PowerDNN

1.    Introduction
As the DotNetNuke platform grows and evolves, it has made tremendous strides toward becoming an enterprise web application framework.  However, as the DotNetNuke application becomes more and more of an application platform; it is important to remember that it is still a website and is still indexed by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN.  This document will focus on design advice that will help you develop search engine friendly DotNetNuke websites.  


2.    Page Titles
    The page title is an important feature for improving your site's searchability.  When you create a page in DotNetNuke, by default, it will show the page as "Site Name > Parent Page > Child Page".  Unfortunately, this de-prioritizes the important words in your page title.  The best way to fix this is to go to the Page's settings and enter an explit page title.

3.    Keywords
    Keywords are often overlooked by website designers, however, they help add relevance to your website.  When building your DotNetNuke website, you can create site level keywords from Admin > Site Settings as well as page-level keywords from Page > Settings.  These keywords will help inform search engines what your website is about.

4.    Friendly/Virtual URLs
    When building a DotNetNuke website, one thing that you are sure to notices are that the generated URLs are not very friendly.  For Example, the URL "http://www.powerdnn.com/AtomicSLA/Overview/tabid/241/Default.aspx" has a lot of extra information in that is not needed.  By default, DotNetNuke generates all urls with a TabID paramter which is used to identify the page that is being requested.  With the newer DotNetNuke 4.x and 5.x beta platforms, you can use a virtual url such as "http://www.powerdnn.com/AtomicSLA/Overview.aspx".  This gives search engines a more concise view of what you are representing.  To use virtual URLs, All you do is construct the "tab path" of the page.  For example, PowerDNN.com > AtomicSLA > Overview equates to http://www.powerdnn.com/AtomicSLA/Overview.aspx .  One important note about using virtual URLs is that if the page's name or path ever changes, the virtual url will stop working.

5.    Anchor Text
    Whenever either you or someone else links to a page on your site, it is important to consider the text of the actual link.  One common mistake that people make is by writing content such as "For more information about our product, [Click Here](URL)".  When the search engines read this, they are going to associate the term "Click here" with your page which is most likely not what you want.  An easy way to fix this is to rewrite your content to be something
like "For more information about [Our Product](URL), please visit the [Product Support Page](URL)."

6.    Page Content
    The text content on your page is important.  Make sure you use the keywords that you want to optimize around plenty of times and link them to other important places in your site.  If your site has text content in images, make sure the images have ALT tags so the search engines know what the image is describing.  Also, many search engines prioritize content that is at the top of the HTML so make sure your most important content comes first.

7.    Fly-Out Content
    Contrary to popular belief, when search engines index your website, they do not visually "read" it.  This means that if you have white text on a white background, the search engine will index that along with the rest of the content for your site and have no idea that it is invisible.  Even though this will work, it is in bad taste, and when someone reports you to the search engines, a human will verify that the complaint is accurate and your website will be blacklisted.  There are, however, a number of ways to tastefully embed fly-out content in your website that will be beneficial to your customers and will not get you baned.  As long as there is an easy and obvious way to display the content, the search engine managers will not care.  For example, the DotNetNuke menu has invisible "Fly-Out" content that displays itself when you mouse over it - this is perfectly ok.  Another good example is the LiveContent module which "hides" content in easy to use fly-outs.

8.    Common Links
    Pay very close attention to all of the links on your website.  If you have a very important page, make sure all of your pages link to that page with good anchor text.  Also, even though many DotNetNuke skins include the Privacy amd Terms skin objects, it is a good idea to remove them from your skin.  Those links will make your privacy and Terms of Service pages some of the most important pages in your website which you most likely don't want.

9.    Site Map
    Although DotNetNuke includes a default sitemap page (/SiteMap.aspx), it does not do a great job of letting you prioritize your content for search engines.  It gives all of the pages the same importance which essentially makes the importance not matter.  To have complete control over your DotNetNuke SiteMap, you should consider buying a third party module from www.BuyDNNstuff.com .

10.    Dedicated IP Address with ReverseDNS
    Many people overlook this aspect of SEO optimization, but this can really help prioritize your website.  When you run a website on a shared IP address, that means that website is hosted on the same "internet phonenumber" as many other sites.  This does not hurt you at all, however, if you are the only website on an IP address, this gives you more priority.  Also, as everybody knows, DNS converts a domain name (PowerDNN.com) into an IP address (216.58.236.42).  ReverseDNS is used to convert an IP address into a domain name and must be set up by your hosting provider for you.  Search engines use this information because only high profile entities have a dedicated IP address with reverse DNS.  To check your website's DNS settings, visit DNS.PowerDNN.com and RDNS.PoweRDNN.com .

11.    Location-Specific Domain Name
    If you provide location-specific services, make sure your domain name indicates that.  For example, if you are in Canada, Google will prioritize .CA domain names when you search.  For example, if you search for "hockey" on Google.com and Google.CA, some of the results will be the same, but some of them will also be different.

12.    Link. Link. Link!
    Get your website out there!  Talk to other people in your field and have them link to your website using good anchor text that you want to optimize around.  Tastefully submit your website to forums and blogs, making sure that your posts are good and relivant.  If you have lots of good links around your website, then you must have a good website.

13.    Conclusion
    As you have seen, optimizing your DotNetNuke website for search engines is an easy task that can significantly help improve your placement in website searches.