Joomla is not always the most popular package with developers for search engine optimisation (SEO), but this out-of-the-box open source content management system can be very handy when trying to optimise your site. Next to next to X-cart and OS commerce, Joomla is one of the best bets when searching for a content management system with flexible features.

Why use Joomla? Well, Joomla has many very handy features that make preparing your site with SEO much easier than with other content management systems. When used in the right way, Joomla can be an incredibly powerful tool in helping you achieve a high ranking in the search engines.

Of course, Joomla does have some down-sides. This content management system can be quite complex and can seem overwhelming to the casual user. One of the easiest mistakes to make is choosing the wrong template within the system for your website. This can result in a clunky-looking website with lots of visible errors. The key when choosing a template is to spend some time and thoroughly review your options. There are plenty of free Joomla Templates out there that can be modified to your requirements with just a few changes, minimising the risk of errors when you validate the page.

When creating inner pages, it is important in Joomla to dictate separate meta descriptions for each page. This is something it can be easy to overlook, but really counts when optimising your page. Joomla can then use these descriptions to ensure each page is viewed.

Joomla has a bad tendency to create chunky-looking URLs, which we all know search engines hate. It’s incredibly annoying to see your newly perfected page given a URL with an excess of ‘&’ and ‘=’, with lots of little subcategories. Handily, the program has a tool to change these into something more manageable. Just turn on the ‘SEF support’ function and you can change the URL to something more suitable.

Similarly, by downloading the sh404SEF component, you can tweak your URLs even further. There are other options for this, but most Joomla users recommend this component. The component also allows you to tailor your SEO through your meta, title, and keyword tags, which Joomla sets by default (not always for the best optimisation).

The good thing about Joomla is that it has many handy extras that can really help your internet marketing and to increase your page ranking. Plugins like WikiBot (which allows you to embed wikitags) and downloadable components allow webmasters to expand their sites and add community features. Joomla has over 4,000 extensions, which can be found in the extensions directory.

One of the downsides of Joomla is it is a fairly complex program that takes quite a bit of time to figure out. The Joomla web forum is a great resource when you’re just beginning. It can also help to get some advice from people like SEO Consult to help pick up speed as you begin. Joomla is a very handy system, and although it is built with experts in mind, having some on your side will ensure you can persist and use this powerful tool to best effect.

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