirements associated with search engines such as Google and Bing.

Joomla Search Engine Optimisation: Maintaining a Well-Oiled (Digital) Machine

These are some of the most potent suggestions if you are hoping to improve your Joomla SEO strategies. Should you be looking for the most professional SEO agency has to offer or if you wish your website design to be examined in greater detail by experts, please feel free to contact.

Image Credit: Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash