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Table Of Contents
Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization
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A module is a community-created plugin that enhances Drupal's core functionality. From XML sitemaps to better page titles, modules are crucial to the search engine optimization of any Drupal site. Installing modules is easy and once you know how to install one, you probably know how to install them all.
For a complete explanation of installing modules, check out the following links: http://drupal.org/node/120641 and http://drupal.org/node/120642.
In the upcoming chapters, you'll come across a lot of Drupal modules. You need to carry out the following steps in order install 99% of Drupal modules:
sites/all/modules folder (if that directory is not there then create it).If the module isn't working, be sure to read the README.txt file that came with the module. Sometimes, there are extra steps required to fully install a module.
Drush: The alternative to manual Drupal module installation
If you're comfortable with using the Unix command line, you should consider Drush. Drush is a module created by Moshe Weitzman that provides a command line shell and Unix scripting interface for Drupal. After you install it, you'll be able to use commands like drush dl modulename and drush enable modulename to install and enable modules. No trips to drupal.org and no admin screens so it's very fast.
Now that you know how to install modules, there are several that you'll need in order to optimize your Drupal site.
What follows is a list of the non-core Drupal modules you'll use most often for SEO. (Non-core means not included in the base Drupal installation. However, something might be included in Acquia Drupal so check your Modules admin screen first!) We'll cover almost all of these in more detail later in the book. You can either download them all and install them on your site or grab them one at a time as you work on each SEO task. Either way, don't enable them until you're clear what they do and how to configure them. Sometimes, careful setup is required to get the optimal benefit from a module.
The SEO Checklist will help you save time
The Drupal SEO Checklist module helps you keep track of the SEO tasks needed for your site. It doesn't do any SEO by itself—it's a checklist that follows along nicely with this book. Links to download and configure most of the modules listed here are built into the SEO Checklist module. It also puts a date stamp on each task as you complete it so it's very handy if you're working on more than one site or you would like to report the work you've done to a boss or client.
<title> tags for nodes throughout your site.<title> tags for taxonomy terms throughout your site.<title> on each term page.There are a few more SEO modules which are optional. Let's have a look at them.
robots.txt file on multiple Drupal installations.robots.txt files for each siteThere are so many good, helpful modules; it's hard to mention them all. Here are a few non-SEO modules that I consider to be a must for any site I'm working on.
PHP memory limits and module installation
If you install a lot of modules in Drupal then you may come across the dreaded "White Screen of Death". It often occurs when you visit the Administer | Modules page; you'll see nothing but a white screen. This means that PHP—the language that Drupal is written in - has run out of memory. There are several ways to increase the allotted memory. The easiest is to add the line php_value memory_limit 32M to your .htaccess file in the Drupal root. You can adjust this to 48M, 64M or even higher, but 32M typically works fine and conserves memory. Don't just max it out as that's the amount of memory that Drupal will use for each visitor and it adds up quickly, especially on shared servers. There are other options if this doesn't work. To find out more, visit http://drupal.org/node/31819.
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