Some people say that system X is better than system Y for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. This may be true to some degree. But I've never seen a serious Web CMS project that expected to use the software without any configuration or modifications. This simply never happens.
What we see with Drupal (news, site) is that out of the box, so to speak, it's not great in terms of SEO. However, with the addition of a few contributed modules and after a some simple configurations are made, Drupal will stand alongside or even in front of the majority of web content management systems. Here's what you need to know to achieve this.
The practice of Search Engine Optimization is the means that website owners have for exercising control over how search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing access the content of their websites. This article covers the basics of how to search engine optimize a Drupal 6 installation.
1. Activate Drupal's Clean URLs Feature
Drupal’s default URLs look something like this:
http://www.example.com/index.php?q=node/1
This is not optimal for search engines, nor for humans. Fortunately, the system has a native feature called Clean URLs. This functionality relies upon the web server to perform URL rewriting on inbound requests. Once it is enabled, Drupal will generate internal URLs using this cleaner format.
The above URL rendered in a clean format looks like this:
http://www.example.com/node/1
This is an improvement as it no longer includes the '?' delimiter nor the 'q=node/1' name, value pair.
Enabling Clean URLs with Apache
In most cases, enabling this functionality with Apache is a no brainer. You may even be able to turn it on during the Drupal install process. As long as Apache's mod_rewrite module is loaded, you are in good shape. Once you or a systems administrator have enabled or verified that mod_rewrite is enabled, you must simply copy the .htaccess file from your Drupal software archive into the root of your Drupal installation. Once you have verified that the file exists and matches what came with your Drupal archive, access the Drupal admin system as an administrator, navigate to the Administer > Site configuration > Clean URLs area and enable the feature. After you click to save the configuration changes, you are done with this process. Clean URLs should now be enabled for your website. If the feature is still not working for you, you will need to perform advanced debugging. The best place to start is with the official Drupal documentation and related discussions.
Enabling Clean URLs with IIS
Out of the box Drupal 6 does not give you much help with IIS. The main issue is that URL rewriting can be enabled in different ways, depending on which version of IIS you are working with. We're going to cheat here and only talk about IIS 7. The nice thing with IIS 7 is that Microsoft has released a free URL Rewrite add-on that plugs right into IIS. If you don't already have this installed, you can quickly install it by using the Microsoft Web Platform Installer.
IIS 7 with Microsoft's free URL Rewrite Add-on
After you've installed or verified that the URL Rewrite module is enabled in your IIS server, you can add the required rewrite rules to your Drupal server instance. To do this you must create or edit the web.config file in the root of your Drupal installation.
Place or merge the following rules into your web.config file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="CleanURLs" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="^(.*)$" />
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}"
matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}"
matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="index.php?q={R:1}" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
After saving and exiting your web.config file, the critical rewrite rules will be in place and you should now be able to enable Clean URLs via the Drupal admin system. Access the Drupal admin system as an administrator, navigate to the Administer > Site configuration > Clean URLs area and enable the feature. After you click to save the configuration changes, you are done with this process. Clean URLs should now be enabled for your website. If the feature is still not working for you, you will need to perform advanced debugging. The best place to start is with the official Drupal documentation and related discussions
from:
http://www.cmswire.comhttp://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/drupal-seo-5-must-do-configurations-005044.php/cms/web-cms/drupal-seo-5-must-do-configurations-005044.php
from:
http://www.cmswire.comhttp://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/drupal-seo-5-must-do-configurations-005044.php/cms/web-cms/drupal-seo-5-must-do-configurations-005044.php
