Joomla! site syndication http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla 2008-12-05T07:55:27+01:00 http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2008-06-05T17:37:27+01:00 http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla/help/joomla/the-5-best-seo-tips-for-joomla-webmasters.html A basic Joomla installation is not very 'search engine friendly'. Sure, everybody knows they have to enter their own meta keywords and enable 'SEF URLs', but those things are very ineffective these days, especially with the default built-in components. So here are our 5 best tips to vastly improve the search engine friendliness of your Joomla website. 1. Search Engine Friendly URL'sThis is probably the most important of all. Joomla comes with a SEF engine by default, but it doesn't do a very good job. We recommend installing OpenSEF for Joomla. To enable this, you can follow our guide here : Configuring 'Search engine friendly URLs' for your Joomla site (help/joomla/configuring-search-engine-friendly-urls-for-your-joomla-site.html)2. Linked titlesEnabling this built in feature will change each article subject / title into a link. And because you are using SEF URLs now, these links will contain keywords relating to the article (if you gave it a good title).To enable this, you can follow our guide here :Enabling 'Linked titles' in Joomla (help/joomla/how-to--enable-linked-titles-in-joomla.html) 3. The 'Bookmarks' component The built in Joomla component 'Weblinks', is not able to display direct links. Instead, all the links are redirect links which do not count as actual backlinks in Google, or at least not with the desired anchor text. Replacing this component with the 'Bookmarks' component will allow you to enable direct links. You will also have a lot more options on how to organize and display the links. This step is vital if you are planning to do any link trading, because other webmaster will usually only accept direct links in return for their link.To enable this, you can follow our guide here :Installing and configuring the 'Bookmarks' component on your Joomla site (help/joomla/installing-and-configuring-the-bookmarks-component.html) 4. Using 'TagClouds'To enable more keyword rich internal links on your frontpage, I recommend using the component 'TagClouds'. It will generate a cloud of keywords on your frontpage that, when clicked, will bring up a search on your site of that keyword. Usefull to users and good for search engine optimisation.To enable this, you can follow our guide here :Installing and configuring the 'TagClouds' component on your Joomla site (help/joomla/installing-and-configuring-the-tagclouds-module.html) 5. Logging and statistics with JoomlaStats You are going to have to know how your visitors are coming to your site and whether the amount is increasing after all your hard work. For this purpose you can use the 'JoomlaStats' component. It will provide you with information such as which site referred a user to your site, which search engine did they use and what keywords were they searching for. This is vital information for your search engine optimization campaign.To enable this, you can follow our guide here :Installing and configuring the 'JoomlaStats' component on your Joomla site (help/joomla/installing-and-configuring-the-joomlastats-component.html) Implementing these 5 simple things on your site will increase the visitors that find your site through the search engines. By the way, these tips have all been implemented on this site, so you can see everything in action right here (except for JoomlaStats, I have only enabled this in the Joomla back-end) text/html 2008-04-13T15:11:56+01:00 http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla/help/joomla/configuring-search-engine-friendly-urls-for-your-joomla-site.html Configuring 'Search engine friendly URLs' for your Joomla siteWhen you install a new Joomla site and put some content on there, you will notice that when you browse through the site, the URL in the top of your browser becomes a string of letters and numbers that don't mean anything to you, OR TO GOOGLE. There is a way to automatically have the URL reflect the subject of the page, this is called search engine friendly URLs.There is a built in function for SEF URLs in Joomla, but it is extremely limited and will not do much to truly optimise your site. I recommend using Jooma OpenSEF, a free component with a ton of options for optimising your URL structure. You can download it here :OpenSEF for Joomla (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensef/) Then you can install it as any other Joomla component. You can follow our guide here 'Guide to installing new components, modules, mambots and templates in Joomla (help/joomla/guide-to-installing-new-components-modules-mambots-and-templates-in-joomla.html) '.After installation, it is not yet activacted. Follow these steps to activate it with the default configuration (sufficient for most sites). You must follow all these steps carefully, or you might disable functionality of your site. 1. First