Sticky How to implement Search Engine Optimisation - SEO - in Joomla

Thank you for your question.

Although it is not a requirement for Kunena that you must implement Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) , it is highly recommended that, if you want your Joomla site to run smoothly (and take advantage of SEF URLs) that you should implement Joomla SEO in the way we've advised.

The information in the Wiki article was based on J! 1.5 and J! 1.6 It would be a good idea if someone - probably me, I suppose - updated the information for J! 2.5.

In J! 2.5 the Global Configuration options are as shown below:



Thanks for drawing this to my attention. It looks like the guys from Joomla changed the label Use Apache mod_rewrite to Use URL Rewriting. Makes more sense that they did this too; less confusing ... or is it? :whistle:

EDIT: I have updated the Wiki article Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) !

Just installed Kunena and I noticed the forum menu item alias is: 2012-04-25-14-24-24
which is completely different from the naming scheme the other menu items joomla has automatically created for me.

When making it blank, apparently joomla is supposed to make it SEF, and it still comes back with the same thing. Is this crazy alias more SEF than if I just named it "forum" instead?

Thanks

You can change your menu item alias names to anything you like as long as you have not already used that alias name elsewhere. If you use alias menu items - which is a different thing to the menu alias name (confusing, isn't it?) - you can use the same menu alias name in menu items if the menu item type = alias menu.

One of the most difficult parts of Joomla is the Joomla menu system. We recommend that you read Customised menus in the Wiki.

However the problem that you're having does not really have a lot to do with the menu alias name. The problem that you're having has to do with how you setup Joomla Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) . For that reason, I have merged your topic with one that addresses those issues. Please read the article in the Wiki and setup SEO in the way that we've recommended and you will not have those horrible looking SEF URLs.

I have implemented all the recommended configurations within the SEO guide before my installation of Kunena.
From that, I resulted in getting a menu item alias of: 2012-04-25-14-24-24

My question is whether I should retain this or should I just change it to "forum" for better SEF or does it even matter?

"forum" alias should come from xx-XX.com_kunena.install.ini file... no matters of that "2012-04-25-14-24-24"

contender: The question that you really need to ask yourself is a simple one: does the way you've got things set up work for you? If you had posted your K 1.7 configuration report a week ago, when you asked your question, I could have told you.

The best advice I can give is summed-up oral tradition given in the nursery rhyme Little Bo Peep : "leave them alone and they will come home wagging the tails behind them." If it works, leave it alone. If it doesn't then you need to change something.

I have a J! 2.5.4 website that has the kind of menu item alias like you've got - yyyy-mm-dd hh-mm-ss - and it works for me. I get perfectly-formed SEF URLs as a result and I can navigate around my Kunena forum without doing anything "special". I don't pretend to understand how the Joomla router handles these things but it seems to cope quite well.