You are here

Search Engine Optimization in Drupal 6

Drupal Modules

  • global redirect module
    • makes sure there is only one URL per page (gets rid of node/123 type URLs)
    • simply install—no configuration needed.
    • path_redirect module also needs to be used if you have old urls that you have changed but want to keep the old url address functioning
    • otherwise just make sure there are not multiple aliases for any pages using Site Building/URL aliases/list and sort on “system”
  • Meta tags (nodewords) module
    • configure this module with appropriate defaults (on administer/Content management/Meta tags
  • XML sitemap module
    • configure on the [search engines] tab to submit the site map
    • get keys from google and yahoo and install
  • Pathauto module (requires tokens)
    • have to configure from Site Building/URL aliases
    • don’t automatically replace URL on update or it will destroy hand-edited URLs
  • Google Analytics module
    • need key from Google
  • Page Title module
    • create a “landing page” for each word or very short phrase that might be typed into Google
    • the home page is important, but if it has little content on it, it might not get much traffic
  • Taxonomy Breadcrumb module (I think this is only relevant for sites that make a lot of use of taxonomy)
  • Related Links module (If you have a lot of content)
  • schedule new content on a regular basis

Obtaining External links

  • link to social bookmarking sites (e.g. using “service links” or “digg this”)
  • Get a Technorati account

Content

  • modify .htaccess to redirect all content from www.mysite.com to mysite.com (*very important*) e.g.:
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.cfaw.ca$ [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://cfaw.ca/$1 [L,R=301]
  • Avoid duplicate content like the plague!
  • create a robots.txt (see smorgasbord.net)

Links