jReviews and sh404SEF Configuration

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Friday, 07 March 2008

It is my opinion that jReviews is the best review extension and sh404SEF is the best SEF component. However they do not always work the best together. This article describes how I make the best of both worlds.

Note: This article is for jReviews 1.X, Joomla 1.0.

In jReviews 2.0 and Joomla 1.5 sh404SEF and jReviews work well together.

However at the time sh404 was moved over to anything digital there are some issues getting sh404SEF working correctly.
http://www.reviewsforjoomla.com/forum/index.php?topic=8572.0

Original Article:

My Method:
I install sh404SEF but disable it for the jReviews component.

This configureation does not disable the SEF URLs for product review items pages, only the listing pages. The jReviews listing pages display with the original joomla non SEF urls.

jReviews content or review page:
http://www.joomlahostingreviews.com/joomla-hosting/lunarpages-review.html

jReviews listing page
http://www.joomlahostingreviews.com/index.php?option=com_jreviews&Itemid=71

Content Pages are High Value Pages
Most searches to my site land on the product content review pages. These pages have most of the original content. These content pages are the ones that people typically link to and bookmark. I also spend the time to create keyword rich meta titles and descriptions for these pages.

Listing Pages are Low Value Pages
Listing pages do not have that much SEO value.

They do not have much original content.
They are snippets of the other pages
There can be hundreds of these pages which dilute your high quality pages

By having the listing pages as non SEF URLs, I feel that the search engine rankings are not hurt that much.

Fewer Issues when upgrading
It would be great to have all of the pages with SEF urls but the maintenance when upgrading can become very involved. Also when I have applied the hack or used openSEF the listing pages URL was pretty long and did not have the keyword structure that I wanted.

I find it easier to leave the listing pages the way they are. If jReviews and sh404SEF eventually have a seamless integration then all of my default urls will be redirected to the new page and I do not have to set up a series of 301 redirects for the search engines. Anyone who has everchanges SEF URL structures know what a hassle this can be.

Conclusion
If you only have one site then it may be worth it to spend the time to hack sh404SEF. I have more than one site and it takea a lot of time to rehack all of the sites and I feel the benefits do not outweigh the work.

Also it has been several months since I have tried turning on the jReviews component in sh404SEF so maybe the two play better now.

Any thoughts? Comments? All input is welcome, I could be overlooking a better way of integrating the two extensions.

Hope this helps!

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Jreviews sh404SEF
written by j.halena, March 31, 2008

Hello Eskwire,
please,wich version of sh404SEF do you use?I think,that is the best choose,as well!
But I have a problem setup it.Sometimes make some bad patch like:
GOOD:
http://www.intownwebdesign.com/directory/section/category/review.html
BAD:
http://www.intownwebdesign.com/section/directory/section/category/review.html
Did you have the same problem?
Do you think that this is best way,when I disable jreviews?

BR
j.halena