download this file : htaccess.txt (http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/files/htaccess.txt) (right click / save as) 2. Connect using FTP to your site, and upload the HTACCESS.TXT file. 3. Now rename the file HTACCESS.TXT to .HTACCESS.TXT (note the leading dot). In some FTP clients, the file will now disappear. Do not be alarmed, you have just made the file hidden.4. Go to your Site / Global configuration and on the last tab called SEO, select SEF URLs.5. Go to components / OpenSEF / Configuration. Now you can safely activate OpenSEF by choosing yes at 'Activate OpenSEF6. As a final step, I recommend enabling the option 'Fetch Updates and Addons List' as well. This will enable OpenSEF to remind you of software updates. Software updates for 3rd party components like these are important for the security of your site.Now OpenSEF should be enabled and you can test it by browsing your site. Like your pretty URLs ? So does Google.TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS :- I cannot see the HTACCESS.TXT after renaming it (making it hidden).This procedure differs per FTP client, but in general there should be an option (under 'options ?') to show hidden files. For a guide on various FTP clients, go to this document : Guide to FTP and Joomla (help/joomla/guide-to-ftp-and-joomla.html) - Help, my site gives a HTTP 500 / 50x / 5xx error !! What now ?Something is wrong inside your HTACCESS.TXT. I've tried to create a general file which should work for most setups. Remove the file and in the administrator panel, under Global configuration, remember to disable it there as well. Then everything should be back to normal. I suggest you request support from your webhost in implementing the HTACCESS.TXT file.- I get nice URLs everywhere, except in components like Remository download area, or a forum componentOpenSEF has support for many other components as well. You just need to enable support for it in the configuration. Go to Components / OpenSEF / Configuration / Components, and tick the box for 'alias' next to the component.Any questions, leave your comments here. text/html 2008-04-04T12:20:26+01:00 http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla/help/joomla/how-to-install-different-website-templates-on-joomla.html Ok, so you've followed our guide on setting up Joomla, but now you're looking at this ugly default template, including Joomla banners and other things you don't want on your site. Unless of course you want that banner for some odd reason.Joomla comes with a second template already installed by default called 'made your web'. To learn how to enable a different template, I suggest trying to change to 'madeyourweb' now.Log in to the administration panel of your Joomla site ( http://www.your.url/administrator )In the top menu bar, go to SITE -> TEMPLATE MANAGER -> SITE TEMPLATES. Now you will see the list of installed templates.Select the radio button for the 'made your web' template and click on the button DEFAULT (not the assign button, we'll get to that one later)Now open your browser and go to the URL of your site .. presto ! A whole different look for the entire site. Now to install a NEW template, you will first need to download some. Head over to our download section and get some free templates. You do not need to unzip the files, they will be installed AS zip files. Once you have a few you want to try out for your Joomla site, go to :Log in to the administration panel of your Joomla site ( http://www.your.url/administrator )In the top menu bar, go to INSTALLERS -> TEMPLATES-SITE.Click on the button NEW to install a new templateClick on the button BROWSE to find the file you downloadedClick on the button UPLOAD AND INSTALLYou should now see a message that the installation was succesfullYou can now choose this new template as your default (see steps above)TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS :If you are uploading a template and you get an error message like :Upload template failed :/httpdocs/media/install_47f601d34d223/index.php does not exist!orUpload template failed :BAD PCL ZIP FORMATThis almost always means you are uploading a Joomla 1.5 template onto a Joomla 1.0 site. This won't work and you'll need to find a different template or decide to use Joomla 1.5 instead. OTHER COOL STUFF WITH JOOMLA TEMPLATES :You can enable a 'module', called the template changer and use it to give your visitors the option to select their favorite templates from the ones you make available to them. This is further explained in the guide 'Using the template changer module'. You can also assign different templates to different areas on your site. This is done with the 'assign' button in the template manager mentioned earlier. When you click on it, you will be shown a list of areas on your site (news, blog.. etc.) and you can select where you want this template to be active. This way your site can change its entire look when people enter the news area or some other special area on your site.There is also a method of creating a PDA / Mobile version of your site. Either