Maxweb Website Design, the Cambridge Joomla webdesign company

This page is a work in progress and may not cover all the aspects I'd like to cover in the desired detail yet.

If you haven't registered your domain yet

Did you know that your domain name is important to your search engine ratings? Before you go ahead and register a domain name, have a think about what key words you would like to be found under and make sure you somehow get them into your domain name. I didn't know this when I registered my domain, but at least I have web and consulting in the domain name, which is not bad.

Before you start

Before you start planning your site and your content, again think about the keywords. How can you make sure those keywords sneak themselves into page names, headings, category names (in Joomla), menu names and so on? Plan your site so that those keywords are prominent, but don't go over the top, you might get punished by the search engines for that.

Content is paramount

Before you start submitting your site in earnest, take some time and fill it with content.

The aim of the search engines is to present search results that are relevant to the submitted search keywords. That means relevant for humans, so don't create content that is only aimed at search engines, because human readers may find it irritating and not very useful, and the search engines will one day wise up to your tricks. So create your site to be relevant to the kind of visitors you want.

When I say content, I mean lots of it. Not just a few pages. Give your visitors all imaginable information they might find useful and that can add value to your site. This is where a Content Management System like Joomla is so great - it makes it easy to just expand your website with all sorts of useful stuff. Believe me, this is a key point where I can almost guarantee that 95% of your competitors fail miserably. You can beat their website hands down just by filling on with content. Don't think that what you write is trivial, you are probably an expert in your field and most people would not know what you know about your subject. And the main point is to get those keywords into your content.

Articles from others

If you want to save some time and you maybe lack a little inspiration, you can easily get articles from others to put on your site. There is a little catch though, most of them will insist on you including their name and a link as the source of the article. Such an article will not carry the same importance as one of your own, and if you have too many of them, it could even punish you because your site will just be seen as a collection of third-party articles. Therefore it is a better strategy to pay someone to create unique content for you. There are lots of writers in low-cost countries who are willing to write article for you, and there are tools to make sure it's not just a copy/paste job.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation, also known as SEO, is all activities that is specifically aimed at making your site rank higher in the search results.

Metatags

This is a rather obvious one, and it does not have quite as much significance as it once had, but it's still important to have those metatags for your site. What are metatags? They are tags placed in a header in your files that are not shown when the page is viewed, but is readable by all sorts of spiders and bots that hopefully are visiting your site from time to time. In Joomla you can set the tags for the whole site in the global configuration, and you can also set tags individually for each article.

Headers

Search engiens scan the headers used in your text to find out what seems to be the main subject of the page. So always include some top level headers with key words relevant to the page content.

Page Titles

The page title is very important. Make sure it contains one or more keywords relevant to the page.

Pictures

When putting pictures or other images on your site, always use the alt attribute. The alt attribute determines what a user would see instead of the picture if it does not load for some reason. Use this attribute to talk about your key words. How do you use this attribute? In the HTML source, inside the tag, put e.g. alt="the ultima range sportswear is particularly suited for women" if you're selling sportswear for example (you must use the quotes).

Links

When you put links on your site, always use the title attribute. The title attribute determines the text that comes up when you hover the mouse over a link. Use this title attribute to get in some key words and phrases. In the HTML source code, put title="your text here" inside the tag.

Styles

Do you notice that I have put words in bold in this article? Words in bold are deemed by the search engines to have more importance than words in ordinary text. So make sure you bold those keywords.

Who are your target readers?

One little known fact is that search engine optimisation can vary with what search engine you are targeting and that what search engine you should target could depend on who you want to reach. One survey revealed for example that stay-at-home mums preferred using Yahoo to Google. So it could be worth finding out which search engine your target group is using.

AdSense

With AdSense from Google you can have ads from others on your site, which is another way of getting those keywords in, because the ads will be context sensitive. However, you may not want to do this for two reasons: the ads can lead to your competitors, and if you have lots of Google Ads on your site it could be considered a bit "tacky".

Search Engine Friendly URL's

If your pages come up similar to this in the browser address field: http://www.yoursite.com/index?com=com_forum&item=123&n=13 (an arbitrary example), then you should do something with the URL's. This can be done with something called URL rewriting. This is a complex subject I'm not going to cover here, but for instance in Joomla you can get extensions, like the Artio JoomSEF, that will help you with this. You should get your key words into the URL's.

Menus

Search engines will follow the menus and also other links on your site to find your content. Pages that are not linked to in the menus or on other pages on your site will not be found, they are orphans. The best thing is if all the important pages are somehow accessible directly from the menu. With lots of content, this is not always possible, but at least make sure they are linked to from pages that are directly accessible.

Sitemap

Create a sitemap and submit it to Google. How to create a sitemap is explained by Google itself. The sitemap is a help for the search engines to navigate your site. In Joomla, the Joomap component will make sitemap creation easy.

The template

If you're using a template (which you have to if you're using Joomla), make sure the template is of a good quality without messy code. It could be worth it getting a high quality template rather than using a lower quality free one. One think to look out for is to minimize the use of tables for layout purposes.

Accessibility

It will help your site's ratings if it is accessible according to web standards, and also if it adheres to the XHTML standard. A good quality template and judicious use of components will help here.

RSS

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is another method to draw content from other sites onto your site and in that way make sure you get some fresh content. And if you choose the right feed, you could get those keywords again. Again though, RSS could lead to visitors leaving your site because they discovered something important in the RSS headlines, so be a bit careful.

Directory Submission

Go on, submit your site to as many as you can. It doesn't hurt, but it does take some time.

Search Engine Submission

Search Engines do not necessarily discover your site automatically. The best way to ensure a visit is to submit your site to them. Don't submit your site until it has reached a reasonable standard, otherwise it might turn out in your disfavour. And after a submit, don't expect immediate results. The search engine will need time to build up a better picture of your site. How often is it updated? How popular is it? How many other sites are linking to it?

Link Building

This has increased in importance recently. It is deemed important that other sites link to your site, what kind of sites they are, and what sites you are linking to. The idea is to find out what sites are considered authoritative. If your site is to be authoritative, then others must link to you in a fashion that shows they consider your site important.

Link building is time-consuming and is something you might consider paying someone else to do for you.

Today, link-building is maybe the single most important activity you can do to promote your site, together with high quality content.

Offline Advertising

Don't forget to promote your site in the old-fashioned way as well! Be sure to include it on:

• Your business cards
• Your letterheads
• Your telephone answering message
• Your ads
• Stickers
• Radio spots
• When you talk to friends

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

PPC advertising is when you pay for instance Google to get listed in the right column under search results for the keywords of your choice. This is a combination of auction prices and the skill of the ad writer. Whoever pays the most and/or has the best performing ad will achieve the best positions.

Update it!

Maintain your site, don't just forget about it. Continuously add new things, improve it, tinker with it, tweak it, add value to it. By doing this you are achieving two things: the search engines will note that this is an actively maintained site, and you will add value to your visitors. A website should always evolve. If you don't have time, consider hireing a part-time webmaster to do it for you. Maxweb is offering this service.

Hosting

It does play a small significance where you host your site. I wouldn't fret about it, because I don't think it carries a huge weight, but for instance a German site should be hosted in Germany, a UK site in the UK and so on for best effect.