This guide introduces the built-in SEO features in Joomla 5, helping you optimize your website for search engines and improve user experience. From search engine-friendly (SEF) URLs to metadata management, you’ll learn how Joomla's tools, paired with your template, can boost your site’s ranking visibility. An optional third-party extension like RSSeo! from RSJoomla can enhance these features, but this tutorial focuses on what’s available out of the box.
What Are Joomla’s Built-In SEO Features?
Joomla offers powerful tools to make your website search engine-friendly, ensuring better rankings and easier navigation. These features, accessible via the Administrator Dashboard, include SEF URLs, URL rewriting, metadata management, and schema markup. With any template, you can leverage these tools to create clean, responsive pages that search engines and users love. This tutorial covers the core SEO settings and briefly introduces RSSeo! for advanced optimization.
Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URLs
Joomla 5’s SEF URLs create clean, readable addresses that describe page content, like:
https://example.com/blog/welcome
Without using SEF URLs, this link might look like:
https://example.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=123
You enable SEF URLs in the Global Configuration, making links easier for search engines and users to understand. This improves click-through rates and SEO performance by including keywords in aliases, which you can customize for articles, categories, or menu items.
URL Rewriting with Apache
For Apache or LiteSpeed servers, Joomla’s URL rewriting removes index.php from URLs, creating even cleaner links (e.g., https://example.com/blog/welcome). You activate this in the Global Configuration and rename the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess in your site’s root folder. This requires the Apache mod_rewrite module to be enabled. Joomla 5.1 introduced stricter redirects to remove index.php automatically, reducing duplicate content issues.
To rename the htaccess.txt file, you can do this by logging into your webhost's cPanel and going to the File Manager. From there, you can rename this file. Likewise, you can also use your own FTP program.
Metadata and Schema Markup
Joomla lets you add meta descriptions and keywords for your site and individual articles, helping search engines understand your content. You can set site-wide metadata in the Global Configuration and article-specific metadata in the article editor. The Schema tab in the editor allows you to apply structured data (e.g., Article or BlogPosting schema) to improve search result displays, like rich snippets. These features ensure your content is crawlable and relevant.
Image ALT Text and Optimization
Optimizing images is key for SEO and accessibility. Joomla supports ALT text for intro, full article, and content images, which you can set in the article editor’s Images and Links tab or Media Manager. Proper ALT text improves search engine indexing and user experience, especially for screen readers. Your template should also be responsive to ensure images display well across devices, boosting mobile SEO.
Enhancing SEO with RSSeo!
While Joomla’s built-in tools are robust, you can take SEO further with extensions like RSSeo! from RSJoomla. This tool offers advanced features, such as automated sitemaps, Google Analytics, customizing page titles, meta descriptions, keyword tracking, and a lot more, to streamline optimization. Explore RSSeo! to enhance your site’s performance. In case you are curious, I use this extension for this website and have used it for a few years. I will create a future tutorial where I will dive deeper into third-party SEO tools, but Joomla’s core features are a great starting point.
Tips for Success
- Keep aliases short and keyword-rich for better SEF URLs.
- Check your server’s compatibility
mod_rewritebefore enabling URL rewriting. - Use the Schema tab to add structured data for richer search results.
- Regularly test your site on mobile devices to ensure responsive, SEO-friendly performance.
What’s Next?
With an understanding of Joomla’s SEO features, you’re ready to enable SEF URLs and tackle common setup issues. The next tutorial will guide you through enabling SEF URLs step-by-step, including troubleshooting tips.
Continue to the Next Tutorial: Setting Your Schema Information