Switching Joomla! Default Editor TinyMCE to JCE

Want to have a better editor for your Joomla! website? Here I am going to introduce you to a newly released editor, JCE (Joomla Content Editor), for your Joomla! site. It is FREE to download, easy to install, and convenient to use. It is awesome for some functions such as Advanced Image/Media and File handling, Plugin Support, and an Administration interface for editor configuration.

I installed it and I love it. It makes upload images, videos, photos a lot easier. Everything is being done through the editor's interface area. If your want to have this amazing editor, download it here. The latest release is bot_jce_118.zip. After you download it, follow these instructions to install it:

• First you have to download admin component com_jce_111.zip here and do not unzip it

• Go to your admin area and click on Installers/Components on the menu bar

• Browse the url you just downloaded com_jce_111.zip file; click on the Upload File & Install button

• After you succeed, you can see JCE Admin under Components tag on the menu bar

• Go to your admin area; click on Installers/Mambots on the menu bar

• Locate the url you downloaded bot_jce_118.zip file (do not unzip this file); click on the Upload File & Install button

• If you succeed, click on Mambot/Site Mambot on the menu bar, and publish it

• Click on Site/Global Configuration on the menu bar; change Default WYSIWYG Editor to JCE Editor Mambot

Some people have problems with JCE, a trick to fix the problems is that you have to set your admin login page the same url as your configuration url. For example, if your configuration url is http://www.yoursite.com, then your admin login page should set to be http://www.yoursite.com/administrator and not http://yoursite.com/administrator.

Another problem is how to fix the editor's content background color. The default color came with whatever your template's background color is and it is very hard to see what you type. Create a file and name it editor_content.css. Open the file and put the following code there and save it:

body{ margin: 0; padding: 0; text-align: left; background: white; background-image: none; }

Upload this file to the folder as root_directory/templates/your_template/css/editor_content.css. Go to your admin area and click on Components/JCE Admin/JCE Configuration on the menu bar. Change Template CSS classes to 'No'. Type editor_content.css in Custom CSS classes and save it. Hope you enjoy this amazing editor like I do.

Search Engine Optimization - Follow-Ups

As I mentioned in Search Engine Optimization - Part II, you need to pay extreme attention to offpage optimizations. Especially with your targeted keyword, just type it in Google search engine; it will list the top ranked website over there.

Type that website's address in Google to find out the things I listed in Search Engine Optimization - Part 2. Once you find out the information about the top ranked website, you need to contact the websites that are linking to it. If you don't know those websites' email addresses, just search each website to find its contact information.

Always add that website to your webpage first before you request your link-exchanged. If you don't want to have a fuss, SEO Elite can make your life easy. Other things you should pay attention to if you don't want Google to ban your website:

• No hidden text
• No alt image tag spamming
• No meta tag stuffing
• No title tag stuffing

Again you can use SEO Elite to check whether your website has 'bad neighbors' linking to you. If yes, then you should delete their links immediately.

For the beginners, there is a great trick you can do to trade links; just type: your keyword 'Please also suggest my link to the LinkPartners.com Directory' in Google to find out who is willing to do reciprocal links with your website. Also joining LinkMetro will allow you to get a lot of links that are relevant to your website. This service is FREE for you to sign up; so definitely you should take advantage of it.

Related Article:
Search Engine Optimization - Part 1

Extension - The OpenSEF Component For Joomla! 1.0.x

What is The OpenSEF? It is an open source advanced Search Engine Friendly component for Joomla!. It enables automatic search engine friendly URLs for Joomla! core components and manual text-based search engine friendly URLs for 3rd-party developer components. Moreover SEO Assistant adds many search engine optimization tools.

With this extension your URLs will become more friendly to the Search Engines. Instead of your URL looks like this http://www.yoursite.com/index.php? option=com_weblinks&Itemid=23, it will look like this http://www.yoursite.com/web_links.html. You can tell that the latter one is more readable by Search Engines. Thus it is called Search Engine Friendly URL.

Download OpenSEF for Joomla! 1.0.x here: the latest release is joomla_com_opensef_2.0.0-RC5_SP2.zip. Here RC means 'Release Candidate' - meaning it is not final. It is not recommended for production sites because it may contain bugs. However, I've already installed it because many sites are using it without problems. I don't see any problem to my website either. If you want to go on, follow the instructions below:

• Do not unzip the file you just downloaded

• Login to your admin area, click on Installers/Components on the menue bar

• Browse the URL of your downloaded joomla_com_opensef_2.0.0-RC5_SP2.zip file, then click on Upload File & Install button

• If it is succeeded, click on Site/Global Configuration on the menu bar, and click on SEO tag

• Once it is open, click 'yes' for Search Engine Friendly URLs

• Make sure you rename htaccess.txt(which should be in the root directory of your website) to be .htaccess

• On the menu bar, click on Components/OpenSEF/Configuration, set OpenSEF Enable? to be 'yes', and save it

• Download .htaccess file, open it, and find Begin - Joomla! core Section; Comment this section out (put # in front of each line in this section)

• Scroll down, find Begin - 3rd Party SEF Section; Comment this section in (take out # that is in front of each line in this section)

• If the line, Option +FollowSymLinks, causes problems with your server configurations, comment it out too

• Finally save .htaccess file, upload it to you root directory of your server, and now you can check your URLs to see whether they changed to be Search Engine Friendly URLs

If you have any doubts, please ask or leave any advice or comments.

Related Articles:
How to Optimize Your Joomla! Website?
Which Joomla! SEF is Better? OpenSEF or Sh404SEF?

How to Add a Header Tag in Your Joomla! Website?

In Search Engine Optimization - Part 1, I emphasized the importance of putting your keywords inside your header tag. It will increase your PageRank in Google or other search engines! Don't confuse the header section with the header tag. For example, header section looks like this: <title>your website's title here</title> while header tag looks like this: <h1>your keywords here</h1>.

I've been trying so hard to find out the answer of how to add a header tag in an index.php file; if it is just a html file, then it is easy; just add your header tag in the body section of the file. However my website is created using Joomla! 1.0.13. That means I have to deal with a php file. This file is dynamically linked to other files. You just cannot insert <h1>your keywords here</h1> into the body section of you index.php file. So how can you do that? Here is the solution for you:

• Download bot_joomSEO_1.1.6.zip here and do not unzip it

• Login to your admin area; click on Installers/Mambots on the menu bar

• Browse the URL of your downloaded bot_joomSEO_1.1.6.zip file, then click on Upload File & Install button

• If it is succeeded, click on Mambots/Site Mambots on the menu bar

• Now you can see JoomSEO is on the list; make sure you publish it

• Click on it and go in. Make changes to meet your personal needs, save it, and you are done!

The only thing I don't like about JoomSEO is that the font of the title is too big. I have to find out how to fix it.

Update: Here is a better way that you can optimize your Joomla! blog/website for search engines: How to Optimize Your Joomla! Website?