How to SEO a Joomla site using the Artio JoomSEF for Joomla 1.0.x and Joomla 1.5

Licensing:

Artio provides multiple licensing options. You can have free, pay-per-site or server licenses. The free versions have all the same functionality as the paid versions, but with caveats ranging from third party links in the source code (Joomla 1.0.x) to a 'pay for support' model in Joomla 1.5.

Installation:

Before you install any components, I highly recommend backing up your site, and your database. You'll be overwriting core files during the installation, and it's critical to be able to restore your site if something goes wrong.

Download the component from the Artio site. Make sure you're downloading the right version to correspond with the version of Joomla you have.

To install the component in Joomla 1.5, use the top menu to browse to 'Extensions' then 'Install/Uninstall'. In Joomla 1.0.x, use the top menu to browse to 'Installers' then 'Components'. Use the file uploader to browse for the zip file on your desktop, and load the component.

Configuration:

Once you've installed the component, there are a few global settings in Joomla you'll need to do to get it working.

First, connect to your webserver using an FTP client such as FileZilla or FlashFXP. Browse to the public_html folder and find the file called htaccess.txt. Download this file, open it in notepad and make the edits as instructed. When you're done, save it as .htaccess. Then upload it back to the webserver again.

If you were able to upload the files successfully, you can close your FTP client and

In the top menu choose 'Site' then 'Global Configuration'. In 'Global Configuration' select the SEO tab. Change the item that says 'Search Engine Friendly Pages' from 'no' to 'yes' (ignore the alert that pops up). The locate and change the item that says Dynamic Page Titles from 'no' to 'yes'.

Next, locate the Metadata Tab. From here you can control the meta:title and the meta:author tag. Neither of these tags are valuable for SEO, so it's recommended to set them to say “NO”

Configuring Artio JoomSEF

Locate the component in the components section of the top menu. Select Artio SEF to be taken to the configuration screen. In the configuration section, there are a lot of items for customizing Artio. Most of these options should be left to their default setting with the exception of the following three, which will need to be changed.

First, enable the component by changing the item that says 'Enabled' to 'yes'. The next item says “Disable Creation of new SEF URLs?”. For the moment, this should be set to 'yes', it can easily be changed later. The third setting to alter is the item that says “Redirect non SEF URLs to SEF?” which should also be set to 'yes'. Once this is all done, I recommend that you purge SEF URLs, and clear the cache (both options are available from the Artio component main page).

You'll also have to publish the meta tag module, go into your module management area and find the JoomSEF Metabot. Publish it, it doesn't matter where. Open the module and configure the settings to suit your SEO strategy.

Implementation

Now you're ready to start rewriting URLs and optimizing your site. It's a good idea to back up your site again before you get started. Once you've backed up, jump into Artio by selecting it from the components menu. In the configuration screen, set to 'no'. To generate some URLs to work on, open your site in a new window and browse through a few pages. I usually set “Disable Creation of new SEF URLs?” to 'yes' at this point so I don't end up with more content than I can manage in one go.

Browse through the URLs, renaming the pages and setting the meta:fields. Every time you finish one of these, you'll be prompted to save the record to the permanent redirection table. You should always say 'yes' to this. To handle the home page, open index.php and leave the entry for the page name blank.

When you're finished, go back to the main Artio area and click on 'View/Edit Custom Redirects'. Make sure all of your custom URLs are listed here, then back them up using the 'export' function. When you've finished, select 'Purge SEF URLs' from the main menu and 'Clean Cache' in the upper right.

Summary

Artio JoomSEF is a versatile, powerful tool for managing URLs and on page SEO strategies. While it's possibly too powerful for the average small business site, it's been a great solution for expansive sites with a lot of dynamically generated content. Don't forget to read our Joomla SEO roundup on the Hosting Nation blog for a side by side comparison of the top three SEO Extensions for Joomla.