As Joomla grows in popularity as an open source CMS more and more individuals and businesses of all sizes rely on the platform to get their products and services online. In fact, more than 2.5 percent of websites are running on a Joomla CMS -- and for good reason.
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When working with a database, an index is the structure that improves the speed of a database table. Most all new websites in some way use a database. MYSQL is a database often used on the Linux platform. With Linux, you’ll have a few things you need to research with your site designer. You need to make sure your site will be designed with a good content management system. Websites now are designed for users without knowledge of coding to change and add content. This is important because content is king and you are going to be creating good content for your website to enhance your websites visibility on search engines.

This is very important because your web designer or program manager is not going to be able to nurture your website with content like you may be able to. Large companies will often times employ people dedicated to writing articles and content strictly for release on the web. After you have found out you are using a content management system, you now have a few things to make sure your designer does with that website.

Tags: seo, Internet Marketing

By David Leonhardt

From the obvious to the "Hey-I-never-thought-of-that-great-idea-before", here are 10 of the top 52 tips on how to optimize your website for its turbo-charge rocket ride up the search engine rankings.

Be bold. Use the tags around some of your keywords on each page. Do NOT use them everywhere the keyword appears. Once or twice is plenty.

Deep linking. Make sure you have links coming in to as many pages as possible. What does it tell a search engine when other web sites are linking to different pages on your site? That you obviously have lots of worthwhile content. What does it tell a search engine that all your links are coming in to the home page? That you have a shallow site of little value, or that your links were generated by automation rather than by the value of your site.

Become a foreigner. Canada and the UK have many directories for websites of companies based in those countries. Can you get a business address in one of those countries?

Social bookmarking. Make it easy for your visitors to social bookmark your website, creating important links that the search engines value. There are plenty of free social bookmarking widgets available. We offer The Bookmarketer

 

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Newsletters. Offer articles to ezine publishers that archive their ezines. The links stay live often for many years in their archives.

First come, first served. If you must have image links in your navigation bar, include also text links. However, make sure the text links show up first in the source code, because search engine robots will follow the first link they find to any particular page. They won't follow additional links to the same page. You can see this in action at the link to the home page on this web site monitoring page

Multiple domains. If you have several topics that could each support their own website, it might be worth having multiple domains. Why? First, search engines usually list only one page per domain for any given search, and you might warrant two. Second, directories usually accept only home pages, so you can get more directory listings this way. Why not a site dedicated to gumbo pudding pops?

Article exchanges. You've heard of link exchanges, useless as they generally are. Article exchanges are like link exchanges, only much more useful. You publish someone else's article on the history of pudding pops with a link back to their site. They publish your article on the top ten pudding pop flavors in Viet Nam, with a link back to your site. You both have content. You both get high quality links. (More on high quality links in other tips.)

Titles for links. Links can get titles, too. Not only does this help visually impaired surfers know where you are sending them, but some search engines figure this into their relevancy for a page.

Not anchor text. Don't overdo the anchor text. You don't want all your inbound links looking the same, because that looks like automation - something Google frowns upon. Use your URL sometimes, your company name other times, "Gumbo Pudding Pop" occasionally, "Get gumbo pudding pops" as well, "Gumbo-flavored pudding pops" some other times, etc.

Site map. A big site needs a site map, which should be linked to from every page on the site. This will help the search engine robots find every page with just two clicks. A small site needs a site map, too. It's called the navigation bar. See how the second navigation bar at the bottom of Last Minute Florida Villas is like a mini-site map?

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1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.

2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.

3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for that site to link to you, you don’t want the link.

4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.

5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a major brand name that is a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.

6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.

7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.

8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.

9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.

10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.

11. Check for canonicalization issues – www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.

12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.

Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.

13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem – you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.

14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.

15. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.

16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.

17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.

18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.

19. Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.

20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.

21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.

22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.

23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.

24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.

25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.

26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.

27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.

28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.

29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.

30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.

31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.

32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.

33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.

34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.

35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.

36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!

37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.

38. Use captions with your images. As with newspaper photos, place keyword rich captions with your images.

39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.

