Joomla Basic Metatags helps keyword stuffing

If you have read anything about Search Engine Optimization, You know it is not a good idea to bring up your keywords multiple times in you Metatag Keywords.

But let’s see what happens if you go ahead and work full-force on filling your meta-description and meta-keywords on every single Content-item you make.
You know you should do so, right? I told you to :-)
But you ever listens to me….

Back to the subject.

You ,af course, also put in your metatag description and keywords in the Global Configuration.
Well done! If you missed out on a page you still get your lines in.

Let the Stuffing begin!

Now let’s see what happens…..
Joomla, in a standard installation does this:

It takes the Metatag Description from the Global Config and send it an its way to the source code of the page displayed (or asked for by a spider)
It then gets the Metatag description of the Page and puts it into the source code…oké, you get the idea.
It does the same for the Metatag keywords also from Global and from the Page item.

Sofar so good, wright?

No, this is where the problem begins….
Joomla does not “replace” the Description and Keywords for that page (in Joomla terms content item).
In stead it ADS it to the Global defined values…

How does that look?

Lets say you got a Global Description “Testing SEO of Joomla” and keywords “testing,seo,joomla”
Then you write a page about A test you did about SEO and Joomla.
Description tag: ”Results of a SEO Test with the Joomla CMS” and Keywords “test,results,seo,joomla,cms”

The result in Joomla Source Code

If you now look at the source code for this page, you get the following result:
Descritption Tag: “Testing SEO of Joomla Results of a SEO Test with the Joomla CMS”
Keyword Tag: testing,seo,joomla,test,results,seo,joomla,cms

Really? Look at your own code if you run a standard Joomla website! Just try it.

See the problem?
Every page in the Search Index starts with your Global description…
Global defined Keyword tags are repeated in every page thus sometimes doubling you keywords, a small amout of stuffing…

Without You really being aware of it!

The Solution:
There are two solution, one simple one, and one that requires more work.

Solution nr Two: Remove the Global Description Tags OR bring them down to the bare minimum and be aware of them every time you write the tags in your content items.

Solution nr One: And this one is really, really the best! Because it solves some others Issues in the Joomla SEO field as well, but I will write a post on that later.
Ready?, Sure?

Go to http://www.joomlatwork.com and download there SEF Patch for the Version of Joomla you are running.
Unzip it, and FTP the files and overwrite some of the Joomla Core Files!!

Don’t worry, the also have the original files for download if you don’t like the result of the patch.

Then look at your source code again, no more double entries!

For me, this patch, together with some components, is a standard for new Joomla Installations and one of the main basic improvements a always do before I do any Search Engine Optimization on a Joomla website.

So what are you waiting for? Here is the link Joomla Search Engine Friendly Patch go get it!, its FREE

P.S. They also have an extended version giving you even more control, however this will set you back a whopping 8,33 Euro, with taxes even 9,91 Euro….

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