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[splico123 Friend splico123Join date: January 2007Posts: 339Downloads:80Uploads:7 Thanks: 24 Thanked: 93 times in 16 posts]

#159273

I have been doing this for a while now and i want to shate with you the results i think can make it easier for people to upgrade.

1. When upgrading make sure you back up your old database first if you can not create new one on same server, this will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
If you are able to create database along the old one would be very best sollution.

2. Backup your image folder where you keep images of all articles and try to keep the folder tree intact so the images will work on new installation.

3. Install qyickstart if you preffer but i do like to set up joomla on its own since i usually have idea what modules and features i want and need. So just think of that before you actually install Joomla.

4. After install, configure Joomla Global configuration by changing TIME ZONE under “server” tab to your timezone;
Disable FTP layer in same tab since there is occasions where it messes up wiyh extensions and third party plugins.
Enable debugging and disable cashing under “system tab” until you are ready for site to go live.

5. Start by adding all your categories and if you have time fill out meta tag descriptions and keywords for each: this will help you in the end when you have to look for best keywords for your site and also helps in your ranking in the end because google doesnt like same keywords on every page of the site.

6. When copying articles use HTML input so you paste your text there which will help you getting rid of unwanted and redundant tags that mess up your frontpage, like making it italics because of having paragraph tags where they shouldnt and so on.
Be careful here so you check for spelling right here, the worst thing you can do is copy and paste articles from other pages that are gull of spelling mistakes. Its unproffesional and not cool to read.
Put in keywords for an article so they are relevant to THAT article and be specific, dont overdo it. Use up to 10-15 keywords at the most but STICK TO THE TOPIC of the article.

Now this is also important: take time to read article and if it does have some words, that are your keywords from other articles, USE <em> tag and link them to those other articles you have. This does wonders for internal links and builds up your keyword importance in the end.

7. Unique Title of article is important, try to avoid the duplicate article headings, and try to avoid having same TITLE and MENU items. Worst thing you can do is to have duplicate titles of articles for any SEO optimization later on.

8. After you have added all articles go on to building menu items. Categorise your articles to several revelant categorization. Dont do it other way around because if you build menu first you will have to force fit articles which in turn will make relevancy of articles less than it should.
Leave meta tags for menu items empty so they take up the ones made in categories and articles.

9. Go on to setup modules as you please and be sure to put in very important stuff you think is something that visitors need to know in HTML modules and publish them along your articles on multiple pages.

10. Make sure you dont overdo it with the graphical aspect of the website. It is important for visitors to have nice and fluid webpage with good balance of graphics. So choose graphics and pictures that draw attention to relevant articles and that are to the point. Remember 1 PICTURE IS EQUAL TO THOUSAND WORDS when it comes to your article presentation.

11. When setting up front page i usually make it as simple and as informative as possible. Basicall i give users the best at front, and also insight to the scope of the website by giving links to most of the stuff presented to them on the website.
Dont put too many full articles on the front page, because too much information clutters frontpage.
Links do wonders, and links that are having keywords in them do even more so adjust titles as needed to have as many on frontpage as you can without breaking relevanvy of articles.

12. After all that is done check the links pages and whole website before you switch off the debugging. If all ok go to template settings turn on cashing and compression then check site again all over. If all is ok turn site cashing on too, remember to turn on the plugin for cashing Under PLUGINS.

Now this is just my way of organizing the site and even before that i do advanced stuff of designing logo, color of the site planning and additional stuff i put on paper so website in the end follows a story you want to protrude to visitors.

Remember last thing you do is get all keywords from categories and articles and compile the main keywords that you want to use for the website according to your importance and research. Do research by putting yourself in visitors shoes, how would they search for the information you are having on your website.
AVOID having keywords that have no importance for your information presented because Google and other search engines wont put any importance to your overall site based on them.

Guys this is just what i have done to most of the websites i have made and which proved to me that is the best practise on getting up on pagerank and also on bisitor satisfaction so dont make this a MUST but treat it as ADVICE.

Hope it helps.

I will update this thread time allowing to more detailed settings of the template and organization. Also speeding up will be my next topic since you can do wonders by doing simple stuff that in the end speed up website a lot.

Ths for reading and good luck with development.

1 user says Thank You to splico123 for this useful post

1. lucky93

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