Author: (Michael Janssen, http://www.zedwoo.de)
Article from 24.07.2006

For the working through this tutorial I act on the assumption of given basic knowledge in using TYPO3. I won't explain how to install this or that add-on. I will leave this to documentations, the mailinglist and the forums.  

Very well I will explain which extensions are to be aplied. And these are just a few ;-) But these are very effecient. 
 

This tutorial explains the optimisings that are possible without major interventions in a site.

The matching search terms

Before it's time for the optimising of the site, the IS-status should be analysed.

First of all it is important to find the matching search terms for the own product or service. As a first step we look for as many terms as possible, which we can reduce to the most important ones in a later working-step.

In this process several ways lead to the goal.  

1. Friends and acquaintances:

It is one possiblity to ask friends and acqaintances which terms they type in search engines to find the product or service. Often you can find samples very fast.

2. The competition

If you are lucky competitiors already typed in search terms in the metatags on their sites (But please don't copy them one-to-one, they are supposed to be only inspiration). So just look in the source code and see what it says there)  

3. Little helpers

In the internet you can find a vast number of tools that make the search for search terms easier. Very good is the Metager-WebAssoziator(http://metager.de/asso.html). It finds out crosslinks which you maybe would not think of. And Google is offering something similar, too: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox
By now an acceptable list should have emerged.

But no we have to check which of these words are relevant. This means that you search after these words. To check this, you have several options. I base my researches on the database of Overture (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/?mkt=de)

You shouldn't regard these numbers as absolute, but  more as an indication. There is also a service with costs: http://www.wordtracker.com. I don't use this one myself because the results from Overture are enough for a pre-selection of the terms.

Additionally you can browse in Google how many notifications are linked with these terms. The more notifications the more profitable the term seems to be   ;-). 

I have to admit that this checking is a lot of work, but it is worth it. Why sould somebody optimise a search term which is only used once in a blue moon.

Basics of the design for the optimising

I will just assume that no frames are used and the HTML-code is "clean".

There are furthermore advantages in using CSS because then you are e.g. able to delclare the headlines in H-tags. And these are highly valuated by Google.

You should also check if the menu-link are also traced by search engines. Javascript and so on can (but don't have to) be hindering. It is the best to surf with Lynx over your own site or to type in your domain here: 

http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi

TYPO3 has (according to my own opinion) everything else you need for a search engine compatible design and you usually won't have to change that much of the design of the site.

VIP-extensions for TYPO3

I will first of all go into the extensions needes for the optimising and I will then explain how to use them to reach your goal: 

The metatags:

Metatags don't have the importance they once had, but still they are no miss ;-) And when you're lucky Google will show in the search results the text from the description. And after all it is relatively easy to attach the metatags:  

EXT: Metags extended (http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/search/metatags/)

The title of the site

As a standard TYOP3 uses the "normal" title of the site for the title of the browser. But it is not really effective when the site is named "::company: imprint::". You HAVE to change that. For this you have two possibilities, either you use this extension:

bvd_set_page_title http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/search/bvd_set_page_title/
(this extension uses the field of the subtitle as title of the browser)

or this one:

Browser's page title http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/search/browser_page_title/
(this extension inserts a new array in the "extended"-formular. It's very useful!)  

The name of the site

I am a fan of "speaking URLs" it was naturally for me that my sites always had file names. That Google likes this, too came into my mind only later. I use two different ways to get neat file names:

(I don't get into the instructions here ;-) )

RealUrl http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/search/realurl/

I use SSD more often for smaller appearances. But every time when tt_news comes into play, I would always use RealUrl.  

Old texts for pictures

Should go without saying. But also for this there are extensions:

Old text for images http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/search/dmc_image_alttext/

The control

To overview in short if the Google-bot has been there or which search terms it used to reach the site, it is worth the installation of awstats(http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/search/cc_awstats/)

 
Metatags extended

To say it right from the start: The metatags are not a waste disposal site. That means it is not about filling the metatags with as many search terms as possible, but to place there goal-orientated only a few. I have seen many sites which wrote screeds the search terms and in the description...

As a first step we will look at the first site and type in two terms in the search terms. These terms MUST appear on the site. There is the myth that sites are devaluated when the search terms don't appear on the site.

And now the description: Here should appear a nice text, which in on the one hand seduces to click (sometimes Google shows the descriptions in the search results) and on the other hand also contains the two keywords! 

And this was it for the metatags. Very easy ;-) 

Apropos: I don't think much of global metatags... either fitting ones or just leave them out.

In the meantime you can even avoid tt_news with metatags!!!

 

The matching title of the site

The next step is the title of the site. This is very important because in the Google search results the users will see this at first. It also should seduce to clicking and if possible contain also the search terms.

These are two things at the same time, but doable... and then titles of a site like "company: products" are no help. Out of this reason we have the choice between two matching extensions.

So just tax your brain and insert a short and concise title for the site.

Attention: 5-7 words are the maximum!

Nice file names

No matter if you choose SimulateStaticDocuments or RealURL it is mostly a question of believing. The only important thing is that Google likes it when in the file names also the matching search terms appear.

Experience showed that Google is better in recognising an easy hyphen ("-) than terms written in one word or words linked with underline.

In SimulateStaticDocuments you type in the file name which is linked with the keywords in the alias-field.

In RealURL the "path-segment" is reserved for this purpose.

While the emplacement of the search terms your shouldn't lose sight of the user. Also the user has to evaluate the file name halfway acceptable. And our sites are predominantly created for the user and only in second respect for Google. 

At a changeover of file names you should consider that Google keeps partly invalid file names for a long time in the memory. For this reason the old addresses should be redirected with a "permantent redirect" in the Htaccess.

Alternative description

It should rather go withour saying that the "old" or "title" attributes are used.

Keywords in the picture descriptions. But please only where it fits!! Otherwise the liberty from barriers will become a distant prospect...;-) 

Control is good!

To control is Google considers the site to be a good one awstats is totally enough. There you can only see when Google was there for the last time and many pages it went though, but for a start this is enough.

In my attended projects Google is actualising the site at least once a day. And about 24 hours after the visit you can admire the result of the changes in the search results.  

Additionally you can also see which search terms are used to find the own site. 

For deeper going analyses I would go back to Mescalero (http://www.rendle.de). There you have the possiblity to see exactly which sites Google has already looked at. 

External optimising: Links! Links! Links!

In the meantime it has become even more important to get a good position in the search results and many links from other websites.

There are two ways for this:

1. Your content is so good that people link to your website in droves.

Or

2. You trade or buy links.

What you have to notice, how you proceed in best way, I will soon describe here, too. But as a start the information provided here should be enough.

Further information and a Faq to the topic you can find here:
Typo3 forum

Author: Michael Janssen (http://www.zedwoo.de)