How to Include Canonical Tags in Joomla
- 1). Choose a Joomla extension to create search engine-friendly URLs for your web pages. "JoomSEF" and "sh404SEF" are the two primary SEF extensions used on Joomla websites, but you can find a number of other options by searching through the Joomla extensions directory (extensions.joomla.org). Select an SEF extension and download the plugin.
- 2). Select a canonical tags plugin for your Joomla website. "Canonical" and "OZTechnonical" are both options that work well with any form of search engine-friendly URLs. You can find other options by searching through the Joomla extensions directory under the keyword "canonical." Select an extension and download the module.
- 3). Log into the administrator's control panel for the Joomla content management system. By default, the login page can be found at:
www.yoursite.com/directory/administrator
Replace "your site.com" with your own domain name, and replace "directory" with the name of the directory in which Joomla is installed. Once you're on the page, enter the administrative user name and password to gain access to the control panel. - 4). Install the SEF plugin. From the administrative control panel, click the "Extensions" link in the navigation menu, then click "Install/Uninstall" to go to the installation screen. In the section titled "Upload Package File," click the browse button to find the SEF plugin file you downloaded. Select the file, then click the "Upload" button to install the extension into Joomla. Your URLs are now search engine friendly and you can apply canonical tags.
- 5). Install the canonical tags module. Again, choose "Extensions," then choose "Install/Uninstall." Click the browse button in the "Upload Package File" section, select the file for your canonical extension, then click the "Upload" button. Canonical tags will now be automatically applied to all of your pages, as well as to new pages as articles are added to the site.
