Web Development & Internet Marketing » urls

Search Engine Friendly (SEF) Urls for Virtuemart

Ian Smith — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:31:26 +0000

Having worked on numerous Virtuemart e-commerce websites I have spend many painstaking hours trying to configure Virtuemart urls to be Search Engine Friendly (SEF). Therefore, I thought it would be useful, not only for me, to collate and compile… a list (if you like) of useful resources, utilities, plug-ins and extensions to assist in improving SEF urls.

1. SEF Router for Virtuemart

router.php is used to change the non-sef into sef urls in Joomla 1.5. This file does the same for Virtuemart component and you don’t need to use third party SEF component to make your category and products page search engine friendly.

Example:
www.yoursitename.com/category/category_id/category_name
www.yoursitename.com/category/category_id/parent_category_name/category_name
www.yoursitename.com/details/product_id/category_id/product_name

This download is free.

Video Instruction:

2. Yagendoo VirtueMart SEO

All you have to do to obtain this is to copy 1 file into your Joomla! installation, and you will promptly be able to create wonderful Virtuemart SEO links with the Joomla!-included SEO.

At the same time, you’ll be minimizing the risk from using external SEO components. For who can guarantee you that this component will always be available and not canceled, as has often been the case already? Needless to explain what this may imply for a shop. If your links change because you have to adapt to another SEO component, you will catapult your web site to the scrap pile. And possibly your existence as well?

Yagendoo Virtuemart SEO completely confides in the Joomla!-included SEO, which is bound to exist as long as Joomla! itself. Without any risk!

With our Virtuemart SEO, the following results can be obtained:

- for linked categories and products

www.domain.com/en/shop-menuitem/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/menuitem-alias/product.html

- for unlinked products/categories

www.domain.com/en/shop-menuitem/id-category/id-category/id-category/id-category/id-product.html

This download costs €10

3. Artio JoomSEF

SEO component to make your Joomla! URLs SEF (search engine friendly) and easily human understandable with metadata generation capabilities. Supports URL translations at multilingual sites using JoomFish. Wide component through extension system. Proved to work both with Apache and IIS. Online upgrades and extension installtion. Custom 404 Page Not Found, duplicate URLs management.
Now also with new security functions to prevent URL code injection!

Main features:
* generate SEF URLs
* generate metadata (component – based)
* can override default metadada generated by component or Joomla (title, meta tags)
* duplicates management
* support for other components through extension modules; each component extenstion has own configurable parameters
* multilinguality support (JoomFish) and URL localization
* UTF-8 URLs support
* URL caching
* editing .htaccess capability
* URL variables filtering option – prevent URL code injections! with custom filter defintions
* URL source tracing to help allocate problematic code
* 301 Redirections management
* 404 Page Not Found customization
* online upgrades and extension installations

Support for many Joomla components: AdsManager, AlphaContent, Contacts XTD, Community Builder, Datso Gallery, DocMan, EZ Realty, Fireboard forum, Glossary, iJoomla Components, JE Comparison Charts, JEvents, Jomres, Joomlaboard, JoomFish, Joomla Tags, Jomres (Joomla Residents), Portfol, Seyret Video Component, SMF Bridge, SOBI2, Marketplace, Mosets Hot Property, Mosets Tree, ReMOSitory, RSGallery2, VirtueMart, Zoom Media Gallery. …
at the moment, there is more than 90 extensions available directly from ARTIO – see http://www.artio.net/en/joomsef/artio-joomsef-extensions for complete list, plus many more from 3rd party developers.

For changelog details, see http://www.artio.net/en/joomsef/artio-joomsef-for-joomla-1-5-version-history

NEW! 3.4.0 – New GUI, improved duplicate managements, metadata generation, improved pagination and much more!
NEW! 3.3.0 – You can now specify canonical links!
…more in changelog at project homepage

Get support and download this from http://www.artio.net.

4. sh404SEF

sh404SEF rewrites Joomla URL to a more user-friendly format (SEF URL or URL rewriting): mysite.com/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=69&id=34… becomes mysite.com/en/sh404SEF-and-url-rewriting/list-of-available-plugins.html).
It is also a security component and manages title and meta tags : automatic tags, or manual for every page. It works with or without .htaccess file. Joomfish compatible. Caching system for high speed and very small DB queries overhead.
Support many components natively but uses also sef_ext from OpenSEF/SEF Advanced. VirtueMart, Fireboard, Community Builder, mosetsTree, HotProperty, Sobi2, Docman, myBlog, iJoomla Magazine,News Portal, Remository and more supported natively. SSL switch, automatic 301 redirection from non-sef to sef and from Joomla SEF to sh404SEF, insert Google news style numerical ID,.. Many backend parameters to control URL construction behaviour.

Virtuemart Search Engine Friendly (SEF) Urls

Ian Smith — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:32:00 +0000