Some things have changed a lot since I first wrote this post. In the early days of Joomla there was only one plugin, Seo Tools for Joomla, and it did a pretty good job of managing SEO. “But how did you produce so many links?” I hear you say. Well, it didn’t have a link builder which meant I would have to manually add each and every link I had created on my site through a process that isn’t a priority when building a site.
Joomla! is an Open Source Content Management System that is developed to facilitate developers, site owners/administrators to build, publish, manage and to access their websites. Seo Tools for Joomla was developed by Alex Stylianou. This free plugin improves your SEO by searching keywords in the title of the page, the description and other sections within your website, allowing your to rank higher on search engines for your content.
sh404SEF
SH404SEF could very probably considered the most known full SEO extension for Joomla. Its creators had only one thing in mind while creating it and that was SEO. SH404SEF helps you improve your search engine rankings and get more traffic to your website. Satisfy many of the Google recommendations for search engine optimization with just a few clicks.
JCH Optimize
When it comes to speeding up your Joomla website, JCH Optimize Pro is the ultimate solution for you! The typical results after you configure JCH Optimize with optimum settings is a 6-10 point jump on Page Speed. Your users will be pleased with a very smooth and speedy experience and on top of that you will also enjoy an increased website traffic and Google ranking.
SEO Generator
SEO-Generator automatically generates keywords and description for each article by pulling text from the title and/or the content, to help with SEO. It also gives you the ability to set different title configurations, robots meta tags and google webmaster verification keys. Whenever you create or save an article in Frontend or Backend, this extension automatically fills in the keywords and description for you!
JoomSEF
– Main function: Meta tag control, SEF URLs setting
– Free + Paid version
Another handy tool for making your search engine optimization work easier. As for the functions, it can handle the most basic Joomla SEO problems like duplicate content, SEF URL, redirect or sitemap.
However, it comes with a free version so you can try out, and the control panel is straightforward and easy to start with. Good choice for anyone who wants a free Joomla SEO extension.
Feature summary:
- Fully customize URL for Search Engine
- Metadata control
- Customize 404 page
- Handle 301 redirect
- Duplicate URL prevention and management
- Support UTF-8 URL and URLs translation at multilingual site
- Be able to connect with Google Analytics
JoomSEF dashboard
RSSEO
– Main function: SEO On-page optimize, data tracking
– Paid extension – Come with demo
The difference between this extension and other SEO extensions lie in the way they grade our on-page SEO score. If you’re familiar with Yoast SEO in WordPress, RSSEO somewhat has replicated the grading system, which tells you details of how and where you need to improve your on-page factors.
Moreover, its “optimization flow” is another advantage of this extension.
You can optimize not just meta tags but also can modify sitemap and robot.txt for the page within one screen. No need to go to many different control tabs to configure it.
Feature summary
- Index your pages via the site crawler feature
- Cookie law notification
- Google Analytics integration
- Generate XML and HTML sitemaps
- Manage the metadata
- Set 301 redirects directly from the component
- Handle error pages
- Check keywords positioning via google search console integration
- Check your competitors ranking on a different metric
RSSEO Joomla
Route 66
– Main function: SEF URLs setting, SEO content analysis, Speed optimization
– Paid extension
As it claimed to be powered by the famous YoastSEO, its SEO content analysis on-page features are the best among all Joomla SEO extensions I have listed here in terms of UI/UX design.
However, the features that make this extension standout should be the ability to create SEF URL using defined patterns. For example: category alias/article alias or categoryPath/article alias, etc.
Suggestion according to Google Page Speed and Facebook Instant Article are 2 other advanced features for Route66.
Features summary
- Create SEF URL based on a predefined pattern
- SEO content analysis powered by Yoast SEO
- Google Page Speed optimization
- Facebook instant article
- Option to add a canonical tag
- Google analytics integration
- Duplicate URL handling
Route66 on-page analysis feature
PWT SEO
PWT SEO can get the best organic SEO value out of your Joomla site by setting an SEO Keyword. It is fully integrated with Joomla, supports your content editors to write articles for Google, and gives real-time suggestions to improve your SEO score. It is named by users as the “Yoast for Joomla.” Do you have content that is not created for articles? You can test any Joomla-menu item, enter a custom URL of your Joomla website, and learn how to improve the SEO score of pages. PWT Extensions is the developer of this PWT SEO Plugin that designs it to analyze your site’s entire pages, with no exemptions, all including the articles. It uses all modules, menus, or any other content on the page to calculate the page’s SEO score.
PWT SEO checks pages like a search engine to improve the overall SEO and the SEO copywriting of your Joomla site. It has other extensions such as ACL Manager, PWT Site Map, and PWT Image. It is widely used in terms of optimum functionality, ease of use, support, documentation, and value for money.
iJoomla SEO
iJoomla SEO is one of the SEO resources on the web for Joomla websites that has Joomla SEO extensions that support Generator Tag, Content Optimization, Site Management, and SEO & MetaData functionalities. When you use this SEO extension, you can save almost all of your time doing Joomla SEO! This iSEO extension can assist you to manage Joomla articles metadata effectively, including SEO statistics, keywords linking, and monitor keywords with support for popular Joomla extensions such as Joomla Meta Tags Manager, On-Page Optimization easily, and Keywords Monitoring on Google. When you optimize your Joomla site for search engines, iJoomla SEO is your ultimate solution, that can help you:
- Reduce your SEO time in optimizing your Joomla Site
- Create and manage all your meta tags and redirect them effectively.
- Mark essential keywords on Google for easy monitoring and keywords optimization
- Build an anchor link for your essential keywords, and wrap keywords with bold, strong or underline tags
- Automatically add an Alt-tag to images, and
- Add HTML heading to Joomla CSS classes
- Integrate with EasyBlog, EasySocial, JomSocial, k2, Kunena, Zoo, Gridbox, and other special Frontend Page scan features, keyword linking, and Alt-title for images.
A video tutorial is linked to each page of the iJoomla SEO backend. Thus, making it easy instead of reading a lengthy instruction, even if they provide a comprehensive manual for documentation purposes. You can learn more at their Home and Demo pages, and this plugin is also available in its Free and Pro versions. The iJoomla SEO extension also comes with a comprehensive Joomla SEO course.
Conclusion
SEO Tools for Joomla are specially designed for optimizing the Joomla 2.5 website. This includes improvements in speed, freshness, features, and user-friendly interface based on advanced Yahoo’s seo tools for Joomla plus your SEO requirements.