Brilliant - I hadn't thought of that. Good idea. I'm all set now though and just feeling happier about the whole thing.
Cheers,
Neil.
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Hello,

I am having a problem using JCE Editor on sites that are not live. What I mean by that is the name servers have not yet been updated so the websites have temporary names like the following until the DNS is resolved:
malibu.websitewelcome.com/~revoluti

When I create websites I use K2 for content and the JCE Editor so that I can link to K2 content. Recently (beginning Monday in fact) my editor began to not work correctly. When ever I click the link icon to create an internal link, a modal box should pop up to reveal the tools/options. When I click the link icon now the modal box pops up but the tools/options take ages to load or don't load in some instances.

I have narrowed it down to the fact this only happens on the sites that are not live though.

When I view what's happening in Firebug it seems that there is a call to another IP address which is a Hostgator IP, as I use Hostgator for my hosting. I'm not sure why it's started or how to fix it. I have spent 2 days trying to fix the issue as I work on most of my sites before the DNS can be resolved.

Has anyone else had this problem or any ideas on how to fix it please. It's driving me mad.

I have attached the Firefbug screen shot if that might help.

Many thanks in advance,
Neil.
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Hi Peter,

This link helps you to set uo the 'Like' link for your web pages. I hope this is what you're after.

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/

Thanks,
Neil.
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Hi Max,

Yes, everything was already set up correctly as per the Google App guidelines. I only became aware of the issue when I wanted form submissions via Breezing Forms to be sent to an email address managed by Google Apps.

It was only because Google was now looking after all MX records in the DNS zone I discovered I needed to change from Local Mail Exchanger to the Remote Mail Exchanger which makes sense I guess.

I just thought I'd save other people 2 hours (as I did) trying fix the problem

Glad it helps.

Cheers,
Neil.
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Hello,

I just want to share an issue I had using Google Apps and website form submissions.

I was receiving email to my Google App email accounts but form submissions made on my website did not come through even though they had been recorded in the backend of the site.

To ensure form submissions worked from my site when using Google Apps I had to make the following changes to the DNS Zone.

Log into the WHM to edit the DNS Zone for the hosting account in question.
Change the Email Routing from: Local Mail Exchanger to Remote Mail Exchanger

As soon as I did this I started receiving my form submissions while using Google Apps to manage my emails.

I hope this info is useful to others

Cheers,
Neil.
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Hi Max,

I've figured it out and it wasn't too hard in the end. To make the search module button image a png file instead of a gif do the following.

Go to:
public_html / moduels / mod_search / helper.php

On line 29 change 'searchButton.gif' to 'searchButton.png' and that does it.
The new searchButton.png file needs to be located in the images folder in your template.

Easy when you know how heh

Thanks again for your help Max. Just talking it out help me think the problem through.

Cheers,
Neil.
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Hi Max,

I do use Firebug and it's great but in this instance the search module image is called by some php from another file somewhere.

When you edit the search module in Joomla 2.5 you can select whether to use an image for the search button. When you do this the little tool tip tells you to save the image as 'searchButton.gif' in your images folder in your template.

All that aspect is easy enough, I just want to make the php call for the image to be 'searchButton.png', rather than a gif.

I hope that makes sense

Cheers,
Neil.
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Hello,

I would like to make the Search Module button a png file rather than a gif as gifs have the rough edges to them.

Ideally I would like to update the actual call that tries to locate 'searchButton.gif' to 'searchButton.png'.

I have tried to fix this but nothing has worked for me so far. Can anyone help me out on this one please.

Many thanks,
Neil.
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Hi Shane and Patrick,

Thank you for the explanations. It looks like creating alias's is the way to go. I'll give the Google Apps a go with my next client

Cheers,
Neil.
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Hi Shane,

I watched the whole presentation adn enjoyed it. Thanks for putting the link on here.

