Joomla! Multilingual Setup Pitfalls and Current SEO Measures (End)

The Long Battle with Google Search Console Ends! Reflecting on Approximately One Year of SEO Efforts

Since the reopening of Store.Alaudae.JP in April 2024, our SEO efforts, heavily reliant on Google Search Console, have finally reached a milestone.
While there hasn't been a significant change in the indexing status of pages, I am now satisfied with the search results for the Alaudae.JP site within Google Search.

This journey of approximately one year was far from smooth. In particular, the indexing issues, the cause of which was not always clear, caused me many headaches. However, through repeated trial and error, I finally came to understand the fundamental reason.

It is that understanding the characteristics of the CMS being used (in this case, Joomla!) and implementing the minimum necessary settings to maximize its benefits is essential. We didn't implement any special SEO measures. Simply performing basic site construction significantly improved the situation.

Looking back, in the initial stages, we were operating with Joomla!'s default settings and extensions as they were, and basic SEO aspects were not optimized. For example, we weren't fully utilizing the CMS's inherent functions, such as settings to correctly convey the site structure to Google and handling duplicate content.

What did we do specifically? It was all very basic:

・Submitting a sitemap: We correctly communicated the overall site structure through Google Search Console.
・Configuring robots.txt: We controlled crawling and prevented access to unnecessary pages.
・Optimizing internal links: We appropriately linked related pages to improve site navigation.
・Canonicalizing URLs: We prevented the same content from being displayed under different URLs (e.g., with and without www).

These measures are relatively easy to implement from the Joomla! administration panel. However, by firmly carrying out these "common sense settings," we felt that Google's crawlers were able to understand and evaluate the site's information more accurately.

Google Search Videos

Through this experience, I keenly felt that no matter how high-performance a CMS you use, if you don't understand its functions and configure it appropriately, the SEO effects will not be fully realized. Especially in the case of a multi-functional CMS like Joomla!, I learned that operating with the initial settings can lead to potential SEO issues.

Of course, SEO measures do not end here. To respond to Google's ever-changing algorithms, it is necessary to monitor the daily situation and continue to make improvements. However, this experience has been an important learning opportunity that will form the foundation for future SEO efforts.

Moving forward, we will not only rely on Google Search Console but also focus on improving the quality of content and user experience to aim for more fundamental site growth.

Approximately one year has passed since the reopening of Store.Alaudae.JP. The long battle with Google Search Console has finally come to an end. Leveraging this experience, Alaudae.JP can now move on to the next step.