on a subdomain (pda.mypage.com) or by auto detecting mobile browsers and just showing them a different template. This is further explained in our guide here ()You can of course modify any exisiting template. Often the free templates will contain links to the site of the creator of the template. You'll also probably want to edit the graphical logo. For this purpose we have written a guide 'some easy steps to pimp your Joomla templates'. You'll also find 'module positions' explained in that same guide. Well I hope this was a clear explanation of how Joomla templates work. You should remember that you can always change the template of your site with the click of a button text/html 2008-04-03T22:18:34+01:00 http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla http://www.mypageofmanythings.com/joomla/help/joomla/how-to-install-joomla-on-strato-v-power-server.html This site is hosted on my Strato V power server. I had some trouble installing everything, so I figured some oof you could probably use some instructions with this. Most of it is just general Joomla setup, the only difference being the file permissions modification on the Strato server - you need root access for this. Here's a step by step guide on installing Joomla (or Mambo for that matter) on the V-Powerserver from Strato (stratoserver.de).PRE SETUP STAGE : 1. Register the domain name somewhere2. Point the DNS record to your V-Power server IP address3. Open the PLESK control panel of your strato account and log in as ADMIN, this should be on a url similar to mine which is something like http://h34242221689.stratoserver.net:8843 (not an actual working link, you should have your own link provided to you by Strato)4. If you have already created a 'client' in Plesk, continue to step 5.In Plesk, click on 'clients' in the left menu. Click on 'add new client' and fill in the details of the domain owner (probably your own details). These are only for your administration purposes and it not used anywhere outside of Plesk.5. After having created the client, you can create a domain. Click on 'domain' in the left menu. Then click on 'add new domain' and select the name of the 'client' we created in step 4. Now enter the domain name in the first field provided (it's marked WWW). Click 'ok' to continue to the hosting setup screen.6. If you have not configured the DNS record properly, you will now get a warning that the provided domain name does not yet resolve (point) to the Strato V power server's IP address. HOWEVER, you might also get this warning because it takes time for the DNS record to be updated everywhere. If you still get this warning after 12 hours you probably configured the wrong IP address. If everything is OK (only green boxes, no yellow warning), just choose 'physical hosting' and continue7. Domain hosting setup screen. Here you must enter a username and password for the FTP user for this domain. Create something unique using a username of 8 characters and a password of at least 8 characters with mixed uppecase, lowercase, numbers and symbols. Write it down.8. IMPORTANT STEP : Where it says 'Shell access to server with FTP user's credentials', make sure to select /bin/bash !! Ignore the warning it gives you, it only applies if you give that account to other people. Again, make sure you have a STRONG password on this FTP/SHELL account.9. IMPORTANT STEP : Select the tickbox for PHP but DEselect the option for SAFE MODE !! Click OK to create the hosting space.10. Now we have to create a MYSQL database for Joomla to use.-Click on 'databases' and then click on 'add database'-Enter a name for your database, for instance DBJOOMLA, then click 'OK' 11. Now we have to create a database USER for Joomla to use-Click on 'add new database user'-Enter a name for the user, for instance SQLUSER1, enter a strong password and click 'OK'. Don't make the password too long or it won't work. 8 or 10 characters is long enough if you mix uper lower case and numbers. Write it down where you wrote the FTP user information. You are now done seting everything up in Plesk, you generally won't need Plesk anymore now. You can log out of Plesk. (end of presetup stage)SETUP STAGE Now we must put the actual files for Joomla on the server and start the setup process.1. Download the latest release of Joomla (Joomla.org) (http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/)2. Unzip the files into a folder3. Start up your favorite FTP client (Ftp client for PC (http://www.flashfxp.com) , Ftp Client for Mac OS X (http://cyberduck.ch/)).4. Connect to the site using the FTP account you created earlier in Plesk (if you are new to FTP, read our 'Guide to FTP and Joomla (help/joomla/guide-to-ftp-clients-on-windows-and-mac-os-x.html) ' 5. Upload the files you unzipped, to the folder HTTPDOCS on the server. If you don't know how to do this, follow our guide to FTP and Joomla (help/joomla/guide-to-ftp-clients-on-windows-and-mac-os-x.html) 6. When the upload is complete, you can open your browser to start the Joomla installer. Just go to the domain name you created.Troubleshooting