Written by Brad Traversy | 20 March 2010

Joomla SEO differs from SEO for a staic website. An SEO component for Joomla is mandatory in my eyes. I would never develop a Joomla website without one. One of the main reasons for this is that the default index.php urls for Joomla are just horrible. There are a few different Joomla SEO components. All of my clients ask me which one is the best. In my opinion, Sh404sef is the best hands down. Sh404sef was developed by Yannick Gaultier.

Apparently, I am not the only developer that thinks Sh404sef is the best choice. More than 80% of Joomla websites with an SEO extension use Sh404sef, and it also took the 'Editors Pick' on the Joomla Extensions Directory, sh404SEF is the most reliable SEO extension or maybe even the most reliable Joomla extension period. It WILL increase traffic to your Joomla website.

Sh404sef is a great extension but that doesn't mean that it is simple. I have had many issues with it as far as understanding it and getting the best out of it. This is a tutorial to try to help you get the extension up and running with minimal issues.

Installing Sh404sef

If you have been using Joomla for a while now, the actual installation shouldn't be to difficult. It is installed like any other Joomla extension.

1. Download at http://dev.anything-digital.com/sh404sef-downloads.html or from us.
2. Install the main component by logging into your backend and clicking Extensions->Install and browsing for the component

So now you have the Sh404sef extension uploaded onto your Jooomla site. Now we have to configure it. Do this by going to Components->Sh404sef. You will see the main Sh404sef control panel. First thing to do is click "Click here to switch to extended display (with all available parameters)". This will give us more configuration options.

Using the htaccess file with Sh404sef

If you are going to use Sh404sef or any SEF URL functionality on your Joomla site, I would highly recommend using a .htaccess file. Some people get confused by this but it actually isn't very hard to do at all.

Rename htaccess.text to .htaccess

By default, Joomla installs a file called htaccess.txt in your root folder. What you need to do is access your root folder and rename that file (htaccess.txt) to .htaccess. You can do this through an FTP program like Filezilla. You can download Filezilla from us here. When you rename the file, be sure to delete.txt from the end of the file.

Set SEF URLs in Global Configuration

Once you have renamed the .htaccess file, go back into your Joomla backend at go to Site->Global Configuration. On the right you will see 3 options..

Search Engine Friendly URLs	No Yes
Use Apache mod_rewrite	No Yes
Add suffix to URLs	No Yes

Switch them to look just like they do above. You can set the last one to off as well but you don't need to because Sh404sef uses suffixes automatically.

Enable .htaccess mode in Sh404sef

Now go back to your Sh404sef panel at Components->Sh404sef. Click on Sh404sef Configuration and click the advanced tab. Find where it says Rewriting Mode and choose with .htaccess (mod_rewrite).

Joomla META Configuration

This is another important step to make your Joomla site SEO friendly. DO NOT use the META option in Global Configuration! Leave the description and keywords empty. If you use this feature in Global Configuration, it will attach that description and those keywords to EVERY page on your site. You don't want that. You want unique META on every page.

Configuring Sh404sef META

We are going to use Sh404sef for all META tags. Go back to Components->Sh404sef and click on Sh404sef Configuration. Choose the META/SEO tab. Choose the following options...

• Activate Meta management -> Yes
• Remove Joomla Generator tag -> Yes
• Use table-less output -> Optional
• Insert h1 tags -> Yes
• Change multiple h1 in h2 -> Yes
• Insert title in Read more ... links -> Yes
• Insert outbound links symbol -> No

Adding META tags within Sh404sef

First, lets add some Home page META. Goto Components->Sh404sef and choose Meta tags. Click Home Page Meta up to the right. Add a title, description and keywords for your homepage.

Now we can do inner pages. Go to Components->Sh404sef and choose View/Edit SEF URLs. This is where all of your rewritten page links are located. Put a check mark next to the page you want to add Meta tags to. Click New Meta up to the right. Add title, description and keywords for that page. Do this for all of your inner pages.

Sh404sef URLs

You can change the way urls are written by going to Components->Sh404sef and choosing Sh404sef Configuration then clicking the Plugins tab. Under Content configuration you will see options to display category, section names as well as alias options. I always choose no for show sections and categories just to shorten the URL as much as possible. I also choose no for Insert content table name.

Sh404sef and 3rd Party Components

The plugins tab is also where you can configure some 3rd party component URLS. Sh404sef offers sef urls for the following components...

• Virtuemart
• Community Builder
• Fireboard
• Remository
• Letterman
• MyBlog
• Mosets Tree
• iJoomla Magazine
• News Portal

Enable Sh404sef

Click the main tab in Sh404sef configuration and choose yes for the Enabled option.

There might be some other configurations you might want to make but these are the necessities in my own opinion. You might want to turn off the Sh404sef security feature under the security tab. It is known to cause a "Restricted Access Flooding" error on some Joomla installations.