Reply To: Mambo and Joomla! – duplicate content problem

[Martin W]

After Joomla! “masterchief” Andrew Eddie posted in J thread asking when SEF will be integrated in the core, I made yet another post:

I’d referred to guidelines in a post above; it was these points in particular:

Quote:

Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

– Joomla has Search Engine Unfriendly URLs thanks to Itemids – can get new URL for same content as you create a fresh link to that content. Leads to same problem as guidelines mentions for session IDs:

Quote:

bots may not be able to eliminate URLs that look different but actually point to the same page.

A problem for some time – I’m among people who posted re this in Mambo forums (I’d also mentioned in 404SEF forum, after experiencing flurry of URLs created for just one page of content: a problem that clearly drove 404SEF guy nuts; happily, Xaneon and now OpenSEF to rescue), and since in Joomla forum; solved by OpenSEF, say, but without this Joomla doesn’t really create “Search Engine Friendly URLs”.

Quote:

It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.

– some URLs can be long. Tho, I have good results for some joomlaboard threads, which have clunky URLs.
Shorter URLs are more human friendly; work better when sending emails. Good if it can be simpler for component developers to help ensure simple URLs – something I’d like for Gallery 2, say. Hopefully the sef file you mention is sign of good things to come here.

Title tags get a mention.
I’d figured could have option of using h1 for item titles – but, would add to those requests for optional features…

Hope the templates inc SEO are indeed forthcoming.
(Some time ago, I emailed [then] peekmambo guy, suggesting template to enhance SEO might be good idea, but didn’t get response.)

Fully agree that:

Quote:

can only go so far by painting-by-numbers and join-the-dots

another of the guidelines – among the most crucial – says:

Quote:

Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.

Indeed, can’t hold people’s hands here. For myself, hope I never see the day when a cms alone can meet this guideline.

Yes, it does seem reasonably easy for coders to modify stuff.
Much of discussion in this thread, I think, is on what should be present before modifications needed. Varying views, but maybe a cms that has SEO basics, inc one URL per item – and a URL you can retain as upgrade software etc (“Cool URIs”) – would be an ideal basic foundation.
I know of considerable improvements re SEO since I started using Mambo – page titles built in, say.
Not far to go, really, if sieve down major feature requests/ideas in this thread. Including, Death to Itemids

Post edited by: Martin, at: 2006/11/20 03:44