40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.

41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:

(1) Log out of Google

(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar

42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.

43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.

44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.

45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.

46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.

47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.

48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.

49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.

50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.

51. Add viral components to your web site or blog – reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.

52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.

53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.

54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.

55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.

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VirtueMart is one of the world's most popular ecommerce platforms, and is experiencing huge growth each month since VirtueMart 2 was released. VirtueMart has more shops in the Alexa Top One Million survey than osCommerce, PrestaShop, Volusion, Yahoo Stores, OpenCart or Ubercart.

VirtueMart is a powerful, Open Source eCommerce plug-in for the Joomla CMS (Content Management System, or a way for non-technical people to manage a website without programming). This means once Joomla is installed, then VirtueMart can be automatically installed with just a few clicks. If you are not technical-minded, just think of Joomla as a framework, and adding Virtuemart is like plugging in a lightbulb.

VirtueMart's powerful features can be used almost immediately by a store owner with no programming experience, because most parts of VirtueMart are edited by filling in forms or by automatically installing a plug-in to add the features you want.  

About VirtueMart 2

VirtueMart 2 was just released a few months ago. It has been completely re-written from the ground up in object-oriented code using the Joomla framework. What this means is that almost any Joomla programmer can do a respectable job on VirtueMart without learning a specialized program.

One reason VirtueMart 2 is so popular is because it is a "right-size" program: some come loaded with every possible feature, others are stripped-down so you must add every feature you want. VirtueMart is just right, with enough built-in features that you can use it without adding more. But it is so incredibly easy to add features that you will not be able to resist.

VirtueMart 2 review

I just finished learning and testing every aspect of the VirtueMart 2 Administration for the upcoming VirtueMart 2 User Manual, and I found it to be a delight to use and administer. The back end is so visually pleasing -- okay, it's downright pretty. I learned the program very fast, everything is in a logical place which speeds the learning curve. It's so amazingly easy to add extensions, templates, and updates (see detail below). It's a winner in almost every aspect.

I did get stuck when I got to the "Custom Fields" menu. Normally product attributes that customers can choose (like size and color) are tricky to learn, that is normal. But in VM2 the product attributes concept is expanded into Custom Fields to also include wildly customizable features like specification lists, related products or categories, and more. The concept is so big that it is difficult to get your arms around it, but several pre-installed plug-ins help make it more manageable. It's like going into an ice cream store that offers 1,000 flavors, when 32 flavors would do. Look for more plug-ins to simplify this process further.

Easy VirtueMart extensions, templates & updates

VirtueMart 2 now uses Joomla templates, so you can switch templates as easily as plugging in that proverbial lightbulb. You just download a Joomla template - and there are plenty of free ones to try out - click the "Extensions" (plug-ins) menu in Joomla and click the downloaded file on your computer, and voila, your template is uploaded and installed for you automatically. Adding any kind of extension is just as easy.

Updating an unmodified VirtueMart store is even easier, because a big notice appears in your Administration notifying you of an update. If you click the notice, the Live Update feature automatically applies the updates. Note that best practice is to always back up before updating by using your cPanel or web host's control panel to get a full backup.

VirtueMart documentation and support

VirtueMart 2 online user documentation was recently updated and can be found at http://dev.virtuemart.net/projects/virtuemart/wiki. Bookmark this page, because the program has been around for so long that there is lots of documentation on the old version which is of no use to you. There is an active and rollicking VirtueMart community forum to help with almost any issue not covered by documentation at http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php. Again, there is lots of forum information about older versions, so be sure you are looking at VirtueMart 2 info.

The VirtueMart 2 User Manual will be available soon, and several free, full-color guides are available from my own website http://oscmanuals.com/virtuemart.

VirtueMart History

VirtueMart started way back in 1999 as phpShop for the Mambo CMS. When Mambo forked into Joomla in 2005, phpShop was renamed VirtueMart. Mambo CMS is no longer officially supported. In 2010 the founder of the project, Sören Eberhardt Biermann, named Max Milbers as the new head of the project. Under Milbers’ direction, VirtueMart Version 2.0 was completely re-written, and was officially released in December, 2012.

