1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000
I just created a new footer menu for this Web site.

2
00:00:02,001 --> 00:00:07,001
It's down here at the bottom of the screen and you see the link here for the Login.

3
00:00:07,002 --> 00:00:11,002
I would like to add to that, I'd like to add a link to the home page as well

4
00:00:11,003 --> 00:00:15,003
down at the footer menu. So you might think, okay, well, no big deal.

5
00:00:15,004 --> 00:00:19,004
We'll just go when we create a new menu item and we'll link it up to a single

6
00:00:19,005 --> 00:00:22,005
article which I'll go to home page article and we'll be done.

7
00:00:22,006 --> 00:00:25,006
The downside to doing it that way is this.

8
00:00:25,007 --> 00:00:27,007
First of all, we're just working with the single article.

9
00:00:27,008 --> 00:00:31,008
It's very, very quick and easy to set up the settings for that.

10
00:00:31,009 --> 00:00:35,009
There was only a few things that we clicked on, but think about some of the

11
00:00:35,010 --> 00:00:38,010
category blogs that we've set up for this Web site so far and all of the settings

12
00:00:38,011 --> 00:00:39,011
associated with that.

13
00:00:39,012 --> 00:00:44,012
If we take that route where we make a new menu item in our footer we're going

14
00:00:44,013 --> 00:00:47,013
to have to remember all of those setting that we had already configured for

15
00:00:47,014 --> 00:00:51,014
the same menu items before for the Main Menu and recreate all of those

16
00:00:51,015 --> 00:00:53,015
settings in the footer. Not necessarily the best way to go.

17
00:00:53,016 --> 00:00:56,016
The other disadvantage to doing this is that Joomla!

18
00:00:56,017 --> 00:01:00,017
will set up a new link in the footer and search engines are actually going to

19
00:01:00,018 --> 00:01:05,018
view this as an additional page on your Web site that has exactly the same

20
00:01:05,019 --> 00:01:09,019
content and that will earn you a penalty in the search engines

21
00:01:09,020 --> 00:01:10,020
for search engine optimization.

22
00:01:10,021 --> 00:01:14,021
You want to have unique pages with unique content in them.

23
00:01:14,022 --> 00:01:20,022
The way around this is using something called a Menu Alias inside of Joomla!.

24
00:01:20,023 --> 00:01:24,023
What this will do is allow you to make links in your footer menu that go back to

25
00:01:24,024 --> 00:01:29,024
the home page or any other page on your Web site that already exist without

26
00:01:29,025 --> 00:01:33,025
creating a new menu item from a search engine's perspective and without you

27
00:01:33,026 --> 00:01:37,026
having to go through and reconfigure all of the settings that you already

28
00:01:37,027 --> 00:01:40,027
configured once before on another menu item.

29
00:01:40,028 --> 00:01:43,028
So to do this we're going to go to the back end of Joomla!

30
00:01:43,029 --> 00:01:48,029
and we're going to go Menus and once again the Footer menu, because that's where

31
00:01:48,030 --> 00:01:51,030
I want my link to go. I'm going to make a new link.


32
00:01:51,031 --> 00:01:55,031
So I'm going to click on my New button and my Menu Item Type this time is going

33
00:01:55,032 --> 00:01:57,032
to be under System Links.

34
00:01:57,033 --> 00:02:01,033
Down here under System Links we have some other choices and the one that

35
00:02:01,034 --> 00:02:03,034
I want is Menu Item Alias.

36
00:02:03,035 --> 00:02:08,035
This creates an alias to another menu item or think of alias in the senses of the pointers.

37
00:02:08,036 --> 00:02:12,036
So we're just going to refer back to one of the existing menu items.

38
00:02:12,037 --> 00:02:19,037
Go ahead and click that and we'll type in a name which will be Home.

39
00:02:19,038 --> 00:02:21,038
You probably don't need to touch anything else here on this page.

40
00:02:21,039 --> 00:02:22,039
There's a Footer Menu.

41
00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:24,040
That's where we want it to go.

42
00:02:24,041 --> 00:02:28,041
We want the parent item to be the root. So that's all set.

43
00:02:28,042 --> 00:02:32,042
But we also need to indicate what page this new home item is going to point

44
00:02:32,043 --> 00:02:40,043
to and that is under the Advanced Options tab under Required Settings, this Menu Item.

45
00:02:40,044 --> 00:02:45,044
So right now this is set to Login and that is not what we want.

46
00:02:45,045 --> 00:02:48,045
We want to link to the Home item under Main Menu.

47
00:02:48,046 --> 00:02:54,046
So I'm going to go ahead and choose that and then I'm going to say Save & Close.

48
00:02:54,047 --> 00:03:00,047
Now when I go to the front end of the Web site and I click Refresh, I now have

49
00:03:00,048 --> 00:03:03,048
two links down here on the bottom Login and Home.

50
00:03:03,049 --> 00:03:06,049
So two things about these links down at the bottom of the page.

51
00:03:06,050 --> 00:03:09,050
First of all, you're probably wondering why they are not going horizontally.

52
00:03:09,051 --> 00:03:11,051
They are stacked on top of each other.

53
00:03:11,052 --> 00:03:16,052
I'll show you how to make those go horizontally in a future video.

54
00:03:16,053 --> 00:03:20,053
The other thing that might be more bothersome to you right now will be the

55
00:03:20,054 --> 00:03:21,054
order of these links.

56
00:03:21,055 --> 00:03:24,055
Perhaps, you want Home to be the first link followed by Login.

57
00:03:24,056 --> 00:03:28,056
And I'll show you how to reorder these links in my next video.