Tag Meta is a Joomla native extension that allows you to efficiently manage site meta tags. Tag Meta allows to set the tag 'title' and the meta tags 'description', 'author', 'keywords' and 'robots' on each page, which is identified by the URL or a part of it. Also other meta information like the rel ‘canonical’ are supported, and there’s a customizable database of synonyms for each group of keywords, that can be used to enrich pages. This provides a powerful tool to improve site positioning in SEO optimization.

It was initially created because many Joomla extensions didn’t provide a way to set meta info on their pages, and in these cases Tag Meta helps you to do this. With the introduction of macros and placeholders that allow complex data manipulation now Tag Meta can be also used to improve site's SEO ranking and get some other advanced "things".

For best SEO results, remember to always use meaningful text for title and description, concerning content of the pages, and also remember to insert comma separated list of keywords (no spaces needed). Finally, it is recommended to enable native Joomla SEF routing to generate friendly URLs and simplify the site structure, improving both SERP positioning and meta info management.

How it works

Tag Meta package includes a component for managing list of rules for site's URLs, and a plugin that analyzes all requests and sets the meta information as defined by rules. These are the main steps to start using Tag Meta (for the impatient):

1. Install the package using Joomla Administration interface;
2. Enable the plugin "System - Tag Meta" and set its ordering and other parameters;
3. Use Tag Meta component to manage rules for meta info and synonyms database.

Detailed instructions on each step are described in the following paragraphs. In this section we just want to focus on some basic concepts related to Tag Meta and how it works.

The first important thing to understand is what a "rule" is. With Tag Meta Manager (the component interface) you can create as many items as you want, and each item is a meta info rule. But not necessarily an item corresponds to a single page (i.e. matches just a single URL).

A rule has a "URL" field that can be full URI or just a part of it. For example, if the "URL" field is "/home.html", then this rule matches both the URL http://www.mysite.com/home.html and http://www.mysite.com/orders/home.html?view=status. So, it means that with a single rule it is possible to match multiple source URLs. But the content of the "URL" field can be a regular expression, and this provide a powerful way to specify complex search patterns for matching URL. In the next paragraphs will be shown many regular expression examples.

For any request on the site, the Tag Meta plugin compares the requested URL with all the rules enabled. All matching rules are applied in the sequence defined with rules ordering. The "Last rule" flag controls if the current rule must be the last or not, so when multiple rules are applied the process ends if a rule has this field set to true. This provide a way to "pile" meta information from multiple rules for each page (e.g. some values come from the "category rule", other from the "single item rule").

ReDJ is a Joomla native extension that allows to efficiently manage URL redirection. This is very useful for creating URL aliases, and managing redirects from an old URL to a new one. A very similar extension has been added into Joomla since version 1.6, but ReDJ supports powerful regular expressions that allow to match more than one source URL. In this way it is possible to create a group of redirects with just one ReDJ rule.

ReDJ also supports usage of "macros" in the destination URL. A macro is like a function whose value is calculated at runtime (when the rule matches an URL). There are a loto of macros available and this allows to create dynamic destinations, with a different redirection for each source URL. To increase flexibilty in the building of dynamic destinations, also "placeholders" are supported. A placeholder is like a variable whose value can be assigned using text, macros or other placeholders, and can be used to build the destination.

Another great ReDJ feature is the configurable redirection type for each item, with support for 301 (Moved Permanently), 307 (Temporary Redirect) and also 200 (Internal Redirect) (available for Enterprise version only). With the Internal Redirect is now possible to create a "real" URL alias with Joomla.

Last but not least, there are many other features available, such custom error pages, error tracing, referer tracing and so on, that can dramatically improve your SEO ranking. We will describe each one in detail in the next part of this guide. In the following paragraphs we will also learn how to make better use of regular expressions, macros and placeholders to take full advantage from ReDJ.

How it works

ReDJ package includes a component for managing list of redirection rules, and a plugin that examines all the requests and redirect them to a different page when needed by an active rule. These are the main steps to start using ReDJ (for the impatient):

1. Install the package using Joomla Administration interface;
2. Enable the plugin "System - ReDJ" and set its ordering and other parameters;
3. Use ReDJ component to manage redirects, errors and referers.

Detailed instructions on each step are described in the following paragraphs. In this section we just want to focus on some basic concepts related to ReDJ and how it works.

The first important thing to understand is the "rule" concept. With ReDJ Manager (the component interface) you can create as many items as you want, and each item is a redirection rule. But not necessarily an item corresponds to a single page (i.e. matches just a single URL).

A rule has a "From URL" field that can be full URI or just a part of it. For example, it can be "/home.html", then this rule matches both the URL http://www.mysite.com/home.html and http://www.mysite.com/orders/home.html?view=status. So, it means that with a single rule is possible to match multiple source URLs. But the content of the "From URL" field can be a regular expression, and this provide a powerful way to specify complex search patterns for matching URL. The "Skip" field is similar to From URL", it can be a part of URL and contains a regular expression, but it offers a way to skip the rule. When the skip condition matches the rule is discarded. In the next paragraphs will be shown many regular expression examples.

For any request on the site, the ReDJ plugin compares the requested URL with all the rules enabled in the ordering set for rules. The first matching rule found (if there's at least one) is used for redirect.