Cheers,
Neil.
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Okay,

I've solved this one myself. The documentation on the Joomla website here is correct and works:
http://docs.joomla.org/Creating_a_Custom_404_Error_Page

I was using a temporary URL address because the name servers have not yet been pointed to the URL. I believe this was causing the 404 redirect not to work properly. Learn something everyday - especially with Joomla and web design in general

Cheers,
Neil.
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Hello,

I am using Joomla 1.7 and I am trying to create a redirect for my 404 error not found page. I have created one before for Joomla 1.5 but I must have something wrong in the way I am editing my code at the moment.

I have placed the error.php in my template folder.

This is the default code:
defined('_JEXEC') or die;
if (!isset($this->error)) {
$this->error = JError::raiseWarning(404, JText::_('JERROR_ALERTNOAUTHOR'));
$this->debug = false;
}

This is me code:
defined('_JEXEC') or die;
if (($this->error->getCode()) == '404') {
header('Location: /index.php/component/k2/item/18-page-not-found');
exit;
}

Not sure where I'm going wrong.

Thanks,
Neil.
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Hello,

I'd like to write a SEO tips and tricks article. I'm sure my SEO techniques work well enough but if you can improve on them please let me know.

Everyone knows that the real key to good SEO after your site is 'optimised' correctly is new content but here are my top tips for Joomla website SEO. I hope you find them useful:


Keyword Research
Use Google to help you find keywords associated with your business. When you type words in the search bar Google suggests other keywords that you could use.

Google Keyword Tool is a great resource for researching keywords for your business. It allows you to analyse a word to see how many people search that word on a monthly basis in a regional area.

Personally I thinks it's better to optimise for keyword phrases rather than individual words, as people are more likely to specify their searches to 'web designer Melbourne' rather than just 'web designers'.

Google prefers to show its customers more localised returns by displaying the local search returns in a map in the right hand column. When you scroll down the map actually goes over the paid advertisements.

Google Places
If you haven't got a Google Account it's worth creating one to access all of the tools Google has to offer. For your account page you can create a Google Places listing for your business. You can add business hours, payments terms and the categories you want to be found for and it’s free. Everything counts.

Browser page titles
Each web page should have it's own unique browser page titles and be no more than 70 characters long. Include keywords in your browser page title.
In Joomla the browser page title is either controlled by the Menu or the Title of your page/item.

If you are creating a menu item to link to a single page you can control the browser page title by clicking Menus.
Select the link to edit
Click 'Parameters System and enter the keyword rich page title in the Page Title field.

If you are viewing an article which is in a category the browser page title is taken from the title of the page you are viewing.

Tags
Ensure each page has H1, H2 and p tags. Remember to include keywords in your page titles. When I'm setting up a Joomla site, I prefer to use K2 for creating my pages/items and write my page titles on the page using the H1 tag. There should be only one instance of a H1 tag on the page otherwise it looks like spamming.

Images
Every image should have an 'alt' and 'title' description so that the search engines know what it is. Ensure your images are optimised before uploading them to your website to ensure faster loading times.

Interlinking
This is easier to do once you have a few pages on your site. When writing articles link keywords in your text to other relevant pages - a bit like Wikipedia. This makes it much easier for people to get around your website with having to go up to the menu and drill down for info. Internal links also rank as well as some external links to your site. External links go to other websites. Here's a cheeky example Web designers Melbourne

Backlinks
When looking for backlinks sites you really want PR1 sites. These are Page Rank 1 sites that allow you to write on their blogs or create an account where you can add a backlink. Remember the anchor text is the most important part of the buckling as it should be descriptive and include your keywords. The link would probably work better if linking directly to the page the anchor text refers to mentions the keywords used in the anchor text.

Example: <a href="www.pixelfire.com.au" >Melbourne Website Designers</a>

Ideally you want your backlink to be placed on an 'important' page on a well ranked site.

Don't use backlink farms. Your website will take a serious nosedive if you do. Create the backlinks slowly over time and be patient

SEO Friendly URL's in Joomla
When creating your Joomla site it's best to use the Search Engine Friendly URLS. If you're server is Apache you will need to change a file name on your server. In the root folder locate htaccess.txt and change it to .htaccess

If a .htaccess already exists I usually delete it and rename the htaccess.txt and use that.

