If you have read anything about Search Engine Optimization, You know it is not a good idea to bring up your keywords multiple times in you Metatag Keywords.
But let’s see what happens if you go ahead and work full-force on filling your meta-description and meta-keywords on every single Content-item you make.
You know you should do so, right? I told you to :-) But you never listen to me….
Back to the subject. You ,of course, also put in your metatag description and keywords in the Global Configuration.
Well done! If you missed out on a page you still get your lines in. Let the Stuffing begin! Now let’s see what happens….. Joomla, in a standard installation does this:
- It takes the Metatag Description from the Global Config and send it an its way to the source code of the page displayed (or asked for by a spider)
- It then gets the Metatag description of the Page and puts it into the source code…oké, you get the idea.
- It does the same for the Metatag keywords also from Global and from the Page item.
Sofar so good, wright? No, this is where the problem begins….
Joomla does not "replace" the Description and Keywords for that page (in Joomla terms content item). In stead it ADS it to the Global defined values…
How does that look? Lets say you got a Global Description "Testing SEO of Joomla" and keywords "testing,seo,joomla"
Then you write a page about A test you did about SEO and Joomla.
Description tag: "Results of a SEO Test with the Joomla CMS" and Keywords "test,results,seo,joomla,cms"
The result in Joomla Source Code
If you now look at the source code for this page, you get the following result: Descritption Tag: "Testing SEO of Joomla Results of a SEO Test with the Joomla CMS"
Keyword Tag: testing,seo,joomla,test,results,seo,joomla,cms
Really? Look at your own code if you run a standard Joomla 1.0 website! Just try it.
See the problem? Every page in the Search Index starts with your Global description… Global defined Keyword tags are repeated in every page thus sometimes doubling you keywords, a small amount of stuffing…
Without You really being aware of it!
The Solution:
There are two solutions, one simple one, and one that requires more work.
Solution nr Two: Remove the Global Description Tags OR bring them down to the bare minimum and be aware of them every time you write the tags in your content items.
Solution nr One: And this one is really, really the best! Because it solves some other Issues in the Joomla SEO field as well, but I will write a post on that later.
Ready?, Sure?
Go to http://www.joomlatwork.com and download there SEF Patch for the Version of Joomla you are running.
Unzip it, and FTP the files and overwrite some of the Joomla Core Files!!
Don’t worry, they also have the original files for your to download if you don’t like the result of the patch.
Then look at your source code again, no more double entries!
For me, this patch, together with some components, is a standard for new Joomla Installations and one of the main basic improvements I always do before I do any Search Engine Optimization on a Joomla website.
So what are you waiting for? Here is the link Joomla Search Engine Friendly Patch go get it!, its FREE
P.S. They also have an extended version that gives you even more control, however this will set you back a whopping 8,33 Euro, with taxes even 9,91 Euro….
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Actually, you could just duplicate your template and have a different one on your home page that does not use the command. Much easier than hacking the core :)
Hello JoomlaGuy,
That sound as a good advice !
This also gives you the oppertunity to have some special things you can do with this separate template.
Downside would be that you have to manage two Templates.
I don’t hack the code myself, but use the SEF Patch, which has some other benefits as well like the possibility to have:
- metatags for each menu item
- Pagetitle in stead of Sitedescription – pagetitle
But I will write a post on those two soon, as well as the importance of using an SEO Joomla Template.
P.s. I use one of yours on http://www.pathos-seo.com and they work great!! Thank You :-)
Did this make much of a difference? I never usually bother with keyword stuffing.
@Ilia: Keyword stuffing is not a good idea, using keywords the right way is a mucht better option.
The right way means that you only use up to a maximun of 10 words that are also in your article/page content.
Try to write good metatag descriptions will be an even better thing to do.
Combining those keywords in it will help a lot.
I just checked my site (using Joomla 1.5.9), and this problem does not occur. When I have keywords and description in my article, only that appears in the page source. However, on articles where I don’t have keywords and description, the page source shows the global keywords and description.
Is this something that has been fixed since this article was written?
@Jason: yes, this isseu was fixed in Joomla 1.5.x and the article was written when Joomla 1.0.x was the current version.
Now the Global Metatag Description and Keywords are used if you don’t fill in those fields in the articles your write. Is that better? well, to some extend but it still is not the way it should be from and SEO point of view.
If you look at you website you will find the same Description and Keywords over and over and over again…. it would be better to clear the Global metadata just as in Joomla 1.0.xand let the search engines create the snippets for your site where you have forgotten to write them.
But you don’t forget them…right?
Thanks for the update.
For keywords, can you put phrases, or is it only single words that are allowed?
(Yes, I admit that I forget once in a while.)
@Jason: Keywords are single words, but you can put them in as fo example “Joomla.SEO,Search Engine Optimization”. Keep in mind that these words also must be in the content of your page! and don’t stuff it, my best practice is the put in 5 to maximum of 10, depending ot the length of the article.
So phrases go in quotes, like this?
joomla, “search engine optimization”, meta, keyword
@Jason: No, just like this: search engine optimization,joomla,seo without any quotes, just a comma to seperate them, that is how you put them in the keywords field.
Excellent – one more question, then. Is it OK to have the same keyword twice (once in a phrase, and once by itself), or would that be stuffing?
search engine optimization, joomla, seo, search, engine, optimization
@jason: keep it clean :-) Google will pick all three terms form the keyword phrase so you don’t have to repeat them, but the emphasis in this case is on the whole term. So, yes what your are suggestion is like keyword stuffing, that is how I see it.
Thank You for posting this. I’ve been looking for useful information on this exact topic! The Joomla! SEO patch is up to date with each new joomla release. It works very well at giving you control over each pages keywords and meta. A MUST have!
Works very well with me. I’m looking for useful information like this to increase my search engine optimization. Thank you so much ! ^__^
Thank you Hummerbie!
It is tragic that the global meta is still there in Joomla 1.5.
I thought that sh404SEF’s meta management would solve this and autogenerate tags and description but it’s manual and thus it is easier to use Joomla’s built in meta fields.
But it is useful when you have component pages without meta fields. Then you can use sh404SEF to populate them!
@Kiper: Don’t forget to install the SEF Patch, it will give you even more Metatags to work with on menu’s and on articles, like setting a separate HTML Title to impress the searche engines.
@Herbert-Jan van Dinther: I am not sure if the added value is high enough to make the SEF Patch a must-have.
I don’t really see what it adds that you don’t get with sh404SEF. Would be happy if you could enlighten me on this subject. :)
@Kiper: The SEF Patch gives you the possibility to have a HTML Title separate form the Joomla page title.
It give you extra fields to work with right on the content writing pane.
They can work side by side, using sh404SEF for the Homepage meta field and do the rest as you write your articles.
For example you can have a page in Joomla! with the Title ‘Joomla SEO’ and set an HTML Title for Google as ‘Learn The best ways to do Joomla SEO’.