SEO

A Joomla Search engine friendly extension that streamlines your Joomla SEO efforts in one component. Get the best search engine results possible. Be in top of Google, Yahoo, Bing result

As you have read before, there are several reasons why sh404SEF is the best choice of SEF components for Joomla!

Let’s look at some of the reasons in detail:

•  Free!: Yes, it won’t cost you any money to use it, but since a recent change the download access will cost you about 35 USD a year to get the most recent version. Besides that it takes time to install and configure. One drawback can be that there is no paid support- you have to post in the forums or read the rest of this book to get more insight.

•   Advanced URL choices: This is one good option, as you can choose for long, medium, or short URLs with or without the section or category in the URL. You can even choose to have only the article alias in the” URL.

•   Creating your own URL: With this option you can create your own URLs in combination with components that do not support the creation of automatically-generated SEF URLs.

•  Metatags plugin: Using meta tags such as keywords and descriptions is also a good practice, as you can set your description and keywords for Non-SEF component links, but that requires more work at your end.

•   Rewrites for popular components such as Virtuemart, Docman, Community Builder, MyBlog, Joomfish 2.0, and lots more.

How to get hold of sh404SEF

Getting sh404SEF was easy. You could download it from joornlacode and you need a valid download subscription available for 35 USD a year to get the latest version for Joomla! 1.5. You still can use it for unlimited number of sites.

Don’t be scared due to the fact that it is still in beta, I am using it on several web sites and have not had any problems.

Installation and basic configuration

Installation of the components is similar to any other component. Simply install it using the normal installer, but this time, read the screen after installation or even print it.

This screen has a lot of information on how to make sure the SEF URLs are as clean as you want them to be. If you closed the screen and missed the information, you can read it again in the documentation of the component, which can be reached from the component’s control panel. Most important information is the .htaccess content. For now, you can go ahead and read the information is this chapter.

If you want a URL without /index.php/ in it, you need to run your web site on a Linux-or Unix based hosting platform with the Apache mod_rewrite module active. If that is the case, check the information on how to construct your . htaccess file. You can find the information from your hosting platform in the Joomla! administration menu under Help | System Info | PHP Information. You will find some extra information and examples on .htaccess files in the web.

The basic configuration of sh404SEF exists in two parts. One is the control panel, which we will be looking at in detail later.

The second part is the sh404SEF Plugin that is enabled after the installation. Please check that as it sometimes fails to start. If it is not running you won’t be able to use the metadata control option. You can activate the sh404SEF plugin using the plugin manager. A simple click of the button is enough to publish this component. There are no extra parameters in the plugin.

The plugin is needed to enable the component to place and change the meta tags description and keywords in the source code of your site pages.