When you have done that login into your Joomla website and go to:

• Site / Global Configuration
• Ensure the 'Site' tab is selected and you will see the SEO settings on the right.
• Search Engine Friendly URLs - Yes
• Use Apache mod_rewrite - Yes
• Add suffix to URLs - No
• Press Save.

Now all of your URLs will have easy to read URLs.

Articles / Items
When writing an article (or Item in K2) you need to fill out the 'Metadata Information'
The description box is the short description people see when searching pages in Google so write it well and concise.
The 'Keywords' field is self explanatory. Add keywords and phrases separated by commas.
In the Robots field enter: 'index, follow'
In the Author Field enter: Your name and keyword. It can't hurt
Don't forget the H1, H2 and alt tags when writing your article.

Sitemap
When your site is ready you should create a sitemap.xml file. You can do that here:
www.xml-sitemaps.com/
When it's complete download the sitemap.xml file to your computer and upload it to your server.

Now login to your Google Account and click Webmaster Tools.
Add your site to your Webmaster Tools
Submit your sitemap to Google

The best way to submit your site to Google is not through a Submit URL but through your webmaster tools.
Click 'Diagnostics' in the left column. Then click 'Fetch as Googlebot'
Here you can add the main him page and any other key pages on your site.
Example:
www.pixelfire.com.au
www.pixelfire.com.au/web-design-melbourne etc…

Google will find your other pages but it's good to let them know about your key pages.

Robots
Your site should have a robots.txt file that tells visiting search engine robots which pages they should look at.

Your robots.txt file should include a list to your sitemap.xml

This is mine as an example:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Sitemap: www.pixelfire.com.au/sitemap.xml

User-agent: *
Allow: /sitemap.xml
Allow: /index.php
Allow: /index.html
Allow: /index.htm

User-agent: *
Disallow: /akeeba-backups
Disallow: /cgi-bin
Disallow: /logs
Disallow: /plugins
Disallow: /tmp
Disallow: /xmlrcpc
Disallow: /administrator
Disallow: /cache
Disallow: /editor
Disallow: /help
Disallow: /includes
Disallow: /language
Disallow: /media
Disallow: /modules
Disallow: /templates
Disallow: /installation

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Google Analytics Code
Log into your Google Account and go to Google Analytics. Create the right analytical code and put this code in your index.php file just before the </head> tag
This way you can track the search terms people are using when arriving at your site along with lots of other information.


Submission to lots of Search Engines
If you want to submit to lots of search engines a good site to do this is www.addme.com
Simply fill out the details and away you go. Some submissions need to be confirmed.

Business Directories
Directories can help with backlinks to your site as well as pushing people to your site from those directories. Here's a quick list for you to register with:

FREE DIRECTORIES
www.startlocal.com.au/get-listed.html
www.aussieweb.com.au/
www.aussielocal.com.au/register/
www.localbusinessguide.com.au/addmybusiness/
www.australia-business-listing.com.au/
www.hotfrog.com.au/
www.livepages.com.au/
mpbonline.com.au/Pub/pStart.asp
www.onlymelbourne.com.au/add_url_event.php?id=
www.webfind.com.au/services.asp
www.melbourne-city-directory.com.au/
www.whatsinmelbourne.com.au/
www.melbournebd.com.au/
www.melbournewebguide.com.au/login/register/
www.melbournebusiness.net.au
melbourneexchange.com.au/

PAID DIRECTORIES
www.melbournedirectory.com.au/
www.aussiepages.com.au/listing_documents.php


Keyword Density
Addme.com also has a great 'Keyword Density' checker located: www.addme.com/keyword-density.htm
Here you can analyse your sites keyword density and adjust your article writing accordingly to what you want to optimise for.
Your keywords need to feature for 10% of the length of your article. Ie 10 instances for every 100 words. You just have to be clever in the way you write so it doesn't sound contrived.

I think that is it. If you have any other top SEO tips please let me know.

Cheers,
Neil.

Melbourne web designers Pixelfire
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Hi Patric,

Yes that's the one Sorry about that.
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