Hi Guys,

This is probably a Joomla 101 question, but here goes. I am trying to make a page on a Joomla site, but don't want to include a menu item to make it display.

So I am trying to make for example: www.sitename.com.au/keyword-for-this-page.html

I would use a keyword anchor text link from one page to link to this page (that is why I dont want it to be in a menu item as well, because of this specific requirement).

I know its a really basic question and probably really easy for the more seasoned Joomla guru's. I don't mind asking though You don't know if you don't ask.

I do know a bit about SEO though, and would be happy to contribute in this way...

Cheers - Dallas

Hi Dallas
To access a Joomla! article on a menu you have to actually put it, its category or its section in a menu. So if you don't want it on a menu just don't put it, its category or its section on a menu.
To create an in-text link just copy article's alias and paste it into the article where you would like the link to appear.
Megan
www.bellbirdwebsolutions.com.au

hmm joomla will probably use the title alias for the url - if it doesn't try an sef component I like arto joomsef (although i get a lot of slack for iit!) www.artio.net/en/joomla-extensions/jooml...ponent-artio-joomsef

Hi,

We have sh404SEF installed, (though I have not worked out yet how to best use it).

Megan, I am not sure I understand what you mean. We have a few menu items under the header of the site, but I don't want to include the link in any of those menu's. I just want to make a keyword based anchor link to a page name. The article I created also has an alias. Eg. The article alias is called: keyword-for-this-page

Its just that I have not worked out how to make the page /keyword-for-this-page.html work, so that I can link to it from the home page of the site.

Hope this makes more sense?

Thanks,
Dallas

so you have a page alias - keyword

when you navogate in the front end to yorusite.com/keyword.html

do you see the page?

if so just then link to the page using the chain icon where teh keyword appears elsewhere
...?

Hi,

Sorry, I should have mentioned that. No, I get a 404 page. That's the reason for my question. I really appreciate the replies. Any further hints / tips much appreciated.

Cheers - Dallas

OK to view an article without menu link showing - i.e. this will show you the url...
- In the back-end (yoursite.com/administrator) go to menu & select a published menu [the default one, which is the one with the asterisk, will do]
- Click NEW [top right]
- Enter a title – e.g. test – and you can reuse this later
- UNPUBLISH this menu link is UNPUBLISH – 5th item below title
- Select the new article [on right – parameters basic - SELECT]
- Click APPLY
- Now highlight and copy the LINK – 2 boxes box below title box

That's the link - if it's not what you want - you / I would go to SEF component and change it - put it in front and and see what happens

Hi,

Thanks. This works good and displays the article at the front end. Now, I just need to work out how to make it output as the SEF url.

The other odd thing, is that when I have a link on the unpublished new page, it displays as www.sitename.com.au/undefined/ - is there a way to stop that from happening?

I have added the URL in sh404SEF, but it still comes up as a 404 page if I try to use /keyword-for-this-page.html

Any ideas on the above two things? Again, I really appreciate your help.

Cheers - Dallas

hmm -
1. try calling teh menu link (the unpublished on e we created) keyword
@. I'm assuming you have sef on
3. you gotta chaneg it in sh404 - if it hasn't happened ehere - do you have an option to find urls and change? I mainly use artio

I can log in and have a look if you wish - but tomorrow - ducking out now

Hi Mate,

The unpublished URL at the front end works fine. That would be awesome if you could login an look. How do I get the details to you?

Cheers - Dallas

Hi,

I also just tried by publishing the menu item, and the page works in SEF mode like that, so not really sure now...

Will check back tomorrow.

Cheers - Dallas

Ok the best solution for you then is to create a new menu - menu manager - new - call it say hidden.
move the menu item you just created to this new menu
and publish it.

What we are basically doing is creating a new active menu (published) that isn't actaully showing - becuase we have not displayed it in a module.

this should solve your problem.

Hi Mate,

Thank you so much. This was an easy solution, and I really appreciate you taking to time to help me on this. In fact (not that I know enough about all the available SEO extensions for Joomla yet), but just enabling SEF pages in the Global config and using hidden menus could be a very simple work around for the SEO work I have been doing on Joomla sites.

Just to clarify, unless I add a link from an indexed page, a spider would not normally find this new page via the menu, because the menu is not part of the template or any module - do I understand you correctly?

Thanks again - I really appreciate your awesome help.

Cheers - Dallas

That is an excellent question Dallas !

In theory you may think google and the world won't find the page - however I would never rely on this becuase sine the page actually exists and assumign it is published - there will be other avenues to finding the page..
- such as through a link to its category (for an obvious example)
- to say a search-page for a term / word etc that is in that page (less obvious example).

Hi Mate,

I understand anyone external from the site can point a link to the site, and the search engines would find this way.

My question was more around the on site factors within Joomla. Given the menu I have used is hidden, and is not associated with any modules on the site, is there any other way within Joomla that a link would be made available for a spider to follow?

Im only asking this so I can understand what else I need to consider from an optimisation point of view.

Also, do you know a way that I can make the hidden menu default its links to rel="nofollow", or would this be a plugin thing?

Cheers - Dallas

better to make new thread for new questions next time so others can find answers more easily:
www.joomlatwork.com/docman/cat_view/50.html
joomla sef patch - if you aren't using already (?) - can't really add more than above re spider qn - maybe someone else can explain / add more