We are always looking for the best, most efficient way to manage Joomla. Recently we researched the methods to manage meta data in Joomla 1.5. We found two main options: sh404 meta management and the SEF Patch from Joomla to work.

Note Joomla now has an extension for managing meta data, we have not fully evaluated this extension, which is why it is not listed here.

In Joomla 1.0 we typically used Joomlatwork's sef patch and sh404SEF for SEF Urls and H1 tag insertion.  In Joomla 1.5 it appears that sh404 needs to manage all meta data if you want to insert the H1 tags.

This means the SEF patch does not work when sh404 will be handling the meta data.  Now that we can not create a nice combination of the two extensions we are faced with a one or the other option.  Pros and Cons of each extension:

Joomlatwork SEF Patch Extended

Pros

• Very easy to add meta data to your site
• Easy to upgrade

SEF Patch Cons

• Costs Money
• Can only add meta data information to Joomla articles
• Only handles the Meta Data, not h1 tags

sh404SEF

Pros

• All Meta Information is managed by a single component
• Can add meta data information to any URL
• Auto generates some pretty useful meta information

Cons

• Not as easy to add your meta data
• Need access to Joomla backend to meta data

Conclusion

Currently we use sh404SEF for meta management on new Joomla 1.5 sites. It is extra effort to add the meta data but we are able to assign meta data for all URLs not just the articles.  Additionally all meta data is managed with a single extension.  Most of our sites are updated by administrators, so they have access and are familiar with the Joomla backend. If our sites had lots of user generated content then we may explore different options.

The SEF patch from Joomlatwork is a great piece of software and has many nice features for webmasters in other situations and should be considered for other types of sites.  For our sites sh404 is the better solution.

How do you manage your meta data?