VirtueMart recommendation

Based on my experience, VirtueMart 2 is best for non-technical vendors who have a limited need for product attributes (your products do not come in different sizes or colors), or who have technical support, or who will install a simple plug-in to use them. VirtueMart is good out of the box, but you will want to customize it with the easy to install extensions. Do not be shy about having to learn Joomla, think of it as the deck of a swimming pool - when you will spend almost all your time swimming in the water with VirtueMart. And both VirtueMart and Joomla work the same way now, so if you are new to them you may not even notice which one you are using.

If you are a technically-minded person, then jump right in and take the time to learn the custom fields; they are an elegant and brilliant tool and you will think of a myriad of good uses for them. The sky is the limit.

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DNS Changer: FBI Updates Net Access Shutoff Plans

The FBI called: Your malware-infected PC or router needs to get clean, or lose Internet access.

In a little more than two months, the FBI plans to pull the plug on DNS servers that are currently providing PCs infected with the DNS Changer malware with the ability to translate domain names into IP addresses.

Accordingly, the FBI has launched a public appeal, urging consumers and businesses to scan their machines--including some routers--for signs of infection.

Tags: DNS Changer: FBI Updates Net Access Shutoff Plans

Many people are confused by internet marketing because they don’t understand Organic/Natural Search in contrast to a Paid search.

Eighty percent of people who search the web are using an organic search. Below is an illustration of the difference between organic and paid links.

One of the first things I recommend that people do is register with the DMOZ and The Google Local Business Center. The Google Local Business center is a hidden gem. This will help you come up in personal digital assistant devices such as mobile telephones and Google Map results, but moreover in the mapped results at the top of Google search engine result pages. As a business, whether regional, local or national, this will help you come up on the first page. Your business may be up top where there are map results. When people click on that, it does not cost you a penny! This listing is organic by nature and is not a sponsored result, but will help people locate your business significantly better if searching local.

Many times I hear webmasters say things like, “Google does not even look at meta tags, so don’t worry about it.” These people are forgetting that Yahoo and MSN use Metatags. You should use your Metatags to solidify your content by having the same thing on your homepage as your Metatags. I have personally seen good results from making changes to meta information in Google. Last week, I fixed a Word Press site that had no meta information or tags at all. That would be laziness or lack of information on part of the design company. When building a site at High Level Studios LLC., St. Louis, MO, I personally ensure that the client does not come back with another web designer asking questions. One may be: why I did not do basic things like make sure the title and description have basic searchable information. I just got another website last week from a large corporate company that had no readable text on the homepage except their current company news. This news would never carry the keywords and information that we want to drive sales and traffic from the website. We need solid keywords, a title, and a description.

If your website company or designer does not ask for this information, they are not doing Search Engine Optimization for your website.

Tags: St. Louis seo Company, seo, Seo for Joomla

One Curve At A Time is a community group of concerned citizens that has come together to insist on proactively changing and/or straightening the dangerous curves on Hwy FF/F in Northwest Jefferson County, Missouri. We are committed to...

• improving the engineering of these hazardous highways

• supporting law enforcement of these hazardous highways

• building awareness of these hazardous highways

 We will start by honoring those who have gone before us (Kaela Marie Archambault, Karen Turnbo, and others) that have inspired us to begin at the curve that has become known as Kaela's curve on Hwy FF/F in Northwest Jefferson County, Missouri.

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By Cameron Laird, Network World

Much of the coverage of HTML5 over the last couple of years has focused its role in the grand strategy of corporate combat: will Apple standardize on HTML5? Is Google counteracting with its support of Flash?

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Gathering a return on an investment is important to any business. This is often referred to as R.O.I. , or Return on Investment. In search engine optimization, there are two types of techniques: "white hat" and "black hat". In "white hat" search engine optimization, good techniques are used to gain more quality inbound links and traffic without an attempt to deceive the search engines. Many times people will sign up with a program or website that offers astonishing results. Anything said similar to "We will get you on the first page of Google," is generally not true if they are speaking in organic search terms. Anyone can be anywhere in paid results. It's just having the most money to bid. But, we now know that over eighty percent of the market does not click on sponsored links in Google or Yahoo. Therefore, a focus on organic search is not only cost effective (generally free), but has eighty percent of the traffic anyway.

