Search Engine Optimisation Within Mambo

Search engine optimisation within Mambo is a subject that comes up regularly in the Mambo forums. Many posters pop in with their tips and tricks for search engine optimisation but few seem to really think about just why they are taking the "I must get a good page ranking" stance in isolation from the reason why their sites exist. I don"t think many exist just for search engines (unless they are link farms or spammers, of course!)

Getting your Mambo site listed in search engines can take some time and work. The Mambo content management system has its own challenges in terms of search engine optimisation. Mambo has dynamic URL's. Mambo also has several different ways of reaching the same content, which can lead to a duplicate content penalty in search engines. I will be writing about Mambo URL's and duplicate content in other tutorials, so keep watching for these.

Now let's look at other aspects of Mambo SEO.

For the past couple of years, SEO forums have been abuzz with discussions about the so-called Google "sandbox" effect, where new sites appear to be consigned to oblivion for some time before they get listed. Whether the sandbox exists or not is still a subject of a lot of debate. I don"t subscribe to the theory that a sandbox exists. I do, however, believe that Google''s algorithms result in new sites not being given the same weighting as established sites. Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide recently said:

"What there IS, is a growing understanding on the part of Google and other engines that they need to deliver quality results. That means that new sites are going to be judged and "allowed" to rank based on how they compare to the sites that already exist in the index. After all, how many mortgage application sites does Google really need to list? Why should they think that your brand new mortgage site is any more worthy of a ranking than the 1.5 million (yes, MILLION) sites that are already indexed for the phrase "mortgage application."

She makes some VERY good points.

So, we know that Google prefers sites that have older domains (register your domain name for two years, not one - it does make a difference) and that have quality content. But, just what does "quality content" mean? Essentially, it is content on your website that is unique and significantly more useful to your target audience than content that is being offered on other, similar websites. I am not going into general SEO techniques here (why reinvent the wheel? There are many good SEO resources out there, so just search), however there are specific SEO issues that Mambo users need to consider.

Have a look at the quality of your content. Have you left the Mambo footer there with its copyright notice? There are over 15 million results returned from Google for "Mambo is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License". Get rid of it from your footer - it''s only diluting the uniqueness of your content. Check that you have changed the default meta keywords and descriptions as well (in your administrator configuration options).

Have a look too at other content on your site and think about whether it really is quality content. How many other sites have the number of current users showing, and polls on every page? If these features fit into the "cool to have, but not really adding anything to my site" category, get rid of them. If you are running a forum with your Mambo site, seriously think about whether your members should use signatures or not. Google takes particular notice of both incoming and outbound links and their relevancy to your content. If you have 100 members on your integrated forum and they each have two links in their signatures, that is 200 outgoing links that have little or no relevance to the content of your site. With the new Google algorithm, your site could be penalised for these links.

Now, while search engine optimisation is useful, it is not the reason most sites exist. Some people seem to spend more time over chasing good search engine rankings than they spend on making sure their sites work for their target audience. Chris Boese pretty much summed up my opinion when he posted:

"Many folks who live in this odd netherworld called "Search Engine Optimization" or SEO do nothing but obsess on making Google like them. I do understand this obsession, although I do not share it. I've always seen people who promise SEO stuff as rip-off artists who try to sell unnecessary services to gullible business owners wanting to hang out a web shingle. I usually counsel those folks to forego SEO prices and just do a few things consistently, like build a good site and have things of value to say, and keep their money for something worthwhile."

He has some interesting things to say about the sandbox effect and how Google's Big Daddy appears to be impacting on site listings lately too.

Probably the best advice I have seen about SEO in a long while was from Aaron Wall of SEOBook fame, he said you can do things to

"…help make your site Google friendly in the short term, but the whole point of these sort of changes at Google are to find and return legitimate useful content. The less your site needs to rely on Google the more Google will be willing to rely on your site."

So, make your site search engine friendly by all means, but remember - your site exists for human visitors. If you optimise your site for them, with unique and useful content, sooner or later, the search engines will find you.