Joomla! 1.5 has some great Search Engine Optimization options already in place, but still there are some things that can be improved. Installing the Joomlatwork SEF patch will give you those improvements.
In this chapter you will learn the following skills:
- Downloading and installing the Joomlatwork SEF patch
- Making your titles more keyword rich
- Improving the metadata of your pages
- Controlling how search engines index your site
- How to upgrade, uninstall, or modify the patch
At the end of this chapter you will be able to see the SEO improvements this patch brings and how you can use the patch to your advantage.
What is the Joomlatwork patch anyways? The Joomlatwork SEF patch consists of a number of files that replace the original Joomla! files. These files will provide you with a lot more features to optimize your web site for better search engine visibility and performance. The Joomlatwork SEF patch will overwrite some of your core Joomla! files. This means some of the files from your default Joomla! installation will be replaced by files that are altered to make the improvements you want.
I normally would not encourage you to use a patch, as patching core files creates problems if you want to update to the next Joomla! version. For this patch, I am making an exception because it brings a lot of improvements to Joomla! from a Search Engine Optimization point of view.
It is fine to use this patch. After a Joomla! update the guys at Joomlatwork will have the patch updated to the latest version in two or three weeks or sometimes even sooner. This means you don't have to worry about using an insecure version for too long after a new release. Is there an alternative for this SEF patch? Yes, and we will look at that option in Chapter 6. However, this option will take a lot more time to implement and manage than the SEF patch. Other SEF components now offer meta tag management options, but a lot of work is needed to manage and get the similar options you get from the SEF patch.
Getting hold of the latest version of the patched files is simple. Go to http://www.joomlatwork.com and find the DOWNLOADS section.
From the DOWNLOADS section choose the directory Joomla 1.5x SEF patch, from which you can choose the version for your Joomla! installation.
If you don't know which version of Joomla! you are currently running, go to the Help menu and click on System Info. There you can see the version you are using.
Download the Joomla 1.5 SEF patch for your system and unpack it to your local drive.
Installation is really simple. Just upload the files using FTP to your Joomla 1.5 installation root directory. This is the directory where you installed Joomla!.
Make sure you copy the directory structure from the unpacked (unzipped) patch.
Using an FTP upload with the same account as you used for the initial install will provide the right security in place to overwrite the default files.