tips : If you now see a page representing the domain name company where you bought the name, this means the domain name has not updated to the other DNS servers. You either didn't edit the DNS record (correctly) or you have to wait a few hours.If you now see a 'default Plesk page', this means the DNS record is working correctly. You did not setup the domain in Plesk correctly, or you did not upload the files correctly.FINAL SETUP You should now see the Joomla installer. However, several things are marked RED and we have to fix that. Follow the final few steps described below to complete the Joomla setup on your Strato server :The files have been uploaded using the FTP account, but this actually causes a problem with Joomla on Strato servers as the file permissions do not allow Joomla to install properly, or at a later stage add components properly.1. Connect with your favorite SSH client to the server, using the username and password of the FTP account. If you do not know what SSH is, read our guide to using SSH for beginners (help/joomla/guide-to-ssh-clients-on-windows.html) , it will explain how to login to your server using SSH. You can download a Windows SSH client here (joomladownloads/Webmaster-Applications/Windows-software/Putty-SSH-client-for-Windows/) and if you use Linux or Mac OS, just open a terminal window and use the command ssh (it's built in).2. Change to root user. In the SSH terminal window, type :suAnd hit enter. It will ask you for the ROOT password which is something you should now. It was provided to you by Strato, so if you do not have it you should contact Strato.3. As root user, change ownership of the httpdocs folder.In the SSH terminal window type : chgrp -R psaserv httpdocsFINAL FINAL SETUP You can now grant the permissions to the folders needed by Joomla (the red marked ones in the installer) in two ways. Through FTP or directly using shell command in the SSH terminal. Since we are writing a simple guide we will explain the FTP method (if you know shell commands you can figure it out youself just CHMOD the folders).Note : If you are not familiar with FTP, read our quickstart guide here (help/joomla/guide-to-ftp-clients-on-windows-and-mac-os-x.html) 1. Open your favorite FTP client. We will use FlashFXP for Windows and Cyberduck for Mac OS X in our example. (FlashFXP example)When logged in, you will see a folder called HTTPDOCS. Right-click it and choose 'CHMOD'. A permission window will open where you must select write permissions for GROUP (the middle column). Click 'OK'(Cyberduck example)When logged in, you will see a folder called HTTPDOCS. Select the folder and hit APPLE-I or click the action menu and choose 'info'. A permission window will open where you must select write permissions for GROUP (the middle column). Click 'OK'2. Repeat step 1 for all the subfolders mentioned on the Joomla installer page (cache, templates, modules)3. Refresh the webpage for the Joomla installer, you will see all the RED folders now marked as green. You will also see if you missed any and you need to go back and fix the permissions of that folder (in that case go back to step 1 and 2).4. Now you should only see 2 red items in the list, 'do not display warnings' and 'GPC MAGIC QUOTES' on. You can read more about these things in our guide HERE, but it's not required for proper operation of Joomla.5. YOU CAN NOW CLICK NEXT. Now it's time to get that piece of paper again with the MYSQL username and password. Fill in the DATABASE NAME, the MYSQL USERNAME, the MYSQL PASSWORD and type LOCALHOST in the server field. It should look something like the picture below.6. Click 'OK' once more, and you will be prompted for the name of the site. This name will be displayed in the top bar of the browser when visiting the page, but it can be modified later (by going to site / global configuration).7. Now you will be prompted for an ADMIN password. Enter a strong password and write it down again. Safely store the passwords somewhere. Make a copy if possible. If you lost the password, follow our guide here.8. You are now finished with the installation, but before you can view the site you have to delete the folder called 'installation' on the server. Connect with your FTP client, browse into the HTTPDOCS folder and delete the folder called 'installation'.9. Now when you open the webpage again, it should show you the basic Joomla site.10. Congratulations ! You have now installed Joomla ! You can start modifying everything by going to http://www.yoururl.com/administrator and logging in with the ADMIN account you created in step 7.POST FINAL SETUP I recommend you read our guides on 'Guide to installing new components, modules, mambots and templates in Joomla (help/joomla/guide-to-installing-new-components-modules-mambots-and-templates-in-joomla.html) ' and 'The 5 best SEO tips for Joomla webmasters (help/joomla/the-5-best-seo-tips-for-joomla-webmasters.html)' to get started with building your site and attracting visitors. Feel free to comment on this article if anything was unclear during the installation.