Tags: seo, St. Louis seo Company, Seo for Joomla

Tom over at Odd Dog Media put up a great breakdown of how to decide which is better for you, AdWords or Organic SEO and since…you know, we’re kinda into that sorta thing, we thought it would be helpful for all of you to take a look at as well. Which path are you taking?

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Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at the inaugural World Information Architecture Day (WIAD) in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the topic of information architecture and search engine optimization (SEO).

Normally, I teach SEO professionals about information architecture: what it is and is not, how to determine the best IA for websites, and so forth. At this event, it was the other way around. I was educating, or perhaps re-educating, information architects about SEO.

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One of the most difficult, and most important, aspects of marketing is learning about your audience. Once you complete a site you always want to use statistics tools like "Google Analytics" or "Awstats" to be sure you understand the trends of the people visiting your site. For instance, it is observed that people are on average visiting three pages of our site. They are, however, tending to drop off when they get to page three. We then need to look at page three in comparison with pages one and two. Upon inspection, we may notice page three has an overwhelming amount of print to read. Therefore, people are either clicking on another page, or leaving the site altogether, once they reach page three. So we now know that each page should be easy to understand and navigate, and the third page must be trimmed down. This is the importance of knowing your audience and their habits.  

Tags: Seo for Joomla, seo, St. Louis seo Company

When building a website, a designer or marketer should know about "information architecture". This is a fairly easy concept for some content writers, yet very difficult for those that may be too close to any project. Many times it is better to hire an outside marketing agency. This is because they are not as close to the subject as you are, and they may offer a fresh perspective. Also, remember not to get caught up in tools that are supposed to enhance your website, such as website portals and/or ad submission tools. These can create some benefits, but must be utilized after your basic SEO is correct. The most important thing is understanding what information is most important and what terms and phrases drive the most traffic to your website.   Tags: wordpress, drupal, Seo for Joomla, St. Louis seo Company, seo

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Regardless of what kind of business you currently own or operate, you need and deserve a website design that will provide you with a complete array of services to boost your organic traffic and increase your sales. Perhaps the best way to do that is to discover a website design company that offers more than just a simple template for you to choose and integrate your products and services from there. Tags: Untagged

We all want our website to be at the top of the search engine when someone types in something similar to our company or service. I have worked with hundreds of companies to enhance their web presence. The world of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a large task to conquer. As a web designer or internet marketer, you will have many tasks that are requested of you. One of the main questions is, “Can you get me to the top of search engines?” Let's Find out together! Tags: drupal, wordpress, joomla, seo

Black Hat vs. White Hat: Link Building Techniques

Anyone with a working knowledge of search engine optimisation (SEO) will already know that link building is an integral part of the process. Link building strategies vary greatly from one agency to the next: some are more effective than others, and perhaps more importantly, some are more ethical than others

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Joomla, one of the world's most popular open source content management systems (CMS) used for everything from websites to blogs to Intranets, today announced that downloads have risen 38 percent from December 2010 to December 2011. To date, Joomla has been downloaded more than 27 million times*, making it one of the most downloaded content management systems in the world.

Tags: cms, joomla

WordPress has released version 3.3. Dubbed “Sonny” after jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt, WordPress 3.3 packs in a number of worthwhile upgrades, including a new responsive design that adapts the WordPress admin to smaller screens.

To get the latest version head over to the WordPress downloads page. If you’re already using WordPress you can update from the WordPress dashboard (naturally we suggest backing up your files and database before you upgrade).

Among the changes that make WordPress 3.3 well worth the upgrade is the new responsive admin design. While there are mobile apps from managing your WordPress site on the go, the actual web admin has never adapted to small screens. That changes with WordPress 3.3 and its new responsive admin page, which reflows content to fit the screen you’re using.

Tags: wordpres, cms