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

• http://www.smorgasbord.net/drupal-seo-search-engine-optimization-tutoria...