This tutorial will help you to optimize the default installation and configuration of a DotNetNuke website in such a way that it will become friendlier to both users and search engines.
DotNetNuke (DNN) is an open source content management system powered by ASP.NET/Microsoft IIS web-based technologies. Although the CMS is open source, the web component platform is proprietary. The most common database used in DNN is Microsoft SQL Server, while as of June 2010, most DNN websites can be run using ASP.NET 3.5.
Unlike WordPress, which is also open source and can be optimally run in a LAMPP configuration (Apache, MySQL, Linux and PHP), DotNetNuke's basic installation and configuration is plagued with onsite SEO related issues.
WordPress by default has fewer issues when it comes to SEO than DNN. This is even confirmed by Matt Cutts here: "And WordPress is great in that many of the default settings are already set up configurations that work well with search engines."
Prevent duplicating title tags on Pages
Let's start improving the title tag of your home page. You can tweak your SEO- optimized home page title by following the procedure below.
Step 1: You need to log in as an administrator/superuser. Click the Login link.
Step 2: The default installation of DNN will label the home page "Home." Right after logging in, you are in the "Edit Mode" of your home page.
In this case, click "Settings" under Page Functions.
Step 3: You will be taken to the "Page Settings" page of your home page. Edit the "Page title" to something that is targeted for SEO. Make sure it is complete, descriptive and accurate.
Step 4: Click "Update." The home page title tag is now revised.
Example:
Also, it might happen that the Default pages of your DNN installation will use the same title as the home page. This leads to duplicate titles. The following are the workarounds:
1. Delete the default content by removing the links to the default pages (which uses the same title as the home page).
2. Create new/dedicated pages for that content (Page functions à Add)
Details of this procedure can be seen in this tutorial.