Tutorial Text

• In this tutorial we will be exploring the OpenSEF configuration
• Begin by clicking Configuration
• This is where you enable or disable OpenSEF. This doesn't turn SEF on and off for your entire site
• You can select the language to use for the OpenSEF admin
• You can enable or disable the admin menu on the left side of all OpenSEF pages
• You can set OpenSEF to periodically check for updates
• Let's move on to the SEF tab
• You can set OpenSEF to force all URLs to lowercase characters
• You can change the suffix to use for newly created page URLs
• You can change the character to replace spaces in your URLs. Normally you would use a dash "-" or underscore "_"
• You can set characters to remove from newly created URLs. Use a comma between each character to remove
• You can set the structure to use for newly created URLs
• You can change which title field to use for the section, category and content item. This gives you a lot of control over SEO
• You can set the format to use for the number of multi-page items
• You can set how strict OpenSEF is in validating URLs. The more strict, the more often you will have 404 Not Found errors
• You can set the URL to redirect to if there is a 404 Not Found error
• Let's move on to the Replacements tab
• You can select characters in URLs that will be replaced, and the charater to replace them with
• Let's move on to the Core Alias tab
• You can set the alias to use with any core information
• Let's move on to the Components tab
• You can choose to exclude core components from OpenSEF or you can force an alias to be used
• Let's move on to the Features tab
• OpenSEF can run multiple Joomla sites from one installation. If you do not use this feature, it is highly recommended you turn it off
• You can set OpenSEF to automatically map new URLs and seemlessly forward users to the friendly URL
• If you are having problems with the auto-map redirects, you can disable them here
• You can set OpenSEF to ues the advanced SEF Extension files available for some components
• If a user enters a non-friendly URL but a friendly URL exists, OpenSEF can seemlessly forward users to the friendly URL
• You can always generate absolute URLs. It is recommended that you leave this enabled
• You can append the date to the friendly URL
• You can change the format of the date
• You can append the content item id to the friendly URL
• You can append the menu Itemid to the friendly URL
• If you have anything installed that uses session ids you will need this enabled. Forums often use session ids
• You can have OpenSEF record attempted hit to unmappable URLs. This can be useful in tracking down abuse
• You can also record any invalid URLs used
• You can record the number of times each URL is hit
• Let's move on to the Advanced tab
• You can set how many times OpenSEF will redirect the URL. If you have multiple levels of redirection you'll want to change this to be higher than 1
• If you are having problems, you can enable debug mode and limit it to your IP address so your visitors won't see the debug info
• Let's move on to the Google Sitemap tab
• You can set the name of the XML file that gets created
• Then you can set the folder that the sitemap gets created in
• You can change the setting for the last modified date.
• You can set how often the URL will change. This will effect how often Google will visit it
• You can set the priority of the page
• You can tell OpenSEF to ping Google everytime the sitemap is updated
• You can display the edit screen after it scans your site
• Let's move on the to Metatag tab
• You can set the number of keywords to generate
• You can change the character to use between keywords. Normally this would be a comma
• You can change the order of the keywords
• You can change the settings to overwrite current metatags
• You can set characters and words to omit from metatags
• You can choose the source of the meta description
• If your default choice is unavailable, you can choose full and intro text as a backup
• You can set the number of characters to use in the description