In our last post we described the growing importance of social SEO on search engine result rankings and the positive effects available by creating a social feedback loop for your content.

To facilitate social SEO, you need to include sharing icons such as these to your web site:

In this post we will detail how to implement the full suite of social SEO tools in sh404SEF® for use with articles in Joomla 1.7 (Joomla 1.5 can be configured in an identical fashion).

With Twitter building towards an initial public offering, Facebook focusing on 'frictionless sharing' and the Google Music Store allowing friends to share their tunes on Google+, social networking has never been a hotter topic.

The exponential popularity of social networking is due in large part to the proliferation of Like, Recommend, Tweet and +1 buttons around the web. In addition, the integration of social sharing features into mobile operating systems for smart phones and tablet computers have advanced social networking far beyond the desktop PC.

All of these opportunities for social engagement have created a unique category of user-generated recommendations for products and content alike.

Originally designed by Toyota to track vehicle production, Quick Response (QR) Codes have truly gone mainstream.

QR codes are two dimensional bar codes that are used to encrypt information. Common uses include product details, inventory management, text messages, directions and of course links to a web site or specific web page.

Thus, QR codes can be found everywhere these days from billboards to business cards, from airline boarding passes to bottles of wine and even your phone bill.

I even saw a QR code on a television commercial the other day!

While I’m not likely to stand in front of my TV with the QR Code Reader loaded and ready on my phone, the penetration and utility of QR codes in print media is undeniable.

If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know that we often compare Google to a nosy neighbor who wants to get up in your business and tell the world all about you.

As is the case with many acquaintances, we want Google to mostly see our best features and ignore any mundane or common details. In other words, we want Google to notice and understand only our most defining characteristics.

Getting to know you

Whenever I attend a conference, the organizers always hand out name tags to help people get to know each other. Wouldn’t it be great if your web site also had a name tag?

In truth, most Joomla web sites already have their name in the meta information, but this is no longer a critical aspect of SEO.

Rather, one of the important ways that search engines ‘get to know you’ is by analyzing the links on your web site. For example, if you are writing about a specific topic then you will likely create links in the article to other similar items around the web. 

Now, think about all the different types of links on your site that have to be examined. Even on the most basic Joomla web site you many structural links such as print and PDF buttons, previous, next and read more navigation, RSS feeds, menu items and perhaps a login module with links for account creation and password/username recovery.

Notice that we have not even started to talk about the links in your articles!

Part 2 of a 2-part series

In part 1 of this series we showed how the duplicate content penalty assigned by search engines is similar to a couple mixing up their cars keys - if you are being watched by a nosy neighbor (like Google for example), things can look very confusing.

This is an obvious over-simplification, but the central point rings true - if search engines are confused about your (duplicate) content, poor SEO can result.

sh404SEF® solves the majority of duplicate content penalties on your Joomla site but a long-forgotten problem has gone unchecked for years: the PDF icon!