yes, you could preserve and possibly increase your rankings.

First, Index your valuable resources ( content, urls, metadata,  keyword rankings, etc) that have to be preserved.

If you use  Joomla content management system & sh404SEF, you may rewrite URLs and keep them the same as on the current site.

Here is an example of site recently migrated without losing its rankings:

http://www.alaskaflyfishinggoods.com/new-flies-for-2011/view-all-products.html

http://www.alaskaflyfishinggoods.com/

Good luck & enjoy Joomla

True, however native friendly url handling in Joomla has serious limitations when it comes to url and metadata handling.

Looking at www.bridgewinners.com, he already has friendly URLs. If using sh404SEF, Jason should ensure to enable .htaccess flie to lose /index.php/ in URLs.

Jason:

1. As Ryan recommended, use an SEF plugin for Joomla. We use sh404SEF since 2007 on all our sites. That will prevent many duplicate pages caused by different item ids and other url parameters.

2. if you use friendly URL plugin, then you should be able to block all Joomla URLs starting with index.php and index2.php via robots.txt file. Check this website as an example of Joomla site with additional URLs blocked using robots.txt file: http://www.bulletinbag.com/robots.txt

3. Finally, use a properly configured sitemap extension for Joomla and submit it to search engines. This will tell search engines which pages to consider first if it finds duplicated pages. We recommend using XMAP Joomla extension.

Best,

Ogy

Hi Ryan,

last week you agreed to schedule a conference call with our sales rep and I, then did not show up for the meeting.

You have not replied either to change the date or why you missed the scheduled meeting.

Again I wish you the best of luck but you won't make any progress with your current approach.

Best,

Ogy

Hi Emerald,

A single condensed page on your site won't rank well on search engines although it will help visitors who do come across your site but don't understand English very well.

To make your life easier, I would recommend:

1. Choose a good content management system that already has good multilingual handling (example: Joomla)
2. Set up the right project requirements (example: SEO, site architecture, contact form functionality, etc)
3. Then just hire copywriters to translate your content keeping in mind keyword research in Russian / Arabic languages.

A good example of such site (Joomla, JomFish, sh404SEF) is http://www.makeuptouch.eu/

Best,

Ogy

Hi Walter,

also notice that your Joomla's images/ directory is blocked by robots.txt file: http://www.mconcrete.com/robots.txt where it says:

Disallow: /images/

This means that your images within the gallery would not be indexed because image path is:

http://www.mconcrete.com**/images**/stories/stamped/stamped-1a.jpg

You have to have that robots.txt line deleted in order to have images stored in images/ directory indexed by search engines. By default, most images in Joomla that you upload will be stored within the /images directory (media manager).

Best,

Ogy

Hi David,

I recommend

1. sh404SEF for URL, Page Title and Metadescription management (same suggestion as awdesigner).

2. xmap for sitemap generation and submission to search engines.

Best,

Ogy

True, however native friendly url handling in Joomla has serious limitations when it comes to url and metadata handling.

Looking at www.bridgewinners.com, he already has friendly URLs. If using sh404SEF, Jason should ensure to enable .htaccess flie to lose /index.php/ in URLs.

Hi Walter,

also notice that your Joomla's images/ directory is blocked by robots.txt file: http://www.mconcrete.com/robots.txt where it says:

Disallow: /images/

This means that your images within the gallery would not be indexed because image path is:

http://www.mconcrete.com**/images**/stories/stamped/stamped-1a.jpg

You have to have that robots.txt line deleted in order to have images stored in images/ directory indexed by search engines. By default, most images in Joomla that you upload will be stored within the /images directory (media manager).

Best,

Ogy

Hi Emerald,

A single condensed page on your site won't rank well on search engines although it will help visitors who do come across your site but don't understand English very well.

To make your life easier, I would recommend:

1. Choose a good content management system that already has good multilingual handling (example: Joomla)
2. Set up the right project requirements (example: SEO, site architecture, contact form functionality, etc)
3. Then just hire copywriters to translate your content keeping in mind keyword research in Russian / Arabic languages.

A good example of such site (Joomla, JomFish, sh404SEF) is http://www.makeuptouch.eu/

Best,

Ogy